Revealed: Barcelona's surprising strength behind their good form
Paul Macdonald
- 19 Sept 2022 16:11 BST
- 4 min read
Barcelona are back, in more ways than one.
Robert Lewandowski’s sensational start to life in La Liga is grabbing all of the headlines, and rightly so; Barca went all in on the Pole, and if he hadn’t clicked, there would be serious repercussions for Xavi’s side not just now, but in the long term.
Barca have mortgaged a significant chunk of their future on having a competitive team now, despite the crippling levels of debt which continue to rise; the latest figure marks the number at around €1.5 Billion.
And so the signings had to make sense, and had to perform from the beginning. But it’s not only been the new arrivals that have caught the eye.
The future looks bright for Barcelona 🤩 pic.twitter.com/1l0mU9aNZ2
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) September 14, 2022
In La Liga in 2021/22, Barcelona conceded 38 goals, or the equivalent of one goal per game. It was only the sixth best in the division and indicative of a team that couldn’t score without Lionel Messi, but couldn’t really defend, either.
Barca big at the back
Perhaps the biggest surprise from Barca’s perspective is how well they’ve performed at the back so far this season.
They have conceded just a single league goal all season - a somewhat fortunate Alexander Isak deflected shot against Real Sociedad. That’s five clean sheets in six matches, easily the best record in Spain and one of the best in Europe’s top leagues.
Even from an expected goals perspective, their ability to keep opposition chances to a minimum is also highly impressive. Their expected goals against is 3.5, which is still an overperformance against their actual conceded of one, but still the lowest in the league. Their expected goal difference is +2.34 P90. That means at their current rate, they are expected to score nearly two-and-a-half goals more than the opposition in every match. That’s… impressive.
This assist from Lewandowski 🔥 pic.twitter.com/UtXnfTjYpU
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) August 7, 2022
Barca have had some soft fixtures at home, but they’ve also faced Real Sociedad and Sevilla away in that period. They still dominated possession against those two teams but not by anywhere near as much as they normally would. They averaged 57% possession in those two matches, as opposed to 70% in their other four matches. So yes, they are having control of the ball but that’s not the only answer.
A case for the defence
And the curious thing is, Barca have purchased a lot of defenders and they’ve all featured at some point; Hector Bellerin, Jules Kounde, Andreas Christensen as well as the promoted Alejandro Balde at left full-back. Couple that with Gerard Pique (one start), and what looks to be the starting CB duo of Ronald Araujo and Eric Garcia, and the defence has been regularly shuffled around, but there’s a consistency in the quality of their performance.
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The sample size is small and, certainly, Bayern Munich scored twice against them and also created 1.7 xG. But this is a team still trying to make their way back to that level, and the signs of team structure and performances of the unit are encouraging in that regard.
That, more than Lewy’s hot streak, should be the most important element of Barcelona’s start. Ousmane Dembele looks motivated for the first time in maybe his entire time at Camp Nou, Frenkie De Jong continues to be a brilliant player, Pedri is Pedri, and even Memphis Depay has scored.
The best teams are generally built on solid foundations and it seems Barcelona are in a good place.
