F.C. Barcelona Football Formation

Lineup (3-4-3)

Barcelona's main tactic in my personal point of view. I have noticed that Barca's style of play, possession control, requires a strong midfield, a solid one that would sacrifice defensive Full Backs in favor of offensive Wing Backs to keep the midfield stacked with bodies throughout the match.

The back three, the DM and the two CBs adopt the offside trap in many games which even though helps in La Liga, it backfires against Barcelona when facing strong teams that utilize the counter in Europe.

The Midfield, Barca's heart, is functioned by Xavi and Iniesta, the play-maker and the central ball winner.

Barcelona's main attacking dynamo, Messi, was used by Pep during the 5-0 win over Real Madrid as what I would call a "reverse libero", meaning instead of wining the ball from an opponent, he keeps it with him, which endangered him to many rough tackles due to his gift in controlling the ball.. the Ramos incident at the end of that match comes to mind. I checked the game over and over and to me it wasn't a play-maker's position. It seems that Guardiola decided to use Messi under the two strikers as a bait to lure the Defensive Midfielders, Full Backs and Center Backs out of their positions to create a chance of penetration for his team-mates against Defensive and Countering teams. A tactic I believe was formed after Barcelona's experience with Inter Milan in the Champions League in the 2010 season. That also explains his 'distance' from the net in that Clasico.