Match date: 16 June 2013

With eight players from Barcelona in Spain’s starting XI for this particular match, it is hard to separate the two. It has always been hard to separate the two really as Barcelona make up so much of Spain’s best starting XI and play in the style of Barcelona. That I’ve established that, it takes me to the point when people were saying that Barcelona were essentially done after being knocked out of the Champions League by the eventual winners, Bayern Munich, in an emphatic style.

Whether or not you were someone doubting the particular style of play shared by Barcelona and Spain, Spain’s performance against Uruguay was really quite brilliant. The scoreline was 2-1 in the end, but it was one of the most comfortable games for Spain that they’ve ever played in, and that is saying a lot as Uruguay had both Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani up front.

Spain’s Midfield

One of the reasons Spain were able to dominate so easily was that Spain’s entire midfield consisted of Barcelona players; Busquets as the deepest, Xavi playing deeper than he usually does for Spain, with Fabregas acting as the “10”. Pedro was deployed on the right wing with Iniesta on the left, though he mostly came inside and allowed the left side of Barcelona’s attack to be freely ran by Jordi Alba (another Barcelona player). With Iniesta coming inside on the left side of Spain’s midfield, what they had was somewhat of a diamond midfield and lopsided width, with Pedro high on the right and Alba coming up on the left, obviously starting his runs from deep.

Busquets, Xavi, and Iniesta all had over 100 passes and between just the three of them, had almost 100 more passes than the entire Uruguay team, subs included. It is no secret that this trio can retain the ball for large amount of times and we’ve seen at times, most recently with Bayern Munich, that they first chance to disrupt Barcelona and Spain’s passing is to make one of the forwards or a number 10 drop on to Busquets and put him under a good amount of pressure. This is the exact opposite of what Uruguay did. Neither Suarez or Cavani would put any pressure on Busquets, but they also didn’t put enough pressure on Pique or Ramos when they were in possession of the ball which made Spain’s passing from the back far too easy.

With Fabregas playing higher up the pitch, in the number 10 role, it allowed Iniesta that freedom to come inside as mentioned before, something that he and Fabregas sometimes have issues with when playing together for Barcelona. At times they get in the way of one another with Iniesta wanting to come inside if deployed on the left wing and Fabregas the left sided midfielder in the three. However, with Fabregas playing that number 10 role, he was not only higher up the pitch, but he also was allowed to play in a more direct style and was able to look to make runs in behind Uruguay’s defenders and into the wide areas.

Notice Fabregas (10) is the highest player up the pitch and Iniesta (6) is behind him, allowing both the freedom that they need to be successful and it worked well. Iniesta was quite possible the man of the match, but in a brilliant first half from Spain, Fabregas gave them a slightly more direct option in midfield and he not only hit the post after Iniesta dummied the ball for him, but he setup Soldado’s goal with a great pass. Below you can see Iniesta just above the centre circle having just passed the ball into Soldado’s feet, with Fabregas the player making the run closest to Soldado.

Alba and Soldado

Both Jordi Alba and Roberto Soldado (the only player in Spain’s starting XI not from Barcelona or Real Madrid) played a big part in Spain’s overall play. Alba’s ability to run on the wing gave Spain their width on the left side and allowed Iniesta to come inside and support Xavi in the creative burden of the midfield. A large majority of Spain’s attacks in the first half, when they were playing more direct compared to the second half, came on the left side and Alba ended the match with the fourth most passes in the Spanish side with 92 and if you look at the average positions image a little bit above this, you’ll see that his average position was well within Uruguay’s half.

Soldado, who now has 6 goals in 10 caps for Spain, played a big part in the match as well. Del Bosque hasn’t been afraid to play without a striker, opting for a false nine type player, but with Fabregas playing in a number 10 role, it called for a pure striker and, at the moment, Soldado is their best option (though Negredo might have a different opinion than Del Bosque having scored one more goal than Soldado in La Liga). Even without his goal though, Soldado made himself available by dropping deep and checking to the likes of Xavi and Iniesta when they had the ball. You can just scroll back up and see the shot where he checked toward Iniesta’s pass, bringing the Uruguay centre backs with him, allowing Fabregas the space to run into.

Uruguay’s Lack of Shape to Their Adventurous Shape

Uruguay had a very good run in the 2010 World Cup, coming in third, and then won their 15th Copa America title, but their performance was truly dismal.

Oscar Tabarez started with something of a lopsided 4-2-3-1, with Cavani through the middle, Suarez on the right, and Rodriguez on the left up front. Suarez would stay higher up the pitch than Rodriguez, which was one reason that Jordi Alba was able to have such an influence on the match. Gaston Ramirez played behind Cavani in a number 10 role, but had little impact on the game, coming off at half time.

As the first half progressed, and Uruguay sat deeper, Suarez found himself more centrally, pushing Ramirez to the right at times, and Rodriguez deeper. This again allowed Alba to get forward, but Suarez’s lack of pressure on Alba translated to his lack of pressure on the Spain centre backs or Busquets. Suarez’s move inside made the attacking options that Uruguay had, look confused about their individual roles within the system.

Above, Suarez is the player nearest to the far touchline, after his move to the second striker position. Cavani is applying some pressure on Ramos, but Rodriguez, closest to Alba, doesn’t know whether to move out to Alba or stay inside by Iniesta because both of Uruguay’s defensive midfielders are too deep in respect to where Spain have the ball.

After halftime, Tabarez gave the team some shape; he withdrew Ramirez and put on Alvaro Gonzalez, who played on the right hand side on a 4-4-2/4-4-1-1. Spain seemed happy with their two goal lead at this point and were fine with keeping possession the ball, but a bit of their lack of directness was credited to Gonzalez, who by playing on the right, was able to keep Alba back a bit more. Spain’s contentment allowed Tabarez to take off both of his holding midfielders and bring on Diego Forlan and Nicolas Loderio. The move gave Uruguay a 4-3-1-2, with Forlan deeper than Suarez and Cavani.

With this move, Spain became a bit more stretched, but Del Bosque opted to keep just one holding midfielder even with the introduction of Javi Martinez for Xavi. The Bayern Munich midfielder was able to push his way up the field, leaving Busquets as the lone holding player, leaving Spain 3 against 3 at the back at times.

Conclusion

Spain saw the game out despite Luis Suarez’s free kick finding the back of the net. In all honesty though, Spain should have won by a greater margin. They had good chances throughout the first half, with Fabregas hitting the post and Pique having a shot saved by Muslera. Spain seemed too content to sit on their 2-0 led rather than looking to extend it in the second half.

Spain’s win though, will allow them to rest players against Tahiti, which will be an interesting match to watch based on Spain’s 75% possession statistic against a team that has at least two world class players in Cavani and Suarez.

Uruguay could have a hard time against Nigeria as well if they don’t find their right formation and keep their shape well as they failed to do when Spain scored their goals. Tabarez almost always plays with two holding midfielders, who were both largely ineffective today, so he will have to look how to get the best out of both Suarez and Cavani.