Match date: 4 November 2014

Watching these two sides guarantees excellent football. In their last match, just two weeks ago, Barcelona won 3-1 as De Boer and Enrique were reunited and Luis Suarez faced his old club.

Unlike that match, Frank de Boer was able to include Thulani Serero and Nicolai Boilesen into his starting XI, both of whom had excellent performances for Ajax when they were able to beat Barcelona in last year’s Champions League. De Boer made four changes in total to the side that lost to Barcelona two weeks ago, while maintaining a 4-3-3.

Luis Enrique made three changes to his winning side, with Xavi coming in for an injured Iniesta, Suarez starting ahead of Pedro, and Busquets coming in for Pique, moving Mascherano from the holding midfield role to centre back as Barcelona, on paper, were set out in a 4-3-¾-3-1-2.

Ajax Defend, Press, Control

In the opening stages of the match, it looked like Barcelona were going to be able to score easily and in abundance. Ajax’s defensive line looked exposed and unorganised, but the initial problems weren’t the back four, but rather the pressure in midfield. Early on, Xavi was able to thread a ball between Moisander and Veltman intended for Messi, but it was just out of reach. Unfortunately for Ajax, it was far too easy for Xavi to pick out the pass as there was little pressure on the Barcelona midfielder as his excellent first touch took him away from pressure. The next warning sign for Ajax, was Messi’s ability to pick the ball up and turn into plenty of space to run at the Ajax back four, which ultimately led to a disallowed Neymar goal. Below, you can see Messi on the ball before that goal. He was able to drift by Serero and engage Veltman, van Rhijn, and Moisander before passing to an offside Jordi Alba.

After these early errors, that Ajax were lucky to get through without conceding, the Dutch side began to press Barcelona very well and it allowed them to have control of the first half. Their best spell came in the middle of the half, around the 20-25 minute mark, when Barcelona were unable to get out of their half due to Ajax’s ability to quickly get numbers around the ball and win it back in Barcelona’s half. This was aided by the positioning of Suarez and Neymar. At this point in the match, Barcelona looked very much like a 4-1-4-1, with Neymar and Suarez forced to drop very deep while tracking the runs of van Rhijn and Boilesen. This meant that Messi was easily contained by both Moisander and Veltman and meant that Barcelona had no true vertical outlet to help them get out of pressure when they won the ball back. Below is a perfect example of Ajax’s pressing and the lack of options for Barcelona. In this phase of play, Xavi had just won the ball back and only had Suarez as an option to play to, with the Uruguayan fairly deep in Barcelona’s half, facing Barcelona’s goal, with an Ajax player pressing him from behind.

It was excellent play from Ajax and they were able to create more chances than Barcelona in the first half, despite Barcelona getting to half time with a 1-0 lead after Ajax were unable to properly clear a ball on a corner kick, leading to Messi heading in his 70th Champions League goal. Perhaps the best chance of the match came to Klaassen after some excellent football lead to the Dutch player having a left footed volley saved by Ter Stegen.

Ajax were able to create four chances from open play in the first half, including that effort by Klaassen, which was one more than Barcelona. This was the direct result of their excellent pressing and ability to keep the ball in Barcelona’s half with free flowing football and positional rotation.

Barcelona’s Front Three

As mentioned above, Neymar and Suarez were forced back into their own half for much of the first half and were unable to have much of an impact on the match during Ajax’s dominance. While Ajax’s play was excellent in the first half, it was aided by Barcelona not really having a vertical outlet to play into (also mentioned above) and a lack of plan from Enrique on how to use a front three of Neymar, Suarez, and Messi.

Messi looked good throughout the match; he showed a willingness to press Moisander, Veltman, and Cillessen, something that he hasn’t really done since the days of Guardiola, while Suarez and Neymar stuck to their respective full backs fairly well. The problem, however, was when Barcelona had possession of the ball. How do Suarez and Neymar fit in with Messi? Does Messi play behind the two or do they play out wide with Messi as the highest player through the middle? Evidence in this match showed mixed answers, or perhaps no true answer.

At times Suarez would drift centrally, with Messi dropping behind and Neymar staying on the left. Other times, Suarez would stay out wide and Messi would roam between Veltman and Moisander, but there was no link up play from the front three that lead to any true danger and between Suarez and Neymar, they had just two shots, of which only one was on target.

Messi

The best bit of the night for Barcelona was Messi. There have been questions about where he’ll play with Suarez and Messi; whether he would drop deep and act as a playmaker or stay high as the main striker. The way Barcelona play, when they have large spans of possession, Messi’s positioning is not really issue. However, with Suarez and Neymar, they have more opportunities to counter and this is when Messi’s positioning becomes more of a focus.

His second goal was a great example of a good counter attack from Barcelona. The Catalan side were pressing well (which they did well throughout the match, winning the ball back more times in Ajax’s half than Ajax did in Barcelona’s half) and Rakitic was able to win the ball back and played a quick pass to Messi, who dribbled toward the Ajax goal from a deep, playmaker-esque position. He then found Pedro and made a good run into the box to get onto a pass from Pedro and toe poke the ball past Cillessen.

Pedro was only on the pitch for about 15 minutes, but his link up play with Messi was more frequent and dangerous than Messi’s play with Suarez and Neymar in the preceding 75 minutes of the match.

Conclusion

Ajax were incredibly unlucky not to get anything from this match. Their first half performance was excellent as they controlled Barcelona much like the Spanish team does to their opponents. Despite their good play, however, they were only able to record one shot on goal throughout the whole of the match, which Ter Stegen was able to save well.

The match certainly showed problems within Barcelona. There seemed to be a real lack of plan throughout the team in how to utilise Neymar and Suarez, when Messi is the focal point of Barcelona’s attacks. Neymar has had an excellent season and the chemistry between the Brazilian and Messi has gotten better since the beginning of last season, but with the introduction of Suarez, the balance seems to be thrown off again and it is up to Enrique to get his team playing comfortably with three excellent forwards.