Barcelona lost on Wednesday, but the result itself wasn't particularly notable. The best team in the world loses multiple times every year. What was notable was the score -- 4-1 in favor of Celta Vigo -- and just how convincing the result was. This was not one of those cases where Barca dominated, but the opposing goalkeeper stood on their head, the only decent chance they had went in and the underdogs won 1-0. Celta were the better team.
xG map for Celta-Barca. That's a ton of good chances conceded by Barca, but also a bunch not finished. pic.twitter.com/htC6GBWUYG
— Michael Caley (@MC_of_A) September 23, 2015
Michael Caley's xG stat tells the story of the match as a whole, but this needs some context. Celta went up 2-0 within the first half-hour, then as you'd expect, started taking fewer risks going forward and playing on the counter. When they scored their third, Barca started making big attacking changes. Celta had the better chances of the two teams in the opening hour, then held their lead despite Barca doing more in attack over the last 30 minutes.
Freak results happen occasionally, but it's not often that Barca just get straight-up outplayed by someone other than Real Madrid or Atlético Madrid. This was a significant event. Here's why the game went down the way it did...
Barca's defense was in shambles from the kickoff
Note the clock here. One minute and five seconds into the game, the Barcelona defense is already crumbling. This was a big chance for Iago Aspas, who strangely crossed to no one instead of shooting.
Even though Nolito -- the guy on the left -- didn't end up getting involved in the chance, this move was a sign of things to come. Dani Alves was in no-man's land, leaving Celta's top attacker completely unmarked, in tons of space.
Celta's possession had purpose
Keeping the ball against Barcelona is a nice accomplishment, but doing something positive with that possession is another thing altogether. Celta didn't just retain the ball well, they got the ball into the final third and made attacking passes to set up chances.
Here's Celta's final third passes between kickoff and the opening goal. The light blue arrows represent passes that led to shots. That huge red arrow on the far right is Aspas' botched cross, which was a big chance that doesn't show up on this graphic or xG as such.
Credit: FourFourTwo StatsZone.
That is a hell of a lot of attacking third passes and chances created against Barcelona. Most bottom-half sides don't accomplish this over the course of an entire game. Celta did it in 25 minutes.
Nolito was unstoppable
Nolito spent three seasons at Barcelona, tearing it up for Barca B while only making five appearances for the senior team, before moving on to Benfica. When current Barcelona boss Luis Enrique took over at Celta, he acquired Nolito, and he's been Celta Vigo's top player ever since.
He set up the winning goal in Celta's upset win over Barcelona last season, and he opened the scoring with this amazing strike on Wednesday.
WHAT A GOAL!!! Nolito puts up @rccelta_oficial up 1-0. #LaLiga http://t.co/4VVLl0RWqI
— beIN SPORTS USA (@beINSPORTSUSA) September 23, 2015
Nolito also created two other excellent chances in the first half by beating Dani Alves, then playing a through ball or cutback to an open teammate. He notched two assists too, though in much less conventional fashion.
Credit: FourFourTwo StatsZone.
Those yellow arrows are his two assists, and yes, they did come from that deep. In both situations, Nolito was the man who started a fast counter-attack that Barcelona had no answer for.
This switching of roles was the most impressive thing about Nolito's performance. Not only did he embarrass Barca's defense repeatedly when he got forward, but he helped win the ball back in his own half and start attacks that way too.
Sergi Roberto and Andres Iniesta were opposite kinds of awful
Usual Barcelona starter Ivan Rakitic got some much deserved rest to start Wednesday's game. He's going to start 50-plus games this season, and when he plays, he runs a lot. Rafinha Alcantara is out for the season and Barca can't register new players until January. It makes sense to find spots to rest Rakitic.
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But his replacement, Sergi Roberto, offered absolutely nothing. He didn't press opposing midfielders like Rakitic does, but perhaps more importantly, he couldn't start attacks. He moved the ball slowly and most of his passes were the simplest possible option, to Andres Iniesta or Sergio Busquets.
While this is much better than turning the ball over, the difference between Roberto and Rakitic stifled Barca's attack considerably. Though Rakitic is a box-to-box midfielder, brought in because he offered more defensively than departed legend Xavi, he also has good enough vision and technical quality to start attacks with direct passes that beat defenders. By making the easy pass to Iniesta instead of trying to start attacks himself, Roberto gave Celta's defense an extra second to recover, which made all the difference.
Iniesta is one of the smartest players in the world and he understands the value of moving the ball quickly after winning it back in order to catch the defense out of position. He looked like he was trying to make up for Roberto's slowness by moving the ball as quickly as possible, which led to some really awful turnovers. With one central midfielder playing too slowly and another playing too quickly, Barca looked very ordinary and nothing like Barca.
How do Barca fix this?
We have a few suggestions.
1. Don't overreact -- Barca's defense sucked, but they've won trophies with worse defenses than this one. This is the point of buying Luis Suarez when you already have Lionel Messi and Neymar. They can bail you out of bad performances. They couldn't do it on this night -- Celta are a very solid team who performed brilliantly -- but they pull it off more often than not. Even if this game was indicative of a bigger problem (it isn't) and Barcelona aren't that good (they're really good), they're still finishing third in La Liga and getting out of their Champions League group.
2. Keep Sergi Roberto at right back -- He's not a good midfielder, at least with the way Barca want to play. He's been doing well at right back, or at least better than Dani Alves. It's time to move him to right back permanently and take Old Man Alves behind the woodshed.
3. Give Sergi Samper or Gerard Gumbau a chance -- Perhaps La Masia isn't what it used to be and neither of Barca B's top midfield products will ever be stars, but it's hard to believe that Samper and Gumbau aren't better midfield options than Roberto based on what they've shown for the B team and in senior preseason matches. When Rakitic is hurt or needs a rest, one of them should play.
4. Add a central midfielder -- If those guys aren't good enough, Barca needs someone. They probably needed someone before Rafinha went down, and now they certainly do. If they're OK with rolling with a thin squad through this spring because they know they're signing Paul Pogba in the summer, great! He's worth waiting for. But if that's not a certainty, they should throw down some cash for someone to challenge and rotate with Rakitic.
Even if Xavi wasn't the best version of himself last season, he was still an important role player. Roberto is not the Xavi replacement Barca are looking for. If they don't find one, this kind of match might happen to them a few more times -- especially if Rakitic gets hurt.