Lopetegui met Valverde for the first time as a manager in El Clasico. Before the match even begins, it is expected that Barcelona will win even without Messi. Matchday Barcelona thrashed Real Madrid with 5-1 scoreline. Real Madrid shows no inspiration to fight or comeback, especially after Barcelona’s third goal.

Lopetegui’s miscalculation

In this match, Real Madrid is instructed to play in a very compact model, unfortunately, they have no effective plan to curb or stop Barcelona’s movement at the wide area. Compact line up when defending if smart only if you are aggressive enough to ‘kill’ your opponent’s attack.

Lopetegui as though never watched Barcelona’s matches, a team that loves to bully their opponents with additional movement from the wide area at the back. As you can see, Sergio Roberto and Alba were always helping the attack from the flank and every time these two gets the ball, Real Madrid struggled to shut them down.

Alba and Sergi dominating at the flank

The basic rule of football, the winger or wide attacker is responsible to mark the Full Back. Jordi Alba and Sergi Roberto should be contained by Bale and Isco respectively. Both Isco and Bale are poor in defending aspect at the wide area.

More too often, Jordi Alba reaches the penalty zone or byline without any disruption or resistance from Real Madrid players.

Barcelona ensured Real Madrid’s fullback does not run away from their sight, using the basic principle of defending.

Vazquez Entry

Watching Varane suffering in the first half from Suarez constant threat forced Lopetegui to sub him off. Probably due to one yellow card he collected risking him to a red card should he commits a foul. Vasquez entry gives a positive impact for Real Madrid in the second half.

Real Madrid played with 3-5-2 system enables Marcelo to a more advanced attacking and Real Madrid pressed Barcelona in the middle by outnumbering Barcelona players in the middle, a better tactical plan by Real Madrid.

Vasquez manipulated the space behind Jordi Alba. They earned a goal through Marcelo with the approach of overloading players in the penalty box quickly.

With this formation, Barcelona struggled to overcome Real Madrid. Although they had fewer players at the back, Barcelona failed to counter-attack because Real Madrid reduced Barcelona’s ball possession. Barcelona is a does not play direct football and they need massive ball possession and when the ball possession reduced their impact will be reduced in a match. When things are going good for Real Madrid, they suddenly ‘ceased after Marcelo’s goal.

Valverde altered his tactical

Upon detecting his team in a hard situation at 2-1 scoreline, Real Madrid looks able to win the match as they are creating more chances. Too bad that Isco and Benzema fail to score when the opportunity arises.

Indirectly, Madrid attacking bluntness gave enough space and time for Barcelona to fix their tactical damage. Valverde introduced Rafinho and ordered Sergi Roberto to play as a wide attacking midfielder (AMR) and Semedo played as right back.

Not long after that, Coutinho is substituted out as he was wandering a lot in the second half. With the addition of Dembele, Barcelona expedites the process of carrying the ball in front with their existing mobility.

These two tactical alterations brought a little ‘directness’ in their gameplay. Both Sergi Roberto and Dembele are not very keen on excessive dribbling or passing, they just use their pace, speed ,and acceleration to bring forward the ball to the opponent's goal area as quickly as they can.

This tactical change gave positive impact to Barcelona as they could counter-attack Real Madrid immediately. Roberto provided 2 assists for Suarez and Dembele provided 1 assist for Vidal was a prove that excelled in changing the tactical to a more ‘direct’ play to kill off Real Madrid with the given space.

After Suarez’s third goal, Lapotegui had a trouble to prepare a counter tactical plan. They only thing he did was watching the players trying their best to reduce the damage inflicted by Barcelona, still, they conceded 5 goals in the end.

Conclusion

There are 3 important phases in this match.

First, Barcelona domination in the first half

Second, Tactical change by Real Madrid was fruitful in the early second half.

Third, Barcelona reclaims back their possession from Real Madrid with a tactical alteration during the later second half.

Lapotegui tactical alteration should be leveraged by Real Madrid players to punish Barcelona. Another issue is Bale and Isco is not helpful during defending in the first half and during the second half Real Madrid were fragile coupled with a silly mistake by Sergio Ramos to lose ball easily. Morally, Real Madrid players do not have any inspiration on the pitch. This El Classico was a battle of tactical and clearly Valverde is superior in terms of tactical compared to Lopetegui.