Preview: Barcelona vs Alaves

Written by Onyeka Daniel

Barcelona new coach, at least for the time being, Sergi Barjuan will kick off his Barcelona coaching career with a match against Alaves at the Camp Nou. In his first game in charge, he’s tasked with steadying the club and prepping them for the coming of Xavi Hernandez, who is expected to become the coach of Barca once he’s able to sort out his contract with his current club.

After a disastrous start to the 2021/22 campaign, Barcelona are four points behind the top five teams on the La Liga table and sitting on their lowest points tally at this stage of a season since 2002/03 season. A defeat in this match would condemn the Blaugranas to their third straight loss, something that hasn’t happened since April 2016.

Deportivo Alavés meanwhile, have been in defiant form lately, notching up consecutive wins in the league and moving out of the relegation zone. They are also chasing a record of their own, winning three matches in a row, a feat that they have been unable to achieve for three years, but their away record this season has been abysmal, losing three of their last four away games this season but they defeated Cadiz in their last away game before defeating Elche at home.

Style Of Play

One can put forward a good guess that Sergi Barjuan will most likely field the team in the traditional 4-3-3 formation when they file out against Alaves. Tasked with managing the team until Xavi takes over, he would want the team to play their usual possession based tiki-taka football.

Under Koeman, the Catalans usually switch from this style of play especially when they are in need of a goal but Barjuan will most likely stick with the slow build up play no matter what.

Javier Calleja, the coach of Alaves most often play the 4-2-3-1 formation but against bigger opponents, he usually play 5-man defense formation to try and curtail the excesses of the opposition who are clearly higher in quality.

This formation requires that they are always on the back foot and restricted to defending and counter-attack plays. The Barcelona forwards will be tasked with constant movement in order to try and drag the opposing defenders out of position, opening up space for their midfielders to exploit as Alaves will likely use the man-marking system especially in their own half.

Recent Form

Barcelona have lost their last two games in the league with their last victory coming against Valencia. In the last ten games across all competitions, the Blaugranas have won just three, losing five games and just two draws.

Alaves in their last ten matches have won three matches and lost the remaining seven.

Head To Head

In their last ten matches played against each other in the Spanish La Liga, Barcelona as expected, have the advantage as they have won nine times while Alaves have managed to draw just one.

Last season, Barcelona won their home fixture against Alaves, 5-1, after they had drawn 1-1 at the home of Alaves earlier in the season. This result (5-1) represents the second highest win margin by the Blaugranas against Alaves, just behind their 5-0 demolition, away in the 2019/20 season.

Players To Watch

Despite missing a penalty in their away loss to Rayo Vallecano in their last match, Memphis Depay still represents the biggest threat in the Barcelona lineup and being their top scorer with four goals to his name, he would be keen to redeem himself against Alaves while Sergio Aguero will finally get to start playing regularly. The creativity of Gavi will also be highly needed in the middle owing to the fact that Frank De Jong is out with injury.

Joselu is the top scorer for Alaves with three goals to his name while Senegalese midfielder, Mamadou Ndiaye and club captain, Victor Laguardia are expected to marshal the midfield and defense respectively.

Injuries And Suspensions

For Barcelona, the injury list doesn’t seem to be shrinking anytime soon. Ronald Araujo, Martin Braithwaite, Pedri, Ansu Fati, Sergi Roberto, Ousmane Dembele and Frankie De Jong are all expected to be missing for the Catalans while Alaves have just one doubt, whether their goalkeeper, Fernando Pacheco can recover in time for the match.

Verdict

Despite their recent struggles, Barcelona should win this game. They may struggle initially but eventually they will triumph. A Memphis Depay brace most likely (3-0).

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