Barca - Almeria: The Sergi Roberto swansong

Much maligned. Much derided. Much ridiculed and mostly used for bench warming, Sergi Roberto's season in 2023 has not been worth writing much about.

Quite like the team he represents in FC Barcelona, for those who find humour in irony.

He has been a peripheral team member for the past few seasons. The only difference this season is that he has been the Barca team captain from the bench (make what you will of that). And yet against Almeria, he was Xavi's surprise starter who not only played like what Barca would expect their players to play like, showed some agency, did the basics right, fought till the end and single-handedly delivered a much-needed win with two sublime goals (albeit the game was a painful one to watch like most Barca games these days).

If luck would have it he would have ended the night with a hat-trick, a cruel crossbar denying him of a much deserved reward.

But let's rewind the clock a little. For most of the first half, Barca were once again an unrecognisable mess and Almeria who are bottom of the league, comfortably grew as the game progressed. With Frenkie (out suspended) and Pedri (gazillionth injury), not in the squad, most fans had expected a midfield of Gundogan, Romeu and a debut for Marc Casado, or persistence with Fermin Lopez. Very few people expected a midfield of Gundogan, Fermin Lopez and Sergi Roberto (myself included).

Who would provide control? But then what is control with this Barca (you might ask, rightfully)

So Sergi Roberto it was.

To keep it short, the first half was a frustrating mess like most Barca matches in recent months. Even against Almeria, Xavi's team looked bereft of ideas, structure, bite or ability to dominate. The saving grace was that Barca did not concede within the first ten minutes, but to compensate, once again (for the umpteenth time this season) the defence was shoddy and got caught on the counter letting Almeria equalise without breaking a stride after Raphinha's opener.

Baptistao slotting home easily from an Araujo error in ball control.

At half-time the sparse crowd at Montjuic only had whistles and boos to express their feelings for the home team.

The second half finally saw some urgency from Xavi's men. And just to prove that sport can be ironic and amazing at the same time, it was everybody's favourite whipping boy Sergi Roberto who made the difference. Almeria had looked shaky on set pieces all night and it was from a set piece that Roberto made a textbook attacking run, beat his marker, attacked the space in the box, and with a sublime glancing header gave Barca the lead.

But this Barca is more fragile than glass and within minutes it was another comedy of errors with Araujo knocking down Inaki Pena on a regulation play that led to Almeria being gifted the second goal.

It was quite literally, a gift. No sweat.

Subs followed, and more chances went begging. More chaos ensued. Even open goals with no one to beat went missing. (Yes I am referring to Gundogan). Now Barca were on minute 80, with many fans quite convinced that they could possibly lose the game in the last 10 minutes.

But sport has this ability at times, to give you a little hope when you have lost your faith. It was minute 87, and Robert Lewandowski (who in the second half probably showed the most effort he has this entire season) slipped in an inch-perfect through ball and as luck would have it, it was enfant terrible Sergi Roberto once again who controlled the ball in the box and slotted it behind the keeper for the winner. Cool. Calm. Collected.

Barca barely scraping through with a 3-2 win. Their league position consolidated at third but pride severely dented. Once again.

It was honestly remarkable because Barca fans are by now used to the team not being able to finish even the most basic of chances. More so after Lewandowski and Gundogan had missed open sitters earlier in the game. Throughout the match, Barca had mustered more than 30 shots on goal, sweating to finish like in most games. No one expected Roberto to score, but there it was. Barca fandom's favourite scapegoat with his first brace after 11 years as a first-team player.

3 points. After all, that's what it's all about as some would (rightly) say.

Formations:

Xavi went with a classic 4-3-3 to drive more attacking impetus with Balde returning to his left-back role and Cancelo fulfilling his right-back duties. An insipid Felix was hooked off early with Ferran coming in (and more than justifying his claim to be a starter) while Oriol came in for Fermin as Xavi looked for more control as the game wore on.

To counter this, Almeria set up with a 5-3-2 switching to a 5-4-1 in the last 15 minutes to try and force a draw. Baptistao was a handful at least in the first half and Araujo and Kounde (once again) had poor games they would like to forget quickly.

This was no tactical masterclass from either coach, so the formations barely mattered beyond paper since none of the teams looked like they had a plan or were in control of proceedings for most of the game.

Pass Maps:

While Almeria had a classic isolate-to-overload plan (at least on paper) which worked in the first half, Barca mostly had a messy middle (can't really explain it any other way) with the focus clearly on verticality to reach the opposition box as fast as possible to overload Almeria with a wave of attacks in the hope of an early goal (given Barca's goal-shy nature these days).

To be honest the attacks did happen. The end product as usual suffered and while Barca did create a ton of chances, let's not get carried away with the xG banter, since the way the team applied itself, it never looked like they would make it an easy win.

Lack of control

In the first half, Barca were lacklustre and profligate, losing possession and attacking sequences countless times due to a lack of control and non-coordination between players. Story of the season really, with Raphinha losing the ball 12 times, Lewandowski 10 times, Gundogan 9 times, and Cancelo 9 times.

The second half wasn't much better with the lack of control a bit more homogenised all across the pitch. To give fair credit where due, Cancelo did make 7 recoveries while Gundogan chipped in with 6.

Set pieces making the difference

It wasn't quite cross and inshallah, but Barca realised Almeria's discomfort with set pieces early on and exploited it to the best of their capability. However, this wasn't one of those insufferable low-block games where Barca got clueless in reaching the final third. They created a ton of chances and with better finishing might have got at least 4-5 goals, but again "if" and "would" don't govern the game of football.

Lewandowski's struggles continue

Credit where it's due, this was one of Lewandowski's better games in recent times if you go by the eye test. Especially in the second half. He should have got an assist for Gundogan and he did provide the assist for the winning goal. He should have also got at least one goal for himself. But beyond just stats, he tried. Ran a lot more and in general was more involved in the game, though his lack of first touch, inability to control and dwindling aerial prowess cost him that winning strike.

That said, the numbers above make grim reading for the person entrusted with leading Barca's line. When your elite striker only gets 48% of his actions successful and loses more than 60% of duels along with losing possession countless times against the very bottom team of the league, it hurts the team.

Badly.

Sergi Roberto's match-winning rodeo

With 94% pass accuracy, 100% accurate forward passes, 67% dribbling efficacy and winning 15 out of 23 duels, Sergi Roberto played the way a Barca attacking mid should play. He was ever-present in that midfield and progressed the game forward while making intelligent runs and attacking the space in the box at every given opportunity.

While there was not much of midfield control in this game, Barca did create a ton of chances (as always) and a lot of that credit goes to Roberto. Fans can dismiss him as useless, and not worth a starting spot, but without his rodeo, Barca would have, in all possibility lost to Almeria.

One game surely does not make Sergi Roberto an elite player, but in this team (with its current personnel), there aren't that many better alternatives for Xavi. Not sure with Barca's finances they can get better alternatives in the market as well. (who at least understand the way Barca (and Xavi) want to play). Time will tell what happens, but for today the Barca fanbase can be thankful to a player who has been a loyal soldier for 11 years, actively involved in 3 epic victories while accepting a salary cut plus bench warming duties in the current season, without any drama.

Overall Summary

With an xG of 5.1 against Almeria's 1.92, it would seem this was a game which was slam dunk for Barca. But this is where the less we talk about xG the better we are, especially after watching the game. One look at the duel win rate shows how loose and easily dispossessed Barca were to be clinically effective.

Sure, as a coach Xavi must be wondering how many more chances his team need to dominate the opposition, but when this has been a festering problem for most of the season, the penny falls at his feet. Barca has "theoretically" many elite players who have missed a boatload of chances in every single game for half the season and for that both the players and the coach own responsibility.

This game brought an end to the first half of the season and both Barca fans and the team will probably benefit from not playing or watching football for a couple of weeks and disconnecting. The business end of La Liga and Champions League will commence in earnest from the end of February, giving Barca maybe two months to sort out their funk.

A good run from February to August can change everything, and that's the only hope Barca fans can harbour while heading into Christmas.