Barcelona have seven points from their first three La Liga matches and are unbeaten after a first month of tricky away matches, but the lackluster performances and the chaotic showing against Rayo Vallecano on Sunday are clouding any positivity as we head into the first international break of the season.
And an alarming stat has emerged after the first three games of the campaign: according to Opta data — as shared by La Pausa, which specializes in Spanish football analytics — Barcelona have conceded
the most big chances out of all 20 La Liga teams after the opening three weeks.
Conceding big chances is always going to be baked into Hansi Flick’s high-risk, high-reward philosophy: with such a high defensive line and such an aggressive offside trap, teams will find multiple opportunities to get in behind, find their wingers and send crosses into the box if they time their runs right.
But conceding more big chances than anyone is a very worrying trend, and it has a lot to do with the problem both Flick and Lamine Yamal identified after the game: Barça lack the same intensity of last season. If the forwards and midfielders aren’t as hungry to press and recover the ball as they were last year, the high line will be exposed a lot more often.
Barça’s attack is also a problem. The Blaugrana haven’t created or scored enough chances to justify a high-risk strategy. It would be okay to concede so many big chances if they had scored more than six goals, but the attack looks disjointed, uncreative, and weak in front of goal.
There’s no reason to panic yet, and Barça did start last season with three straight 2-1 wins on the road in which they looked vulnerable at the back and not as sharp up front, before they beat Valladolid 7-0 at home in their next match and never looked back.
The international break offers a good chance to reset, but the intensity must be there again once the games restart.
