Palmas

Barcelona maintained their lead on prime of the La Liga desk with a win over Las Palmas final evening, taking their tally to 54 factors after 25 video games.

The target was all the time to settle the scores towards the Canary Islands-based facet on the evening, particularly after they beat Hansi Flick and Co. earlier this season in Catalonia.

The opening half concluded goalless after the guests struggled to search out solutions for the hosts’ resilient defence, however the half-time change from Flick helped them get their foot again within the recreation.

Ultimately, targets from sealed the 2-0 win and introduced dwelling the three very important factors.

Barça Common brings you three takeaways from Las Palmas 0-2 Barcelona.

Substitutes lead the cost

45 minutes into their recreation final evening, Barcelona appeared misplaced and much from taking the lead at Gran Canaria.

Las Palmas, after making the Catalans undergo for 90 minutes at Monjtuic, had been on the right track to repeat the identical and it was clear that quite a bit wanted to vary.

Flick made only one change at half-time, taking off Fermin Lopez who was not at his finest on the evening, and changing him with Dani Olmo who has slowly been making his manner again from harm.

Olmo’s introduction, in itself, modified the course of the sport. Certainly the Spaniard required a couple of touches to get again into the rhythm and was concerned in some inaccurate passes, however what adopted was elevated dominance from Barcelona.

With the attacking midfielder rising into the sport, Barcelona started creating extra threats extra usually within the closing third and his actions within the field destroyed the hosts’ fastidiously orchestrated defence.

Errors started creeping into the Las Palmas defence regardless of them trying impenetrable simply earlier than the break and it isn’t stunning that it was Olmo himself who broke the impasse.

The Spaniard confirmed immense ability to dribble previous defenders in a decent area and create room to shoot previous the goalkeeper and made the tough feat look ridiculously straightforward to place his facet forward.

Notably, even the second purpose towards Las Palmas was – Torres.

Questions must be requested about Lewandowski

Barcelona had been removed from their finest throughout the sphere final evening and a plethora of causes might be attributed to the identical.

If one participant needed to be picked for being underwhelming and disappointing on the sphere, not many would object to the finger being pointed in the direction of Robert Lewandowski.

The Polish striker barely contributed to Barcelona’s efficiency regardless of taking part in your entire 90 minutes and had simply 23 touches of the ball all recreation.

He solely tried 13 passes of which he accomplished 10 and recorded only one shot heading in the right direction in your entire evening.

Lewandowski struggled to create any area in Las Palmas’ low block and the tight areas within the field noticed him lose possession the moment he gained it.

He by no means bought into an amazing scoring place, and questions now need to be raised about his performances regardless of his numbers this season.

Whereas the ahead has been a lot better towards groups that make use of formidable and attacking play, he has been atrocious towards low-blocks and it’s excessive time the supervisor begins contemplating alternate choices on such nights.

In any case, Torres and Olmo working as a striker or false 9 have confirmed rather more efficient in tight areas and each gamers proved their worth final evening,

The necessity for the next gear

The three factors from Estadi Gran Canaria are very important in Barcelona’s bid to retain the lead in La Liga, particularly given the tight schedule forward.

Furthermore, the 2-0 win over Las Palmas echoes the dressing room’s emotions after the slim victory final weekend and it’s largely constructive that Flick’s males are in a position to get the job completed even on nights when they aren’t at their finest.

A brief look on the schedule coming forward for the Blaugrana, nonetheless, displays the necessity for them to be at their absolute best – one thing they had been removed from final evening.

Regardless of securing the win over Diego Martinez’s facet, Barcelona weren’t fairly hitting the best ranges at Gran Canaria.

The workforce appeared comparatively out of sync, gamers weren’t on the identical bandwidth and the sport gave the impression to be transferring a lot slower than the workforce has been accustomed to this season.

Barcelona subsequent face Atletico Madrid within the Copa del Rey after which have the likes of Actual Sociedad, Benfica, and Osasuna on their calendar.

There may be an pressing have to up their recreation and return to the extent they confirmed earlier this 12 months. Flick confused the identical in his post-match press convention and it’s encouraging that he has taken be aware of the shortcoming.