Midfield Tactics Will Be Key in Atletico Madrid vs. Barcelona La Liga Clash

Early in the season though it is, a standout fixture in La Liga's calendar is already upon us: Atletico Madrid hosting Barcelona at the Vicente Calderon, which takes place on Saturday.

These two clubs are the winners of La Liga over the last two seasons, and each essentially secured the title on the turf of the other—Atleti at the Camp Nou two years ago, and Barca at the Calderon in May. Come the end of this year, they are extremely likely to make up two-thirds of the top three placed teams once again.

Contrasting summers make this fixture extremely intriguing.

As treble-winners last term, Barcelona would normally be considered favourites to continue their dominance, but they have been unable to replace lost personnel over the past two or three months. Injuries, sales and suspensions have all been a factor in uneven early performances, despite six points from six in Liga play.

Atleti, by contrast, look strong in quality and depth and have taken the same number of points, including a win away to Sevilla.

The two clubs compete in different ways on the pitch, in playing style as well as in base formations for the most part, and those differences—and how each team copes with the other—in the middle third in particular will be critical to the outcome of the game.

Likely Lineups

It's unlikely that either team will make huge changes for the game. Barcelona are waiting on an appeal for Gerard Pique's suspension, but bringing him in to the team simply takes out their best performer to date: the unlikely figure of Thomas Vermaelen. The only other option for Luis Enrique to accommodate both would be to push Javier Mascherano into midfield—an unlikely scenario from the start.

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The real problem that Barcelona have is that they have no great options to alter things from the bench. It's Rafinha or nobody, in terms of experience, genuine first-team ability levels and positional play. Sandro, Munir, Marc Bartra and Jeremy Mathieu do not offer tactical switches and Barcelona-standard quality, only one or the other.

Goalkeeper changes are never ideal, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen isn't exactly a novice. The Champions League winner will have an amount of expectation and pressure on him after shipping eight goals in four games vs. Sevilla and Athletic Bilbao in the UEFA Super Cup and Spanish Supercopa respectively, but this is as good a game as any to show he's still a top option for the club.

As for Atletico, Diego Simeone probably won't alter things too much. A change in attack is likely after Fernando Torres started at Sevilla, while Filipe Luis should return at left-back if fit.

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In contrast to Barcelona, Atleti hold all the options on their bench. Whether they want more solid full-backs, like-for-like in midfield, pace and width or scheming, creative wizards in attack, Simeone can call on the likes of Jesus Gamez, Saul, Yannick Carrasco, Angel Correa and Luciano Vietto, who is still awaiting his competitive Atletico debut.

In short, while Atletico don't want to be chasing the game against a side as good as Barcelona, Simeone can at least alter things if the game doesn't pan out the way he wants. Luis Enrique, who only plays one way anyway, has to get his selection right from the start.

Possession and Territory

Barcelona will have most of the possession. They will demand it, and Atletico will allow them it for the most part; instead, the key for Atleti will be to dictate the areas that Barcelona are allowed the ball in. Barcelona's recycling of possession will keep the home midfield quartet chasing, but as the entire world of football has seen over the past three or four years, that's something they don't mind doing in the slightest.

In Gabi, Tiago and Koke, Simeone has three conscientious, diligent and determined performers who will take up intelligent positions, not only marking opponents from time to time but, more importantly, cutting off the passing lanes.

Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta are two of the best passers of the ball in world football in terms of finding gaps between opposition lines of defence, but even when they do, the massed ranks of Atleti players will simply ensure the next player has to turn back the way they came.

For long stretches of this fixture, you can expect to see the ball bounced between the two deeper Barcelona midfielders and the front three, as they come short, receive to feet, are unable to turn or link with a fellow attacker and play it back toward the middle third instead.

Recycling, patience and retaining.

Two things will be key in breaking this cycle of play in deeper areas: the movement of Ivan Rakitic and the individual footwork of Andres Iniesta.

Michael Sohn/Associated Press

Rakitic is the one Barcelona midfielder who last year consistently broke from deep to run beyond the forwards. It's the reason he managed so many goals at Sevilla (and still scored comparatively well for a Barca middle player) last term. He can make frequent runs across the face of Atletico's defence, trying to link with one-touch passes and runs through the centre or else simply looking for a lofted pass beyond the entire back line, especially at the moments when Lionel Messi drops deep and Luis Suarez drifts slightly wider.

The natural Atletico aversion therapy to that move is that Diego Godin and Josema Gimenez are, aerially and with regard to their concentration and determination levels, about the best pairing that La Liga has to offer.

Iniesta is harder to stop, at least on a technical level.

He remains an utterly top-class player, capable of beating one or two defenders with skill and control and still finding an incisive pass at the end of it.

Atletico, sitting in two lines of four and with one of the two strikers dropping into the channels to create a line of five at times, have to repel Iniesta by constantly filling the gaps—when he beats Gabi, Tiago floats across, Koke rolls into the true centre of midfield and probably Juanfran steps out to make the next challenge, and so on.

It is Atletico's cohesive team nature, and with all players understanding how and when to work as a unit, which is their great strength.

One final area of the pitch to consider in the midfield battle: the right attacking channel for Barcelona.

Messi cuts infield and drops deep to take possession when in his own little "playmaker mode," seeking to find time and space where he can either dribble infield or clip a diagonal ball toward Neymar—a classic staple move of Barcelona last season.

Trying to close him out of that area of the pitch this time will be Koke, who sits narrow on the left of Atleti's four-man midfield. The Spain international is a phenomenal talent, but while his work rate and importance to the set-up have been of the usual high standard, he hasn't been seen on the ball as much as he'd like in the opening two games.

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A goal against Sevilla was reward for breaking into the box, something he didn't do enough of last season, but Saturday will need the other side of his game far more. Between them, Koke and Tiago need to watch Rakitic's runs forward as well as stop Messi finding those dangerous pockets of space in the same area.

Press

All the above is not to say Atletico will simply defend—they have already shown against Sevilla that, even against very good sides, there are two parts to their game. They will absolutely (and rightly) back themselves to withstand a Barcelona barrage of possession, but especially early on in the game we should see Simeone's men also back themselves to have an impact going forward.

Atletico have attempted to press high and quickly, pushing Oliver Torres infield and seeing Gabi get somewhere back to his most effective early on this term. Combined with one of the forwards—usually Antoine Griezmann—dropping into the channel, it creates an overload high up the field down the right channel that Atleti look to take advantage of.

Barcelona will always look to play and pass their way out of danger, and Atleti will attempt to win the ball quickly with aggressive off-the-ball work. In a way, that could benefit Barcelona—if they can navigate that first line of Atletico players, it leaves more space in behind to attack quickly against a less-protected defence. On the flip side, if Atleti win the ball high upfield, they have already shown this season that they will create chances of their own with a quick pass or two after the transition.

If Atletico score first, or if the first half looks locked in a stalemate, expect the home side to begin sitting back deeper, as they did against Sevilla.

Transcending Tactics

For all the clever planning, time on the training pitch and trusted tactics, managers inevitably know that sometimes they simply have to hold their hands up and acknowledge that circumstances outside their control got the better of them.

That could be an errant officiating decision, a red card...or someone as talented as Lionel Messi.

His goal at the Vicente Calderon to seal the title last season was a prime example of how he can work magic where no space seems to exist, beating the Atletico defence and goalkeeper to win the game 1-0. That was the last time, in fact, that Atleti conceded a meaningful goal.

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Nobody has scored past Jan Oblak in goal for Atletico Madrid since Leo Messi, 17 May. Including pre-season. #ATM

— Karl Matchett (@karlmatchett) September 2, 2015"

At the opposite end, Atletico have their own talents, but the set pieces, the roaming of Griezmann and the quick dribbles and passes from Oliver are all part of Simeone's game plan, rather than additional factors.

It will be a huge game either way, one that could kick-start Barcelona's season in a performance sense should they take the victory, or one that will see people really wake up and see Atletico for the huge threat in La Liga that they are this season.

We might not see the title won and lost in this fixture on this occasion, but we certainly could see an indication of how both teams will try to win it over the next 35 games.

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