Luis Enrique's Tactics Against Leganes Give Barcelona a Plan B

"God's will," read Leganes' marketing poster for their clash with Barcelona.

A cloud shaped like Lionel Messi in his sky-pointing celebratory pose floated above the Estadio Municipal de Butarque in the picture, with "God" a reference to Messi's nickname, D10S, "dios" meaning "God" in Spanish and 10 being his shirt number.

"Or not," it continued underneath.

Messi may not have read that far.

Barcelona won 5-1, and he had a big part to play in each of the first four goals, scoring two of them, with Luis Suarez, Neymar and Rafinha notching the others before Gabriel pulled one back for the hosts with a perfect free-kick.

The win saw Barcelona rack up their 12th goal in two games, following on from the 7-0 crushing of Celtic at the Camp Nou. However, beyond the perplexing individual talent of the MSN attacking trident, the performances had little in common.

Barcelona's game against Celtic was a pure rendition of what their football is like at its best under manager Luis Enrique.

They played their Gala XI, with the exception of Andre Gomes starting instead of Andres Iniesta, delivering a brutal, ruthless performance.

Barcelona dominated the game, scoring in a variety of different ways—from unlocking the defence with carefully constructed passing moves to surging downfield to score, with Celtic lured forward.

Against Leganes, they did not play particularly well despite the result. Part of that was because the team's metronome, Sergio Busquets had been left back in the Catalan capital, watching the game with his son, Enzo, on television.

Paul White/Associated Press

Asked about resting the defensive midfielder, Enrique said, per Javier Miguel of Sport: "I contemplated what to do. Busquets is amazing but he didn't rest during the international break. I'll try to manage minutes because we want him to be in the best possible condition at the end of the season, although I prefer to have him on the pitch."

Between leaving out Busquets and opting to rest Sergi Roberto, Lucho tried a different formation. Although it seemed fluid, the basic starting structure was a 3-4-3, with Samuel Umtiti, Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano the three at the back.

Jordi Alba and Rafinha played as left and right midfielders respectively, with Iniesta and Rakitic in central midfield behind the usual front three.

Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

Combined with a high and fierce Leganes press, Barcelona had some difficulty during the opening period of the game.

Lluis Mascaro, one of newspaper Sport’s directors, known for his polemical columns, was unimpressed with the coach's decision to use an experimental team, even though Atletico Madrid are set to visit the Camp Nou on Wednesday night. He wrote:

"

Luis Enrique decided to pick an experimental Barcelona side for the second league game running. The first time cost Barça against Alaves at Camp Nou. The second time, on Saturday, the MSN saved him. The strange team selection made by Luis Enrique, fortunately, is now little more than an anecdote thanks to goals from Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar. To have the trident is a blessing capable of providing a solution for even the worst coaching decisions.

"

During the early parts of the match, it did seem as if Barcelona were looking shaky. Journalist Gerard Romero said on his Cadena SER radio show, Moguts pel Barca, that the players had been surprised by the coach’s selection.

Paul White/Associated Press

And Pique spoke afterward, explaining that the defence was more exposed but also more involved in the game because of the coach’s tactics. He said, per Sport:

"

We planned for a really attacking game, leaving a lot of space behind but then with three really quick forwards up front who have a lot of goals in them. Leganes put us under pressure at the back and, on occasions, we were overwhelmed with one on ones. But we're Barcelona and you have to take on those risks.

I enjoyed myself, I felt like I participated more. I was more exposed, perhaps, but that comes with the benefit of being more attacking and creating more chances for the three up front who can sentence games.

"

Marc-Andre ter Stegen concurred, explaining on beIN Sports:

"

At the start of the game it was complicated, they pressed us high in our half, but with the goals everything became easier. "We had to adapt to the new system with three defenders, but the coach explained it to us and it was easier. The important thing is we kept moving forward in a game that started in a difficult way for us.

"

Mascherano suffered, with Rafinha not affording him a great deal of cover on the right and Darwin Machis running him ragged.

Paul White/Associated Press

But playing in a different fashion to normal takes time to adapt, and using it in an easier game such as this will stand the team in good stead for the future if they need to deploy it against trickier opposition.

That may well prove the case because Enrique has shown he is not fond of using Aleix Vidal at right-back, with Sergi Roberto usually picked—though sometimes he will need to be rested or he may get injured.

Lucho used the 3-4-3 once before, when Barcelona took on Paris Saint-Germain in December 2014 at the Camp Nou, with Marc Bartra, Pique and Jeremy Mathieu the three centre-backs, while Mascherano, Busquets, Iniesta and Messi were utilised in midfield.

Barcelona won that game 3-1, with the tactic giving the forwards plenty of joy but causing problems for the defence. However, outscoring the opposition is a viable tactic when your attackers are Messi, Neymar and Suarez.

Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

Messi tucked home the first goal against Leganes after a barnstorming, fire-engine run past the defence from Suarez, and he fed the Uruguayan in response for the second.

Exquisite work from the Argentinian in midfielder allowed him to play Suarez through in the buildup to No. 3, which Neymar applied the finishing touch to, before the Brazilian was brought down in the area and Messi slotted home the resulting penalty kick.

Rafinha’s fifth was a well-hit strike from the edge of the area to round off the rout ahead of the clash with Atletico on Wednesday, for which they will surely revert back to the usual 4-3-3.

Picking this side will not pay instant dividends, and circumstance depending, perhaps Barcelona won’t need to use the 3-4-3 again in the near future. Neither will resting players such as Busquets and Sergi Roberto prove to be advantageous until we reach the latter stages of the season, when the minutes they have been spared should result in higher quality output.

So while Lucho may attract criticism this early in the season for his experiments, the same voices may well be heralding him for them later. And as proved on Saturday, with God on your side, any negative effects may be buried anyway.

Rik Sharma is Bleacher Report's lead Barcelona correspondent. All information and quotes obtained firsthand unless specified. Follow him on Twitter here: @riksharma_.