This Was CESCY : Analyzing Valentin Barco vs Luton Towns Quality vs Low Blocks

Analyzing Barco’s first appearance in Chelsea blue

It can be so easy to be caught with either extreme with a thing or notion. Like, for example, you can either say Barco’s performance was against Luton so it doesn’t count, or you could say Barco’s the best thing since sliced bread (Maybe we could? lol). But what I can say for sure is what I saw, so I would be analysing Barco’s role against Luton and explaining how he solves a major issue that Chelsea have been suffering from, even after his first 90 minutes of his Chelsea career.

Barco started in midfield alongside Reece James

The Shape Xabi implemented against Luton was more of a back 4 with attacking fullbacks and a 2-2-6 shape in possession, with Gusto starting deeper at times to make it a 2-3 shape too. This was against what would come to be a Luton low block to deny Chelsea space to operate. Barco was on the left side of that 2-shape, outside left.

This is already great profiling by Xabi Alonso because Barco is a tempo setter and controller on the ball with a wonderful passing range and weight of pass, and you want him to have many touches in the build-up, especially against teams that sit back like this and what playing on the left and playing a bit wider does for him is open up the pitch for him and gives him time and space to pick out his passes. It's not like he's not good under pressure, but you're better served creating the space for him for now. There are examples of players that used to be this profile but also learnt how to receive much better in traffic over the years, but that’s “by the way”.

First real progressive action from Barco is he is trying to make a line-breaking pass; this was already within his first 10 touches. It already shows the type of player he is, for those that haven’t yet watched him. He gets the ball and sees Rogers in the half-space

He tries to take out 3 players in one sweep.

He was unsuccessful here, but this already shows a lot about his intentions; the other 10 touches also do, by the way, showing someone who is willing to control and recycle the ball and not progress every single ball, which is too much as much as it can be progressive. Football is about understanding when to do certain things at the right time, right place, and right execution.

Here we see that he recognizes when Palmer drops deep to provide more bodies between the lines as well, reacting to rotating positions. He is between the lines trying to provide himself as an option.

He receives the ball and links play, to Rogers in a 3rd man play.

Then he then makes a movement behind the defensive line to receive the pass in behind from Rogers, Rogers used it as a decoy to play Palmer in but that was not flashy but effective understanding of playing with his teammates and football in general.

Next up was when Barco showed his ability to link up with his teammates. The dovetailing movements between Barco, Rogers and Pep Chavarria on the left was very good as they were moving in sync. This time Barco in inside the block and Rogers initiates a give and go with him

Not just once but even twice

Barco was on the same wavelength as Rogers was making an inside run into the space, the defender got there before him but he managed to get the ball, but it was lovely to see and shows how Barco can be on the same wavelength with his teammates to link up together to open up a block.

Barco is not just a recycler; he injects speed into his play really interestingly and just seems to just speed up the play at times when the opportunity is there. If there was a player open for a pass and Barco is about to receive the ball, he plays that progressive pass and quickly. Here he receives the ball from Pep and sees Estevao in open space.

Barco immediately speeds up the play and, with his first touch, gives Estevao the ball; he didn’t even expect it to be played that fast. It didn’t yield a better opening, but things like that create openings that if you delay by a second, it is no there any more.

Barco was one of Europe’s Top 5 league’s best at playing throughballs and we got to see it in action too. This time positionally, hes smart and fills in for Pe when he was tracking back. and hes now in the left back position. Rogers in making a run in behind the defence and Barco plays a wonderful through ball for Rogers but Rogers was bodie3d off the ball.

The rotations and switching of positions were beautiful on the left and right too. This time, Barco attacks the back post and he's switched positions with Pep and attacking an Estevao cross with a volley that was only blocked.

There is a reason why Barco’s creativity and passing stats last season were one of the best, he sees the pass and executes it brilliantly and quick and he did so here again. Receives outside the block, sees Estevao in space and does not waste time playing Estevao into that tiny gap.

Brilliant ball, Estevao unable to convert this time, but this immediately shows what can be valuable to Chelsea against low blocks. A passer that can unlock low blocks amongst many qualities, especially with Chelsea’s really similar profile being linked with a move away.

Barco showed a little bit of strength under pressure to hold up the ball, because he will be playing in a physical league as he did at Ligue 1, even more physical too here. He receives the ball under pressure but little compared to what he will receive.

For the 2nd goal, he played a pass that was intercepted. But very encouragingly, he went to go and win it back. He got there and won the tackle and the following transition resulted in the 2nd goal. Good tenacity despite losing the ball

Barco also showed what he likes to do that he can improve on as well, but it is something he can in the context of the team. It's not totally a vice. It's how he can tend to dive into tackles. Barco, on many occasions in an attempt to counter-press, which is great in the context of the team, tended to dive into the tackle, which made him get bypassed; he would quickly learn that he would need to at least not get bypassed easily in this league, but let's see how he progresses with that.

Here, he goes into the tackle for the counter press

Good intentions but a bit over eager to read where the Luton player is possibly going to. It will work at times too. But it can leave you with egg on your face at times

He gets bypassed, and Luton are on the counter.

That, again, is just showing his overall game, the balance of what was good and what can be improved on, but it wasn’t a display to get too high on and low at all, but a promising first appearance for Barco and a sneak peek into how he can be used against a deep block. He created 2 big chances and 3 chances overall; he didn’t even use his deep passing arsenal too much in this game. There is a lot more to come from him.