The strange couple, by Santi Nolla

In June no one would have bet on them. Today, Iñigo Matínez and Pau Cubarsí are one of the best central axes in European football. The young talent from the Barça youth team already appeared last season knocking on the door and Iñigo did so sporadically. But the 33-year-old Basque defender was not clear about his continuity last summer with the fair play in the air. In the end he stayed and Hansi Flick, the German coach, had that strange couple as the undisputed starters of his central axis.

One is very young (17 years old) and has only been in the elite for one season and the other is very expert. Cubarsí is right-footed and Iñigo is the only left center back in the squad. Van Gaal always said that it was necessary to have one of each foot as center backs and that this combination improved defensive capacity. Without the injured Christensen and Araújo, with Koundé coming out on the wing and Eric Garcia chosen as a pivot, the pair have had many minutes. And he has done it very well.

Iñigo and Cubarsí are today a powerful central axis that lives with a huge void behind and pushes the team into the area

Barça plays with its defense very advanced. It has 45 meters of empty space behind it until the goal. You have to be very lively (Cubarsí) or have a lot of skill (Iñigo) to cover so much space and also get the ball in conditions to put your team and the rival in the other area. Against Sevilla, both made 27 passes in the last third of the field (20, Iñigo; 7 Cubarsí) and they were the two Barça players who made the most passes. They understand each other. And it’s not easy at all.

With Flick on the bench, Barça has managed to cause its opponents to be offside 65 times in the ten games played in the League. An average of 6.5 per match. Only on the Alavés day were eleven off sides whistled. They play to the limit, with a lot of risk, accompanied by Koundé and usually Balde in a defense that has Casadó as a multi-purpose pivot in front, having an excellent start to the season.

It is still paradoxical, but this Barça depends more than ever on the precision of the VAR when it comes to putting the semi-automatic control on offside. The Flick Team model tends to play a lot of time in the opponent’s half and leave a lot of space behind. This pushes the team itself and the rivals to pile up people in the area. There are those who think that the system is very good, but not for all opponents. But the models are not removable. If until now this Barça has been enthusiastic about playing like this, they should not be nervous because it is stated that Vinícius and Mbappé act better with space. All forwards play better with space. Flick has modeled this team with some basic characteristics that should not change. On the contrary, those are its best identifying features. It is worth valuing them.

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