How Barcelona changed tactics to confuse Atletico Madrid – Luis Enrique

Barcelona manager, Luis Enrique, has revealed that he had to switch their formation, in their 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid on Sunday.
Lionel Messi netted the winner in the 86th minute, after Diego Godin cancelled out Rafinha’s winner.

One of the major talking points from the Vicente Calderon, was Enrique’s decision to begin the game with what appeared to be a back three of Gerard Pique, Samuel Umtiti and Jeremy Mathieu.
“It’s a way of mixing things up so the rival doesn’t know what you’re going to do,” Enrique explained after the game.
“We wanted a 3-4-3 diamond with the ball so that we could have possession and dominate the play, but it was 4-4-2 without the ball. So defending it wasn’t a back three, but a back four – when we were attacking it was a three.”
Speaking about the game, Enrique admitted they struggled to impose themselves in the game.

“The first half was complicated because of Atletico’s high pressure and the condition of the pitch – although the condition of the pitch did help with our two goals.
“In the second half they couldn’t maintain that level of pressure. We were better in the second half, too, having a lot of the ball. We lost the ball a lot before then,” he said.