5 bold La Liga predictions: Atletico Madrid shock city rivals

4. Barcelona narrowly edge Bilbao

The last week has been really poor for Barcelona, as they have only picked up one point in two games. Drawing at home to Girona can be blamed on a contentious red card for Clement Lenglet early on, but the 2-1 loss to Leganes was embarrassing. They were the bottom side going into the fixture, although they held the Catalans comfortably and held on after a quickfire double early in the second half.

Bilbao’s unbeaten start to the season also came to an end as they lost 3-0 at the San Mames to Villarreal. Therefore, both teams will be aiming to regroup and come back with a strong response. This is the perfect time for Los Leones to play Barca due to the defensive problems that have been exposed. The issues against direct play which could be seen in the humiliating Roma loss last season haven’t been solved even though they have a different set-up.

Teams have realized that the defense, especially Gerard Pique, struggles against a target man while there is also acres of space to run into in wide areas if they can quickly bypass the counter-press. Inaki Williams could be used to run the channels with direct balls when possession is regained in the defensive shape. The onus would be on him to hold on to the ball while the rest of the attackers catch up, but it would be a useful outlet.

Ernesto Valverde has to find a solution so there may be a few significant tactical tweaks in the upcoming games to solve this. There is little that can be done to solve the aerial issues if they can’t deny the forward pass with an effective counter-press aside from making large-scale changes such as playing Arturo Vidal as the defensive midfielder, which is highly unlikely. However, a back three could solve the width issues.

Regardless, this is likely to be a well-contested, close game at Camp Nou. Barcelona’s individual quality should allow them to just edge it, but Bilbao will give them plenty of problems.