Atletico Madrid 1-1 FC Barcelona: 5 takeaways

#4 4-4-2 fails to deliver for Barcelona

Vidal should have been better in a 4-3-3 midfield

Valverde managed to raise a few eyebrows with his 4-4-2 formation. He started with Sergi Roberto as one of the wide midfielders while Vidal was the other wide midfielder. 4-4-2 has not been used yet by Valverde this season and it turned out to be a tactical misstep.

Vidal clearly isn't as good a player in the wider areas as he is in the middle of the park. Vidal would have been much better through the middle of the park with his physical attributes. He does not have the pace that a wide midfielder requires but he does have the power to retain the ball against stubborn defences and play in the open man while being under pressure.

Sergi Roberto out wide was not the worst option but Roberto failed to deliver yesterday. Valverde failed to realize his mistake even when Sergi pulled his hamstring. He substituted Rafinha with the same formation. Much like Vidal, Rafinha too is not the best of wide players. He failed to create any effective runs through the defence.

But when Dembele was introduced wide there was something more potent about Barcelona's attacks. They played better in the 10 minutes that Dembele was on the pitch than the 80 minutes that he wasn't. This exposed the fact that Barcelona indeed should have started with a 4-3-3 with Dembele out wide. His pace was really frightening for the defence and pace is what pulled the defence out of their comfort zone.

Valverde was given a lesson on how to deal with defensive teams in the last 10 minutes itself by his own substitution. Hopefully, he will improve on his tactics at least from the experience.