5 tactical tweaks that will make Barcelona invincible next season

4. Stop by-passing the midfield

Over the past couple of years Luis Enrique’s Barcelona have been winning football games by employing the revolutionary new tactic of having three of the four best forwards in the game today on your side and simply giving them the ball. This has meant that the likes of Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta and Ivan Rakitic have been utterly bypassed as Barca look to bring the ball to the likes of Neymar, Luis Suarez or Lionel Messi as quickly as possible.

Forget tiki-taka, this is something straight out of the imagination of a 13-year old Playstation addict.

While it worked brilliantly for the first couple of seasons – the mere presence of those three gave Barca an incredible mental edge over their opponents – this time around teams across Spain, and Europe, have realised that while they may not be able to stop MSN when they are in the mood, they can certainly give the Catalans a shakedown if they were to venture forward.

Cutting off the supply line to the much vaunted front-trio has been easy, while the sheer lack of time they are getting on the ball has rendered La Blaugrana’s traditional stronghold – the middle of the pitch – one of their weakest areas.

They must now abandon the tactic and go back to their roots of patient, possession based football with the midfielders doing the creating rather than the forwards – how Xavi must be itching to holler this very thing from every rooftop in Catalunya.