Balde and Kounde are also massively exposed in the system as any player would be and teams know to go wide and pull the narrow high line apart and try to break it from there or dribble.
Every single full back and defence would struggle with being asked to defend like that and opposition approaching as above.
The whole things results in aboslute chaos and players scrambling out of position for last ditch defending too often.
Any opposition coach worth their salt is saying v Barca..
1. Break quickly and as they push up and narrow if no clear obvious through ball in space go wide.
2. Go wide to pull the fullbacks out the narrow line and force them to close down/engage.
3. Striker/AM now is time to make runs in behind as defence high but spread out.
4. If wide player is quick and has room judge whether taking fullback on is the better option and look for attackers hitting box with ball across early.
Near on every team is doing this now and getting joy.
It is taking J Garcia or last ditch defending too often v poor teams to try and stop it.
Like playing poker and showing the other players one of your cards.
All of this is generated by Flick's absurdity regarding pressing. This breaks his system.
I have seen a huge amount of situations this season where we press an opponent that has both: a) ample time to pick a pass, and b) an easy pass option presented to him. This is idiotic beyond belief. Even an average player can pass to a free teammate, I fail to see what pressing in that situation brings you. Any sane manager would automatically see this as a signal to switch your proactive aggressive press tactic to a typical defensive transition.
The whole point in pressing an opponent is deny him time to figure out a proper pass. This means it is not enough to just press the player, you have to be in a position to cut any simple pass option he may have. We simply do not use these. Regardless if a player has an easy pass option, he will be pressed either way.
Our pressing is all heart and energy, with very low brains or tactical intelligence. Once the initial pressing has been breached, we double down on it in a dumb way instead of switching to a more conventional defending.