Barcelona Struggle When Faced with Aggressive Man-Marking

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We saw it against AC Milan last week, and again against Real Madrid on Tuesday.

When the opposition comes out and aggressively man-marks the Barcelona players, the Catalan giants tend to struggle.

Against Milan at the San Siro it was Stephan El Shaarawy sticking like glue to Dani Alves; against Madrid at Camp Nou it was Cristiano Ronaldo keeping track of Alves and Alvaro Arbeloa running up and down the opposite flank alongside Jordi Alba.

If you take Barcelona’s full-backs out of the game you take their width away. And while it requires incredible concentration to adhere to marking assignments, when executed properly Barcelona can be dealt with considerably more easily.