The Art of Barca's Possession (Seeking Collection and Recommendation)

Barca's training base.

"Gentlemen, we have 11 league matches remaining. Currently, we trail Atletico Madrid by 5 points, and we have played one more game than them. However, we still have a direct six-pointer against Atletico Madrid ahead. For now, we must focus on the task at hand and win every single match."

Head coach Koeman wore a very serious expression. Although Barca had secured two consecutive victories, they still trailed Atletico Madrid—who had a game in hand—by 5 points. At this late stage of the season, that was a nearly insurmountable gap.

Furthermore, Atletico Madrid had been incredibly stable on both ends of the pitch this year, especially in defense. Currently, they were the only team to have conceded fewer than 20 goals, a testament to how rock-solid their defense was.

Although Atletico Madrid had lost their most potent forward, Griezmann, they had poached a top-tier striker from Barca: Suarez.

Barca had originally deemed Suarez to be past his prime and lacking competitiveness, which was why they practically gave him away to Atletico Madrid.

But after witnessing Suarez's performance at Atletico Madrid, one could only imagine that the Barca board must have been regretting their decision to the point of agony.

Currently, Suarez sat second in the scoring charts with 16 goals. The leader was Barca's own Messi, though the gap between the two was only three goals.

Letting a goal-machine like that leave was a disaster for Barca. To make matters worse, Barca was currently fighting Atletico Madrid for the La Liga title, which felt like a knife twisted deep into the club's heart.

The competitiveness of La Liga had indeed declined significantly this year, a trend evident from the state of the scoring charts.

There was also an unexpected name that had quietly appeared on the list.

14th place, Li Mingyu, Barcelona, 7 (0).

Li Mingyu had used just two matches to propel himself into the top twenty of the scoring charts.

Looking further up, if Li Mingyu scored one more goal, he would reach 11th place; two more, and he would parachute straight into the top ten.

While others spent an entire season clawing their way into the top ten, Li Mingyu might only need three matches.

"In our next match, we face the challenge of Osasuna at home. Although they are currently mid-table, they need a win to help them pull away from the relegation zone. Therefore, this match will not be as easy as we might think!"

Seeing everyone looking relaxed, Koeman furrowed his brows and said sternly, "How many days has it been since the Huesca match? Have you forgotten? If not for Li's hat-trick, we would be the laughingstock of all Spain by now!"

Li Mingyu was caught off guard by the sudden mention.

Seeing everyone looking at him, Li Mingyu just gave a silly smile.

Noticing everyone's spirits lift, Koeman said with satisfaction, "For tomorrow's lineup, Messi returns to the starting XI. Li, you will be on the bench!"

Li Mingyu felt a bit unhappy, but he still nodded in acknowledgment.

Koeman's lips curled slightly; it was normal for a kid to have a temper.

But as the manager of Barca, starting Li Mingyu in the last match had been a stopgap measure. He couldn't just bench a group of highly-paid forwards to favor the newly signed Li Mingyu.

If Li Mingyu could maintain his form from the previous two games, that would be one thing, but if he performed poorly, it wouldn't be good for him, the team, or Li Mingyu himself.

Young people still needed to wait—wait for their own opportunities.

Although he hadn't made the starting lineup, Li Mingyu didn't slack off during training; instead, he worked even harder.

As part of the substitute squad, Li Mingyu made the first-team defense feel exactly what the defenders from Huesca and Sevilla had experienced.

However, this feeling wasn't entirely unfamiliar to them, as Real Madrid had a speed-based attacker of this caliber: Bale.

Back in the day, Barca had been the victim of Bale's signature move.

In the 2013-2014 Copa del Rey final, Bale's outside-lane overtake—knocking the ball past the defender and sprinting to catch it five seconds later—had left the Barca center-back in the dust, followed by a tight-angled finish that sealed the win against Barca.

Bale had been like a demon god, forcing every team in La Liga to pay special attention to the "Great Sage" whenever they faced Real Madrid.

But the Bale of today had long since lost his luster. Who would have thought that a young player of Chinese descent would pick up the "Great Sage's" car keys and start tearing up the La Liga pitch once again?

March 7, 2021, 22:00 local time in Spain.

Camp Nou was packed to capacity.

The entire stadium's stands were a sea of red and blue.

These two big wins had allowed Barca fans to see the possibility of winning the league title once again, and passion had returned to envelop Camp Nou.

Li Mingyu sat on the bench, looking sullen.

Koeman stood on the sidelines, arms crossed, looking grim.

With a whistle, the match officially began.

Osasuna had only scored 23 goals in total, while Messi had 19 on his own; the two teams were simply not on the same level of attacking prowess.

Therefore, from the start, Osasuna was resolute in playing a full defensive shell.

However, Barca was well-accustomed to such "park-the-bus" defensive setups and handled them with ease.

After being suspended for one match, Messi's desire to attack was intense. Just five minutes in, he had already produced two brilliant long-range shots after shaking off his markers, though the quality of the strikes wasn't quite high enough.

But the opposing goalkeeper was very annoyed. As an experienced veteran, he knew Messi was just calibrating his touch. If he allowed the opponent another one or two chances like that, his team would likely be conceding soon.

Because Osasuna couldn't organize any decent attacks against Barca, they were constantly under pressure.

Barca would immediately counter-press after losing the ball, making life very difficult for Osasuna.

Often, Osasuna would hold possession for less than ten seconds before the ball was turned over.

Possession: 81%-19%.

It was a crushing disparity in possession.

But football matches aren't won by who holds the ball longer; ultimately, it comes down to scoring goals.

Barca began constantly shifting the ball in the final thirty meters. Starting from the left, they compressed the opponent's defense before moving the ball through the midfield to the right, fully utilizing the width of the pitch and forcing the Osasuna players to run themselves ragged.

Given enough time, even the tightest defense would eventually show a crack.

For many years, Barca had relied on this fluid, relentless style of attacking to dominate matches.