Mourinho sets his plan to punish Barcelona quartet

Real Madrid want to beat Barcelona in Sunday evening's Clasico at the Spotify Camp Nou. Jose Mourinho has spent time working out exactly how to hurt Barca. Some analysts expect Los Merengues to sit deep in their own areas and look to hit Barca on the counter, exploiting the spaces behind the defensive line.

The Portuguese coach, though, has reached a different conclusion, one he believes could win him the game. According to the Defensa Central network , Mourinho knows that players unaccustomed to defensive duties will struggle when forced to do them, all the more so because Real Madrid intend to take the initiative and push forward.

Next matches That makes life harder for them than it would be if their only job were to attack a side that drops into its own areas. So Mourinho has put Lamine Yamal, Gordon, Pedri and Rodri under the spotlight. These four Barcelona players are the ones Mourinho will watch most closely.

Their performance will tell him how the Catalans plan to approach the Clasico. Force them to drop back and defend, the thinking goes, and fatigue sets in. That would also blunt their accuracy whenever they try to threaten Lunin's goal.

Mourinho studied Paris Saint-Germain's Champions League meeting with Barcelona, where Luis Enrique laid bare the defensive flaws of the Catalan side. They showed up above all in the closing minutes, as the Barcelona players' physical output began to drop. Hansi Flick relies on a high defensive line that leaves huge spaces behind it, space Mourinho's players can exploit.

Diomande and Fede Valverde have both proven they can produce long sprints across a full 90 minutes. Having pinpointed Barcelona's main problems, Mourinho plans a game built on vertical passes to do the damage. The Portuguese coach wants to win the ball back and find his attackers as fast as possible.

That does not mean rushing or lumping random long balls from the back line. Before hunting for Diomande and Mbappe, it is better to have an intermediate stage in the build-up, run by Jude Bellingham or Arda Guler. That would allow the ball to reach the flanks, unsettle the Catalan defensive line and give the attackers more room to move.

It would also help avoid the offside trap Barcelona lean on to protect their goal. Sitting deep in their own areas takes nothing away from Real Madrid's attacking threat. It becomes even clearer when the opponent struggles to track back, because Los Blancos rank among the best teams in the world at punishing fast transitions.