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Tuesday, 24 February 2015

Luis Suarez shines as Barcelona provider for Lionel Messi & Neymar

With just seven goals in his first 22 games for Barcelona, at first glance it appears former Liverpool striker
Luis Suarez is struggling to adapt to life with his new club as he prepares for Tuesday's Champions League last-16 first leg at Manchester City.
Indeed, with just four goals from 15 La Liga appearances, in terms of scoring this has been the least productive domestic campaign of Suarez's career.
But the numbers do not tell the full story. Suarez has actually rapidly established himself as a key member of a team who had won 11 consecutive games before Saturday's shock 1-0 home defeat by Malaga.
Rather than his lack of goals, a more appropriate statistic to illustrate the 28-year-old's first few months in Spain - and hint how his role has changed since he swapped Anfield for the Nou Camp - is the 12 assists he has provided for team-mates in all competitions.
This is a new Luis Suarez. The one-man goal machine who finished last season as the Premier League's leading scorer by 10 clear goals has gone.
He has been replaced by a hard-working, selfless team player whose primary function is to service the considerable talents of his team-mates Lionel Messi and Neymar rather than find the back of the net himself.
And he is also playing acentral part in an intriguing reinvention of one of football's greatest teams.
When Suarez arrived in Barcelona last summer, it was far from clear how new boss Luis Enrique intended to use him, considering Messi's stranglehold on the deep-lying 'false nine' central attacking position.
Even after Suarez served his four-month ban for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup and made his debut against Real Madrid in October, it remained uncertain whether he would play as a centre forward or a right winger, as he oscillated between the two during his first few appearances.
Ever since 2015 began with a 1-0 loss at Real Sociedad to spark a Nou Camp mini-crisis, however, Enrique has ditched his previous policy of relentless tactical tinkering and settled upon a system with Suarez in the centre, Messi on the right wing and Neymar on the left.
Until Saturday's loss, the results were highly impressive as Barca won 11 successive games with Messi, in particular, performing brilliantly and netting 14 goals in 10 outings.
And after years of so-called 'tiki-taka', these last few weeks have featured a subtle yet definite shift in playing strategy for the Nou Camp club.
Whereas in the past Barca's approach was based around patient possession in midfield, they now focus on getting the ball as quickly as possible and as often as possible to their superstar trio of forwards.



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