Barcelona prepares for El Clasico, making four major tactical adjustments to guard against Mbappe

On October 24, 2025, Barcelona is making final preparations for the most important battle of the upcoming season-El Clasico. On October 26, they will challenge Real Madrid away. This is the focus of the 10th round of La Liga. Mbappe's strong performance has attracted much attention.

Four major tactical adjustments, focusing on Mbappe

Facing the hot Mbappe and Real Madrid's powerful offensive group, coach Flick has led the team to make targeted deployments and made four key adjustments to the defensive system to make up for the recently exposed deficiencies in the defense.

Young central defender Kubasi revealed: "Everyone knows how dangerous Mbappe is. We changed four details in the defense in order to restrict him and Real Madrid's entire offensive line. But the most important thing is that we will not lose Barcelona's own football philosophy."

Comprehensive upgrade of defense: narrowing the space and strictly guarding against speeding up

After losing to Paris Saint-Germain and Sevilla, Barcelona was criticized for the lack of discipline in high pressure. Facing Real Madrid, which is good at quick counterattacks, Flick made decisive adjustments this time:

The entire defense retreated: no longer blindly pressing high, but a more stable low defense;

The wings shrank to protect the center: preventing Mbappe and Vinicius from the side Cut inside after breaking through the road;

Deeply retreat in the midfield: the two midfielders need to retreat significantly to assist the central defender in marking;

Shorten the transition time between offense and defense: once the ball is lost, immediately counterattack on the spot or quickly return to defense to avoid giving the opponent space to counterattack.

Core goal: Do not give Mbappe and Vinicius any room to sprint and break through.

Mbappe is firing on all cylinders, and Real Madrid is attacking fiercely.

On the other hand, Real Madrid, under the leadership of Alonso, has continued to explode in offensive firepower. Mbappe leads the La Liga scorer list with 10 goals and is in excellent form; Vinicius has also shaken off his slump and regained his sense of scoring goals; in addition, the tacit understanding between Guler and Mbappe has gradually taken shape, becoming a sharp "scalpel" on Real Madrid's offensive end.

To make matters worse, Flick is very likely to be suspended because he was red in the last round of the game against Girona and will not be able to command this key battle on the spot. However, Kubasi was confident after the 6-1 victory over Olympiacos in the Champions League: "As long as we can maintain the focus and state of this game, I believe Barcelona has the ability to overcome any challenge."