Luuk de Jong starts again, Roberto in attack: Breaking down Koeman's tactics in Cadiz draw

Ronald Koeman's team again looked bereft of ideas in the 0-0 draw away at Cadiz.

Barcelona had the lion share of the possession but could do precious little with it as their inability to create scoring chances proved an Achilles heel once more.

Here's how Koeman set up his team against Cadiz:

First half - 4-3-3

Barcelona XI: Ter Stegen; Mingueza, Araujo, Pique, Dest; F. de Jong, Busquets, Gavi; Demir, L. de Jong, Memphis.

Koeman played the 4-3-3 again but his choice of players left a lot to be desired.

To start with, there's Luuk de Jong as the centre-forward. A questionable selection, to say the least. He doesn't press, he misses headers and simply can't find space.

Barcelona controlled the ball in midfield, with Gavi getting his first start, but the final pass was lacking as Cadiz packed the bus.

Dest and Mingueza did well as overlapping full-backs and Araujo was a rock again at centre-back.

Well, it looked obvious that the goal wasn't coming in that first half.

Second half - 4-3-3

Barcelona XI: Ter Stegen; Dest, Araujo, Pique, Mingueza, De Jong, Busquets, Nico, Coutinho, Roberto, Memphis.

Koeman's first action of the second-half was to yank off Demir and throw in Sergi Roberto in the attack. Roberto thrives in midfield, which makes this decision hard to understand.

It wasn't until the 68th minute that Koeman brought on Coutinho, that was after Frenkie de Jong had been sent off. We saw Koeman gesturing for his team to revert to a 4-4-1 with Depay as the lone striker.

Hence, Roberto and Coutinho dropped to midfield with Nico Gonzalez taking the place of Gavi.

A wild card in Puig didn't work either as Cadiz simply blocked the channels. Although Puig brought some stability and quick passes.

Barca played a lot of sideways passes and lacked the cutting edge in this game. It's the lack of inventiveness in the tactics and players available that's killing Barca's chances of winning matches like this.