I had to watch back Barcelona’s match against Newcastle to study what Anthony Gordon mentioned when he said, “The way in which they keep the ball was a learning experience.” We don’t play against that kind of style in England. At least not at that level.”

No other team in Europe comes close to the technical ability that Barcelona possesses, specifically in their first touch and passing. They play with the ball on a string. It looks like a video game. The difference in quality with the ball at their feet is jarring. PSG comes the closest, but it’s not the same. When you have that type of quality to start, you can do whatever you want in possession.

Anthony Gordon went on to say, “We played against the top teams like Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Arsenal—but the way they passed the ball in the midfield and the way they were fluid in their movement and combining made it really hard for us to press.”

It is a game, a dance, of meters between Pedri and Frenkie de Jong to try to gain six to eight yards of space, to escape Newcastle’s man-to-man press and their second line of defense. To gain that space, those two have to drop to serve as an option to pass to or move forward to shake their marker. I wouldn’t say they are trying to create space for each other, but that is a byproduct of the movement. They are never in one place, they never stop moving when Barcelona has the ball, and they aren’t fixed to a position. They are responsible for progression from deep, so they are the deepest-lying midfielders, but they aren’t constrained to one playing on the left and one on the right, or one forward and one dropping. There was always one pass open centrally. That is what makes them hard to mark.

It’s a learning experience on how to defend for Newcastle, but it should be a bigger learning experience for the teams that should want to attack, like Barcelona, because Newcastle is a very hard team to break down. Other teams should want to replicate the way they shake their marker and create space in midfield.

It is a pull and push. A midfielder drops with six yards of space and receives the ball, and the natural thing for Newcastle to do is to go and try to win the ball. That is the pull; Barcelona pulls them in. Then the moment a pass is open centrally or in the channels, the Barcelona midfielder plays the pass. That is the push.

Think of it like breathing. In settled play, defending in their own end, Newcastle want to have their chest flat, minimal movement, and barely breathing. Pedri drops and receives the ball; now Newcastle has to expand and breathe in. Once Newcastle expands, now there’s space between the second line and back line. When Pedri plays the pass into that central space, now Newcastle contracts to the ball and breathes out. Barcelona’s job is to make Newcastle hyperventilate, breathing in and out quickly, and then space opens up on the wings for Rashford and Raphinha. Newcastle crumples up like a squeezed tin can, with jagged edges. One or more players are pushed out of line, two or more are pulled towards the ball, and then the deeper-lying midfielders can join and combine with the rest of Barcelona’s attack to help in the quicker combinations once the ball is progressed forward.

It is an itch Newcastle couldn’t scratch because the Pedri and De Jong are relentless in their pursuit to get the appropriate space.

The key is the distance they are always looking to create. At least one player is always available with six or more yards separating them and the closest defender. Then they suffocate you with their technical ability because they can play passes and take touches you could only dream of playing.