Why are Barcelona playing defensively against me?

[Fraz100]

I'm in my second season with Liverpool and came up against Barcelona in the group stages of the champions league after coming 2nd in the league last season. I expected to get hammered but when the formations came up before the game I noticed they were playing a very defensive formation. As such, they played incredibly defensive and counter-attacking football(poorly).

Why are Barcelona of all teams playing defensively? To be fair it was a home tie but still, it's Barcelona?! It's not like I won the league in my first season and I didn't win the Europa League. Seems incredibly unlikely.

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[stash84]

It looks really weird... Do you remember who was Barcelona's manager?

 

[MANUMAD]

In my second season at Leicester when I faced them in the second round of the CL thats how they lined up as well against me in both matches.

2-2 at home (I came back from 2-0 in the last 7 minutes) 1-1 away so they beat me.

 

[db12]

I've also had experience of Barcelona setting up in this manner against me in the Champions League...They always seem to beat me mind you lol

 

[ribureki]

I noticed that many top AI managers use this approach in FM16 and I’d say this formation is quite popular