Celta Vigo & Sisto hit their stride in yet another win over Barca

Four weeks into the season, Eduardo Berizzo may well have wondered what had happened to the Celta Vigo squad that cantered into the Europa League places at the tail end of the last La Liga campaign.

After opening the season with a 1-0 defeat at the hands of newly promoted Leganes, Real Madrid were next to kick La Celeste while they were down, with Atletico Madrid then scoring four without a reply at the start of September.

Nolito, their star man of the last few years, waved goodbye during the summer. The greasy-haired inside-forward swapped the sun of Vigo for the rain of Manchester, taking with him the usual assurance of a dozen league goals. Without their talisman, goals were an uncertainty, rather than entertainment being a guarantee at Balaidos.

The table made tough reading for Berizzo in mid-September, who watched his side uncharacteristically score just one goal over the opening five match days, taking one point from the first available 15 on offer.

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A month on, and three consecutive La Liga wins later, Celta have 10 points from a possible 21. Fast forward from the doldrums to the start of October, and Pione Sisto, Iago Aspas and a Jeremy Mathieu own goal have Celta 3-0 up against the reigning top-flight champions inside the opening 35 minutes.

The turnaround has been impressive. Celta are no longer looking to the future promise of the horizon, but instead rather enjoyed their recent experience of flying very close to the Barcelona sun.

Luis Enrique may have managed to lift eight trophies for Barcelona since joining the Catalan giants from Celta back in 2014, but the Asturian coach has struggled to get the better of his former employers since heading for the exit door. While Celta’s personnel has changed, with the likes of Augusto Fernandez, Michael Krohn-Dehli, Nolito and Santi Mina snatched by other clubs, Berizzo’s system, philosophy and style have been the constant theme behind Barça’s struggles in Vigo.

Merely a few months after Enrique’s departure, Celta managed to pick up an unexpected 1-0 victory at Camp Nou, now going on to record back-to-back home victories at Balaidos over following seasons against the Blaugrana, with scorelines of 4-1 and the recent 4-3 respectively.

On Sunday, Marc-Andre ter Stegen followed up conceding four in Vigo last year with an error worthy of plastering across Barcelona’s newspapers, planting a mis-timed clearance onto the head of Pablo Hernandez. The rebound kissed the inside of the post on its way into the back of the net to make it 4-3, leaving the German shot-stopper, renowned for his skill with a ball at his feet, red-faced and apologetic.

While Ter Stegen errors inspire talk of change, Celta Vigo’s struggles have only seen a willingness to stick to what La Celeste have always known under Berizzo.

There has been no panic, Barça aside there has been no extreme change of tact, the goal is still to try to control games and play expansive football and their improvement has come organically. Their three central defensive options, Sergi Gomez, Gustavo Cabral and Facundo Roncaglia, have averaged the most passes in the Celta line-up, as while things may not have always clicked further forward, there is still the belief held that playing out from the back is the right approach.

Iago Aspas’ tireless running and invention were key against Barcelona, with the former Sevilla striker grabbing a goal, an assist and a place in WhoScored’s La Liga team of the week, while Pione Sisto opened the scoring to defy those who might have doubted the young Dane’s ability to fill the Nolito void.

Throughout the early games of the season, 20-year-old Theo Bongonda was given the opportunity to step up to the plate on the left-hand side of Celta’s attack, but the young Belgian offered little other than bright, darting dribbles upfield. Despite the winger stretching opponents on the break, a grand total of zero goals and assist illustrate his blunt performances, with Sisto being protected by Berizzo for two big early-season clashes after arriving in Spain during the summer.

The young Denmark international, who announced himself on the European stage with promising showings for FC Midtjylland in the Europa League and for his country’s U21 side, was given short cameos during the embryonic stages of his Celta career. Now, albeit admittedly down to the injury of Fabian Orellana, the winger has shown enough to be entrusted with a starting place against the league champions.

The 21-year-old has two goals and an assist in 356 first-team minutes, enjoying himself on the right flank, where he has already got to display his talent with a ball at his feet, earning himself one WhoScored man of the match award in the process. While Bongonda missed the opportunity to immediately set about becoming Celta’s Nolito replacement, Sisto looks to be making no such mistake, averaging a successful dribble every 23.7 minutes.

The consistent central performances of Daniel Wass and Pablo Hernandez, supported by solid defensive foundations, provide the perfect spine for the youthful likes of Sisto and Bongonda to continue to grow in confidence.

Berizzo has also shown himself to be unafraid of pairing destroyer Nemanja Radoja, who made five tackles against Barça, with the tenacious Marcelo Diaz to anchor the midfield.

The guarantee of a solid outfield defensive five or six allows for the necessary freedom for Hernandez or Orellana to venture further forward and provide the vision and intelligence required to unlock defences. Feeding Celta’s promising wide options into favourable areas of the field, just as Aspas managed to find a darting run from Sisto in the build-up to the opening goal against Barcelona, is key.

During the first month of the season, Celta fans would be forgiven for wondering if Nolito’s departure had also bid farewell to their chances of replicating the last few seasons of success at Balaidos.

Now, after two goals in as many recent La Liga games, they probably can’t wait to see how Pione Sisto can make a starting wide role his own.

Where do you think Celta Vigo should be aiming to finish this season? Let us know in the comments below