Barcelona, what’s happening?

During this year, we have seen two different faces for Barcelona: the first one, when breezing through la Liga and Champions League with a perfect clean sheet. But when they faced teams with some quality, they were unable to play, especially in their match against Real Madrid.

It’s clear that loosing against Real Madrid and PSG is not a cause for alarm, but it’s the way this defeats came that should concern, in contrast with the rest of the matches. Despite some brilliance in the front line, the team seemed vulnerable nearly all time during the two matches.

At Bernabeu, with a starting midfield formed with Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta, the same trio of the rest of the matches, they were slow, unimaginative and overrun by Real Madrid. From a tactical point of view there is no difference between this team and the team that beat Real Madrid 4 years ago with a 5-0 score at Camp Nou, but this is most likely the real problem.

The players are the same in some extent, but they are 4 years older and the midfield formed by Xavi and Iniesta are showing a lack of ability to impose their will in the big matches.

In the front, the trio formed by Neymar, Suarez and Messi is an upgrade to the Messi, Villa and Pedro front line but with no tactical evolution, the other teams will found ways to stop them.

This was the case with Real Madrid and PSG, they denied them space to move and make their game while launching lighting transitions that left Barcelona defense and midfield exposed.

Another problem in Barça game was in the set pieces, with a lack of height, especially in defense has been the issue, one problem that they were unable to address and put the team in a vulnerable position.

They are still one of the best teams in the world, but they need to change their game, start been unpredictable and shake things up tactically, to improve their results in the biggest matches.

The last loss against Celta broke their domination against weaker sides, but it’s unlikely to signal a downward spiral, they had a more than decent chance to win La Liga title.

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