About three or four weeks ago I wrote a piece detailing the chinks in Barcelona's armour and the way you can exploit them. Though they looked almost unbeatable at the time of writing, there were weaknesses waiting to make themselves known. Over the last few weeks almost all of them have surfaced, along with a few others for good measure.
The goalkeeper and defense situation is a no-brainer. When you compare them to say United's back 5, well, there is no comparison really. Barcelona defend worse than most teams in the Premier League, if not all of them. When they were dominating games in midfield this fact was hidden, but now that teams have realised what needs to be done in the middle of the park (glue someone to Xavi, and hope Iniesta is out injured), then Barcelona's defense becomes vulnerable to all kinds of threats - through balls, high balls, wide balls, big balls.
The loss of Iniesta has hurt Barcelona, but they survived without him for two months before Christmas, so something else has gone wrong. As I said, Xavi is being man marked in midfield, but he is also shattered, unable to move around with abandon.
Up front, Messi has hit an anti-purple patch, though that didn't stop him from scoring a great goal against Atletico today. He seems to be taking too much on his shoulders, perhaps because Eto'o isn't contributing much in the way of creativity. I don't think Eto'o is the cats pyjamas, and it's no surprise to me that there is talk of him leaving even though he has scored so much. I've said it before and I will say it again - goals can hide fundamental flaws (actually, I don't I've ever put it like that, but you get my point). Eto'o missed two or three extremely crucial chances against Atheltico, which ultimately cost Barcelona the game today. He doesn't so much finish as he does hit the ball as hard as he can and hope for the best. Some of these shots go in of course (quite a lot of them have this season), but like his fellow African Adebayor (and like pretty much all of his fellow Africans) he misses too many good chances simply because he doesn't have a cool head when confronted with the goal posts. These misses add up, and when it matters I firmly believe Eto'o will let you down. I've been slightly critical of Torres on this blog, but I would have the Spaniard on my team before the Cameroonian any day of the week.
Henry is an enigma to me, so I'll leave him alone.
As a squad, Barcelona are shallow. There is nobody to bring off the bench that will get you a goal and make a difference. I rate Hleb perhaps higher than I should, but he doesn't appear to have settled and lacks the confidence of Guardiola. Bojan is not the player he was built up to be, and apart from those two there are no other candidates to change things in terms of attack.
There are two things I overlooked in my previous piece which are also having a huge bearing on Barcelona's results. One, they are bloody knackered. They have been playing two games a week for much of the season, and they play a very tiresome game, built largely around hassling the opposition when they don't have the ball and giving them no time or space. This has taken its toll, and the players are clearly feeling the effects. Unfortunately it just doesn't stop from here on in. Either they get a second wind, or they end up throwing away the league and getting knocked out of the Champions League by Lyon, or someone else. Such things seemed almost impossible a month ago, but I honestly wouldn't bet against them now.
The other thing I didn't mention was the mental aspect. Barcelona have been psychologically weak for the past few seasons, and it seems as if old problems are coming back to haunt them. They look shy of confidence, and are no longer dictating games the way they were. They may just be lacking a leader on the pitch, someone to lift them up by the scruff of the neck a la Roy Keane. Guardiola was that man in the 90's, but he can only do so much from the bench.
There may yet be a rejuvination, but I honestly fear the worst for Barca. Getting through to the Copa del Rey final should be priority number one. Doing this might stop the bleeding if nothing else. However, do it not and what looked like such a glorious season for so long could continue to unravel at the seams.
The goalkeeper and defense situation is a no-brainer. When you compare them to say United's back 5, well, there is no comparison really. Barcelona defend worse than most teams in the Premier League, if not all of them. When they were dominating games in midfield this fact was hidden, but now that teams have realised what needs to be done in the middle of the park (glue someone to Xavi, and hope Iniesta is out injured), then Barcelona's defense becomes vulnerable to all kinds of threats - through balls, high balls, wide balls, big balls.
The loss of Iniesta has hurt Barcelona, but they survived without him for two months before Christmas, so something else has gone wrong. As I said, Xavi is being man marked in midfield, but he is also shattered, unable to move around with abandon.
Up front, Messi has hit an anti-purple patch, though that didn't stop him from scoring a great goal against Atletico today. He seems to be taking too much on his shoulders, perhaps because Eto'o isn't contributing much in the way of creativity. I don't think Eto'o is the cats pyjamas, and it's no surprise to me that there is talk of him leaving even though he has scored so much. I've said it before and I will say it again - goals can hide fundamental flaws (actually, I don't I've ever put it like that, but you get my point). Eto'o missed two or three extremely crucial chances against Atheltico, which ultimately cost Barcelona the game today. He doesn't so much finish as he does hit the ball as hard as he can and hope for the best. Some of these shots go in of course (quite a lot of them have this season), but like his fellow African Adebayor (and like pretty much all of his fellow Africans) he misses too many good chances simply because he doesn't have a cool head when confronted with the goal posts. These misses add up, and when it matters I firmly believe Eto'o will let you down. I've been slightly critical of Torres on this blog, but I would have the Spaniard on my team before the Cameroonian any day of the week.
Henry is an enigma to me, so I'll leave him alone.
As a squad, Barcelona are shallow. There is nobody to bring off the bench that will get you a goal and make a difference. I rate Hleb perhaps higher than I should, but he doesn't appear to have settled and lacks the confidence of Guardiola. Bojan is not the player he was built up to be, and apart from those two there are no other candidates to change things in terms of attack.
There are two things I overlooked in my previous piece which are also having a huge bearing on Barcelona's results. One, they are bloody knackered. They have been playing two games a week for much of the season, and they play a very tiresome game, built largely around hassling the opposition when they don't have the ball and giving them no time or space. This has taken its toll, and the players are clearly feeling the effects. Unfortunately it just doesn't stop from here on in. Either they get a second wind, or they end up throwing away the league and getting knocked out of the Champions League by Lyon, or someone else. Such things seemed almost impossible a month ago, but I honestly wouldn't bet against them now.
The other thing I didn't mention was the mental aspect. Barcelona have been psychologically weak for the past few seasons, and it seems as if old problems are coming back to haunt them. They look shy of confidence, and are no longer dictating games the way they were. They may just be lacking a leader on the pitch, someone to lift them up by the scruff of the neck a la Roy Keane. Guardiola was that man in the 90's, but he can only do so much from the bench.
There may yet be a rejuvination, but I honestly fear the worst for Barca. Getting through to the Copa del Rey final should be priority number one. Doing this might stop the bleeding if nothing else. However, do it not and what looked like such a glorious season for so long could continue to unravel at the seams.
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