Undefeated, they also lead their Champions League group, ahead of Internazionale and Borussia Dortmund. Barcelona: Playing Squad, Player Ratings, Player Stats. Instead, Butarque laid Barcelona bare. Barcelona's board have, however, fallen down in their brief. Barcelona have been hampered by too many injuries and suspensions to important figures at the back. Atletico Madrid lead the way with 57 points, three clear of giants Barcelona and Real Madrid. Compare that to the start of the season, when he scored eight in his first nine domestic matches. Barcelona's record streak of leading the Liga table for 59 consecutive matchdays (all-time record) comes to an end as Atlético surpass them. pic.twitter.com/O3HMwvXjqN. What Neymar has is an ability 'to overflow'—to flood defences. It becomes an abdication, removing responsibility, weakening them and him. Winning when you’re not playing well is a sign of a title-winning team, they say, but just as often it’s the sign of a team reality will soon catch up with. A lot of people considered Neymar overrated when he moved from Santos to Barcelona last summer. Not every player on Barcelona's squad is exactly a likable player (hello, Sergio Busquets) … If you don’t know why you won, you won’t know why you lose either. There’s no doubting the quality of Xavi and Andres Iniesta. Reply. … Barcelona beat Leganés 2-1 at Butarque on Saturday afternoon and are top of the table. There are plenty of good things as well as bad things about Barcelona. Barcelona started with four forwards and no idea, an empty space where one of the interiores should be, playing a sort of 4-1-1-1-3, maybe a 4-2-4, if you could call it anything at all. pic.twitter.com/kBOrF1hksL. And it is hard to avoid the suspicion that Barcelona will pay for it. Here’s Why FC Barcelona Is Now Bad. Abhorrent and filthy were among the words used to describe the win at Leganés – there is a reason Messi wanted Neymar, Last modified on Mon 25 Nov 2019 18.57 GMT. At the back, they’re overrun when pressed, lacking focus and football. Blue and orange, unmarked, as it headed out of Butarque and down the road, no one could tell it was Barcelona on board. The case of Ousmane Dembélé, now in his third season, is even more startling. More, in fact, than ever before. In another questionable transfer from Arsenal, Barcelona decided to pay a €25 million fee to sign to be able to sign Marc Overmars. Valencia’s best player was right-winger Sofiane Feghouli, who made Alba pay for his defensive deficiencies on several occasions, laying on two assists. There was no really good solution, and so everyone waited for the least bad one. Pros - What I loved about Barcelona Barcelona's Quirky Architecture. Table of Contents. Valencia had an incredible belief on Saturday, in the second half at least. Barcelona have won only 1 in their last 5 games, what has gone wrong. For the first time in 59 consecutive matchdays, Barcelona do not sit at the top of La Liga. And during those 7 days in the city, we probably took the train maybe 4 or 5 times total. That day, Ernesto Valverde said he always leaves the press room suddenly “worried about a whole load of things”; on Saturday, he laughed when a journalist sought a way of asking if he was worried without asking if he was worried, but they still were, even if he wasn’t – or wasn’t showing it. And while he’s good at this, the prime objective in football is scoring goals, and the Blaugrana star has shown for several years that it's what he’s best at. Instead of taking refuge in the structure, they take refuge in him – which says something about personality as well as play, about the lack of a model offering alternatives. Check the papers and there were others: “abhorrent,” “frightening,” “filthy”. It's not easy. Oriol Romeu told me after the game: “We had to do it, we had to play with that intensity and that character because otherwise it's impossible to get three points in this stadium.”. Manager Tata Martino is culpable for some of Barcelona’s woes. The goalkeeper was at fault for Valencia’s second goal, standing in no-man's-land and allowing the smallest player on the pitch to loop a header over him and into the net. It's like they are a completely different team. I still lack the confidence to pass or shoot, but it will come.” Forced into a left-sided role, nor do they understand his movements and if it might come, it hasn’t yet. ATTACK. “I try to read my teammates’ movements, but it’s difficult,” Antoine Griezmann said recently. Meanwhile, Thiago Alcantara is thriving with Pep Guardiola in Germany, having scored a last-minute winner with a spectacular bicycle kick for Bayern Munich against Stuttgart. As an informed traveller, I believe you should be made aware of all pros and cons about visiting the Catalan Region. You could be forgiven for thinking things weren’t so bad and that I’m overreacting; however, to a Barcelona fan, we are not like any other mortals that play the beautiful game, we are “Mes Que Un Club” more than a club and a departure from the ideals that made us a great is tantamount to making Barcelona “Unbarcelonan”. Slow, lacking ideas, barely able to open up lines of passes, they gave the ball away 135 times. Sometimes you wonder if a bit of dynamism and youthful force is missing from the midfield. No single party was blameless, either. A few days ago in his latest interview squeezed between sets at the Davis Cup, Gerard Piqué insisted: “If we’re top, we can’t be playing that badly.” But, yes, they can. “The feelings we’re left with are bad ones,” the Chilean admitted. Barcelona is one of Europe’s most densely populated cities, with few open spaces. Barcelona have only won four of their last 15 Champions League games away, and they have won fewer than half their league games away this season. It’s discoverable on foot. Saturday’s result against Leganés is an improvement on last year – Barcelona were beaten then – but nothing else is. Paris Saint-Germain star Neymar is facing a possible two-match Champions League ban for his outburst on social media after Barcelona took the lead against his side on Tuesday evening.. For many, this is the biggest reason to live in Barcelona. His goal on Saturday against Valencia was his first in nine La Liga games. The Argentine has been crowned the best player in the world four times, has smashed numerous records and is capable of carrying the entire side on his shoulders. Lionel Messi has only scored a paltry 37 goals in 34 games for Barcelona this season, at an average of 1.08 goals per game. If there is no clear system, the system becomes Messi. Barcelona started by gifting Martin Braithwaite an opportunity inside two minutes and completed a comeback thanks to a header from a free-kick and a scuffed finish off a deflected corner, from which the only reason Vidal wasn’t miles offside was because the ball bounced back to him off an opponent’s leg. Two of the not-so-secret reasons for Barcelona's success mark another goal Analysis: New research shows that the Barca way involves a more complex understanding of … Javier Mascherano missed a few tackles, too, and while he wasn't individually culpable for any of the goals, he isn't going to be part of the base of a water-tight defence. https://fcbarcelonalatestnews.com/5-barcelona-players-leaving-137290 66 games later. Or even that he wants to. Watch Queue Queue. Sergio Busquets, of course, is 25 and has many years ahead of him, but he plays in the deepest midfield role and has defensive duties to attend to. Gerard Pique had lost his man, Daniel Parejo, for the first goal and simply stood and watched as Paco Alcacer tucked home the winner. Lionel Messi Needs His Shooting Boots. Our first trip to Spain back in 2012 started with a week-long visit to Madrid during gay pride. Only one of their last seven goals has been scored from open play. Luis Suárez, on the eve of Barcelona’s Champions League semi-final against Liverpool, talks about his Anfield days, playing alongside Messi and why he does not mind being called fat The Messi of 2011-13 would … As Francisco Cabezas neatly put it in El Mundo: “Arturo Vidal rescued Ernesto Valverde’s Barcelona at the team that’s bottom. Sergio Aguero, Alvaro Negredo and the rest of the Manchester City squad will rubbing their hands ahead of their Champions League clash with Barcelona. A couple of days later, Ernesto Valverde asked why so many questions start with are you worried that…?, when the answer is obvious: because they’re worried. Likability. And with Messi out or off-colour, Neymar missing as well was the last thing that Tata Martino needed. Last 5 Away games: 8 Scored 4 Conceded Last 5 Home games: 22 Scored, 2 Conceded This makes it painfully obvious that Barcelona is clearly doping at home league matches, but for some reason is not able to dope in their away league matches. When Dani Alves is suspended or being rested, Barcelona use a … Barcelona may be a quite big city but the size is perfect to discover on foot. He's fast. A key moment in the game was the save by Diego Alves from Alexis Sanchez’s header, which would have put the Catalans 2-0 up. I still don’t understand the runs of Suárez, Messi or Dembélé. It was striking to hear Piqué, the organiser of the Davis Cup who admitted that some nights he sleeps only four or five hours and who spent the last few days travelling back and forth to Madrid, say that his manager asked him what the plan was this week. Watch Queue Queue Madrid doesn’t quite have the same grandeur of Barcelona so it doesn’t draw the same amount of tourists. This is not to do Atletico down; they are a strong side with a good manager and deserve to be where they are, but the Barcelona side that dominated Europe for several years would not find themselves in this position. The pair have been at the peak of the game for several years. I was so looking forward to a birthday cruise with my daughter on the new Harmony of the Seas Ship. Can Martino? And, no, conditions weren’t good. And Martin Montoya might have more to offer than Dani Alves at the back right now, if not pushing forward. That shows how far Barcelona have fallen. This is worse; there’s a better squad but their problems weren’t addressed, including the role of their manager. When Barcelona thrashed Real Madrid 5-0 in November 2010, eight of their starting XI had come through the club's academy, and all but Lionel Messi were eligible to play for Spain. They stuck four more past Celta and five past Betis, Valencia and Valladolid. If you too love Gaudi’s extraordinary work then you should most certainly visit Barcelona. Full-backs Jordi Alba and Dani Alves looked vulnerable—particularly the former. Yes, Barcelona had most of the ball. A win does not hide that, or shouldn’t. Monica said 5 years ago. @francis_maxwell (Twitter) breaks it down tactically to discuss their demise. Merson, meanwhile, has lavished praise on Grealish and said he thinks the former Notts County loanee is good enough to play for top La Liga side Barcelona… After that, Valencia started to come out from under the cosh, equalising just before half-time. And while give the ball to the best player there may have ever been might be a logical enough plan sometimes, it can’t be your only plan. But their dysfunction was most noticeable was at full-back, where Junior Firpo didn’t know where to go or what to do, unable or unwilling to overlap. So our advice is be very careful - particularly if its late and dark which it was with us (it was after 11pm so the Europcar cabin in the car park was shut). They are literally awful. In the meantime, Real Madrid are starting to come good. Alba was later sent off as Barcelona began to panic. Against Valencia, the Barcelona defence made several errors. Getting Around. But at the moment, Messi is struggling. Why are Real Madrid and Barcelona not playing in La Liga opening weekend? They won last season’s league, making it four of five, and were a goal off a probable treble. And it’s maybe not that Barcelona’s is bad, it might just be that it’s not good compared to what I’m used to. Defensively, for instance, he hasn’t made enough use of youngster Marc Bartra. There is a reason Messi wanted Neymar – a player who was not only good but knew it. Iniesta is 29 and soon to be 30. Including, incidentally, a hat-trick in a 3-2 win for Barcelona against Valencia—the opposite of Saturday’s shambles at Camp Nou. Next Sunday they face Atlético at the Metropolitano. They have lost just one of their last 11 matches, winning nine, and have scored more league goals than anybody in Spain: seven more than second-placed Real Madrid and more than twice as many as Athletic Bilbao in fifth, Atlético Madrid in fourth and Sevilla in third. The Qatar Foundation is the Qatar sheikh’s NGO One of the things that always made Barcelona "the good guys" to Real Madrid's "bad guys" in Spain was that as a club, they tended to steer away … 10 Philippe Coutinho, occupying roughly the same areas and trying to do the same things, what Barcelona really need is natural width. This was not Saturday, this was systemic. Against Valencia, Xavi was ineffective until he was replaced by Iniesta, who proved to be just as useful afterwards. They have the striker who scored 115 over the last four La Liga seasons, more than anyone except that guy, and they have that guy too – the best player in their history and maybe anybody else’s history either. Real and Barca won't be involved in the opening round of fixtures due to finishing their seasons late. When they played Sevilla, they put four past them. And for the first few weeks of the season it seemed like they might have been right; the Brazilian showed flashes of his extraordinary talent but not enough consistency. Levante 2-1 Real Mallorca, Real madrid 3-1 Real Sociedad, Granada 1-1 Atlético Madrid, Real Betis 2-1 Valencia, Leganés 1-2 Barcelona, Real Valladolid 0-1 Sevilla, Villarreal 1-3 Celta Vigo, Eibar 0-2 Alavés, Osasuna 1-2 Athletic Bilbao, Espanyol 1-1 Getafe, Higuaín and Dybala make Juve party like it's 2016 – and give Sarri a problem | Nicky Bandini, Lucien Favre hanging by a thread after Dortmund horror show | Andy Brassell, Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 top scorers 2019-20. They are no longer Europe's most feared side; that much was already established when Bayern Munich beat them 7-0 on aggregate in last year's Champions League semi-final. “Arturo Vital,” ran the front page of El Mundo Deportivo, and when he is vital, coming on to rescue you, there is a problem. Then they signed Europe’s two most wanted players, even if neither was their players’ most wanted: the €75m midfielder made for them, voted Europe’s best, and the summer’s joint most expensive footballer at €126m. Victor Valdes, too, looked shaky; perhaps his impending transfer at the end of the season, per Goal.com's Pilar Suarez, is a distraction. Whether we’ll see someone so good play striker for Barcelona again remains to be seen, although Suarez is definitely giving him a run for his money. However, cometh the hour, cometh the man. “We had to win any way we could.”. For the player, it's a career move & most Latin Americans dream of playing for Barca or Real Madrid. Deeper even than that: it goes to the top, speaks to a culture, an environment where players are accommodated, Barcelona “losing the ball, their play, their soul” in the words of El País’s Ramón Besa; a place where there is little leadership or clear direction. After returning from his latest injury—they are becoming a frequent worry—Messi has often been playing in a deeper role, providing the ammunition for his team-mates. And Pizzi is a character who can conjure that spirit. Most importantly, it felt like a portrait of what Barcelona have become. They aren't the team they used to be - plain and simple. Barcelona under Pep Guardiola was the greatest team to ever grace the game. Most the time, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they didn’t know what to do. I can't understand why our fans (in my case Liverpool) make such a big deal when players leave. When Barcelona were playing … My dream was always to visit Barcelona. Defeated three times this season – as many times as in the whole of last year, three times as many as in the year before – this is their worst start on the road for eighteen years. And now they’re all exposed. Fc Barcelona is not in good shape and you guys don’t need me to tell you that. The flaws were there, deepened at Anfield but not created there. He played reasonably well, but, barring one chance at the end, didn't look like finding the net. Win on Wednesday night and they will be mathematically qualified from the competition’s hardest group with a game to spare. GOOOOOOAL @kingarturo23 GIVES BARÇA THE LEAD! The move didn’t seem too bad at the time considering the … Since then, though, suspension, gastroenteritis and now an ankle injury have restricted him to just two appearances. Dani Alves and Barcelona were dumped on their heads by Valencia, Neymar became injured just as he hit top form, Xavi (right), at 34, could do with a youthful accomplice, Some of Tata Martino's calls can be questioned. The Blaugrana’s defeat to Valencia was their first home reverse to a side other than Real for 66 La Liga matches, since September 2010 against Hercules. Again. Let that sink in. Commenting has been disabled at this time but you can still, the four-year-old with the mohican and the biro beard, Barcelona’s last Champions League success. Barcelona also conceded the first goal to minnows Levante three times in the three matches they played against them last month. Just because he often does it “alone” doesn’t mean he should. 1 of 5 . A goal down after 12 minutes, Youssef En-Nesyri bending a beautiful shot into the top corner, Barcelona turned it around with strikes from Luis Suárez and substitute Arturo Vidal. Win on Wednesday against Dortmund and they’re through; lose, though, and they will have to go to Milan needing a victory. It's like watching Stoke try to play possession football. Lionel Messi is struggling for goals Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images. Afterwards Valverde admitted it “wasn’t brilliant”, which was one way of putting it. “We’ll take it as a good thing,” Valverde said. But Xavi is 34 and recently played his 700th game for Barcelona. 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