We thought Barcelona, the team who had won everything, would continue to haunt Europe’s elite. That Spain’s World Cup and Euro Cup winning players and, of course, the great Lionel Messi would be unstoppable for years to come.
Yet Bayern Munich destroyed Barcelona 4-0 at Allianz arena and Chelsea, Celtic, Milan and Real Madrid have decimated Barcelona of late.
The match against Deportivo saw Barca winning 5-4 away with a sensational hat trick by Messi, earlier this season buut that match was the beginning of Barca’s downfall.
Conceding goals became their hobby and the worst match of the season, besides the recent 0-4 loss to Bayern, came against Real Madrid, who defeated them 3-1 at Camp Nou, knocking them out of the Copa Del Rey.
So why did Barcelona become prone to concede goals and lose away from home? The answer is obvious. The governance of a good manager was missing and so was the best of Blaugrana’s last line.
Young Jordi Alba tried his best and came out on top most of the times but Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano were ordinary throughout the season. Daniel Alves was rumored to leave the club and lacked focus in some games.
Victor Valdes simply lost it. The great goalkeeper, other than making good one-on-one saves, was exposed. Teams came and robbed Barcelona.
Celtic troubled them at Camp Nou for 90 minutes until Alba scored in the stoppage time. AC Milan got two past them in San Siro. Paris Saint-Germain were knocked out by Barcelona but refused to lose in 180 minutes, sadly losing on away goals.
The season was all about Lionel Messi, who is currently Europe’s top scorer with 57 goals (43 in the league).
The squad lacked depth and the second top scorer for Barcelona this season, Cesc Fabregas, hasn’t touched 20 goals. If Messi was to leave the team, they would have difficulty getting past teams like Valencia, Atletico Madrid and Malaga or Real Sociedad in their own league.
The responsibility of guiding a great team rests in the hand of management and a side like Barcelona, without the services of Pep Guardiola, had a lot of problems is Europe. Tito Vilanova couldn’t frame proper tactics and Europe became a bad place to play football.
From Celtic to Bayern Munich, teams enjoyed scoring past Barcelona. Real Madrid gave Barcelona a taste of its own medicine at Camp Nou in the second leg of Copa Del Rey, taming them 3-1. Bayern decimated them 4-0 some days ago, reminding them their time at top is over.
The solution? Barcelona needs strong defenders, better improvised playmakers and a world class goal keeper. They need Pep back but, as it’s impossible, the former things should be taken into consideration only.
The Catalans will end this season with the league title and Messi might end up receiving his fifth straight Ballon d’Or but in order to become the best in the world once again, they need to reconstruct their team.
For now, Barcelona is a quality team capable of producing titles but incapable of beating teams like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or even Juventus.
HardcorePrawn
Roar Guru
"thats the problem with some people" Really?
j binnie
Guest
Freddie - After absorbing your last statement about football being a game,not science, I had a long hard look at what is going on in our "game" & while it is not "pure science" as you & I know it, it has a undercurrent of studies in Psychology,Physiology,Human Movement,& Physical Conditioning,to name few,that started some time ago at the higher levels & which are now beginning to filter down into "minor" professional leagues like our own HAL. I first came across this phenomonen back in the late '60's while attending college to study work related subjects.Out of the blue we were given a theory to study & debate &, strangely enough for an Australian college curriculum, the subject was a theory based on football (or as the lecturer called it "soccer") It was of course Hugo Meisl's theory of what one could do with 10 players of equal intelligence, physical & skill capabilities.Meisl stressed it was only a theory for getting 10 such individuals was basically an impossibility, but that same theory,first mooted in a human movements study back around 1930.is widely accepted as the basis for the many changes that have,& continue to occur in football coaching. So don't write off the effects science is having on sport today,not just football but ALL sports.jb
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
Kompany, Vermalean and Hummels would be ideal to replace Puyol and Mascherano. Barcelona only has Gerard Pique as their tall center back and thats sad. Set Pieces have been their biggest problems.
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
thats the problem with some people. Barcelona is different from other teams. Everybody expects them to win atleast 2 or even 3 trophies each season. The fact that Chelsea defeated them last season showed that they are incapable of having a plan b. This season so many teams including Celtic destroyed them. For Barca to win a La Liga title when Real were not even at their 50% is a big deal? For Barcelona, being the best is the real deal which they aint at the moment. Bayern are on the course to win 2 more trophies( Champions League and German Cup). For Barca's season to be nice means winning a lot of trophies and maintaining their top position.
HardcorePrawn
Guest
Semi-finalists in the Champions League and strolling to a League title with their nearest threat 13 points behind them... I wish my team would have a season go so wrong.
k77sujith
Guest
A good read with some fine views. But I wouldn't rate Valdes as great since he's over-rated and has many a time let in silly goals in his career. You're right about the defence....they need to reinforce the back-line and this time, get some defenders who are tall and intimidating! Guys who can defend set-pieces as well as score off headers. Their level has clearly dropped a few notches this season. Im a huge fan of Barca but this season their slick game has looked pretty dull in the games they've struggled. They just don't have a plan B.
j binnie
Guest
Freddie - I have forgotten how many years have passed since,in conversation with a man who had taken his home grown team to the heights of EC semi-finals, heard him state that "possession without penetration" is a waste of time and effort. Think about those simple words and you will realise how right he was. jb
Freddie
Guest
Glad someone else has noticed this jb. Possession football for its own sake means little. The new buzz words are "effective possession" It's about finding an approach that best suits the players you have. Ange has done this well with Victory, using Rojas and Thompson. It'll be interesting to see if he goes a different way now that Rojas is leaving. One other thing. I hate the word philosophy. Football isn't about science, its a game.
Freddie
Guest
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
Right Freddie. With Guardialo managing Bayern next season and with the new services of Dortmund's 2 best players- Gotze and as reports say, though unofficial, Robert Lewandowski set to move to the rivals Munich too, they will rule Europe for some years.
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
This is not Manchester United or PSG or Ajax or even Real Madrid and Juventus. Barcelona were known to win absolutely everything and anything. They have won 3 Champions League since 06 season. They are the only team to play 6 consecutive semi finals in Europe. When a team , regarded as the greatest ever, does not perform as per the expectations and lose to Celtic and Milan, Bayern Munich delivered a knockout punch. Had Madrid been more consistent in league, Barca would have found them tough.
j binnie
Guest
Harsh - To bring the problem closer to home let us look at the HAL.Three seasons ago Brisbane Roar burst upon the local scene playing what sports journalists loved to term "playing out of the back" or "playing possession football". They swept the local boards with their style which again was described as a system,a philosophy,a structure, a myriad of names to describe what Ange Postecoglu had seen Barca play &, being impressed, decided to "try his luck" with local & some imported product. The rest is history. Now 3 seasons later we have 2 teams completely dominating our local scene & the shrewd observer will have noted that in most of their (CCM & WSW) games the stats figures are now showing that in the main these two are conceding "possession" to their opponents & have developed "fast breaking" as a means of retaliation, yet at the same time keeping a low or virgin scoresheet against themselves. This is simply another development in football tactics & if we go back to the top of the tree it shows that recent results could indicate that Barca are going to have to change the system that has served them so well for so long. That is not a disaster it is simply a matter of whether the powerbrokers that run the club ,recognise the status quo & do something about faciliatating the necessary change. Coming back to the local scene again for a comparison we have to note what has happened to the Roar this season by their powerbrokers also ignoring such change & belatedly trying to remedy the problem. Time will tell if Barca make the necessary changes or suffer the same fate as Roar here in Australia. jb
Damiano
Guest
Strange, being on track to win the domestic league used to be considered a successful season. When did that change? Barcelona are still a great team, no shame in losing to heavyweights like AC Milan and Bayern Munich, as for being incapable of beating Juventus, that's purely academic, they haven't played each other this season.
Freddie
Guest
Natural cycle of events. No team can stay at the top for ever. It's fantastic that Bayern Munich made the world sit up and take notice. Great teams are there to be challenged.
Brian
Guest
Wouldn't say their time is over. Bayern's second goal was clearly offside and the third after a clear foul. Final score should have been 2-0 and the only point of discussion would be a possible 2nd leg turnaround. They do need a proper CB instead of Macherano and a more consistent keeper. Messi is only 25 so plenty of time for them yet. Their coaches problems this season would not have helped either. Overall if I had to pick the most likely winner of Champs League 2013/14 I would still choose them.
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
Real Madrid did not play consistently in La Liga this season and beating those Spanish opponents is no big deal. Bundesliga and Premier League have some class and competition unlike Spanish league. Thats why Barcelona without any pressure went on to reclaim the league unofficially currently. Lionel Messi with 43 goals in the league has been the difference.
Harsh Sinha
Roar Guru
harsh assessment? Their time not over? It would take massive reconstruction for them to compete with the European heavyweights. Defense has been their real issue which hasn't been sorted out. Celtic Park, San Siro and Allianz arena left unconquered. Beating a 4.5 star PSG on away goals is not expected out of Barcelona. Though they scored 3, they conceded 3 as well. Deportivo scored 4 at their home and Real Socieded defeated them 3-2. Real Madrid who lost to Barcelona 5-0 years ago , remained unconquered this season. They snatched the Super Cup on away goals. They eliminated Barcelona from Copa Del Rey. If not Bayern, Real would have easily beaten Barcelona as well in Champions League semi finals. The whole last line and a good sound tactician is the main problem for Barca. Bayern have got Gotze and are rumored to sign Robert Lewandowski, who just destroyed Real Madrid with 4 goals. Barcelona will continue to be at the top but the world's best team tag has been snatched.
Nicholas Carroll
Roar Guru
Hmmm... A very harsh assessment. Not sure I would subscribe to their 'time being over'. They haven't been in their best form but I wouldnt necessarily say their season has been an ultimate failure, reclaiming the La Liga title. They were completely out-classes yesterday but I think anyone would be by Bayern right now. With their playing roster, would have to disagree that they are 'incapable' of beating those teams. They got past PSG (no mean feat) without playing near their best.