If you haven’t been following Barcelona over the last month and assume they’re still the best team on earth, you’ve missed quite a bit. The Blaugrana have failed to win in five of their last six games in all competitions. That one win was against Atlético Madrid in the Champions League, and the Rojiblancos overturned that result a week later. Barca are out of the Champions League and their La Liga lead is now down to just a head-to-head tiebreaker over Atléti and one point over Real Madrid.
What happened? No one seems to know for sure, but every member of our staff has a different theory.
Messi, Neymar and Suarez are gassed, by Zito Madu
Barca’s biggest problems right now are Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar Jr. The team is built top-heavy, with the midfield being designated — Ivan Rakitic especially — to support the front three. It’s a genius plan that usually works, because the trio when on form, are three of the four best players in the world. The problem that’s becoming evident now can be summed up as living by the sword and dying by it. Barca can thrive as long as one of those three is on form — by their ability alone, each of them can carry the team if need be. What Barcelona can’t afford is for all three of their attackers to struggle at the exact same time.
The timing of this catastrophe is very unfortunate but it’s not surprising. The three have played a hilarious amount of football in the last two years, and it’s only natural for them to suffer from burnout. Not only has Barcelona competed for in countless competitions, but the three are individually the best, and central part of their international teams. And this struggle can be traced back to the international break right before the El Clásico, where they all played a critical part and tiring role for their teams.
Neymar-Suarez-Messi played 16058 mins in past 12 months
Bayern's front 3? 13593
City's? 11274
Real Madrid's? 10249
Atletico's? 9843— Gabriele Marcotti (@Marcotti) April 18, 2016
It’s not as if they’re just misfiring during games, they just look absolutely exhausted and there’s no fix for that besides rest. Unfortunately, there’s no time for that. So now, Barcelona face an incredibly tough challenge to prevent a collapse. The three players that they need the most for this journey — the trio that their team lives and dies by — look as if their legs are made of cinder block.
It’s the midfielders who are gassed, and they’re the most important players, by Conor Dowley
Barcelona’s midfield trio of Rakitic, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets is one of the best in the world on their day. Their skills balance and play off each other beautifully, and they can dominate almost any other side on most days. But they’ve played a lot of football this season — all between 38 and 51 games, and well over 3000 minutes played each when counting in international matches. They’re wearing down, and that’s making Barcelona awfully predictable.
Part of the issue is that while all three players are wonderfully versatile, all three also tend to retreat into their strongest type of play when they’re not at 100 percent — Iniesta to his playmaking, Rakitic to his shuttling and linking play, and Busquets to his defensive work. When one is tired, the other two can easily adapt to carry him. When two are tired, it causes some issues but they aren’t insurmountable. All three being tired? Uh oh.
They still all three play off each other well when they’re worn out, but without that extra layer of adjustment and support to keep things fluid and flowing, Barcelona’s midfield trio get a lot more predictable and a lot easier to stop. And with how Barcelona play, having their midfield blunted has major and negative effects on the rest of the team. Unfortunately, they don’t really have the depth to help matters — Sergio Roberto tries, bless his heart, but he’s not nearly on the same level as the others — so they have to keep soldiering on somehow. That’s the hazard of playing with such a thin squad, and not having adequate midfield depth could wind up costing Barcelona dearly.
A lack of rotation everywhere is killer, not just in one area, by Jack Sargeant
There’s certainly good reason to think that fatigue is playing a big role in Barça’s recent struggle, with so many of their players having played so much football so far this season. But the cause of the fatigue may well be structural: beyond what appears to be a first-team unparalleled in world football, Luis Enrique’s side are surprisingly short on depth. A glance beyond their starting lineup reveals a squad badly short on experience — a trait in particular demand at this most crucial points of the season.
Defensively, backup center backs Jérémy Mathieu and Thomas Vermaelen have spent much time on the physio’s table this season, while full backs Douglas and Adriano both aren’t really up to scratch. But it’s further up the pitch that the problem is most obvious. Take away their preferred midfield trio and you’re left with a crocked Rafinha, an unproven Sergi Roberto (who has been drafted in at right back for some of the season) and an unspectacular Arda Turan. Beyond that, it’s a motley assortment of Barça B-ers. Up top, Munir and Sandro Ramírez (both 20) are the only attacking reinforcements for the MSN combo.
It’s admirable that Barça put so much faith in their youth team, but when push comes to shove, Enrique seems to lose his nerve. Most of the reserve team graduates are given precious little game time. And that’s hardly surprising: at a stage in the season when key players need to be rested without sacrificing points, perhaps having a few more sturdy, dependable backups would be wise. If not, they risk this late-season breakdown happening over and over again.
Rotating goalkeepers is bad karma, by Andi Thomas
Football has its laws, but not all of them are written down. Some are just known at a deep, fundamental level, held in common and generally respected by all. Like: You must never bring on a defender when the other side has an attacking set piece. Or: A two-goal lead is the most dangerous lead in football, so don’t dick about. Or: A player will usually score against a club that they just left, particularly if they left under fractious circumstances.
Being unwritten, they are not policed by referees or punished by free kicks and cards; instead the game itself will turn against you. And Barcelona, over the last two seasons, have systematically violated one of these unwritten principles, and this recent run of wretched results is the price. They may be big, and they may be good, but no club has ever been so mes que that they can afford to ignore one of football’s most holy commandments. Thou shalt not rotate thy goalkeepers.
Last season and this, Enrique has generally preferred Claudio Bravo for league games and Marc-André ter Stegen in the cups and the Champions League. Why he does so isn’t really important, and perhaps he feels that the young German’s more aggressive, footballing, sweeper-keeper style is more appropriate against stronger, more attacking opposition, while Bravo’s experience is better to league games where Barcelona might be expected to be more dominant in their play. Or perhaps he’s just got two good goalkeepers and wants to give them both something to do. It doesn’t matter. The point is this: a squad requires a first-choice goalkeeper and a back-up goalkeeper, and anything else is an affront to the eyes of the gods.
First-choice goalkeepers are important for all the obvious footballing reasons, but it’s the backup that’s the key here. Backup goalkeepers are inspirational in their own way, shining examples of patience and devotion. There they sit, week after week, waiting for their annual substitute appearance or occasional cup game, and in the process they transmit a message of peace and serenity through the club. The backup goalkeeper is the model citizen, subsuming their own ambition for the greater good of the team. When a squad doesn’t have one, it has no still center. It has no moral core. And it cannot help but falter, as the certainties and structures crumble away and the squad tumbles into decadence. It may be the dipping form of the MSN that’s attracting all the attention, but none of this would have happened if the Camp Nou was still home to Jose Manuel Pinto.
Tax evasion is exhausting, by Kevin McCauley
Maybe you’re all morally pure, but I’ve done some really stupid and wrong things in my life. I’ve stolen things, lied to significant others, vandalized property, crashed cars, cheated on exams, written checks I knew I didn’t have the money to cover and driven without a valid driver’s license or plates. If you’ve also done any of these things or worse, you know that it’s really hard to go to work and do your best when you’re carrying the emotional burden of not yet getting caught doing any of these things, but not knowing if you’re going to get away with it either.
One thing I haven’t done is set up offshore shell companies to hide tens of millions of dollars in taxable income, though I assume it screws with you just as much as any of the things I’ve done. Javier Mascherano got busted for that and convicted. He was handed a jail sentence, though it was suspended. Lionel Messi and Neymar are about to go on trial for allegedly doing the same thing.
I’m sure it takes lots of emotional energy to defraud the people of Spain, Argentina and Brazil of much needed tax income that they need to pay for things like schools, medical care and public transportation for poor people. It takes even more to perform at your peak when you know that your vast fame and wealth might not save you from going to prison. At the same time, Barca’s squad has to consider the possibility of their two best players not showing up for preseason training because they’re behind bars.
If you think Luis Suarez is tired now, oh boy, wait for next season!
This article was written by SB Nation Soccer Staff from SB Nation and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.
