Have Patience : Barcelona Can Still Succeed!

A humbling 2-0 defeat at the hands of A.C.Milan at San Siro, and now this painful 3-1 defeat at home at the hands of arch rivals Real Madrid. Barcelona fans are certainly not accustomed to such humiliating losses, owing to their dominating and enthralling performances in the last few years, and these losses are disheartening to a majority of them. What can possibly go wrong in such short time for a team who was winning everything that came into their way!

The best start to the season in the entire history of the club has turned into a nightmare after these recent losses. The La Liga crown is definitely in safe reach, but that wouldn’t help in escaping the questions that would arise about the lack of ideas and poor strategy, which are evident from the last few performances by the team. The blame lies equally on the shoulders of Jordi Roura, who takes the responsibility of the position of coach in the absence of Tito Vilanova due to illness, and the squad, which has failed to perform to the level of competition, leave aside performing on the level they are expected to perform consistently.

Fabregas, who was the standout midfielder in the first half of the campaign, so far seems to be lost between midfield and attack, and has been a victim of sluggish passing, poor first touches and finish in the second half of the season. Messi, as skillful and impactful he is in majority of the matches, has shown an increased tendency to drop down too far deep into midfield in major clashes, to the extent that his mesmerizing runs and brilliant one-two’s fail to create too many goal-scoring chances due to the amount of ground he is left to cover and the number of defenders he is left to surpass. The unwillingness to use a specialized winger in the left wing has urged the teams to further crowd the center of the pitch leaving the wide areas harmlessly unprotected. Alexis Sanchez’s ineffective performances on the several trial occasions aren’t helping either. In spite of some decent scoring performances, Villa is still being neglected in being handed a starting berth in main clashes, leaving the dangerous positions in the penalty area unoccupied most of the times during attack. Xavi, in spite of being majestic in possession as ever, has surprisingly been found guilty of losing the ball at crucial moments of the build-up play. Alves’ form has visibly declined. His crosses are bad, his defense is embarrassing.

This period of adversities calls for a question. Is this a failure that finally marks the beginning of the end for the dominant reign over the world of football for the past 4 years or so? Or is it just a phase that was necessary for the team to rethink, realize, re-strategize and come back stronger than ever. I certainly think of it the second way. These kinds of losses are sometimes important to realize the faults in the system and the changes that need to be made to help the system adapt and face the upcoming challenges.

Losing hope is certainly not the correct option right now. It’s just not the Barca way. There are upcoming clashes against Madrid and Milan in the Liga and Champions League respectively, and these clashes can still be season-defining. Remember the last year’s UCL Round of 16 return leg, where Arsenal came that close with a 3-0 score at half-time in response to the thrashing 4-0 defeat in the first leg against the much stronger Milan? The team should take that as an example and draw inspiration from the fact that they are capable of much more than that. Jordi Roura needs to be a little more fearless in rotating players. Why not try Montoya or Adriano in Alves’ place, and Villa/Tello in the left wing position with Iniesta switching back to his normal midfield role? Tweaking the formation to three at the back for some period of time against Milan might also be an option on the cards, keeping in mind the number of goals required to stay alive in the tie. Jorda needs to prove his worth as a good care-taking coach and the team needs to show their mettle in this period of adverse results, and step-up their performances and match the expectations .

The best  way to minimize the pain of loss is to stand back up and start winning again, and what better way than to avenge the losses against the very same teams. A couple of good results, and the “disaster” could suddenly turn back into success. All it needs is patience, and the never-ending support  from the Cules community. Keep calm and Visca el Barca!