Today Barcelona face Getafe in the Camp Nou, and it’s a match considered by many to be pointless. We’ve already won the league and celebrated winning it at home for the first time since 2010. This match could have been more of a celebration of our style of play and our victories if it wasn’t for the absolute humiliation we faced at the hands of Liverpool last Tuesday.
I’ve been a Barcelona fan since the 2004/2005 season when our team was built around the megastar and best player of the world at the time Ronaldinho, while Frank Rijkaard was at the helm. The club had high expectations at the time, but was only a work in progress. They were still not an established force in Europe as they had not won a single significant trophy since the 98/99 season. What was next to come was, luckily for me, the best period in the club’s history which some would argue is still ongoing until this very day. However, this period did not come without some very low moments, and none of those low moments in my opinion matched the devastating heartbreak of Tuesday night.
In the year 2008 right before Guardiola became our coach, we had to suffer a humbling 4-1 defeat to Real Madrid in the Santiago Bernabeu, and that came right after we gave them the guard of honor to celebrate their victorious La Liga campaign. As compulsory as the circumstances were, the act on its own was a form of humiliation, and a testament to that was Eto’o and Deco giving themselves yellow cards in the match prior in order to avoid honoring the champions at the time. That was a move that definitely lacked honor, as much as our dressing room lacked discipline during the final season of Rijkaard’s tenure.
Fast forward to right after the Guardiola era, and we had reached the Champions League Semi-finals for the 6th season in a row, and in our way was the mighty Bayern Munich, who were themselves on their way to achieving a historic treble. Needless to say, they were the hungrier and more motivated and generally better team over the two legs, and that more than showed with an astounding 7-0 aggregate scoreline.
I could list many more low points during the last decade or so: Our 4-0 Getafe defeat in the second leg after Messi’s wonder goal in the first, our 3-0 to Juventus and 2-0 to Atletico Madrid which had us bow out of the Champions League in recent years, our 4-0 loss to PSG when our midfield was virtually non-existent, our eerily familiar 3-0 crumble against AS Roma to knock us out of the quarter finals last year…
The reason this Liverpool loss trumps all of the above was the context in which it had happened, and the style in which it happened. This looked to be our season, and no matter what happened in our games, we always had the results to showcase that. Messi was in the form of his life and seemed to have hit an all-new peak even by his standards. We had just been crowned La Liga champions after dominating with a high point difference for the second season in a row (Our 8th La Liga in 10 years). We had finally overcome our CL Quarter Final hurdle with the convincing (albeit not with it’s own set of problems) defeat of Manchester United. Earlier in the season, we played our part in the utter destruction of Real Madrid with a 5-1 win in the Camp Nou, and we then proceeded to complete that destruction later in the season with 2 wins against them in one week to end their hopes in two separate competitions.
Granted, many of our victories came with their own set of faults which us fans were habitually ignoring because results seemed to be going our way. An example would be our win against Los Blancos in the Copa. They completely dominated that game, but missed too many chances since they weren’t as clinical as they needed to be. When it was our turn to strike, we were more efficient in front of goal, and ended up stealing a 3-0 win against the run of play. The same happened against Liverpool in the first leg. The first half was a 50/50 affair, but Liverpool dominated the second half and should probably have had an away goal to boast before going to Anfield, were it not for the wastefulness of Salah, Milner and Mane. Instead, our hero Messi saved the day for the millionth time this season. As always happens when we’re in trouble, Messi comes up with a solution and allows us to paper over the cracks for another day. Countless other examples of us playing bad and yet winning throughout the season made it seem like there was a force of nature letting Barcelona have it their way. The gods of football were making sure that whatever might happen in a match, the odds would always end up playing in our favor. That’s why in the very back of our minds on Tuesday, we thought the team might somehow… somehow score a goal through an inspired piece of individual brilliance to steal the tie and silence the raucous Anfield crowd. However, as we do know from experience watching this beautiful game, the gods can sometimes only raise your hopes up in order to send them crashing down.
As crazy as it is to say, there are some positives that we can draw out of that atrocious performance. It can hopefully put to light the glaring issues we have in our team.
Another thing that makes the Liverpool and Roma losses under Valverde harder to bear than other humiliations is that we lost while not staying true to our style of football. For 2 straight years we’ve completely abandoned our own principles; the beautiful attacking style we were revered for all around Europe has been abandoned by Valverde for a pragmatic style in search of results above all else. We barely mentioned it during the latter stages of this season because we’d always snatch the win one way or another, but we’ve now lost our most important game of the season, and so it has to be addressed. We’re not meant to be a boring, defensive team. It’s something that goes against our identity as a club, and against the build we have with this current group of beautiful attacking players. Gone is the free flowing aggressive possession-based domination which Culés have been accustomed to and grown to adore, and it’s been replaced with a lackluster bland style dependent on Messi magic to gain the lead (Or indeed to play for a draw which we’ve done countless times on away grounds). That same Messi magic would frequently end up being our sole source of entertainment on the night.
Our dressing room has also become overrun with politics. For the evidence, you have to look at the baffling starting choices and tactical decisions undergone during this season. How is it that Arthur Melo, who is supposed to be the new shining light in our midfield, the second coming of Xavi, did not start any of our Semi-Final legs? Why is it that he was only subbed on when the games were reaching their end, and for the wrong player. Arturo Vidal was the most interested and passionate of our players on Tuesday, and yet he was inexplicably subbed off instead of the slow and under-performing Rakitic, a decision which reeks of politics due to Rakitic’s seniority in the squad. This same seniority has left Rakitic immune to rotation during the entire course of this season, despite his performances or his lack of rest. Suarez’s consistently bad performances continued to be overlooked as the season progressed, and it seems like the only explanation for his immunity to rotation is his close friendship with Messi. He’s become a shadow of his former self; Slow, with a bad first touch, and hugely lacking his killer instinct to finish off attacks. No away goal in the Champions League since 2015 is inexcusable, despite how good your off-the-ball movements are. Even Benzema scored more… Fucking Benzema are you kidding me!?
Last but not least, let’s not forget the crown jewel of our squad problems. Coutinho has been under-performing for what seems like an eternity now, and yet he continues to be picked as a starter week in and week out. He’s the least reliable in our buildup play; it’s like you already know nothing productive is going to happen as soon as he receives the ball. His low work rate and his consistent lack of end product means Jordi Alba always has to work twice as hard to ensure we actually have a threat on our left hand side, and to top it all off, his uninspired demeanor and obvious lack of motivation makes us all question if he’s fit to be the player we broke the market for. I read a comment saying that he’s André Gomes 2.0, and it couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Add to the mix that we have an aging Busquets, a hungry Malcolm who barely gets any playing time, an injury-prone Dembele and a Messi who can only save us on his own so many times, and it’s obvious that on a squad level and a club level, this Barcelona has some problems that need to be taken care of. The question is: Will the club take the necessary steps to do so?
Valverde came out in yesterday’s presser telling us that he’s still content on keeping the helm as Barcelona coach next season, and that the board will support his decision to do so. Rakitic was seen one day after our defeat to be celebrating at a fair in Sevilla. No one from within or outside the club have expressed their outrage at the result or shown signs of the desire for big changes. No one except for the fans of the club who have made their voices heard on Twitter, Reddit, Youtube etc.. which leads me back to the upcoming match against Getafe at the Camp Nou today.
If no one from the club is going to take action after our second humiliation in 2 years, then it’s up to the people in the Camp Nou to make their voices heard. A big part of me would not mind losing today’s match if it adds fuel to the fire. If a meaningless loss after an uninspired performance is what it takes to wake everybody up, then why not? The increased publicity for the problems happening at our club would be beneficial if things are going to change for the better. Mind you, the domestic and El Clasico dominance has been great and all, but we’ve sacrificed our identity and let our club become a laughing stock in the process, and that can’t be acceptable if we do aspire to be Europe’s greatest once again.
In the match against Mallorca after our 4-1 humiliation at the hands of Real Madrid in 2008, our fans dramatically turned against the “black sheep” of the Barca dressing room, as Eto’o, Deco and a few others were booed everytime they got the ball, and white handkerchiefs flooded the scene at the Camp Nou in protest of the board. The results of the changes which took place afterwards allowed us to start a period of dominance unlike anything the world had ever seen. Today, as our home ground welcomes it’s team for the first time after a catastrophe it’ll never forget, my biggest hope is that for the sake of this beloved club in the long run, history repeats itself once again.
Mo's World 