What's Wrong with FC Barcelona?

Our season ended when Valdes tore his ACL. Who could have known? Yet it's fairly clear now. After our victory in the Bernabeu everything began unraveling the moment Veldes stepped awkwardly in the dying minutes of that game. We were poor against Atletico in the Champions League and for the first time since 2006 Barcelona did not make the semifinals of that competition. We were dismal again against Granada, a team we should have beat. For all intents and purposes the League is now lost.

It's clear something is not working for us. We are not Pep's Barcelona-- we are now two managers removed. We are older, have a different manager and operate under a different president- two removed from Laporta as well. What is wrong with Barcelona? And what should be done? Here's my take:

1. We need a new coach with a new vision. We are too predictable. Every game we play now seems to degenerate into an onslaught against parked buses.
2. We need a new president and a new administration. Elections are needed. Zubizarreta needs to go. For the past three years the board has repeatedly made poor decisions that have had irreparable consequences on the pitch: bad vibes, no central defenders, the shady acquisition of Neymar.
3. Our squad needs a changing of the guard. If Barcelona is to rejuvenate, Xavi needs to go. As does Dani Alves. I'd even accept the sale of Sanchez. Selling Deco and Ronaldinho was a monumental and difficult decision for Pep in 2008 but it certainly paid off; we need that type of audacity.

What do you think?

I'd say our season was finished when Pique went down. But, Valdes was a big blow as well.

-Incompetent manager
-Incompetent board
-Very incompetent sporting director
-Lack of squad depth
-Lack of defenders
-Lack of leadership in the team
-Lack of tactics
-Lack of motivation in players

Selling Xavi? Why? He may be getting old, but in my opinion he is the most important player in our team still.

I won't address everything you've posted, but I'll give my opinion on most.

I am beginning to agree we need a new coach, but I don't think predictability is the reason. Barca fans favourite excuse for us not winning games is that people have learned to play against us. In my honest opinion, I don't think we used to beat teams because we played a way never seen before. I think we beat teams because we were better than them and we played so well that regardless what they done, we would always come out on top. That is no longer the case.

Whether you're an advocate for change or want a conservative strategical change, I think it's safe to say that what tata martino has brought us, what ever you may call it, isn't working. At all. In fact I would go as far to say that what Tito brought us, wasn't good enough, and he was supposed to be doing the same as guardiola. So what happened?

If teams really had learnt to play against us just by parking a bus, then we would be drawing games with excess of 75+% possession. That is not the case. Clearly we are not playing our tiki taka football as well as we did in the 10/11 season. Here's why I think so.

09/10, mourinho beat us with inter parking the bus. If that's all it took, then we did we improve the following year and wipe the floor with every team? After a very injury struck season in 11/12 we lost against Chelsea and Madrid in a week, but surely that was expected when we didn't make any great signings and lost many players?

IMO we need to go back to playing how we were meant to play, as well as reinforce certain areas of the pitch, and see what happens. If we achieve the same level as 2010/2011 then I don't think we need a plan b. Very few other teams in the world have a true plan B. Yes they may make tactical changes, but they will still play in a very similar manner. We may be able to do this, ie play a centre forward like Sanchez (I wish we had villa still) infront of messi, and have messi play as a true 10 in midfield. We would still play in the same manner, but now we would have two central threats as opposed to one. You could achieve this by taking off one midfielder, or one centre back in cases where we really dominate. I don't advocate sacrificing a winger for a centre forward, because taking an attacker off for another attacker isn't really a tactical change that will influence a game. Mourinho often sacrifices defenders and holding midfielders for attackers in situations where he needs to, I believe we should follow suit.

That's just my two cents, I will probably have abuse thrown at me for suggesting sacrificing a defender when we are already so poor at the back, but if we are in a game with 30 minutes to go needing a goal dominating their area, I believe that's more sensible than deciding to play messi on the right wing and lump the ball into the box hopelessly for 90 minutes.

I suppose you could always take the counter argument that our centre backs are so bad that having two is barely better than one anyway haha...

The board... The problem is at the top. Until that is fixed, all the rest won't be right.

Devils said:

-Incompetent manager
-Incompetent board
-Very incompetent sporting director
-Lack of squad depth
-Lack of defenders
-Lack of leadership in the team
-Lack of tactics
-Lack of motivation in players

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Pretty much in a nutshell.

I feel like Barca is a ship without a captain. Too many hands in the cookie jar so to speak with several different people trying to pull the strings. Both the board and the players need to put 100%of their trust in the manager and let him makes all the calls.

I think this new article from TotalBarca describes the current situation really well in addition to analyzing what went wrong against Granada.

http://www.totalbarca.com/2014/news/match-review-granada-cf-vs-fc-barcelona/#more-156601

1. No CB signings for 3 years now

2. Xavi is just not up to par anymore. Even though he can show moments of genius with great ability to dictate play and the occasional awesome throughball; he gets destroyed in defense by any decent attacker which then exposes the "CBs". Also, he seems more obsessed with possession stats than actually creating goals nowadays. There's no reason why counter attacks shouldn't be an extremely effective weapon in Barcelona's arsenal of attacking options yet whenever Xavi is on the pitch; he kills any chance of counterattacking by slowing play down even when he has Messi and Neymar making runs.

3. A lot of our squad has won literally everything there is to win so I think some of that innate fire that young players have has dimmed.

Our game has become too predictable. You park the bus, close up space in the middle and you will hold Barca scoreless. We have no plan B, no real wingers to speak of, no ways to break the bus. We have become stagnant, other tems had us all figured out, and we don't have any reactions or solutions so far.

Not to mention the total lack of motivation.

Devils said:

-Incompetent manager
-Incompetent board
-Very incompetent sporting director
-Lack of squad depth
-Lack of defenders
-Lack of leadership in the team
-Lack of tactics
-Lack of motivation in some players

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I share the same sentiments

klc123 said:

Selling Xavi? Why? He may be getting old, but in my opinion he is the most important player in our team still.

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Yes, selling Xavi. Or letting him go. The best thing that could have happened to Barcelona last year was Thiago permanently taking over his role; but Thiago left and Xavi stayed. You can almost correlate Barcelona's decline as the best team in the world with Xavi's age. Peak years 08-11 Xavi was 28-31. Every year after that Barcelona has declined. Don't take me wrong, this is not an attack on Xavi. For the same reason you can link Barca's decline with Xavi's age you can also link its emergence as the best team with his peak years. Xavi is an absolute legend, no question about it. But these players aren't immortal. Xavi is no longer as penetrative nor nearly as daring as he once was. He was never a fast players and at 34 he is too slow and passive. He is our engine, but it is clear his energy and vitality are no longer fully firing. We all agree our midfield has stagnated. Xavi needs to step aside for there to be a new and fresher tomorrow. There are posters on this forum who argue Xavi can play another three years. That's absurd.

Other than that I agree with your post.

Since when do we have the luxury to ditch Xavi? Who exactly is taking over after Xavi? Sergi Roberto? Jonathan dos Santos? Fabregas who has proven to be inadequate for 3 seasons? Signing Gündogan who might have to retire with chronic back problems? Elite central midfielders don't grow on trees.

Ursegor said:

Since when do we have the luxury to ditch Xavi? Who exactly is taking over after Xavi? Sergi Roberto? Jonathan dos Santos? Fabregas who has proven to be inadequate for 3 seasons? Signing Gündogan who might have to retire with chronic back problems? Elite central midfielders don't grow on trees.

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Rafinha

DinhoR10 said:

Rafinha

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A guy who spends most of his time playing right wing for Celta Vigo? Okay. That will be fun.