Barcelona lost its first points of the 2013-14 season when they drew 0-0 against Osasuna on Saturday.
However, the match did more than just reaffirm the fact that Blaugrana was bound to lose points at some juncture this season. In fact, the game proved something more unsettling for the team - Barcelona remains dependent on Lionel Messi.
The dissenters will immediately counter that Barcelona managed two victories in the absence of the superstar and there is no doubt about that. And they're right to champion the squad's prowess even without Messi—Barcelona is a great team. The club is among the best, if not the best, in the world.
The first win without Messi was a 4-1 drubbing of Real Valladolid. The second was a difficult 1-0 win over Celtic in the Champions League. Most will state that Celtic took down Barcelona last season with Messi on the pitch and that this year's game was bound to be a tough one for the team. Moreover, a lot of people will also argue that goalie Fraser Forster had a tremendous game for the team and prevented what could have been a 4-0 or 5-0 result. However, Barcelona "could have" defeated Osasuna 3-0 if it had capitalized on a number of its opportunities. But it did not. And that is the biggest problem.
Barcelona is made up of a number of top-notch midfielders, including Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Alexis Sanchez, Cesc Fabregas and Sergio Busquets. However, none of those stars are known for their scoring abilities. They can score, but they cannot produce at the same rate as Messi. Many have expected Neymar to be the backup should Messi falter as he did for the last weeks. While Neymar has scored a few goals since Messi's exit, he looks to have hindered his killer instinct a bit; perhaps to fit into the team's mentality and not overstep his boundary.
Barcelona needs to turn this around quickly and utilize its game against AC Milan as a means of pushing its top stars to find their killer instinct. If they fail to do so, then they may face an eager Madrid team next Saturday that is ready to shut down its top player and potentially the entire Barcelona offense.