Gerardo Martino has complete faith in his team's depth. How does his perception of the team affect Barcelona's decision to make a move in the transfer window?
The manager recently stated that the team responded well to the absences of Lionel Messi and Victor Valdes and seemed confident that Neymar's extended injury leave will not harm the team's play.
"We have a very strong team and we are confident that we will perform well when we have to change players around," said Martino, according to Goal.com. "There was nothing that made me feel any different when Messi and Valdes were injured. We have answers when players are injured in our squad."
The absence of Messi saw such players as Alexis Sanchez, Neymar and Cesc Fabregas featuring in the scoring for the club. However, the team's defense was pitiful at times without Valdes. Nowhere was this clearer than in a 2-1 loss against Ajax Amsterdam in the Champions League. In that match, the team struggled to pass the ball out of its own end and wound up trapped on both goals against.
If Martino feels confident in the squad he has, will he make any moves in the coming weeks? Barcelona seems to be taking a conservative approach, but defense is certainly a necessity. Gerard Pique has shown some flashes of the brilliant defender he was a few years ago, but he continues to make enough poor mistakes to justify the questioning of his form. The other players on the backend offer decent, but hardly reliable options.
Offensively, this team has struggled in the past few weeks with a 0-0 draw at Atletico Madrid and a 1-1 draw at Levante. These were both road games, but showed a weakness in Martino's game plan that was not exposed earlier in the year. Teams continue to anticipate Barcelona's passing game, even if it is more direct. Without Neymar, the team lacks the explosiveness on the width that has been so effective throughout most of the year.
Should Barcelona make a move this January? If so, then who should they acquire?