What is wrong with Gerardo Martino's Barcelona? How can this possibly be the same team that won its first 10 competitive matches of the 2013-14 season (not including the Spanish Super Cup) and also managed to rack up wins in 13 of its first 14 Spanish League matches this season?
Now Barcelona finds itself in a rather precarious situation for the first time in two years; the Spanish League title is no longer a certainty. The Champions League is no longer a certainty. And considering Real Madrid's play of late, the Copa del Rey is also not a certainty. Could Barcelona walk away without a single major trophy for the first time since 2007-08?
In 2008-09 the team took home the Spanish League title, Copa del Rey and Champions League. A year later Barcelona won the Spanish League. In 2010-11 the team took home the Spanish League title and the Champions League. In 2011-12 the team managed to win the Copa del Rey and in 2012-13 the team won the Spanish league title back from Real Madrid.
But things do not look good in 2013-14. While Lionel Messi is looking as good as ever, the rest of the team looks lethargic and is seemingly running out of ideas. This was evident in last year's Champions League and Copa del Rey when the team was dismantled by both Bayern Munich and Real Madrid; the tiki taka passing had slowed to the point that both teams were able to shut down Barcelona with tremendous amounts of high pressing. In 2013-14, new manager Martino decided to give the team a more direct approach, but that has also failed to generate much. In fact, it has rushed Barcelona's traditionally methodic approach and made the side more susceptible to well-timed counterattacks. In fact, this approach has not allowed Barcelona enough time to react to losing the ball as the pace of the game as seemingly risen to an uncomfortable pace for the team's top stars.
Early on in the year, Barcelona seemed capable of taking down sides with its more direct approach; no one seemed to anticipate Barcelona's new style. But slowly other sides started to figure out how to make Barcelona uncomfortable. First it was Ajax in the Champions League. Then it was Athletic Bilbao that managed to beat them. Then Valencia won at the Camp Nou and this weekend Real Sociedad annihilated Barcelona 3-1 to put them three points behind a Real Madrid side that is growing in confidence under manager Carlo Ancelotti.
For years Barcelona's passing game has provided the team with a shield of sorts for its shoddy defense. By retaining possession the team minimized the work of its weak defenders and thus protected itself from potent offenses. As Munich showed a year ago, high pressing against this tactic will eventually allow the opposing team to destroy Barcelona's slow pace and eventually take the game out of their hands for good. When this happens, the team's top defenders are expected to halt the progress of the other side and regain possession for Barcelona in order for the team to reset its plan. However, this does not work if the defenders can't defend.
Jordi Alba is brilliant at running up the wing and creating offensive chances; however, this leaves his side of the field vulnerable for a quick break down the left flank. On the other side, Dani Alves is prone to the same tactics, which means that Barcelona is easy to attack on the extremes of the field. In this case, one would expect the team's center backs and the defending midfielder to take care of business and regain possession. Javier Mascherano is a midfielder-turned-defender who looks lost a lot of nights. Gerard Pique, once among the elite defenders in the world, looks increasingly slow and more error-prone than ever. Sergio Busquets is a fantastic defensive midfielder, but he has had a tendency to push forward more under Martino, sacrificing some of his defensive positioning in the process.
Real Madrid is looking like the favorite in Spain right now and with the way that Munich is flying in the Bundesliga and Champions League, one would be hard-pressed to imagine a situation in which Barcelona actually manages to topple the German giants in a rematch of last year's semifinals.
What is wrong with Barcelona under Gerardo Martino?