Nowadays, it seems like a Barca loss is becoming expected, with the latest coming today at the hands of Real Madrid yet again. With their normal manager Tito Vilanova receiving cancer treatment in New York, Barcelona has become a shell of itself. They look inferior to good opposition (AC Milan, Real Madrid), and don't seem like the dominant team that they normally are. They are in complete disarray and it's becoming sad to watch.
With that said, here are my 3 main problems that are happening for FCB right now:
1. The trademark passing (or lack thereof)
Barcelona still pass the ball a lot and hog possession, but they aren't doing anything with it. It seems like they're passing the ball to kill time, instead of passing the ball to unlock defenses. This isn't the Barcelona we're used to seeing. Normally, we would see Barca pass it around to lull a defense to sleep, and then hit them with ridiculous upfield passing along with perfect through balls to score at will. Now it just seems like they pass the ball around because that's all that they know how to do. There hasn't been much execution on the offensive side of things (They have scored 2 goals in 3 matches against recent "good opposition"). Messi hasn't been receiving any top quality service, and has been very quiet lately. The defense hasn't been so great either, with both early and late concessions occurring more and more frequently. All of this is set up by their trademark passing through and with the midfield, which clearly hasn't been as "trademark" as it normally would be.
2. The managerial problem
Pep Guardiola left FCB at the end of last season, and appointed Tito Vilanova as his successor. Tito has arguably been as good as Pep, with him leading Barca to one of the best La Liga starts in modern history. Unfortunately, Tito was also diagnosed with cancer for a second time in December, and has not been around to guide his team. Therefore, he has had assistant Jordi Roura act as caretaker until his possible return in May.
Things haven't gone as smoothed as planned, however. Roura's results have been troublesome, with 3 defeats in 4 games being the most recent bad piece of news. As much as he tells us that Tito is helping him out with managerial decisions, you can't help to think how it would be if Tito was there in a physical sense, coaching the team. Andres Iniesta admitted after the first Real Madrid defeat earlier in the week that the team was missing Vilanova's presence. So, although the saying was "any team could manage Barca and be fine" used to be true, it is very clear things have changed.
3. The luck with the referees
Okay, so this might not be the best argument for Barcelona when everyone says the refs are always on their side, but lately that hasn't been the case. At the San Siro, a goal should have been disallowed due to a handball but it wasn't. At the Camp Nou, they had 3 penalty appeals denied, one of which (Pedro) should have been clearly called, especially since Ronaldo had one at the other end got one called for similar contact. At the Bernabeu, they had another late penalty kick that wasn't called for a probably should have been. Some would say that this is just karma for the lucky calls they've got in the past, and for once, I think I would have to agree with that. The refs do need to call better games, however.
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Barcelona, for the first time, have all of the things that usually go right for them go wrong. No penalty calls, an unfortunate manager situation (get well soon, Tito!), and a lack of a passing game. And unless some of these things turn around, it won't get any better. It doesn't look good for them against Milan in the UCL. They are already out of the Copa del Rey. The only positive thing going on is La Liga. And if they can hold on to that while not having everything else that is ideal, then I think that would have to be considered success. But, with all of the attention that comes with this team, you just never know what might happen next.
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