GBAM!!! The worst display of their season so far saw Barcelona lose 3-1 at Real Sociedad and fall three points behind Real Madrid at the top of La Liga, after Los Blancos had earlier beaten Elche 3-0. The writing was on the wall early on for Barca in an uncharacteristic performance littered with defensive mistakes and lacking in attacking ideas. The home side took advantage of a tired-looking side and gained revenge for defeat in the semifinal of the Copa del Rey over two legs earlier this month. The difference between those two Barcelona performances and the one on Saturday night were like night and day. Lionel Messi’s equalising goal in the first half was the only bright spark for the Blaugrana as the teams went in level at the interval. It was the fifth successive game he has found the net and means he goes clear of Real Madrid legend Raul in the all-time La Liga goal-scoring charts. (He now sits third, just five goals behind the Mexican Hugo Sanchez, another former Real Madrid favourite, in second.) Regardless of the Argentine’s personal feats, it was a bad defeat for Team Barca after such a good result at Manchester City in the Champions League. Here are three key reasons it all went wrong for Tata Martino’s men on Saturday night: 1. Rotation, rotation, rotation Martino made six changes to the side that won at City, including three in defence. While squad rotation is a necessary evil at this stage of the season when the games come thick and fast, Martino seems to have finally got a starting XI badly wrong after some clever juggling until now. He started with Alex Song as the deepest-lying midfielder, with both Xavi Hernandez and Cesc Fabregas rested on the bench. Xavi needs to be looked after, but why the 26-year-old Fabregas could not have started a third game in a week is a mystery given that Andres Iniesta was asked to do the same. Song lacked the ability to move the ball quickly enough in the opening minutes, and Barca were not able to get into their usual passing rhythm. Further forward, Neymar came in to start his first game in five weeks and looked rusty, but he, Messi and Pedro did not see enough of the ball in advanced positions due to the scarcity of ideas further back. Barca did not create a chance until the 18th minute, when Iniesta appeared fed up with so much aimless passing and twisted and turned through three defenders before twice exchanging passes with Pedro, who managed to curl a shot just wide. Apart from Messi’s goal, there was little else to write about for the rest of the game. 2. Defending from the back Whether or not defensive mistakes were down to changing three quarters of the back four, it cannot be denied that this was a terrible performance at the back. The first goal of the evening came when Gorka Elustondo beat Song to a Sergio Canales cross on 32 minutes after a quick short corner from the recent signing from Valencia. The midfielder guided the ball past Valdes, via Song’s chest, but, more importantly, it was yet again a high ball into the area that found the Barcelona defence wanting. The second goal was the fault of Marc Bartra, who had advanced to meet a ball kicked out of the hands of Sociedad goalkeeper Claudio Bravo. Bartra misjudged his header and sent it backward to Carlos Vela, who squared it to Antoine Griezmann for an easy finish; Song, who should have been covering Bartra, was nowhere to be seen and soon after was substituted. David Zurutuza got the third, and, again, it was sloppy from a Barca viewpoint as his run from deep was not picked up by any defender and he was allowed to meet a curled cross from Griezmann and rifle the ball home. It could have been more: Twice Gerard Pique was at fault in gifting La Real with chances, and, even when Fabregas came on with 30 minutes remaining, he gave the ball straight away to the opponents to mount another quick counterattack. In truth, Barca were lucky it was only 3-1.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Feb 2014 10:06:24 +0000
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