La Liga Review: Osasuna 3, FC Barcelona 2, Or… Well, Damn.

By: Ade C. | February 11th, 2012

Fiddlesticks. This is hugely disappointing. A loss in a competition were we couldn’t afford to lose any more points than we already had. Barça are now 7 points behind Real Madrid, who have a game in hand at the Bernabéu against Levante. You might as well say it’s a 10-point gap and call it a day.

When not even Puyol's abs and VV dressed as Wolverine can cheer you up...

Pep, with one eye on next week’s Champions League match, chose the following starting XI: VV, Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Abidal, Mascherano, Sergi Roberto, Thiago, Pedro, Alexis and Messi. Unusual? Definitely. Daring? I’d even go so far as to call it “risqué”. Crazy? Not necessarily.

Let’s see. The defence and the forwards are the best at hand, Masche is the only logical substitute for Busquets (still recovering from that knee injury) and Thiago has proved often that he’s as reliable as they come; Sergi Roberto was the only weak link, and the kid is talented enough to merit a try, particularly if Pep didn’t want to risk the fragile Iniesta (just coming back from injury) and Xavi (who needs as much rest as possible, considering his chronic tendon trouble) on the Liga equivalent of Siberia.

But that was on paper. On the frozen grass of the Reyno de Navarra, it was a different thing. A painful, clumsy thing to watch. The midfield came apart almost at once, revealing a defence that was… well, I don’t have any witty metaphors for it. It was a defence in name only. It was a black hole called defence. It was a goalfest waiting to happen. It was… Piqué and his infectious ‘who am I, where am I and what am I supposed to be doing?’.

Exhibit A:

5 minutes in and Osasuna were ahead thanks to Likic. And Piqué. Mostly Piqué.

But well, being down by an early goal is not the end of the world. The Football Gods know that more than once it has been exactly what Barça needed to wake up and start taking the match seriously. And it seemed to be going that way, but Alexis’ reaction goal was disallowed for offside (which, for the record, I don’t think it was) and then, bam, Osasuna scored again.

Again, Lekic. Again, Piqué. Again, everyone.

I’m not going to do a minute-by-minute recount of the first half, because I’m miserable enough as it is, but let me make a brief summary of the awfulness:

-Our defence was TERRIBLE. Really, unforgiveably bad. Abidal was the least depressing, and he mostly kept to his flank and let the awfulness happen away from him. Dani didn’t defend at all. Puyol looked uncertain, the strain of trying to be everywhere at once getting to him. And Piqué was just appalling. What’s up with him? He’s had a season of mediocre performances, as if he’s been undergoing a reverse evolution from the stalwart defender who seemed ready to step into Puyol’s shoes two years ago.

-Our midfield didn’t work. I’m not going to begrudge Pep his experiments, because more often than not they give great results, but this one didn’t pan out. Masche has forgotten what it’s like to be a midfielder (and can you blame him?) and even at his best, he’s never had Busi’s game vision. Sergi Roberto and Thiago did their best, but with no support from the back and nowhere to link forward, they caved in under Osasuna’s pressure.

-Our forwards were no good either. Pedrito was so obviously out of form it was painful to watch. Messi seemed torn between wanted to do something with the midfield, or try to prop up the few attacks that Barça could get together. And Alexis, at times the best one, was not that good either, and kept being called offside even when he wasn’t.

This is all part of my master plan. You'll see.

A frustrating situation but, still, not irretrievably lost. HT and time to make some changes, fix the obvious problems.

Pep did one of the two things: he brought in Cuenca and Tello (young, fit and raring to go) for Pedrito… and Puyol. Yeah, maybe it wasn’t Puyol’s best performance ever, but why leave Piqué on the field when he’d be so terrible? There is not a single situation in which Piqué > Puyol, except if Shakira is involved, and last I heard, she doesn’t play for Osasuna.

In any case, the influence of the two young wingers started to show right away. Masche moved into the defence, Thiago dropped into DM, Messi fluttered down to the midfield and the Tello—Alexis—Cuenca circus took off. Bang, bang, bang, the game moved into Osasuna’s half and chances began to rain down for Barça. Five minutes into the second half and at last Alexis wasn’t called offside after a lovely Cuenca cross into the box.

Right. 2-1. Doable. Just keep attacking and don’t concede. Don’t, whatever you do, concede.

Which is, of course, what we did five minutes later. Our attack might have improved by leaps and bounds but, sadly, taking Puyol off had done nothing for our defence, as anyone and their blind slugs might have been able to tell you beforehand.

3-1. Even with 30 minutes to go, it didn’t look that doable anymore. It looked more like ‘frustrating’ and ‘annoying’ and ‘the Football Gods are against us’.

So, Pep did what he should’ve done since, um, five minutes into the match, and took off Piqué for Cesc. 3-4-3 now and everything to play for. And, who’d have thought, but almost immediately Cesc sent a lovely pass to Tello who held onto it and curved a lovely shot into goal.

3-2 and fifteen minutes. It wasn’t impossible. In fact, it was very, very possible. Alexis saw his third disallowed goal of the evening (two of which weren’t really offside), and Messi, Tello and Cuenca all saw shots go just wide, just high or saved. But Osasuna also had their chances (the goalpost and the half-blind linesmen saved us) and, in the end, 20 minutes of frantic attacking couldn’t make up for all the rest.

Not going to lie, it’s a very painful loss. Not only because of what it means to our already slim chances at La Liga, but for what it means to team morale and what it says about some players. Sure, everyone is allowed off days, but when those off days become off seasons and there are no replacements and the squad is thin enough as it is and… argh, Piqué, you’re seriously depressing me! Get it together, man, or Muniesa, Bartra and Fontàs are going to walk all ove you next season and I will stand by and cheer them on.

Well, at least no one got injured in this match, which is by no means a small mercy in the times that are running. Though Dani Alves got his fifth yellow and Masche was sent off in the tunnel after the match for arguing with the ref, so we are two players down for next weekend against Valencia all the same.

Follow me!

Doing a player-by-player rating today would only lead to disaster, tears and people calling me a madridista, so I’ll just name-drop some people who did OK today:

-Sergi Roberto: thrown into the deep end, the kid did alright, considering the situation. Didn’t scintillate, but didn’t disappoint.
-Thiago: the more I watch him, even on matches like this one, the happier he makes me. Talent, class and a willingness to put in hard work in whatever position Pep plays him in.
-Tello: the Tello bandwagon has grown wings. The boy is fast, enthusiastic and a great shot with both legs. We’ll have to wait and see how he progresses.
-Cuenca: though his bandwagon has been abandoned in favour of Tello’s, young Isaac still has lots to offer the team, starting with those lovely crosses of his.
-Cesc: I’m going to be bitchy and say that his years at Arsenal prepared him well to come into a losing match, with a team of headless chickens, and make something out of it. Shame it wasn’t enough.

Well, that’s that. We lost, the Liga looks out of reach and we’re not going to be hearing the end of this from madridistas in weeks. But a poor match, a loss and even a distant Liga cannot be enough to put us off Pep’s Barça. This is still a great team, full of great players, and bent on doing great things. We’ve already won a couple of trophies this season, are through to the Copa del Rey final and have a shot at the Champions League for which it’s imperative that we learn from today’s mistakes and then focus on Tuesday’s match.

As always… win, lose, or whatever, through good times and bad, VISCA EL BARÇA!

(all goal videos thanks to 101greatgoals, pics thanks to FCB’s official site)

Some Related Barcelona Posts:

Category: Barcelona, Highlights, La Liga, Review, State of the Liga

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elena11

Ade - I had to register because I found your post witty, insightful and laugh out loud funny. I went back and read many of your other postings and they are equally if not more spot on and entertaining.
Looking forward to your future postings. I can only imagine how you will cleverly incorporate Pique's fender-bender into your next write-up.
Ade C.

Thank you for the lovely feedback, elena! I shall strive to keep up the good humour in the future, whatever results this team brings back.

As for Piqué's accident, my lawyer had advised me to say I have a solid alibi... ;)
MikeM

Good post Ade. While the results we no fun, the game was great. Ossasuna deserved the win. They play great and never gave up. On the Barca side one could say that Pep was giving up on La Liga, but I think that he realized that to have a chance for La Liga or anything else he needed more healthy players. Not sending in Xaviesta,but going with the kids was inspired. You certainly can't blame the loss on them. The 'no defenders' team was also fun to watch. Real will not give up 10 points, but Pep should continue to use the kids and see who shines. Messi is in a total scoring funk. Let's hope it ends Tuesday.
Seth

haven't been around here in a while, unfortunately. good to see it's as strong as always. disheartening and frustrating results recently. but in all honesty, im still not disappointed in this season. 3 trophies already, one more final set in stone, the CL still on the horizon, and shit, who knows, RM may implode and Barca will storm back (granted...not really much likelihood of that). it really sucks falling so far behind in la liga, especially to RM, but it couldnt last forever. and, who knows, it may be the kick in the ass we need to find our unstoppable form again and win everything else there is to win. visca el barca, still proud as ever.
Kageglantz

Ade, just a terrific review. You took the perfect tone. No false optimism, and you resisted the temptation to tear into the team. This one was the perfect storm, after all: just three days after a difficult Copa tie, on a truly crappy field (that always hurts us a lot), a cold night (Pep, for example, was sitting huddled on the bench at the start of the game), and a depleted squad. Any team that would have to sit the likes of Xavi, Iniesta, and Cesc, to go with injured players like Busi and Villa, is looking to have trouble with its offense. Unfortunately it was the defense that got us into trouble; I keep saying that until Barca learns how to actually break downfield (and shoot, and maybe even score) against high pressure, opponents will have no reason not to apply that pressure.

I'd like to defend Sergi Roberto, who I thought grew into the game. He's excellent and making good passes under pressure. By the end, I was impressed. Cuenca took on players and as you mentioned whips in beautiful crosses, and Tello was our greatest scoring threat. By the end a draw was deserved. But even a draw would not have helped us in the Liga.

With such a small squad (especially) it seems impossible for Barca to be Barca every time out. We just have to hope that they can bring their A Game eight more times this year: seven times in the CL, and once in the Copa against AC Bilbao. What about that last Clasico? Meh.
Ade C.

Thank, Kage. You're too kind, as usual.

I agree with your assessment of Sergi 'The Hair' Roberto. I think he did well, considering his age, experience and the team of beffudled cows he was playing with.

If Barça can be Barça 8 times, why not gun for 9 and bag that last Clásico, if only for morale's sake? Aim high! ;)
hussain al-dawood

again, good one ade.

I haven't been that depressed about the team performance in a long time.neither the loss against inter milan. not even loosing a cup to madrid would shake my faith in this squad.
the worst thing for a barca fan like me (who does not watch any other football teams because he thinks they all sucks) is to start....ahhh ... doubt the best team in history IMO.

i think it all changed in our last match with Madrid. it was a wake up call.
i know we are suffering by many absences and the guys are tired, but we were always able to beat these odds.

don't get me wrong.I still believe we are still the best. i think that things did not go according to the prepared plans:
A (full squad with no injuries),
B (few minor injuries backed by youngsters when needed)
C (career ending injuries,broken bones, teared hamstrings and flesh and the rest are totally exhausted spared for the critical matches) i don't think pep was prepared for this.

I wish pep will use all the youngsters he could for the rest of the season.
they are the grantee for our continued future dominance.
hansh

Thanks for the quick review, Ade! Entertaining as always. Just my quick two cents:

-"It was a goalfest waiting to happen. It was… Piqué and his infectious ‘who am I, where am I and what am I supposed to be doing?’ " I didn't know that anything could make me laugh about Piqué's performance today, but magically you have succeeded!

-In that pic of Pep and Don Andrés, poor Iniesta looks destroyed. I imagine him mentally begging to be allowed into the match to fix his teammates' mess.

-You know what we aren't talking enough about? Messi ending the game as a midfielder. Sure, he has long had the tendency to drift deeper than the typical forward to start plays, but it almost never happens that he has three players more advanced than him.

-Can I be on the Tello bandwagon AND the Cuenca bandwagon? Yes, yes I can be.
Ade C.

You can be on both the Tello and the Cuenca bandwagon, but it'll cost you extra. Sorry, that's the rules.

It was great seeing Messi in the midfield when the Tello-Alexis-Cuenca thing started. I've always said that I hold hopes that he reinvent himself as a Xavi-type if (when) he starts losing speed...
azal_matti

if i am allowed to post here (i am from the other camp ;) ). i will write some words here
the only draw back about la liga is the refereeing, it causes a lot of troubles for any team in la liga.
back to the match, i think barcelona struggles the most when they face a team with physical playing style, someone like osassona. but i never expected to see a match scenario where barcelona not having much possession (as they usually do) and hi-tempo english style match ( i only watched the last 35 minutes of the match).
the current weak link is the defense and valdes passes (he makes a lot of mistakes to your opponents, you can ask villa and he will confirm my words! )
when someone press the defense they hustle and start making wrong passes.
i am here because i like the stuffs i see here.
my expectations for the game was a draw, but i got more than that. any way the league is far from finish.
Ade C.

You are most welcome to post here, discussions with peoples from all fields are what we're here for, after all.

I agree that Spanish refereeing is far from great... but it's bad for almost every team, so I don't think anyone can claim it as an excuse. Sure, Alexis got two good goals disallowed, but Osasuna also got two offside decisions wrong, so...
azal_matti

thanks for your warm welcome.
that's exactly what i am saying, when the refereeing is on our side, no one talk about the referee, but when things ain't going our favor then we crossify the referee! though the RFEF should hire some referees from other league. maybe that will keeps Mou's mouth shut ;)BTW, why there is only 14 comments here!!
Marc

After all of the winning in the last 3 years, it seems this team is just not motivated enough to really bring it for 38 weeks and match a team as motivated as Real Madrid are this year. This isn't like American sports where you can cruise through the regular season and then turn it up come play-off time. Sleepwalking in away matches to mid level teams like this one just won't cut it.

But all is not lost. The motivation factor will definitely be there for the biggest matches coming up. A cup double will still look very good on the resume. I saw Leverkusen play today and they were clueless. Too bad they'll be saying the same thing about Barca. Better bring it on Tuesday.
Ade C.

Call me optimistic, but I don't think it's a matter of motivation: it's a matter of exhaustion. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak and has been playing bi-weekly matches for three seasons and running, plus international competitions in the summer. There's just so much intensity you can keep up without a big slump... and if you add the injury plague, well.

Hope you're right about Leverkusen, though!
puppet

Good write-up, and I agree with almost everything. However, i was unimpressed with Sergi Roberto's performance today. He should have been taken off in the 2nd half imo. He wasn't terrible, but contributed virtually nothing. Any other midfielder would have been an improvement.

Also, I was in love with Thiago today. Apart from all the good moves and passes and combinations, you could see he WANTED this game. He fought like a tiger to the end (even jumping over the wall into the ball-boy pit to get a ball when they were wasting time!)
Not a pleasant match, but hey, this team is still something else.
Ade C.

Let me take a page from the Bojan Fangirl Book: "But he's only 20!"

No, seriously, Sergi Roberto is only 20 and had started on two first-team matches before last night's. Sure, he wasn't inspired, but I think he did pretty well considering the performances by the rest of the team.

And yes, Thiago was splendid. Really went for it all through the match, it was a joy to see.
puppet

My assessment of Roberto's performance was based on seeing the game live. I watched the game again when it was replayed on tv and I admit I was a bit hard on him. He definitely began to find his feet in the second half, which I probably missed during my jittery prayers for a few more goals.

That said, I still think this game was important enough to merit someone else coming in for him, like Xavi or (earlier in the game) Cesc.