La Liga Review: FC Barcelona 8, Osasuna 0, Or, Crisis, You Said?

We’re witnesses to the end of an era, ladies, gentlemen and madridistas. The end of an era that spanned two whole matches during which defensive mistakes and a sense of complacency led to that most humiliating of results: a 2-2 draw. Let’s keep a minute of silence for those 180 minutes of chaos and desolation.

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee, crisis are so much fun!!! (image from elpais.com)

Thank you.

So, Barça had lost their mojo, had they? Pep had lost his way, had he? Funny how that works. Now, I’m the last person who will say that the matches against Real Sociedad and Milan were good. Barça made big mistakes in both matches, mistakes they shouldn’t have made; Pep made what in my opinion were poor squad selections (what is Busi-at-CB, if not a disaster waiting to happen?), and the team at large didn’t look as if they were firing from all cylinders. But two poor matches from Barça at the start of the season do not the end of an era make; in fact, it’s standard behaviour for this team *cough*Numancia*cough*Hércules*cough*.

This match against Osasuna wasn’t exactly crucial, but it was important, particularly to rescue the depleted morale of both team and fans after the last two draws. So, Pep pulled a Pep and brought out the 3-4-3 that had steamrollered Villarreal a couple of weeks ago, with VV, Alves, Puyol, Mascherano, Abidal, Xavi, Thiago, Busquets, Cesc, Villa and Messi.

——————VV—————–
Masche——Puyol——-Abidal
————Busquets————
—-Thiago—–Cesc—-Xavi—-
—Alves—Messi—-Villa—-

We’ve replaced two out of the three players in the Barça defence with defenders. Let’s see if Pep notices the difference.

Puyol, Abidal and Masche in defence, plus Busi at DM, are the closest thing that Barça have to a goal-proof defence at the moment. Thiago can almost, almost make up for Iniesta’s absence. Dani Alves makes for a surprisingly apt addendum to the attack, an experiment that Pep tried once before at a certain Clásico. And Cesc… Cesc is here, Cesc is there, Cesc is a midfielder, Cesc plays in Messi’s position, Cesc is everywhere at once and doing well wherever he stands.

So, Barça went out with all guns blazing… and Messi scored on the 4th minute. Yeah, it was going to be one of those matches.

Notice the perfect Busquets pass to Dani Alves, which shows how well Busi can display his talents when he’s not busy failing at making horrible tackles. Notice that Dani, for once in his life, made an accurate cross. And, of course, notice Messi being Messi.

And, Messi being Messi, he thought about his teammates too and, not 10 minutes after his goal, gifted a splendid assist for Cesc to score.

This was the key moment of the match. Against Real Sociedad, the two early goals meant that Barça considered the match dead and buried and took their collective foot off the gas pedal; surely we had learnt that lesson?

Apparently, yes. Barça still looked hungry; they had chances, and chances upon chances; they hit the crossbar, they hit the goalpost, and they were signalled offside (except for Villa (!)). And the reward for the incessant goal-seeking didn’t take long to arrive, with Abidal assisting the half-forgotten Villa.

And then it was Villa again, not quite scoring, but shooting so hard that the rebound off the Osasuna keeper bounced back onto a defender and into the goal.

While we were still looking at the replay to ascertain that it was an own goal, Messi stole back the limelight wth a goal that was 90% Cesc impersonating Messi in the box; I honestly hadn’t believed another player could control the ball so beautifully with countless rival defenders closing in on him.

So, when HT arrived, we already had our manita; even I would have forgiven a bit of complacency at this point. After all, the last time we were 5-0 up at HT, Almería happened, and Liga coaches have enough trouble without getting fired because Barça players can’t stop themselves from scoring.

The only cloud that lowered upon the Camp Nou to dim the glorious Barça summer was the news that our dear Eric Abidal had to be subbed out at HT for Adriano, ‘as a precautionary measure for a slight ankle problem’, which I don’t know about you, but to me it sounds ominous… and then Puyol was subbed out for Maxwell, and a complete defence re-shuffling followed, leaving the team looking like this:

——————VV—————–
Adriano——Masche——-Maxwell
————Busquets————
—-Thiago—–Xavi—-Cesc—-
—Alves—Messi—-Villa—-

Except that, because of the obvious difference in defending quality compared with the first half, whenever Osasuna ventured into Barça’s half, which wasn’t often, Busi folded down into the defence and Barça took on a fleeting and more traditional 4-3-3 for the duration.

What do you mean you aren't a defender? (image from elpais.com)

Xavi was the next to get on the scoreline, doing what Barça players must have agreed to do before the match: impersonating Messi and his cheeky chip-over-the-keeper shots (to an assist by who else, but Messi himself?), and he was the next to be subbed out too, for the returning Ibi Afellay, who for once got the chance to prove himself at midfield and not on the wing.

There was, unfortunately, a sharp decline in quality by this point. Osasuna were 6-0 down and their coach had had rather sad words to them at HT, but they were still looking for a consolation goal with a courage and determination that Barça could’ve done with in recent matches. They had chances that went just wide, a goal disallowed for offside, and VV had to leave his sudoku to one side and start shouting at his defence, which was a far cry from what it had been during the first half.

But while things in the back weren’t looking very bright, we still had a surplus of talent and energy up front, and Villa got his second courtesy of Cesc’s generosity.

Messi capped the team’s performance by grabbing a hat-trick for himself in a display of Messi-esque style (from 2:32 in the following video), and that was that… oh, except for the fact that we spent the last ten minutes muttering at our screen because an Osasuna goal seemed like an inevitability; it wasn’t, and we got a clean-sheet, but our second-choice defence is so poor we reccommend only implementing it when we’re 7-0 up, or things might to pear-shaped.

For all my well-known Pepssimism, this was a very good match. For the first 60 minutes, at least, we overcame the mistakes that ‘doomed’ us against Real Sociedad and Milan (the complacency, the gaping holes in our defence), and we showed a ridiculous amount of talent in the attack. The Messi-Cesc connection is putting the Messi-Villa connection of last season to shame (maybe that’s why Villa looks sad and is wearing emo-hair?), and Thiago performed admirably well, considering his age and (lack of) experience. We still have issues in defence, though, issues that I fear might only be solved with the signing of a new CB on the winter transfer window, or with Fontàs undergoing the kind of transformation that Piqué underwent in his first season at Barça.

Oh well, Pep knows best. Me, I only know well enough to risk your disapproval every time I do my players’ ratings!

Choose Your Own Adventure... I mean, MotM.

VV: 8. Steady. He had to make a crucial save in the first minute, and another near the end, and he was ready for both (did Milan teach him a lesson or two?).

Mascherano: 9. The ancient (and the Liverpool fans) tell a story of how once, when Time was young, Masche was a midfielder; he has weathered with immense grace the transformation that Pep has subjected him to, and for his ocassional mistakes, it’s a delight to have him in our defence.

Puyol: 8. Rejoice, mortals, for El Capità is back! Not quite 100% yet, but even so the difference he makes to the former no-man’s-land in front of VV’s goal is incredible.

Abidal: 9. Faultless defending; an assist; an almost goal (crossbar and a slight offside notwithstanding). Let’s just hope his ankle doesn’t give him any trouble!

Busquets: 8. The difference between Busquets-at-CB and Busquets-at-DM is the difference between Barça-against-Real-Sociedad and Barça-against-Osasuna. Not only because Busi at DM doesn’t make the mistakes he makes at defence, but because he’s is of invaluable help moving and distributing the ball forwards, an oft-overlooked part of his game that Keita could never replicate to the same standard.

Xavi: 8,5. Not content with being the Midfield Boss, Xavi now decorates his matches with goals. Fine by me.

Thiago: 8. I expected him to wobble a little under the high-pressure game of an attacking Barça, but Thiago held his own with impressive aplomb. His interplay with Dani Alves on the right wing looks very, very promising.

Cesc: 10. MOTM for me, even with Messi’s hat-trick. I hereby admit that I was wrong when I welcomed him with a resigned sigh and a muttered complaint about his price-tag. Like Pep said after the match, “His anarchy is very good for us”. He is the first player, since Bojan, to have a hat-trick of Liga assists for Barça, too!

Dani Alves: 8. Deprived of his defensive responsibilities, Dani discovered that he can, on ocassion, send crosses that actually enable teammates to score.

Messi: 10. A hat-trick, a couple of assists. All in a day’s work for Messi.

Villa: 9. Some say he looks sad. Some say he looks ridiculous. But whatever the state of his hair, and however hard Messi’s abandonement in favour of Cesc has hit him, Villa scored twice and forced an own goal. Where are the haters now?

Adriano (for Abidal): 7. Not as good a showing as Adriano has given us in the past; maybe the right isn’t his favoured flank?

Maxwell (for Puyol): 6. Back from injury, which is good, nevertheless Maxwell should not be played in the 3-4-3, as he simply does not have the defensive capabilities of an Abidal.

Afellay (for Xavi): 5. Ibi was nearly invisible on his return from injury. Too cautious, too afraid to make mistakes, lacking in confidence and still a long way away from integrating himself with the team, it looks like Ibi’s development has taken a turn into Bojan territory. Hopefully he will get more playing time (with Iniesta and Alexis out) and he’ll snap out of it.

Let’s hope this match has been as good for player morale as it has been for ours, because on Wednesday, we play Valencia, who have a Soldado in a state of Messi-esque grace and good odds for giving us trouble if we’re not careful.

One the one hand, the hair looks stupid and Messi doesn't love him anymore. On the other hand, two goals (and a half!) and no offsides.

In the meanwhile, follow us on Twitter and VISCA EL BARÇA!

Some Related Barcelona Posts:

• Barcelona – Osasuna Match Preview: Ready, aim, fire!

Category: Barcelona, Highlights, Injuries, La Liga, Review, Team News