3 Possible reasons why FC Barcelona is struggling under Ernesto Valverde this season
They might be dominant in Europe but after a four-game winning streak in LaLiga, FC Barcelona find themselves in a bit of a slump, without winning in the last four games, and it's not going to get better unless the gaffer sees what's wrong.
During the first four games, the league and the world saw how dominant Barcelona could be. They recorded a 3-0 win over Alaves in their opening game followed by a closely-contested 1-0 win over Valladolid.
They then beat Huesca 8-2 in their third straight victory before showing signs of slowing down as they won against Real Sociedad, where they needed to sneak in two goals in the second half to do the job.
After a 4-0 victory against PSV in the Champions League, everything started to go downhill for the Blaugrana after a two-two draw with Girona followed by a shocking defeat at the hands of Leganes.
They then got levelled by Athletico Bilbao in their encounter before facing another draw with Valencia. What's going wrong for Ernesto Valverde and FC Barcelona? Here's what I can see.
#1 Overusing the same starting 11
Looking on the squad list, Valverde has used the same nine players over the last eight league games. Continuous use leads to exhaustion and that's what's happening with Barcelona right at the moment.
More recently, Luis Suarez has been reported with a knee injury which means he will miss the international matches for Uruguay against South Korea and Japan to give him ample time of recovery to feature in Barcelona's next match against current league leaders Sevilla.
Samuel Umtiti also paid the price of continuous game time as he missed out the last two league matches for Barcelona due to a knee ligament injury. Valverde will be hoping to have him back in the squad once they face Sevilla.
The last casualty for Barcelona was Sergi Roberto whose expected to be back by the end of the international break. If Valverde wants to break their winless streak, he should look further into the depth of his squad.