Barcelona's humiliation: Sacking the manager won't be enough this time
Barcelona’s 2-8 defeat shouldn’t have happened. At least not in the manner it did, humiliated and broken on the biggest European stage.
If Barcelona had paid any heed to the distressing signals that emanated from their 4-0 defeat at Anfield last year, the 2-8 mauling against Bayern could have been avoided. Instead, they chose to turn a blind eye, and as a result, their worst possible nightmare came true in front of a global audience.
Bayern Munich brutally exposed Barcelona’s weaknesses
The first weakness Bayern Munich exposed was that of Barcelona’s ageing squad. The German champions maintained a high line throughout the game without any fear of open spaces behind them.
It was because they knew that Barcelona’s front three of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Arturo Vidal were now too old to have the pace to run in behind the Bayern defence. On the few occasions Barcelona did manage to do so, Bayern’s defenders David Alaba, Davies and Kimmich had the speed to thwart the danger.
The second Barcelona weakness the Bavarians exposed was Barca’s reluctance on not changing their penchant of playing out from the back. The Catalans like to initiate play with their goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen passing the ball to one of the centre-backs who in turn moves it further upfield.
Against Bayern, however, as soon as Ter Stegen had the ball at his feet, Robert Lewandowski would come pressing at him, forcing him into errors. Ter Stegen, who is usually quite technically sound, had a passing accuracy of under 75%, as Barcelona lost possession too frequently.
Barcelona’s faulty recruitment system was also laid threadbare by Bayern Munich. In the last three years, Barcelona have spent over £300 million on Antoine Griezmann, Ousmane Dembele (both from France) and Philippe Coutinho (Brazil).
Neither of the two Frenchman started for Barcelona against Bayern Munich. To add insult to injury, the Brazilian (Philippe Coutinho) whom they had loaned out to Bayern, got two goals and an assist against them.
All these weaknesses for Barcelona didn’t creep in overnight; they have been around for years, it’s just that they got laid bare last night in full public view.
Replacing only the Barcelona manager won’t work this time
The first thing that Barcelona are likely to do in the aftermath of their Bayern Munich humiliation is to fire manager Quique Setien.
There is likely to be no debate about that; Setienhas been out of his depth throughout his short reign at the Catalan club. But that alone will not be enough this time. The issues plaguing Barcelona are too far-reaching, and the club needs to respond by making structural changes.
Since 2015, Barcelona have spent over £450 million in player recruitment, but not a single player bought with all this money has managed to establish himself as a key member of the first XI.
Barcelona’s youth system that used to work so beautifully, churning out players like Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Pique, Busquets over the years, hasn’t produced a player of that ilk in the last five years.
It is the first time since 2007-08 that Barcelona have ended a season without any trophies. After that season, the club made a series of sweeping changes in both personnel and playing philosophy.
High-salaried and ageing stars like Ronaldinho and Deco were sold off. Pep Guardiola was brought in from the Barcelona B team, and he helped establish a new playing style by integrating many home-grown players in the team.
The changes required by Barcelona this time need to be even more disruptive. Questions should be asked to everyone from top to bottom, and president Josep Maria Bartomeu should be held accountable. Anything less and Barcelona who have the highest wage bill in European club football might find their European superpower status collapsing v.