La Liga 2016/17: Barcelona 2-1 Leganes, 5 talking points
Barcelona’s first game after their thumping at the hands of PSG in the Champions Leauge came against Leganes on matchday 23 of the La Liga. The Catalans hosted Leganes needing a win to keep the pressure on Real Madrid who will play Valencia on Wednesday.
In a fixture that many would have expected Barcelona to ease to victory, the visitors completely stunned the Camp Nou with a spirited performance. The crowd in the stadium were already in low spirits after the loss against PSG and Barcelona’s hapless performance certainly did not help.
Yet again it was the brilliance of Lionel Messi and his associates Neymar and Suarez that gave Barcelona to goals. However, some spirited defending from Jeremy Mathieu and a Man of the Match performance from Marc-Andre Ter Stegen is what saved Barcelona from an embarrassing loss.
Here are the talking points from today’s game:
#1 Barcelona create a record by starting only one Spanish player for the first time in their La Liga history
It was only a few years ago that Barcelona boasted over half of the players from Spain’s World Cup-winning squad of 2010. Fast forward a few years, and Luis Enrique’s team has created a record by starting only one Spanish player in Sergi Roberto.
There were also as many French players (3 – Lucas Digne, Jeremy Mathieu and Samuel Umtiti) as there were La Masia graduates (3 – Lionel Messi, Sergi Roberto, Rafinha) in the Barcelona squad. This is a clear indicator that the Barcelona team under Luis Enrique has completely lost its identity and that could perhaps be the reason for their recent downfall.
Barcelona made some questionable decisions in the summer like the transfer of Paco Alcacer over Munir El Haddadi, Andre Gomes over Alen Halilovic and the reluctance to promote Nili or Palencia from the B team despite problems in right-back.