Barca's worst start in over a decade

[Barcaman]

Barca's 4-3 defeat to Celta at Balaidos -- the Catalan club's second in Vigo in as many years -- sees them arrive to the October international break with 13 points from seven matches.

Defeats to Alaves and Celta, as well as the 1-1 Camp Nou draw with Atletico Madrid, have contributed to the Blaugrana dropping eight points already. When they won the league under Tito Vilanova in 2012-13, they only gave up 14 points throughout the whole season.

Eleven years ago, Frank Rijkaard's Barcelona dropped 11 points in their opening seven games. They drew with Alaves, Valencia, Real Zaragoza and Deportivo La Coruna and were beaten by Atletico Madrid, with their only wins coming against Mallorca and Real Betis.

Luis Enrique's side's topsy-turvy beginning to the new campaign isn't quite that bad, but it is the poorest start the club have made since 2005-06 under Rijkaard. Incidentally, that season ended with Ronaldinho & Co. winning a La Liga and Champions League double.

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[Bardh]

Barca's 4-3 defeat to Celta at Balaidos -- the Catalan club's second in Vigo in as many years -- sees them arrive to the October international break with 13 points from seven matches.

[espn]

Interesting stat. Good to know Real and Atleti aren't far ahead.

 

[BBZ8800]

Eleven years ago, Frank Rijkaard's Barcelona dropped 11 points in their opening seven games. They drew with Alaves, Valencia, Real Zaragoza and Deportivo La Coruna and were beaten by Atletico Madrid, with their only wins coming against Mallorca and Real Betis.

Interesting.
That was in 2005/06 season, a season in which we will later win a CL after 14 years of waiting and our 2nd La liga in a row.

If we remove Pep's years where we were dominating from the 1st round till the last round in all competitions, it seems that our teams in other eras usualy had that "Phoenix' style" of winning/comeback.

In 2005/06, we started horribly, while in the spring we were unbeatable and the best team in Europe.
The same as with Lucho in 2014/15.

So, regarding Real's and Barca's CL titles (if we remove Pep's era), this is quite interesting:
1998' Real winning a CL
-- they ended 4th in La Liga, 11 points behind Barcelona (74:63 points)
2000' Real winning a CL
-- Deportivo wins La Liga (69 pts), Barcelona is 2nd (64), Real is 5th (62)
2002' Real winning a CL
-- Valencia wins La Liga (75 pts), Real is 3rd (66 pts)

2006' Barcelona winning a CL
-- after one of the worst starts in La Liga, after winning only 2 matches in the opening 7 rounds against average opponents back then (winning 10 points out of possible 21): Alaves, Mallorca, Atletico, Valencia, Betis, Zaragoza, Deportivo
-- later we turned into an unbeatable machine, winning La Liga+CL

This is especially interesting:
2014' Real winning a CL
-- Atletico won La liga
-- Real played meh during autumn and winter and turned into a Goat mode in spring, winning a CL
2015'
= Real continues their hot form from spring of 2014, and they are breaking all statistical records
-- Barca plays like a crap in that period (autumn of 2014), we are calling for Lucho's head
-- in winter and spring, Barca starts to play good (Phoenix' style)
-- Real is losing the energy and momentum (which can't last that long)
=> Barca taking La liga and a CL in the end
2016' the same story:
-- this time Barca is continuing with hot form from spring of 2015, and we are in peak of our form in autumn and winter, breaking all records
-- Real plays like a crap in autumn and winter
=> in spring, the good old story: Barca losing the momentum (which can't last for 1 year) and we are losing 10 point advantage over Real and looking out of ideas in a CL
=> Real finding the best form in right moment (spring of 2016), cutting our 10 points advantage in La liga and stealing a Champions league

So, apart from Pep's days when we were too good for all opponents with Messi-Xavi-Iniesta, it seems that Barca and Real in other 7 attempts (1998, 2000, 2002, 2006, 2013, 2014, 2015) NEVER WON a Cl if they were good in La Liga/or if they peaked already in autumn and winter of that season.

To some extent, for our CL campaign, maybe it is good that we are a crap currently, maybe we will find our form in key months of a season (spring).
On the other hand, it seems that when Barca/Real reach too good form early in autumn and winter=they will never win a CL (except in Pep's era, of course).

So, a tough choice:
1. if you start a season too good=it won't end good in a CL, stats say
2. if you start a season bad/average=it may end awesome in the end. But also, it can end as a disaster, on the other hand

 

[dakt]

Well it's still just a start, although when clubs like Barca are in question any prolongations of reversing inertia means loosing trophies. We still might count on luck though...just look how it turned out for RM last season.

 

[JerseyAddict]

Funny fact is that Benitez and Zidane won the same number of points in start of last and this season. And people were yelling for Benitez head. But Barça was so much better then that it had solid points stock by that time. Now Barça plays in "shity form" and Zidane looks better that it actualy is. So missing Modrić for say 1-2 months now will open Barça nice opportunity to stock up points if only players and Luch get their shit togeather. Messi will be back soon (I hope) and this shity peroid will end.

 

[frog-fcb]

How much us it down to the fact the smaller teams have more money now and the fact we made a lot of changes over the summer same as 2014 and look how it turned out

 

[Barcaman]

You could also note that there's no blaming on transantlantic summer tour this time.
Yeah signings are new but still better situation than last year when there were no options.

No excuses for this bad start and bad performances. Some players got a bit lazier and few think too much of themselves.
Lucho needs to stamp it out and sort his own mistakes too.

Neymar plays for himself? Fine. Bench him, play Arda or Denis for a game or two.
Stegen being too cute? Good. Tell him to cut down his shannanigans. Rather have lesser keeper playing for team and not being anal over his ball control.
Others problems aren't due to egoistical resons so easier to sort. Busi just needs a bit more rest to reset himself and Suarez will start banging goals again, he certainly doesn't lack the effort or team spirit.

 

[Devils]

I can't help but feel like we would be doing much better if we had less squad depth and just played with our starting XI for most games.

 

[blastandburn]

It's unfortunate to see the club as they are right now. Hopefully we can get back on track. ASAP!

 

[Ahmedd]

I can't help but feel like we would be doing much better if we had less squad depth and just played with our starting XI for most games.

I agree with you 100% If we had less bench depth Lucho wouldn't be doing all those rotations. This is interesting to see how something that looked really good (Bench depth) back fired at us because of Lucho's dumb decisions.

Edit : I'm happy with that bench depth, don't get me wrong, what is bothering me is how Lucho is using it.

 

[BBZ8800]

I agree with you 100% If we had less bench depth Lucho wouldn't be doing all those rotations. This is interesting to see how something that looked really good (Bench depth) back fired at us because of Lucho's dumb decisions.

Edit : I'm happy with that bench depth, don't get me wrong, what is bothering me is how Lucho is using it.

I agree.

I have a feeling that other teams with large squads usually use players something like this:
1. starting 11
2. 4-5-6 players who rotate and who step in a lot
3. 5-6 players who don't play as much, and who play ONLY if all other players are injured or if they play cup matches

With Lucho, we currently have:
1. 11 starters
2. squad players: Mathieu, Umititi, Digne, Arda, Denis, Gomes, Rafinha, Paco
3. players who rarely play: Cillessen, Vidal, (Masip)

Lucho currently has 11+8+2 players.

If he would pick "slighty more important subs" and slightly less important subs, maybe it would work better, in some 11+5+5 system.
This way it seems that Lucho wants to keep everyone happy and then a chemistry from a starting 11 sucks and we are dropping lots of points since our team is too often out of sync.

 

[Ahmedd]

[MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] Yeah this seems more logical ! Sometimes i wonder how a former professional footballer and coach can't see things that seem obvious to us. It's easy to come after the loss of our team and say what i just said, and we sure don't feel the pressure that he does but he keeps doing the same mistakes over and over again..

 

[El Flaco]

I don't really think Umtiti shouldn't be regarded as a mere "squad player" as he's more or less expected to be a starter anyway considering Mascherano's poor form.

 

[God Serena]

I agree.

I have a feeling that other teams with large squads usually use players something like this:
1. starting 11
2. 4-5-6 players who rotate and who step in a lot
3. 5-6 players who don't play as much, and who play ONLY if all other players are injured or if they play cup matches

With Lucho, we currently have:
1. 11 starters
2. squad players: Mathieu, Umititi, Digne, Arda, Denis, Gomes, Rafinha, Paco
3. players who rarely play: Cillessen, Vidal, (Masip)

Lucho currently has 11+8+2 players.

If he would pick "slighty more important subs" and slightly less important subs, maybe it would work better, in some 11+5+5 system.
This way it seems that Lucho wants to keep everyone happy and then a chemistry from a starting 11 sucks and we are dropping lots of points since our team is too often out of sync.

What's interesting is during Messidependencia days we actually had a starting XI, several squad players, and a whole bunch who rarely ever played.

 

[God Serena]

I can't help but feel like we would be doing much better if we had less squad depth and just played with our starting XI for most games.

Mats, Mascherano, Busquets, and Neymar have all either costed us points or ruined our attack and all of them are in our starting XI. And Iniesta and Rakitic haven't exactly been lighting the world on fire, either.