Why weren't we highly motivated for Juventus game then? It's not the lack of quality that is messing with your motivation and your focus. It's a drop in will to compete at your best, and will to win, partly because Lucho was clearly not working anymore, not managing to keep the players with their head in the game at all times (or even when it mattered most). Mental decline is bound to appear at some point, and it's normal for a team to have some oscilations. Lack of quality is not an issue for us at this point. We can improve our squad, but it doesn't mean we don't have the necessary players to win everything.
This is how it works for all teams actually. You have a great run for a while (longer, or shorter, depending on generation), and after that your level drops, and you have to become motivated again. Right know, the jury is out concerning what does it take for this team to get hungry again. This is the key part. Whether we are talking about a clear end of cycle, or the comeback is already on after getting Valverde, who should be getting into this part of his career with full motivation.
If he will be able to pass this motivation to the team we might be having a great season without signing big names. So, in this respect, the squad is world class for sure. People say Rakitic, for example, is not this or not that, but didn't he played great in 2014-15? Didn't he score a golazo vs Madrid just a few months ago? Didn't he also scored vs Altetico on Camp Nou a great goal? He might not be as good as Verratti, or Kroos, or whatever, but that's cherrypicking imo. You don't get to have the best players in each position, nobody does. Some positions can be filled with 'just' very good players and you can still function at a great level with those players.
I am too tired to read all this in depth, but I assume I know what you're trying to say
I will just disagree and say a few things.
We have been on a downward spiral since the start of 2016. On a progressive decline in motivation, tactics, but also in quality.
Things have changed a lot since the treble season that have caused the drop of quality.
1. We had three world class players in our squad.
Xavi on our bench, Pedro on the bench, Alves as our RB
We have dropped in quality from Xavi to Gomes Denis Arda
We have dropped in quality from Pedro to Paco
Alves to Roberto
All these players who could play in the starting eleven in a big game without any problem.
Look at who we started Vs PSG in our midfield, Gomes who was horrible BTW, who did we start Vs City when we lost 3-1 Gomes.
Now go back to 2015 where we would start Xavi in such situations and then tell me that we don't have a problem in quality while we have only MSN, Busquets, and few others who would be considered as quality
2. Having Alves as our RB made Rakitic work. Alves made Rakitic a better player.
To go BBZ style
If Rakitic was a 6/10 and Alves was a 10/10. They combined to make a 8/10. The 8/10 was enough to combine with Messi 10/10. To make our right side 9/10: which was world class.
The departure of Alves has left us with 6/10 Rakitic, who with 5/10 Roberto, make a 5.5/10 on the right side.
That's a drop in quality
2. Alba is older, slower, more injury prone than before. That's a drop of quality
3. Iniesta is older, more injured, can't produce the same material every game like he used to, that's a drop of quality
4. Rakitic is now called upon to produce something he doesn't have that's a drop of quality
5. Sergi Roberto at RB instead of Alves/any other WC RB, that's a drop of quality
You asked why the team was not motivated against Juventus? Luis Enrique would answer this better.
But if you rely on solely on motivation to win big matches there will come a time when your motivation is not enough and your quality needs to back you up to produce results.
I can say Barca were extremely motivated against PSG and they carried through mainly by motivation
The same applied with the classico win (though for me it was down to Messi and Ter Steven (12 saves) than the team
Motivation dropped a little vs Juventus. At this point if we had a bit more quality this could have helped us get through but we didn't.
Down on motivation, down on quality equals 0-3 aggregate.
