If he wasn't a good motivator then how did we have such an impressive start to the seaon?
I think the problems lie elsewhere. Fatigue could be an issue. Both mental and physical. Maybe his tactics are burning out the players?
Also it could be that teams are starting to figure us out as others have mentioned.
Could also be a lack depth on the bench. We could only speculate. Either way, he needs to make adjustments asap.
How about all of those?
Teams has figured ways to slow us down, something that Liga has experience doing since the Messi & CR7 era. Weren't liga consistently the slowest league in top 5 leagues and one with least actual minutes played?
Fatigue is real due to lack of depth. We have no bench whatsoever. No real options in most positions.
We also do lack a lot in the starting lineup.
In defense, we lack 3 things:
Physical presence: Our tallest CB or defender is Cubarsi at 1.84 m , same height as our GK, there is no towering presence in the back. In fact, the tallest player in the starting lineup yesterday is Lewandowski at 1.85m. That's not good for a top team. Crosses and set pieces were problems yesterday and will continue to be so.
Athleticism: only quick one is Balde. After that we have no athletic defenders. This makes our recovery difficult.
Playmaking: Our fullbacks are awful attacking wise, both of them. No threats whatsoever. Remember Flick's Bayern in 2020? Kimmich was the RB and he was a great inverted RB, while Davies was a beast on both ends. Those rwo were attacking threats. This made Bayern a team that can cause problems with 6 or 7 players.
Barca otoh rely exclusively on the attack to create something. Olmo, Raphinha, Lamine and Lewa are the only ones to do cause problems with the occasional presence of one of the fullbacks or CDMs.
