There has been plenty of debate in the last couple of days over what we have been lacking in recent weeks. Our drop in form has seen us lose a five point lead over Real Madrid and has cast serious doubts about our ability to reclaim La Liga this season. Without naming anybody Johan Cruyff claimed that certain players are not playing at their level which led to one of the local papers running a poll asking which players Cruyff was referring to. The result was not too surprising with Zlatan Ibrahimovic receiving 55% of the vote. It is clear that Zlatan is going through a bad patch at the moment, and while it is true that players often need time to adapt to a new team and system, I don't particularly agree with this argument in Zlatan's case as he was playing pretty well before christmas and has...

La Liga is wide open tonight after Barça dropped 2 points in our visit to Almeria. Things could have been a lot worse as we twice went behind and Zlatan Ibrahimovic was sent off after 60 minutes with Almeria 2-1 in front. The ten men fought back well to earn an equalizer and with a little bit more luck we might have stolen a victory in the last twenty minutes.

Pep Guardiola began the game with the same tactical change as he used last week against Malaga with Pedro and Iniesta on the wings with Messi playing a free role behind Ibrahimovic. For the first ten minutes the structure of the team looked fine as we created three shooting chances, the best fell to Pedro in the 8th minute but Pedro chose to play in a dangerous cross...

Pep Guardiola has named 18 players for the game with Almeria tomorrow night (kick off 8pm). There are no fresh injury worries after this week's international games which means the only players who are missing are the injured Abidal and Keita, and the suspended Piqué. There is a place for Rafa Marquez who got back in time after representing Mexico against New Zealand on Wednesday night, and Jeffren has also been included in the list.

Almeria have shown a great improvement in recent weeks since Juanma Lillo took over from Hugo Sanchez as first team coach. Under Lillo they have won four, drawn four and lost only once which has seen them move up from 17th to 13th in the table where they currently sit on 29 points. At least...

The last couple of quizzes have been very tough so I've decided to go for a slightly easier one this time - at least it is more recent. Points will be awarded for any correct answers even though the answers are only partial. So if you know any part of the answer send in a comment. There are five parts to the question:

1) Name the eleven players in the photo

2) Who were our opponents for this game?

3) What was the final score?

4) Who scored for Barça?

5) (Just to make it a bit more difficult) what was the  exact attendance for this match?

So far the overall points total for the quizzes is as follows:

Josep - 27
BarçaLegend - 20
Arv - 17
Goof69 - 10
Usbarcafan - 10
Yossarian - 9
Missa85 -...

February could not be described as a great month. We lost our unbeaten record in La Liga at Atletico Madrid and suffered far to much in the Champions League at Stuttgart. Normally when I start adding up the points for the Player of the Month award I have a good idea of which players are in with a shout but this month I really had no idea of who was going to win as nobody really stood out as having been in great form. Last month Leo Messi and Eric Abidal both had average ratings of over 7.40, but February's winner Andres Iniesta won with an average of only 7.00.

It's good to see Iniesta getting back to form but he still hasn't hit the levels he played at in the second half of last season. At least he has managed to score again in the 4-0...

Real Madrid were top of the league for two hours tonight but Barça regained the top spot after an incredibly hard-worked victory over Malaga. A equalizer for Malaga from Valdo ten minutes before the end looked like spoiling Barça's night after Pedro had put us in front, but Leo Messi scored our winner four minutes later to seal an excellent win.

Pep Guardiola surprised with the formation which saw Pedro on the right of attack, Iniesta on the left with Leo Messi playing a free role behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic. With Dani Alves back we had plenty of options on the wings and during the first half we bombarded Malaga with crosses but were unfortunate with our finishing. Malaga rarely threatened...

The good news is that Dani Alves should return to the team for tomorrow's clash with Malaga at Camp Nou (kick off 10pm). With no fresh injury problems Pep Guardiola is gradually seeing the first team squad return to full strength and we now only have Eric Abidal and Seydou Keita on the sidelines. After the irregular recent performances a healthy squad will be vital in our quest to regain La Liga and the Champions League this season.

Our opponents Malaga have taken ten points from the last four games that has seen them pull clear of the relegation zone and they are now in 12th position with 27 points. They have only won twice away from home in the league this season but those wins were in their last two trips to Atletico Madrid and Racing Santander....

There have been some alarm bells ringing this week amongst fans after the recent performances of the team. After losing our unbeaten league record at Atletico Madrid, we beat a poor Racing Santander in a game that Johan Cruyff described as the worst Barça performance under Pep Guardiola, and this was followed by our worrying first half showing in Germany on Tuesday. However if we look back a year we will see we were in a very similar position at the same time last season and yet we went on to win everything.

A year ago we had a run of a draw with Betis and defeats to Espanyol and Atletico in the league while in the Champions League we had a very similar game at Lyon where we were overrun in the first half and were saved by a second half equalizer from Thierry...

A second half goal from Zlatan Ibrahimovic saved Barça's blushes tonight in Germany and the 1-1 draw puts us in a good position to go through to the quarter finals when we face Stuttgart in the second leg at Camp Nou in three weeks' time. Things might have been a lot worse for us after a dreadful first half where we were fortunate to concede only one goal as we failed to match Stuttgart's intensity. 

The big surprise in our starting eleven was the return of Xavi Hernandez who was said to be out for two weeks after getting injured against Atletico Madrid nine days ago. This meant that Andres Iniesta moved forward on the left, leaving Thierry Henry on the bench, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic...

It's back to the Champions League tomorrow night with the first leg of the last 16 at Stuttgart. Pep Guardiola has taken twenty players on the trip though that includes Xavi Hernandez and Dani Alves who still haven't received medical clearance and seem unlikely to start the game. We are still without Eric Abidal and Seydou Keita but Zlatan Ibrahimovic should be fit to play, while Johnathan dos Santos and Marc Bartra from Barça Atletic have been included to make up the numbers.

Stuttgart qualified for the last 16 from the same group as Sevilla though they did nothing very much to impress. In their three home games they lost 1-3 to Sevilla, drew 1-1 with Glasgow Rangers and beat Unirea Urziceni 3-1. In the Bundesliga they are...