What's wrong with Barca?

About a month ago, the newspapers both in Spain and in Europe were raving about FC Barcelona and the manner in which Pep Guardiola’s club had played up till that point. Despite a loss at Numancia, followed by a draw in the next game, the club went on an historic run taking all but two points from 16 straight matches, scoring 48 goals in the process and pointing the spotlight deservedly on their trident of attackers Messi, Henry and Eto'o. They were on pace to shatter the 107 goal record that Real Madrid set in 1989-90 and entered the break with 41 points opening a double digit lead on Sevilla and beating Real Madrid decisively in the clasico. Not many thought they could continue their form, but Real Madrid's Michel Salgado knew better. He saw the way the blaugrana celebrated their win at the Nou Camp. It was as if they had just won the league and obviously he was offended. "After this match last year I said we'd win the league, and I'll say it again this year", he added,"There is still a lot left to be played."

We all laughed of course, that's just Michel, but now no one is laughing, especially in Joan Laporta's office at the Camp Nou. Imagine him reading a copy of Marca that delineated exactly why his club's fortunes have fallen. In short, the voice-box of Real Madrid blamed a combination of self-inflicted pressure, poor goalkeeping and other defensive lapses or weaknesses, an accumulation of minutes leading to bad form from key figures at the club, a general over-confidence as an after effect of their early season form, and frankly the fact that despite a deceptive run of matches this is still fundamentally the same club that collapsed at the tail end of last season. I agree with some of it, but here's my list of what I think is wrong.

1)Defensive liability: I'm not one of these people who thinks that Victor Valdez is a poor keeper. He is often compared unfavourably with his great rival Iker Casillas, Spain's number 1 and arguably the best keeper in the world, and while he clearly isn't on par Valdez is a better than average shot-stopper who like many young keepers has trouble organizing his defenders and dealing with set pieces. Is he Gigi Buffon? No, but he's not Manuel Almunia; a Spanish keeper who does deserve criticism. His main deficiency is that has little in front of him. In the center he has Puyol and Marquez who are both on the wrong end of 30, and often injured joining the slightly younger Gaby Milito who is out for the year as well. Their cover in the last few matches has been provided by Caceres and Pique who are both barely into their 20's and of little help in a leadership role in the center either. As for the fullbacks, on one side Barca have had Eric Abidal, who is out with a leg injury, and have been forced to use either Puyol or Silvinho in the role, neither of which have the pace to play the wing anymore. On the other side is Alves who is, in my less than humble opinion, the best fullback in the world, brilliant on the attack like most Brazilian fullbacks are, but with the same general weakness that his compatriots have: he's not one to track back and help. That's not what fullbacks do in Brazil.
2)Undersized midfield: Iniesta, Xavi and Messi are brilliant players individually and also collectively, they disrupt play and they hold onto the ball well, but they have a weakness that both Espanyol and Lyon exploited, they're just little. They can be hacked and driven off the ball by larger, less skilled players. Guardiola has introduced Keita and Busquets to the mix to help out Toure Yaya as guardians to the lollipop league, but they have been less than stellar in the past month or so.
3)Everything counts: Guardiola is still very inexperienced as a manager and had yet to lead a club out of this sort of difficulty. This is not a deep squad compared to Manchester United, Inter Milan, or even Liverpool and they've played an unbelievable amount of fixtures to date. They're tired. Most of them even played the full allotment of games at Euro 2008, so they're even more tired than most. They were bound to have a dip in form.

Do I think they'll continue to struggle like this? No, they're a confident bunch and it'll be awhile before they have to face a true match against a tough squad in Europe (No, I don't think Lyon tomorrow will do). Hay Liga? Sure. Right now, and if Real Madrid recover from their humiliating loss to Liverpool today, they may have already set their sights on the rematch at the Bernabeu later on this season.