Positive Signs as Barcelona Squad Players Get Their Act Together vs. Gladbach

CAMP NOU, Barcelona — It took a dead rubber, a game without pressure, for it to happen. But it happened, and the hope for Barcelona is the process is in motion.

With one notable exception, Barcelona's squad players stepped up a gear and helped the team sweep past Borussia Monchengladbach 4-0 in the Champions League clash at Camp Nou.

The match was meaningless, with qualification for the Champions League round of 16 already assured as Group C winners, but Barcelona played with purpose as they started to get over the disappointment that the Clasico draw on Saturday left lingering.

Mundo Deportivo said in their Tuesday edition that the only reason the game was worthwhile was to find out if Lionel Messi was going to break another record.

He came into the game having scored nine goals in the group stage, with the target being Cristiano Ronaldo's 11, scored in 2015-16.

When he opened the scoring after just 16 minutes, taking himself to 10 European strikes, the Camp Nou believed history beckoned.

Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images

It did not arrive, although he is now well placed to have a tilt at breaking another Cristiano tally—the 17 he scored in the 2013-14 campaign.

Furthermore, Messi has 93 goals in the competition, Ronaldo has 95. The race to 100 is on.

But even though Messi didn't hit his target, Mundo were wrong. This game had other subplots beyond Messi's stratospheric numbers.

Another was Andres Iniesta's first start since he fell injured against Valencia on October 22.

The Manchegan midfielder came on in the Clasico and had an instant impact, and his presence here was key for Barcelona again. It is no surprise that they played such flowing football again with him back on the pitch.

Even though he was only on the pitch for 60 minutes, Iniesta completed 108 passes, the fifth highest in Europe on Tuesday night.

The top three were also Barcelona players, with Javier Mascherano top (126), Andre Gomes second (122) and Samuel Umtiti third (111), with Bayern Munich's David Alaba fourth (109), per Squawka.

Iniesta is a special player and brings the patience and wisdom to Barcelona's play that has been lacking over the previous six weeks during his absence.

His fine display also led indirectly to a classic Luis Enrique show of needless spite in his press conference after the game.

"Statistics in football sometimes make very little sense," retorted the coach when asked about the returning midfielder's high passing numbers. "Iniesta is a player capable of beating a man with the ball and finding passes between the lines. He added what Iniesta always adds, but the team have had the same ideas as always."

Perhaps he didn't want to make Barcelona seem quite so dependent on the magician in midfield, but that is the impression that anyone who has watched the team recently will walk away with.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

Another statistic picked up on, here by the Daily Mail, is that Barcelona attempted more passes against Borussia Monchengladbach than any team has ever attempted in a Champions League game.

James Dutton wrote:

"

Barca attempted 993 passes over the course of the 90 minutes, the most ever in a Champions League game since records began in 2003-04.

The ratio equates to just over 11 passes attempted every minute.

Remarkably the Catalan club make up the entirety of the top five for most attempted passes in a Champions League [game].

Tuesday night's effort beat their previous record of 971, set against Rubin Kazan back in December 2010.

But it was 2012 which proved the peak of Barcelona's passing model in Europe.

They recorded 960 passes against Bayer Leverkusen in March 2012, and then in two ties against Celtic they notched up 957 and 955.

"

All this was recorded with a team that is a shadow of the current first-team side. All six players signed in the summer started the game—Jasper Cillessen, Lucas Digne, Samuel Umtiti, Andre Gomes, Denis Suarez and Paco Alcacer—as well as the two who signed in the 2015 summer transfer window, Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan.

With the exception of Alcacer, this was a confident display from Barcelona's squad players. Cillessen, Digne and Umtiti had little to do on a night where the German visitors offered no threat whatsoever.

Denis has been the most impressive of the new players, and he worked well in midfield, helping Barcelona circulate the ball and stop Gladbach getting near them.

Gomes was significantly improved on his Clasico display, where he was invisible. On Tuesday night, he was good on the ball and worked extremely hard off it—running around to try to help Barcelona win it back—while playing in Sergio Busquets' pivot position.

Both Aleix and Arda were among Barcelona's best players on the night, with the latter making amends for his Clasico mistake—giving away a silly foul that resulted in Sergio Ramos' equaliser—by scoring a hat-trick.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

The former, who has been frozen out for much of the season, was given a rare chance to impress and duly did so, earning an ovation from Barcelona fans for one fine tackle in his own area, while he also set up a goal for Arda with an incisive foray forward.

"The manager is in charge, and I will continue respecting his decisions. He picks who he thinks deserves to play, and I will keep working 200 per cent in training," said Vidal in the mixed zone afterwards. "I've never said I want to leave, and I will always work 1000 per cent to be able to be a success here."

The only downside on the night was another aimless display from Alcacer. His off-the-ball movement was not sharp, often finding himself in spaces where he could not safely receive from his team-mates.

This was his 11th appearance in a Barcelona shirt, and he is yet to find the net. Until this game, he had only played 82 minutes alongside Messi all season and had never started a game with the Argentinian.

He doubled that at Camp Nou but came no closer to scoring. With each passing game, he is less worthy of receiving the benefit of the doubt.

Alcacer's failure to assimilate is more frustrating for Barcelona because the man he stands in for, Luis Suarez, has been playing badly himself this season—despite his Clasico goal and other strikes.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

His team-mates, though, will appreciate this victory, because when they have lined up together before, things haven't gone quite so well.

Cillessen, Vidal, Digne, Denis, Arda and Alcacer all started the 2-1 defeat by Alaves at home in September, the worst result of the season so far.

Cillessen, Vidal, Umtiti, Digne, Denis, Arda and Alcacer all started the 1-1 draw away at minnows Hercules in the Copa del Rey.

Digne, Denis, Arda and Alcacer all started the 0-0 against Malaga at home, while Umtiti, Digne and Gomes started against Manchester City at the Etihad, which Barcelona lost 3-1.

The new players, with Umtiti and perhaps Denis aside, were not able to feel part of a winning dynamic, and this result changes that.

Rik Sharma is Bleacher Report's lead Barcelona correspondent. All information and quotes obtained firsthand unless specified. Follow him on Twitter here: @riksharma_.