Ajax Reveal the Flaws in Martino's Barcelona with Shock Champions League Win

From the outside looking in, things appear pretty rosy for Barcelona as we head toward December.

They sit proudly on the top of the La Liga table, having picked up 13 wins from their 14 games, with only a draw against Osasuna preventing them from a perfect record.

Meanwhile, they've already won their first trophy of the season—pipping Atletico Madrid to the Spanish Supercopa—and ensured qualification from their Champions League group after just four matches.

Going into Tuesday's meeting with Ajax in Holland, they knew that if they avoided defeat, they would equal the club record, set by Pep Guardiola's 2011/12 edition, of going 21 games unbeaten at the start of the season.

Despite all this though, there has remained a feeling that if you scratch a little deeper than that, this Barcelona side could be fallible.

Ajax scratched deep enough.

Spurred on not just with the hope of beating the Catalans in front of the watching Johan Cruyff, but by their Champions League hopes lying in the balance, the Dutch side started the game with a real intensity—something Carles Puyol, who played right-back on the night, acknowledged straight after the final whistle, according to football-espana.net.

Pressing high, Lasse Schone and his colleagues continuously forced the likes of Jose Pinto and Javier Mascherano into nervy moments on the ball.

When Thulani Serero gave the hosts the lead inside the opening 20 minutes it wasn't a surprise, nor was it surprising when Danny Hoesen doubled their lead just before the break, following a string of individual errors from Barcelona.

It looked like the second half would tell a different tale when Joel Veltman saw red for fouling Neymar inside the area.

Xavi dispatched the penalty, but there was no spirited comeback from a toothless Barca attack.

Make no mistake, despite what results may tell you prior to Gerardo Martino's side going down in the Amsterdam Arena, this is not yet a vintage Barca.

The Catalan press have been waiting for their chance to get stuck into Tata's reign; Wednesday morning's newspapers should be interesting, as noted by this (mildly vulgar) tweet:

It's unlikely they'll be spared because of their injury backlog, although it is, perhaps, a justifiable defence.

Against Ajax, they were without Lionel Messi, Victor Valdes and a handful of full-backs, while Alexis Sanchez was suspended.

The cracks have already been evident before the queue for the treatment table grew, though.

Bayern Munich exploited it in the semifinals of the Champions League in dramatic fashion last season, while PSG went close in the round before.

This season Barca have already been held away in Italy against AC Milan, squeaked past Celtic in Scotland and were arguably second-best, despite their away goals win against Atleti, in the Supercopa.

When sides press them at the back, they look shaky.

Mascherano has had too many mistakes in him over the past year—despite being good for 85 minutes of a match—and it throws up problems in the closer matches.

Maybe it's time for Marc Bartra permanently?

A reluctance of opposing teams in La Liga to believe that they can compete with Barcelona has been going on for too long now.

That the defeat came in a game they could afford to lose could be a blessing in disguise for Tata in his first season in Europe.

Better the wake up call comes against Ajax, than against Athletic Bilbao at San Mames this weekend or Villarreal at Camp Nou the next.

According to football-espana.net, after the game, Gerard Pique told TVE the performance was unacceptable:

"What happened in the first half can't happen again. The attitude wasn't right, the whole team knows that.”

It was the same after the defeat to Bayern though, and Barca seem completely ignorant to some of their weaknesses which seem so apparent to everyone else.

They'll still beat most teams, of course, but it's those weaknesses they need to address if they don't want a meltdown when the season heads into April.

Follow @samuelmarsden