How Luis Enrique Can Start to Resolve Barcelona's Current Attacking Issues

Luis Enrique should have taken his Barcelona team to Almeria full of confidence and swagger.

After all, facing Barca was a team that had never beaten them, and in the last 12 meetings between the sides, Almeria drew two and lost the other 10, the Catalans outscoring them by 39 to four across those dozen matchups, per Wettpoint.

However, it was soon evident that the Blaugrana found confidence hard to come by, as their less celebrated hosts really took the game to them.

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It made a pleasant change for the neutral to see a supposed underdog willing to stand toe to toe in the midst of battle, rather than rolling over and offering up no fight whatsoever.

In fact, the tables were reversed in the opening exchanges and Barca were lucky to remain on level terms for as long as they did.

It certainly appeared that the poor form that had enveloped Barca's performance against Celta Vigo had returned. The Catalans were being run ragged and made to work for every ball as Almeria carved them open at will.

With the greatest of respect to the hosts, a team of Barcelona's quality shouldn't be struggling to dispatch a side just one point above the relegation zone.

But struggle they certainly did. Were it not for the two late goals, Barca would've been staring at an unenviable record—the last time they lost three successive games was back when Enrique was a player himself under Louis van Gaal.

In his post-match press conference, the manager admitted just how badly his charges had performed, detailed by Dermot Corrigan of ESPN:

"

It was our worst game of the season, the result does not cover things we did badly. We turned it around by showing attitude, will to win and ambition. To have success you must win even when you play badly, like today.

We are not going to hide anything or make excuses. With the difficulties which Almeria caused for us, with the continuous imprecision and the lack of fluidity in our play, the result is the best thing from today.

"

So how does he set about changing things?

For a start, you play your best players from the get-go and only introduce some youngsters or fringe players once the game is won. Luis Suarez in particular needs minutes under his belt, so what exactly was he doing on the bench alongside Neymar in the first place?

It's also fairly obvious to anyone with half a football brain that Suarez is not a natural right winger but someone who operates much better centrally.

Such a scenario might not have been part of Lucho's initial thought process, but he does now have a couple of weeks to pore over whether a move inside will work for Suarez and the team, given the other personnel he has at his disposal.

Lionel Messi is perfectly capable of ploughing a lone furrow down that right-hand side, and if we look at his performances against Celta Vigo and Almeria, much of his work has been along that side, cutting inside when necessary.

Indeed, Squawka tells us that Messi spent almost 21 per cent of his game against the latter on the right channel.

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Equally, sat behind Suarez in a role not too dissimilar to that he plays for Argentina would work as long as Andres Iniesta or another can be relied upon to shuttle effectively on the right side.

Neymar has been in sensational form this season, so there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to move him from his berth on the left side. 

The urgency in his play this season needs to be replicated throughout the side in order to get the ball recycled quicker and into the front men before they are denied space. 

In fact, there are so many permutations that the manager has much to ponder.

Given the tough run Barca encounter from their next La Liga game against Sevilla onward, Enrique has to show his mettle as leader and get his tactics exactly right.