A Progress Report on the Early-Season Form of Barcelona's Gerard Pique

Gerard Pique's Barcelona career appears to be at something of a crossroads at this juncture.

Never before in his Blaugrana career has the centre-back had to endure the ignominy of the substitutes' bench on such a regular basis.

A player who could be relied upon to produce work of the very highest level week-in and week-out has seen a sharp decline in his game, and Luis Enrique has been well within his rights to leave Pique out of the starting line-up.

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Per WhoScored.com, a solitary man-of-the-match performance against Rayo Vallecano has arguably been the only game where Pique has come close to the form required of him, and that which he is capable of.

WhoScored also details a La Liga pass success of 87.2 percent, which is comfortably his worst since 2011.

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Perhaps Pique is suffering from a rotation of personnel alongside him, with Jeremy Mathieu, Javier Mascherano and Marc Bartra all partnering him at various stages of the season.

None of those mentioned are in the class of Carles Puyol, the defender who seemed to get the very best out of Pique when the duo played together.

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Indeed, having to take the main responsibility in the central areas is seemingly not sitting comfortably with Pique and a lack of concentration and focus is quite evident in his play.

Over the course of the season Pique has only started on five occasions, per Inside Futbol, which would've been absolutely unheard of before this season.

As Enrique continues to tinker with his back line, it's arguable that Pique's confidence will be shot to pieces, therefore continuing a spiral of decline that is going to be difficult to extricate himself from.

The Champions League group games have brought mixed reward for the elegant Catalan.

He was excellent against APOEL Nicosia, scoring the winner, but he found himself warming the bench in the away matches at Paris Saint-Germain and Ajax. Both of those are arguably more glamorous and high-profile fixtures and ones in which you would expect Enrique to start with his first-choice 11.

Is the manager sending out a message that Pique is no longer considered part of his plans on a regular basis or can Pique take the hint and upgrade his performances accordingly?

After all, he himself admitted on Barca TV recently that he hasn't been at his best:

His league performances when starting have also left much to be desired.

Against Real Madrid in El Clasico in particular, forgetting the unfortunate penalty that Pique gave away to let the home side back into the match, he was exposed throughout by the power and pace of the Madrid front three.

On one occasion, he was a clear favourite to win a loose ball but his dallying in possession allowed Karim Benzema to nip in and create a goalscoring chance.

Such nervousness at the back isn't in keeping with the standards that Barcelona set themselves and if Pique isn't careful he may well find that a transfer move to Manchester United, touted by Jamie Anderson of the Daily Express, becomes a reality.