With La Liga Title Secured, Barcelona and Luis Enrique Turn Attention to Treble

Barcelona may well be best known for their ability to score goals for fun, but it’s their ability to keep the ball out of their own net that is one of the main reasons why the La Liga crown has returned to Catalonia for the seventh time in the past decade.

Victory against Atletico Madrid in their own backyard will have tasted especially sweet for Barcelona, who suffered the indignity of seeing Diego Simeone’s men take the title from them at the Camp Nou exactly one year earlier.

One down, two to go on the way to a potential treble, but before the Copa del Rey final against Athletic Bilbao and the Champions League final against Juventus, it’s party time for Luis Enrique’s new champions when they face Deportivo La Coruna this weekend.

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But anyone expecting an exhibition display would do well to remember that Deportivo are not exactly going to be inclined to join in the party atmosphere. What Depor will do, more importantly, is fight for their first division lives, because defeat could well see them drop straight back to the league they were promoted from at the end of last season. 

Unfortunately for them, with the kind of firepower Barcelona have at their disposal, it’s difficult to imagine any other outcome. Both Barcelona (108 goals) and Real Madrid (111) have been prolific up front, but it’s at the coalface where the difference has been made. In 37 games, Barcelona have conceded just 19, whereas Real Madrid have let in 35.

Goalkeeper Claudio Bravo has kept no fewer than a record-breaking 23 clean sheets in the league this season, and in the last six league games, Barcelona have scored 21 and conceded none.

Luis Enrique, who received a lot of criticism from many quarters early on in the season, deserves enormous credit for the re-creation of a side very similar to the great Pep Guardiola team of the recent past.

And he’s done it with the return to the culture of effort and by reverting to the pressure-high tactic of play. It is a tactic that demands a combination of attitude and physique, and one that this Barcelona side has shown in abundance at the business end of the season—when it has mattered most.

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Neither Tito Vilanova nor Tata Martino were able to maintain it in the psyche of the side for long periods, and even Guardiola himself found it impossible to achieve toward the end of his inordinately successful reign at the club.

Luis Enrique has lit the flame again, and in the process, we are now seeing a side that looks physically awesome, which is also down to the manager's excellent rotation of his squad.

While this has been very much a team effort, the way certain players have stepped up to the plate when needed most is also worthy of note.   

Gerard Pique knew better than most that his performances early in the season were simply not good enough, but he saw the opportunity to regain his exceptionally high levels with a mixture of extra training sessions in the afternoons and by consulting those whose opinions he respected in the game as to how he could improve.

Javier Mascherano has also discovered a new lease on life, becoming one of the side’s leaders, be it in a defensive-midfield situation or as a central defender.

Dani Alves has also got his act together following a period when it looked like the club would be quite happy to see him leave. Now, after a superb return to form, it seems extremely likely that he will commit to the club for a further two years.

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Everyone has raised their game, and in the past month-and-a-half, they have looked and played very much like the side that impressed during the Guardiola heyday; more control, less direct football, but still with the ability to play a deadly counter-attacking game when needed.

Football is not just about scoring goals; it is also about having in place the structure to control games and not concede too many.

Real Madrid have lacked that structure and conceded too many goals, and that in a nutshell is why following their victory in the backyard of the defending champions, Barcelona are once again deserving champions.

Now the world is watching to see if Luis Enrique can emulate the treble achievements of his great friend and former team-mate, Guardiola, first against Athletic Bilbao on May 30 at the Camp Nou and then in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin against a Juventus side who are also chasing their own domestic and European treble, with Serie A and the Coppa Italia already in hand.