Barcelona 'Crisis' Talk Inevitable, but They Are Still La Liga Favourites

Nine goals conceded in three games, a daft red card for one of the club’s stalwarts and the opportunity to win a trophy carelessly thrown away. That’s right, folks, it's mid-August and it’s apparently “crisis time” in Barcelona already.

The Catalans were supposed to gloriously sweep to six trophies this season, but having eventually and unconvincingly won the European Super Cup against Sevilla in Tbilisi last week, they fell at the second hurdle when a miraculous comeback from a 4-0 first-leg deficit didn’t materialise against Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish version.

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It only finished 1-1 at the Camp Nou, where Lionel Messi scored his first of what will be many goals this season in the first half, Gerard Pique picked up a needless red card in the second and Aritz Aduriz ensured that the hosts didn’t even have the consolation of a win on the night in the end.

That would have been a small crumb of comfort to Luis Enrique, who is facing some tough questions today.

With the transfer ban in place making it impossible for the Barca boss to field new signings Aleix Vidal and Arda Turan just yet, Enrique has had to instead guard against a feeling that his current charges are going stale just over two months on from winning the Champions League.

But there are few teams in that competition’s recent history who won it as stylishly as this Barca did, with Messi’s majesty, Luis Suarez’s cunning and Neymar’s boundless energy, enthusiasm and ability to get into goalscoring positions making them hugely watchable.

They don’t suddenly become bad players overnight, and nothing that has happened to them or elsewhere in La Liga this summer should change the fact that they will be favourites to reclaim their La Liga crown when their season kicks off—ironically at Athletic Bilbao—on Sunday evening.

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The Basques will doubtless be the last team that Enrique and his players will want to see following this quite public dressing-down over the past week, but the fixture will also offer Barca the perfect chance to dispel any lingering fears over their chances this season.

With uncertainty reigning over Rafael Benitez’s start to life at Real Madrid—who haven’t exactly blown anyone away with their transfer dealings this summer—and Atletico Madrid weakened by the loss of Turan (although admittedly strengthened in other areas), Barca will still rightly feel like the top dogs in the division.

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In Messi, Suarez and Neymar, they have a trio who can make defensive shortcomings less important, with their 122 goals combined last season shooting their team to glory, while Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema had to settle for 100 between them.

Even with the Daily Mirror reporting that Pique could face a huge ban for his indiscretions in the Spanish Super Cup, where his abuse of a linesman led to his red card, there should remain a sense of confidence among the Spanish champions, who have slowly reinvented themselves from Pep Guardiola’s “tiki-taka” ways under Enrique.

Now they are all about explosiveness, with rapid attacks orchestrated by the three maestros at the head of their pack.

If Neymar can return from his bout of mumps in time for the trip to Bilbao on Sunday, then that will serve as the perfect pick-me-up for a squad in desperate need of one. It would be no surprise if it also heralded the return of the swagger we saw from the Catalans last season.

This is no time for them to panic, and instead of fretting over the fact that they won’t be able to secure six trophies this season, they should instead focus on just what got them the opportunity to do so in the first place.