Lacklustre Barcelona Could Find It Tough Without Talisman Lionel Messi

Barcelona were dealt the cruelest of blows as early as the fourth minute of their match against Las Palmas on Saturday.

Lionel Messi's knee injury left Camp Nou gasping in unison, and his removal from the game before 10 minutes had been played no doubt affected his team-mates, who struggled through the match.

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Mestre: "Messi's injury has had an influence on the players. I went to the locker room and they were all serious." (@marcosperiodico)

— Navid Molaaghaei (@navidjaan) September 26, 2015"

Early reports, relayed by barcastuff on Twitter, suggest the Argentinian could be out for as long as eight weeks, potentially meaning his first game back would be the Clasico clash against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu toward the end of November.

Mid-afternoon kick-offs appear to be a problem for the Catalans in any event, and it's hard to put a finger on exactly why Barca tend to struggle in these fixtures, no matter the opposition.

Paco Herrera, as has been customary this season, set his stall out with a five-man defence, per WhoScored.com. Having already taken a point at Celta Vigo and only lost by the odd goal at Atletico Madrid, an overly defensive strategy has clearly worked to an extent.

Barca found it hard going throughout, but there were bright spots among the gloom.

Luis Suarez added two more goals to his account and continues to lead the line well. One of the assists, supplied by Sergi Roberto, was equal to anything Dani Alves has produced from the right-back slot.

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Picture: Suarez celebrating his goal with Sergi Roberto, who gave the assist #fcblive [via @fcb_onetouch] pic.twitter.com/YWoQHkmq7X

— barcastuff (@barcastuff) September 26, 2015"

Roberto has evidently found a new home away from his expected midfield employment and was WhoScored's Man of the Match.

However, the Barca faithful will be clutching at straws after what was essentially a below-par showing from the Blaugrana.

Strangely enough, Barcelona played better at Celta yet ended up on the end of a humbling reverse. Las Palmas weren't as clinical in their finishing as the Galicians and lacked belief in the final third.

Giuseppe Bellini/Getty Images

One of the reasons that Barcelona enjoyed such a successful 2014/15 was because of a lack of injuries. With Dani Alves, Rafinha, Jordi Alba and Messi all on the treatment table already during this campaign, an associated lack of squad equilibrium is to be expected.

A serious lack of squad depth is becoming more and more apparent with every game and any new injury.

An early registration of Arda Turan as emergency cover for Rafinha appears to have fallen on deaf ears at FIFA. Eliot Rothwell of Goal relayed quotes from Barca's official website:

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The communication sent by FIFA has not answered the petition raised by FC Barcelona, instead it merely expresses that in their opinion the RFEF is unable to register the player mentioned, because the RFEF’s rules 'could conflict' with FIFA’s rules governing these situations.

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The communique is neither positive nor negative but compounds a worsening situation.

Luis Enrique recently seemed unconcerned about the injury crisis and depth of his squad, telling reporters, per the club'sofficial website:

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What we have is a squad that has to overcome problems and negative situations during the season.

We have players from the B squad, like Gumbau, who is an interesting player we have brought in.

We have the blind faith in that we will get to the end of the season with chances [to win trophies]

[...] I am counting on not being able to bring in the players we have signed until January.

We have scored less goals than other seasons? That doesn’t worry me at all. In terms of points we are doing well. In the league it is no good being strong just for a part of the season.

"

It's a positive outlook from a manager whose situation is getting bleaker by the game.

The second round of Champions League matches are upon us before the next Liga fixtures, and what looked like a relatively routine assignment against Bayer Leverkusen has now taken on added significance.

Barca have been far from their best since the beginning of pre-season, and their play has been disjointed more often than not.

It will take time to find the right blend again, but Barca's talisman won't be available to lighten the load.

Quite possibly the toughest few months of Luis Enrique's Barcelona managerial career await.