Barcelona Go into Power-Save Mode Against Levante, and It's Just What They Need
By halftime it was 0-0, and it hadn't been pretty. But then again, it was never going to be.
For Barcelona, there was no Luis Suarez or Andres Iniesta, no Gerard Pique or Jordi Alba, and no Claudio Bravo. Instead, Luis Enrique had handed starts to Adriano, Sandro, Munir el Haddadi and Marc Bartra. Though Lionel Messi was still there, it was essentially Barcelona Lite. And they were playing Levante—a Levante whose back five was more like a back eight, and the same Levante who, two games ago, were happy to defend for 90 minutes against Las Palmas.
It wasn't a recipe for an epic. For a half, a subdued Barcelona prodded without venom while Levante were content to watch them do it. "Barcelona are not really out of first gear," said Sky Sports' Rob Palmer just prior to the break. Forget the gear, you could have said they hadn't yet started the engine. If you were one of the Camp Nou's many visiting fans, you would have felt considerably underwhelmed.
Yet, for Barcelona right now, such pedestrian stuff is exactly what they need.
This is a Barcelona that's depleted, exhausted and facing a daunting schedule, still waiting for reinforcements who won't arrive for almost four months.
Already in this campaign, including the pre-season tour, Enrique's men have visited Pasadena, Santa Clara, Landover, Florence, Tbilisi, Bilbao (twice), Madrid and Rome—and that's not counting individual trips for international fixtures. All this on the back of a gruelling, treble-winning season that didn't end until the first week of June.
The summer hasn't exactly been a holiday.
Injuries and departures are compounding the headaches, too. Both Xavi and Pedro have left; Rafinha is out for the season; Thomas Vermaelen, Bravo and Douglas are all injured; Pique is suspended in the league; and Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal are unavailable until January. Barcelona are down to their "skeleton crew," as Marca put it.
The testing fixtures are coming in a hurry as well, making an already hard task significantly harder. This clash against Levante was sandwiched between last Wednesday's excursion to Rome and this Wednesday's cross-country venture to Galicia to take on a high-flying Celta Vigo. Visits of the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, the Bernabeu and the Mestalla will soon follow.
Thus, what we have at the moment is a Barcelona that simply needs to conserve energy. Much like you can on your smartphone, the power-save mode has been activated at the Camp Nou, the whole operation scaled down and running at a minimal output.
On Sunday, after a scoreless and forgettable opening half, the Catalans eased their way to four goals in the second, but did so without really doing much more to get them. Bartra went forward and nodded in a Messi cross, Neymar poked home from two yards and Messi finished it off with a penalty and the sort of low finish he's patented. Essentially, Barcelona Lite kept gently prodding, and Levante got worse.
It's exactly what Enrique will have wanted.
Against the likes of Levante, it's simply a matter of getting through unscathed for the Blaugrana at present. For them, these are simply tick-the-box exercises and nothing else. They don't need to be awe-inspiring; they don't need to hone the system; they don't need to solve tactical or positional riddles.
Barcelona know that at their best, they are the best, but that now is a time for comfortable cruises and gentle strolls.
The mentality at Barcelona right now is probably something like: Just get to Christmas, it doesn't matter how.
Enrique knows it, too. "It is important to score as quickly as possible to break open defensive setups," he said at his post-match press conference, stressing the importance of avoiding scrappy, taxing battles with determined opponents. "In 22 days we will play seven games, we have already played three or four of them, and the players need to rest and for playing time to be shared."
On Sunday, it was evident that the power-save button has been pushed, and that's just fine for Barcelona. In fact, it's exactly what they need.
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