Luis Enrique's Decision-Making Has Led to Barcelona's Late-Season Decline
Barcelona's exit from the UEFA Champions League at the hands of domestic rivals Atletico Madrid means that Europe's top competition will once again not be retained by the previous season's winner, an ongoing theme since the present format's inception.
The Catalan club won three trophies last year and had hoped to go even better this term, retaining all three—La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League—as well as adding three more pieces of silverware. The Spanish Supercopa, of course, was lost early on as Athletic Club beat Barca over two legs, but both the UEFA Supercup and the FIFA Club World Cup were won by Luis Enrique and his side.
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Domestically they remain on top of the table and in the final of the Copa del Rey, but both of those trophies are also in jeopardy now after an almighty slump over the past month, which culminated in conceding their aggregate lead to Atleti and being dumped out of Europe on Wednesday night.
And it's manager Luis Enrique who must bear the responsibility for recent slips.
Invincible to Unstable
There's precisely zero point in apportioning outright "blame" on anybody at Barcelona. They have been the best side in the world for close to two years, untouchable by most and favourites for many until this week to win the double treble, repeating last year's Copa, Liga and Champions League hat-trick.
Luis Enrique came into the job after an up-and-down couple of years for the club through the reigns of Tito Vilanova and Tata Martino, and in his first season he had to contend with a number of changes in playing personnel due to the an impending transfer ban. There was also the need to begin to oversee a changing of the guard, as the likes of Carles Puyol and Xavi departed at the start and end of the campaign, respectively.
Over the last two seasons, Luis Enrique has done a phenomenal job for the most part, with perhaps his most challenging time until the past month coming in the first half of this year. Injuries and illnesses to key players and an inability to register Arda Turan, Aleix Vidal or any emergency signings meant the squad was stretched to its limit.
The manager rotated his squad and kept the results coming in, aided in no small part by the emergence of a confident and versatile Sergi Roberto and a front three who seemed to score every time they took to the pitch.
Following a defeat in October to Sevilla, Barcelona embarked on a 39-match unbeaten run and looked for all the world as though they had the title wrapped up early and would be the toughest side to beat in Europe.
Where It All Began
A convenient misconception seems to have emerged online that losing El Clasico was the starting point for Barcelona's recent misery. It makes a nice tale for Real Madrid fans, or indeed casual readers who fixate on the biggest names, but that's what it is—a tale.
First came the match at Villarreal, and the first in the recent run where Luis Enrique made a telling error of judgement.
Two goals up by half-time thanks to a goalkeeping mistake and an horrendous penalty call given by the referee, Luis Enrique made a double change in defence a few minutes into the second half.
Less than 10 minutes later, Barcelona's lead had disintegrated, the team was on the back foot and the manager hesitated in making another change, eventually not looking to his bench to rectify his own mistake. Barcelona dropped points to the Yellow Submarine.
Jeremy Mathieu, one of the subs who came on, bore the brunt of fans' ire when he lost his marker within seconds for the first goal and then scored an own goal for the equaliser shortly after, but the French defender was only one piece of this rearranged puzzle. Dani Alves came on with him, shifting Sergi Roberto into midfield from right-back, and Villarreal struck repeatedly and immediately at the new entrants.
Why Luis Enrique thought it wise to change such a significant portion of his defence against one of Spain's top sides, who were clearly close to being Barcelona's equal for much of the game, is anyone's guess.
Resting players is all well and good, but the manager altered too much and gave his players little time to readjust. There was only a minute between the two changes, leaving half the defence "cold" on the pitch, and Villarreal made him pay.
Barcelona couldn't cope and certainly couldn't find their way back in front on a day when, but for a bizarre officiating call, their unbeaten run would and should have ended one game earlier.
Second-guessing El Clasico
Perhaps attempting to make up for his own error of judgement, Luis Enrique didn't merely send his players out in the usual manner for the big one, El Clasico.
Instead he clearly drew up a new battle plan to beat Real Madrid, focussing on leaving Leo Messi in space in a central position, trying to get his No. 10 on the ball between the lines and letting the service come from split midfielders behind him.
Rather than an increased ability to exploit gaps in Real's midfield, what the manager gave his team was an utter imbalance, a disconnect between his middle and final third players which left Neymar and Luis Suarez increasingly isolated and split apart from each other, rather than working together at pace and in close quarters—which is clearly the trio's strength.
As if confidence wasn't dented enough by Villarreal's comeback to snatch a point, Real Madrid went one better and came from behind to win. The gap at the top of La Liga continued to close, and quite aside from the hyperbolic media headlines which ensued, the fact that Barcelona had embarked on their hardest run of league fixtures of the season and had taken just one point from six should have begun to ring alarm bells.
Anoeta and Atleti
Listless in attack is an exaggeration—Barca have still scored five in their past five games, despite winning only once—but there's no doubt that the past month has seen the front line run out of steam.
The tempo of play and interchanging of positions, hallmarks of the front three all season, is completely gone, as is the service to them from deeper in midfield.
Barcelona won the first leg against Atletico, true, but only after falling behind and seeing Atleti go down to 10 men, severely hampering their ability to break out of defensive shape or close down all angles effectively. Beforehand it was predictable, slow and easily defended by Los Rojiblancos, who forced Barcelona backward or wide and then defended high balls into the box.
Real Sociedad did it rather more spectacularly at the weekend. An early goal at Anoeta gave the home side the lead, and they essentially blocked up the penalty area for the next 85 minutes, interspersed with some lung-bursting counter-attacks by two or three midfielders at a time.
Slow buildup, repeated cycles of possession from one channel to the other, were easily repelled by La Real. On the occasions Andres Iniesta or Messi did manage to find a gap, goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli was there to save his side.
Exactly the same pattern was repeated in Europe, with Atletico scoring the opener then sitting in an increasingly lower block as the game went on.
Again, it has been Luis Enrique's plans which have been largely to blame.
He rested players against La Real: Ivan Rakitic, Jordi Alba and Iniesta were left on the bench, while Luis Suarez was suspended. It was a terrible time to rotate, especially given Barcelona's recent struggles at Anoeta, and all he got was a repeat performance (and scoreline) of last season.
With Messi central and surrounded, with no alternative on the bench for the front three and no vociferous encouragement from the bench to up the speed of play, Barcelona have gradually looked stumped and frustrated earlier and earlier in each of their past few games.
Revision and Retain
European hopes are over, but the possibility of a domestic double remains.
Barcelona have their Copa del Rey final against Sevilla to look forward to, while they remain three points clear in La Liga—effectively a two-game buffer for further errors, thanks to the head-to-head ruling.
However, further slip-ups can no longer be ruled out.
Valencia's most recent managerial change, Pako Ayestaran for Gary Neville, has begun to bear fruit. A win over Sevilla at the weekend highlighted some changes, and they'll have little fear of Barca this weekend, with the pressure at the bottom eased by three points and the memories of a deserved 1-1 draw in December against the same opposition still easily recalled.
There is also still the Catalan derby to come with Espanyol. Thus, two relegation-threatened opponents, normally cannon fodder for a club like Barcelona, are no longer to be dismissed as irrelevant, with Barca's confidence looking shot and their star forwards out of form.
Luis Enrique can get his team back on track; of that there is little doubt.
There was always going to be a time when the players or the system ran out of steam; if it happens midseason, it's recoverable and easily forgotten by those with short-term memories when the trophies are handed out. When it occurs in April, though, the chance of titles can disappear fast.
Atletico were perhaps the worst team of all for Barca to be beaten by.
Diego Simeone's men will ceaselessly hunt down Barca until the Liga fixtures have run dry, looking to surge ahead of Luis Enrique and Co. in the last seconds of the season if that's what it takes.
Five trophies are already packed away in Barcelona's display cabinet thanks to Luis Enrique, but there's little argument against his decisions having had a profound and pivotal effect on how their season is drawing to a close.
He needs a big turnaround again to ensure he doesn't oversee a complete collapse and surrender their league title, as well as Europe, to Madrid's finest.
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