Barcelona Learn Valuable Lessons in Painful Liverpool Beating

WEMBLEY STADIUM, London — There was something quite refreshing about seeing Barcelona take a battering.

Not in a vindictive way, not because it's something to mock them for and not because they deserve it for usually being so irritatingly good. It's just because it's something you don't get to see very often.

Like finding a four-leaf clover or witnessing an eclipse, this was an interesting event, even if it can be forgotten about in the long run. Players such as Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez are barely accustomed to being in losing positions, let alone kicking off at 3-0 down against an opponent still hungry for more.

Although manager Luis Enrique said after Saturday's game that the result hurts, the 4-0 beating at the hands of Liverpool will prove more useful for the coach than either the 3-1 win over Celtic or 4-2 victory against Leicester City in their previous pre-season friendlies.

Frank Augstein/Associated Press

The Asturian spoke after the game and wasn't happy, but he acknowledged the matchup was not between two teams at the same point in their preparations. He said, per Javier Giraldo of Sport: 

"

It hasn't been our best performance. When [the] errors are clear as we made today, and the pace is so different between the teams, there's no way to compete.

The difference in the number of games and training between the two teams is clear and this game served as the first minutes for some [of our] players.

The good news is that all are well physically and not injured. We have more than enough time for the players to reach full fitness and I have no doubt that they will be back to their best.

It's a defeat that hurts because the result is unusual. Surely it will be difficult to reproduce the same result this coming season, but we must accept it.

"

The coach cut an angry figure on the touchline, although his scruffier-than-usual clothes weren't exactly indicating complete professionalism to his players. At least the shorts he wore against Celtic didn't make a comeback.

Whereas the sensations were overwhelmingly positive in their first two pre-season friendlies, this was a long walk off a short pier for Barcelona. They started at a slower speed than Liverpool, and while the Reds moved up through the gears, the Blaugrana toiled.

Yet despite not playing well, they still created chances that, on another day, could have won them the game. Suarez's brilliant no-look through ball for Messi ended up with the Argentinian shivering Simon Mignolet's woodwork. Both Arda Turan and Munir El Haddadi had near misses that probably should have ended up in the back of the net.

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Suarez, playing against his former side, missed a fine opportunity too, slamming a strike against the goalkeeper. He was given a standing ovation by Liverpool supporters as he made his way off in the second half, but given the competitive nature of the beast, the Uruguayan would likely only have been thinking about how he could have netted.

However, getting the ball in the net, or rather not getting it in, was not the biggest problem for Barcelona.

That is something that will likely solve itself in the upcoming weeks. Having bagged seven goals in the previous two games, this was more likely a glitch than a system failure.

With everything going nicely, there has been a lot of focus on the goalkeeping situation at the club. Marc-Andre ter Stegen or Claudio Bravo? On Saturday, the German got the first half and the Chilean the second.

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Ter Stegen let in one goal, Sadio Mane's 15th-minute strike, while Bravo shipped three in the second half: an own goal from Javier Mascherano right after the restart, a goal from Divock Origi a few minutes later and Marko Grujic's glorious, looping header in stoppage time.

Neither goalkeeper could be blamed for any of the goals. So, then, where are the problems?

The answer is in the other two positions, defence and midfield. Aleix Vidal started at right-back, but this was a poor display from him.

He seems to be getting worse as pre-season goes on, after impressing against Celtic then putting in an average display in the Leicester match. Sergi Roberto took his role in the second half and looked a safer bet. That's an area for Enrique to play close attention to.

Jeremy Mathieu and Mascherano, meanwhile, have never made up the most convincing of partnerships at the back. The situation was greatly improved when Gerard Pique made his return to action midway through the second half, with Mathieu stepping up his game alongside the Spaniard.

Back in Catalonia, Samuel Umtiti took his first training session at Barcelona on Saturday morning, and after a pair of poor performances from the centre-backs in London, the Frenchman may be required sooner rather than later.

Frank Augstein/Associated Press

Umtiti's compatriot Lucas Digne did well after coming on as a substitute to make his debut. He looked both more confident and competent than Juan Camara, which is no surprise considering the latter is a Barcelona B winger who was playing out of position at left-back.

The back line struggled to cope with Liverpool's high press, a tactic not used too often against Barcelona.

One wonders how it would fare if Liverpool tried it against the Catalans when they were up to speed, in the Champions League quarter-finals, for example.

Barcelona's midfield was off too, largely thanks to a howler of a performance by Sergio Busquets. He has only recently returned, so rustiness is to be expected, although being this fiercely uncalibrated is rare for a player of his usual millimetric reliability.

If Denis Suarez drifted a little, not as focused as he has been in his other outings this summer, then Turan continued floating. The Turk just seems to be a touch slower in thought than the players ahead of him, and it is worrying that he hasn’t yet made up the difference.

As Gala XI stars such as Andres Iniesta, Ivan Rakitic and Pique returned in the second half, Barcelona steadied the ship. They began to look more like themselves, although with Messi and Suarez going off soon after, there was only a 15-minute period when you could describe them as anything close to full strength.

Frank Augstein/Associated Press

So as Barcelona head into their final friendly, against Sampdoria on Wednesday night in the Joan Gamper Trophy, Luis Enrique will be thinking about a few things.

First, he needs to bring his best players up to the right fitness and rhythm after their summer breaks.

Second, a decision needs to be made about whether Umtiti should be given privilege ahead of Mathieu and Mascherano, although given he has not joined the squad yet, he may need time to adapt.

Third, is Vidal good enough to start the season as the team’s right-back? Should it be Sergi Roberto instead?

Fourth, Bravo or Ter Stegen? 

Fifth, is Arda a busted flush? Does Andre Gomes' arrival make the Turk an irrelevance? Is Barcelona’s best midfield still the one the coach liked most last season—Busquets, Rakitic and Iniesta?

And finally, he'll mull over how they were beaten 4-0 by Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish Super Cup first leg last season and trashed 4-1 by Celta Vigo in La Liga a few weeks later but still ended up winning the double, playing football from another galaxy along the way at times.

The biggest defeat after the latter was just 2-0, against Atletico Madrid.

Being humbled against Liverpool will give the coach some causes for concern, but they are concerns he will be pleased to have had exposed now rather than when the real action kicks off later in August.