Griezmann? New Manager? What Next for Barcelona After Anfield Debacle

The dust still hasn't settled in Catalunya after Barcelona's loss to Liverpool in the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League, a defeat that is being billed as the most "embarrassing" in the club's history.

Their fans are struggling to accept that Leo Messi, who is arguably the greatest footballer in history, has only won a single UEFA Champions League title in the last eight years. The wounds are still raw for those 2,800 Barca fans—like Ernest Pujadas, 25—who were at Anfield.

"My grandfather told me about the European Cup final that we lost against Steaua Bucharest in Seville in 1986 on penalties," says Pujadas. "My father talked to me about his memories of the Champions League final in Athens in 1994 when we lost 4-0 against Milan. And I think I will talk about this defeat to Liverpool to my children and grandchildren.

"After the final whistle, everybody was in shock. It was like we were frozen. We couldn't move. We were so overwhelmed by the situation. We were all crying. It was such a big defeat. But we deserved it. Liverpool played better—even away. We were lucky with the 3-0 in the Camp Nou. At Anfield, Barca was petrified.

"I thought after Roma last year this lesson was learned after we squandered a 4-1 lead from the home leg at the Camp Nou only to lose 3-0 in Rome's Olympic Stadium. We were convinced we wouldn't make the same mistake. That we lost again in the same way made me more upset than the fact of being eliminated. To lose a 3-0 advantage is really hard to accept. It's a disgrace. It's s--t."

Rumours of a second attempt to sign Antoine Griezmann—whose buyout clause drops to €120 million in July, are not cheering up the fanbase.

That potential signing resurrects uncomfortable memories for Barcelona's hardcore fans. His "decision" to choose Atletico Madrid over the Catalan side was the subject of a maudlin documentary last summer. 

"Last year Barca fans were expecting Griezmann to come. All that bulls--t with the documentary, and 'I want to stay'. I think he will join Barca, but I'm not happy about it," says Pujadas. 

"He had one opportunity and it's not right to give him a second chance. If Barcelona calls you it's a one-time call. I think the members of the board have another opinion. The majority of Barca fans are not happy with it."

Santi Gimenez, an author and Barcelona-based journalist with Diario AS, says the defeat to Liverpool comes down to a systems failure: "The problem at Anfield was the team collapsed. It was a systemic failure. Anything that could go wrong, went wrong. Liverpool—who in the end only won by a goal—were better than Barcelona in general over the two legs.

"Everywhere there was errors. Jordi Alba has had an outstanding season, spectacular. He has hardly put a foot wrong. He committed two mistakes in one game he wouldn't normally make—and he's hardly made two mistakes in the whole season—which led to two goals.

"[Marc-Andre] Ter Stegen has had a magnificent season. He has saved Barcelona on countless occasions. In Anfield, he couldn't stop anything. And the one shot he did stop, Origi scored on the rebound for Liverpool's first goal. [Ivan] Rakitic didn't turn up. Luis Suarez was injured.

"None of the team—except Messi—reached the level they'd performed at all season, the level they had performed at only a week earlier in the first leg."

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Messi—who scored his 600th career goal for Barcelona in the first leg of the semi-final—went to ground after the Anfield defeat. He resurfaced for Sunday's 2-0 league win against Getafe at the Camp Nou clean-shaven. His beard is gone.

After the final whistle on Barcelona's last home game of the season, the team's players stood in the centre-circle to applaud fans for their support, a ritual in which Messi decided against taking part. He's clearly still wounded.   

Philippe Coutinho—who has struggled with his confidence and performances this season and operates with the added pressure of being the club's most expensive signing in history—continues to be a lightning rod for discontent. When the players' names were called out before kick-off against Getafe, he was the only one of the team who was jeered. He suffered a muscle injury in the second half that will keep him sidelined for about 10 days.

"With Coutinho, we were supposed to get a really good player when we signed him," says Pujadas. "I think he is a very good player, but I don't know if he's not training well or if he's preoccupied with people who criticise him instead of concentrating on his game. He's disappointed a lot of Barca fans this season, and he could be one of the players who leaves Barcelona this season."

The other "heavyweights at the exit door," as Diario Sport puts it, include Rakitic—who is "adored" by Valverde, according to Gimenez—and Samuel Umtiti, both in an effort to generate cash.

The case of France's World Cup-winning central defender Umtiti—who has missed much of the season because of injury and the fine performances of his replacement, Clement Lenglet—is unclear.

"Umtiti has serious injuries," says Gimenez. "I don't think there is a club that would take him on for the price Barcelona are looking for. He wouldn't pass the medical check-up."

Barcelona have accelerated their efforts to sign Ajax's 19-year-old captain Matthijs de Ligt, which has been a year-long saga. They sent a delegation to Amsterdam for further negotiations on Friday, according to Mundo Deportivo, but the deal remains unclosed.

Ernesto Valverde, who may go down in history as the coach who oversaw two of Barcelona's most humiliating defeats in their history, is defiant. He wants to go on.

At Friday's press conference, he likened his position to Steve McQueen's character in the The Great Escape movie. He's in the "punishment cell" at the moment, he said, but believes there is a way out of the hole. Valverde signed a contract renewal in February, and Barca haven't sacked a coach since they fired Louis van Gaal in January 2003.

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"We don't know for certain what will happen with Valverde, but I think he will survive," says Gimenez "He's one game away from winning a back-to-back league-and-cup doubles with Barcelona. Any trainer who's won four titles in two years has to be reckoned with. If not, the message you are sending to the next trainer who comes along is: 'You have to win everything; we can't lose anything.'

"The club should have patience, but I know directors of football aren't very intelligent. They're populist and the populist idea is to blame Valverde, but changing coach doesn't change anything. Barcelona have won the last two league titles by a margin of almost 20 points from Real Madrid. Why did Barca lose in Rome? Why did it lose in Liverpool?"

Victor Font, who has declared he will run for president of Barcelona at the next election in 2021, believes there are systemic flaws in the club at the root of their problems, which have contributed to serial failures in the final stages of the UEFA Champions League, including thrashings at the hands of Juventus (3-0, 2017), AS Roma (3-0, 2018) and last week to Liverpool, 4-0. 

"The advantage that having Messi, the best player in history, in your squad means Barcelona are good enough to compete and win national titles," says Font. "You can see this from results domestically, but when you face tough squads, very well coached in Europe, it's clear it's not enough. Why is this happening?

"We need to be very radical in reviving the style of play that gave us the best team in the world [the team of Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta]. We are lucky that we've inherited a football style that Johan Cruyff back in the late 1980s instilled across FC Barcelona, not only in the first team but also in the youth academy. The principles of position and possession, attacking football and defending with high pressure. For that we need players and coaches who are loyal to Cruyff's style of play.

"That's what I want to happen. I want to have the most knowledgeable people in the technical staff and also as coaches, and also the players who are consistent with that style of play. People like Pep Guardiola, Xavi Hernandez, Oscar Garcia, Jordi Cruyff. They are the people who need to take the most important positions in the future project of Barcelona." 

Font believes club president Josep-Maria Bartomeu and his regime only pay lip service to Cruyff's footballing philosophy, and he is critical of the way Barca's sporting directors, including Eric Abidal and Pep Segura, have composed the squad, which is "inconsistent" with a Cruyffist model of playing football. He argues Valverde must go.

"I believe we should have gone with other alternatives when Valverde was appointed [in 2017]," says Font. "It's also the players we have that have a specific profile that are not the best equipped to play [Barcelona's traditional] possession-based style of play.

"We have players in the squad and in the B team that could play that role potentially better. Players like Carles Alena and Riqui Puig. It's clear they are not experienced, but at some point you need to take risks. Frankie de Jong was 21 years old when we signed him. We want to sign De Ligt and Alena is older than De Ligt."

Barcelona—who have won eight of the last 11 Spanish league titles and are on track for a fifth Copa del Rey title in a row—have become used to success, though. It's debatable whether the club's fans have the patience for too much experimentation with youth. It was notable that the only player Barcelona applauded for his efforts at Anfield was Arturo Vidal—a 31-year-old who is not the identikit-type Barca player.

Gimenez concurs with Font—that a doubling down on Cruyff's principles is the best way to return the club to former European glories. It might not be palatable, however. 

"For me, [a return to Cruyff's style of football] is the solution but we have to be honest with ourselves," he says. "'Do you want to play that game?' 'Yes.' 'OK, but do you have the players to do it?' 'No.' 'Definitely you don't have them.'

"Valderde is trying to do his best with the players he has, but they don't play in this way. If you want to play that game, you will have to blood players without experience and accept that maybe you will spend some time without winning anything. It takes time to build a solid team. Will it be acceptable to spend a year like Real Madrid and drop out of the league title race in March? I think that's impossible."

At the moment, there's only one thing on the horizon for Barcelona's fans—next week's final of the Copa del Rey against Valencia at the Estadio Benito Villamarin in Seville. It gives Barca a chance to stem the bleeding and will be an important test for Valverde. The signs are that if Barcelona win—and convincingly so—he will continue in the job.  

"The Copa del Rey is really important. We must win it," says Pujadas. "The board, players and coach will try to win it. The fans are disappointed, but we can end the season by winning two trophies. It's better to finish on a high note." 

Follow Richard on Twitter: @Richard_Fitz