Mounting La Liga comeback is the challenge for Luis Enrique

Mounting La Liga comeback is the challenge for Luis Enrique

Barcelona will play against Cordoba on Saturday in the last game of 2014, aiming to reduce the distance from Real Madrid to just one point, securing second place over Christmas. Los Blancos have 39 and Barcelona 35, as things stand.

Real Madrid have gone to play in the Club World Cup, meaning they will not play a Liga game this weekend. 

The Spanish league season is very long and it can go right until the wire, as shown last season when Atletico won it on the final day.

In the last decade, Barcelona were the Christmas leader on seven occasions (2004,05 - Frank Rijkaard), (2008,09,10 - Pep Guardiola), 2012 - Tito

Vilanova and 2013 - Tata Martino. In all cases except the latter, it helped Barca win the title. 

In 2006 and 2007, under Rijkaard and 2011, under Pep, Barcelona were second and they could not reverse the situation, leading to Madrid winning the league on these occasions. 

Luis Enrique is still trying to define his formation and first team. He's adjusting his defence and midfield, and knows there's still more to come from the Messi, Suarez, Neymar attack. 

The challenge is to change the dynamic from last season, which saw the club lose the league at the death, and get back on a title winning track.