Folch: Barcelona pay the price for playing without Iniesta
The director of SPORT gives his view on Barça's humbling in Vigo on Sunday night
Before playing at Balaidos, Barcelona had seen Real Madrid suffer their fourth consecutive draw: the latest slip up from Cristiano Ronaldo and Co., at home against Eibar, was an exercise in pure impotence. Barça, then, only had to get their work done in Vigo in order to enhance Madrid’s crisis.
However, the Blaugrana inexplicably tangled their own own web and ended up being drowned by their own inexplicable errors. It was an act of self-sabotage, starting with the lineup in midfield, which was not productive.
It didn’t take Celta long to take hold of the game and they raced away with three goals in 10 first half minutes, leaving Barça towing behind for the rest of the game. Once again, Luis Enrique had to rectify his experimental lineup and was right to bring on Andres Iniesta, whose absence in the first half revealed how much it costs Barça when they don’t have him on the pitch.
Don Andres’ introduction, along with the faith and winning mentality offered by Gerard Pique, changed the game, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen committed suicide with an unnecessary error, reopening the debate on his way of playing.
The problem with the German goalkeeper is not his mistakes, which any player can commit, but his smugness: it seems that sometimes he plays as if he’s above good and evil. Sunday’s debacle in Vigo should serve to make him reconsider some things and force him to stop walking so blithely along the ledge of the cliff. He received a bath in humility, but he wasn’t the only one.
Sergio Busquets was unrecognisable. Celta got the better of Jeremy Mathieu all night. Neymar and Luis Suarez both came up short. And on the bench, this time Luis Enrique could not fix his poor planning with his substitutions. There have now been many games when he’s erred with his lineup. In general, Barça lacked pride and humility. The good news was Iniesta's performance and Pique's leadership.
The defeat hurts, because it comes after a festival of gifts, but once the team gets the self-criticism out of the way, it is more necessary than ever to hold on: Madrid are wobbling and have some serious problems. Barça just need to grit their teeth and go again.
