Barça’s one week of positive results brought back praise from critics and supporters following their victories against Rayo Vallecano and Manchester City. However, all that exuberation was premature following this weekend’s loss to Real Sociedad. Barça no longer control their destiny but they can control their fate if they continue their trend of mediocre performances.
Since December, Barça have won six of their eleven league matches while losing three times and suffering two draws. Those results allowed Real Madrid to overtake them atop of the league summit. The poor trend of conceding silly goals continue and their lack of killer instincts along with subpar finishing has saw them relinquish that precious lead. These factors were also obvious in victories too but it seemed many preferred to ignore as if the ends justified the means.
Obviously, injuries are to blame but that is also part of the game. That is why teams invest in deep squads and are allowed to pursue other players in the winter transfer which the Blaugrana did not. However, the recent victories over Rayo and Manchester City made it seem that this club was back. However, I was not overly impressed. My issue was that those wins just were paints over the cracks. They demolished a poor Rayo team that are relegation food who cannot defend and even though they scored six goals, they were pretty wasteful early on. They also failed to go for the kill against a shorthanded City team by being too restrained and, wait for it, were wasteful with their scoring chances. They nearly allowed City to get back in it before Dani Alves scored in the final minute. The before mentioned poor habits reared its ugly head again when they looked flat and failed to finish most of their scoring chances against a determined Real Sociedad side and displayed comical defending that allowed Real Sociedad to score three goals.
Until Barça fix those problems, they will continue to fail to impress and to frustrate their fans. The quest for the treble culminates in a few months. Barça needs to kick start an impressive run in all competitions but they need to address their issues. Failure to do so will only lead to more problems for this club’s board and possible demise. 2006-2007 season is a perfect example of how everything can go up in smoke and Barça must avoid repeating that chapter again.
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