Honeymoon over for Tata Martino.

Tata Martino endured his worst week as Barça manager following disappointing away defeats to Ajax Amsterdam and Athletic Bilbao. His honeymoon period is over and Tata will now brace himself for the firestorm of criticism that awaits him from the Barcelona based media as questions will linger about the team’s style.

This was Barça’s worst week ever in quite a while. Sure, we’re accustomed to seeing the Blaugrana lose here and there over the years, but the performances against Ajax and Athletic were ones you hope you never see Barça display again. Tata Martino had enjoyed a great start to his coaching career with the Blaugrana but that’s about to change with the media ready to pounce on him.

The media have not been too impressed with Tata this season mainly because of his preference for the team to be more direct. The team was winning, so the criticism seemed petty from a bunch of spoiled fans who are members of the media. However, those knives are being sharpened following these two defeats and Tata will have to be ready to face the music.

I have always been a firm believer that Barça must always adapt and not just fall into the same routine when it comes to their style of football. Tata’s arrival seemed to do just that with their smart cautious performance in El Clásico as the perfect example. His coaching allowed Barça to get the victory at his own style. However, these most recent losses did raise some issues.

Style of play will be one hot issue with everyone this week. The team’s sudden transformation from “Tika-Taka” to “Long Ball” is not winning over the fans and one has to worry if it is also not winning over the players. Xavi already voiced his concerns with Tata following Barça’s victory over Rayo where they had less possession than their opponents. What we saw against Athletic was a rather pathetic display by a team that can do better without resorting to chasing down long balls.

Another hot issue will be the re-occurring lack of no “Plan B” argument when the going gets tough. In both matches, Barça struggled to break down their opponents with their lone goal coming from a penalty. It seemed as if we were back to reliving the final days of Tito Vilanova where substitutions should have been made earlier along with the players looking lost and lethargic. Tata’s substitutions did not pan out and Barça seemed to resemble a team in search of an identity. Overall, we expected these problems to be sorted by now, not brought back to our attention.

Furthermore, one has to wonder if the club has the right personnel or need to sign more players in the upcoming winter transfer period. Sure, the club was missing a few key players but perhaps the depth is not there. If Tata’s style is not suited for the players, then perhaps they should sign some players in the upcoming transfer window that suit this style. Of course, he can always revert to the Barça style and make slight tweaks here and there. A complete transformation is not what many had in mind when Tata was hired to coach this squad and perhaps he should just focus on keeping the same style, with minor adjustments like he did in El Clásico along with squad rotations.

Fortunately for Tata, the upcoming schedule will be friendly with an upcoming Copa del Rey match against Cartagena on Friday and then the final Champions League group stage match against Celtic at the Camp Nou the follow week. Hopefully he can give some players some rest to recharge and minutes for others in need to gain some form and confidence. There’s still a lot of football left to be played and it’s very premature to panic. However, with Atlético and Real Madrid also in the hunt for the league title, Tata needs to settle on a system that works best for his team.