One victory in five games. Such is Barcelona’s pathetic record in La Liga in recent weeks following last night’s defeat to Leganes.
The visitors scored early in the evening from a free kick after the match Blaugrana failed to mark Sergio Gonzalez and quickly sat back to defend Hansi Flick’s deep and frustrated men.
Barcelona then upped the ante and dominated the match until the very end, but failed to find the net once, ultimately succumbing to a disastrous result from a standings perspective.
Barça Universal brings you three takeaways for the Barcelona 1-0 Leganes manager.
A cursed game
Sunday night’s game at Montjuic was one of those matches where it’s almost impossible to believe that Barcelona didn’t even score. Yet the team has no one to blame but themselves.
After all, their inability to beat the goalkeeper was not due to a lack of chances as the Blaugrana created several chances in both halves and dominated the proceedings.
With 80% possession, 20 shots and three big chances, the Catalans were by far the better team and should have had several goals under their belt. However, they lacked clinical finishing and their poor finishing touches let them down horribly.
Failing to score even once with an xG of 2.67 is simply unacceptable for a club with Barcelona’s attacking skills and much of the blame lies with Robert Lewandowski who was unusually poor in front of goal.
Ultimately, Barcelona’s difficulty finishing proved to be their undoing as they never found an answer to Leganes’ open goal. For the chances they created, it can only be described as an evil game.
Bad management of people
Barcelona’s defeat to Leganes was indeed largely due to the team’s failure in front of goal, particularly Lewandowski and Dani Olmo’s off nights where they were extremely poor.
But part of the responsibility also lies with the coaches for their poor personnel management.
Hansi Flick was unavailable on the bench last night after receiving a red card in the previous match and it is unclear whether the poor man management was due to his lack of communication or managerial ineffectiveness assistant.
However, there is no doubt that there were faults in player management and substitutions throughout the 90 minutes, something not often seen with the manager on the sidelines.
For starters, Lewandowski and Olmo were clearly Barcelona’s weak links in the first half and should have been replaced by fresher legs much earlier in the night. However, they were only substituted in the 66th minute and continued to create chances until then.
Fermin Lopez and Ferran Torres were much better than the aforementioned duo, and even though they didn’t score, they showed more intent to progress the build-up play.
Furthermore, one can only wonder why Pablo Torre was not recalled from the bench, especially considering his eye for goal and how he proved to be a valuable option in place of Olmo with similar characteristics .
The biggest mismanagement of the players, however, was that of Lamine Yamal, who was forced to play despite his open request to be substituted late in the first half.
It’s clear that players only ask to be taken off the field when they’re in serious pain, and even though Yamal played through pain in the second half, he was right about his body and the way he felt.
Now he would be doubtful to face Atletico Madrid and one can’t help but wonder if it was essential to risk his fitness last night with such a massive match coming up.
Tension in La Liga
Hansi Flick is slowly finding himself under increasing pressure due to Barcelona’s form in La Liga, as the team has been nowhere near good enough in recent weeks.
Their run of results is nothing short of disappointing and we can’t help but think they are wasting the title.
From undisputed leaders and undisputed favorites, the Catalans have continued to be in free fall in terms of results and are now close to third place behind Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid.
What’s more worrying is the fact that the team has been woeful at home in recent games.
With defeats to Las Palmas and Leganes in their last two games at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys, they have succumbed to two teams close to the relegation zone and serious questions must be asked about their league form.