The sad decline of Barcelona. Lazy style of play and no shots on target. Will the Catalans return to the top?

Barcelona lost 0:3 at home to Bayern Munich in the first round of the Champions League group stage, but the worst finding for the fans is the poor performance of the Catalans, who didn’t even have a shot on target in the whole match. Are we watching the great decline of Barcelona?

Ten years ago, Barcelona took the world by storm. Pep Guardiola created a machine that rolled one opponent after another with his famous tiki-taka. Thousands of passes, plenty of chances, the Xavi-Iniesta-Messi trio reigned supreme.

It almost looked like the players didn’t even put in much effort. The latter in particular was often walking, but when he got the ball he did something brilliant. This style of play, which relies heavily on huge individual quality, has not been changed by Barcelona to this day.

But modern football is about something else entirely. Lots of rushes, huge intensity, every tackle taken to the limit, that’s exactly how Bayern Munich play, who once again made a mockery of Barcelona a year later. Last year it was 8: 2, now the Germans have gifted the Catalans 3 goals at their sacred Nou Camp.

At times it almost looked like Barcelona were playing lazy football. But they no longer have Xavi, Iniesta and even Messi in their squad. There was no one on the pitch who could outdo the opposition with his genius and come up with something unexpected.

Culés didn’t even have a shot on target in the whole game, which is the first time in the history of the Champions League. The club is in a huge crisis and the summer transfer window has been a sign of that. Especially on the last day, when Barcelona sent off Antoine Griezmann and brought in Sevilla substitute Luuk de Jong.

It is his acquisition that is the most incomprehensible, because he does not fit the Blaugranas’ style of play at all. The 188 centimeter tall striker is no speedster, nor does he fit much into the combination. His biggest asset is his movement in the penalty area, but Barcelona don’t play a style of centering every ball into the box to tall strikers.

Barcelona are simply in a crisis from which there is no way out yet. The way out could be in the famous La Masia academy, only that would require coach Ronald Koeman to trust the youngsters more. The likes of Ricky Puig could talk about how he is killing his talent on the bench.

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