Barcelona boss Luis Enrique refused to criticise his team after seeing them produce a disjointed performance in Saturday’s shock 1-0 defeat against Celta Vigo.
The Catalan club have lost top spot in La Liga after suffering consecutive defeats in their last two outings, and the manner of the team’s performance was just as worrying as the result in this weekend’s encounter at the Nou Camp.
Although Barca did create plenty of chances and were left cursing their luck after hitting the woodwork on four occasions, their attacking play was haphazard, lacking in structure and relying upon individual creativity – especially from Lionel Messi – rather than coherent teamwork.
The final stages were particularly frantic as Enrique made a double substitution to introduce Xavi and Pedro, shifting Javier Mascherano into midfield in a chaotic 3-4-3 formation plus Messi apparently having the freedom to roam wherever he wanted.
Disgruntled Barca fans greeted the final whistle with a chorus of jeers, making their opinion plain that the loss was due to a bad performance rather than bad luck, but Enrique chose to adopt a more positive outlook in his assessment of the game.
“It’s easy now to claim that everything is wrong, but I would have happily taken a game that saw us have 19 shots and hit the bar on four occasions,” he said. Enrique did concede, however, that his team failed to exert their usual dominance over the flow of the game, admitting: “I prefer to have the game under control, but Celta created very few chances.
“There were mistakes, but this will make the players stronger and help the belief in the team.
We deserved to win but football is about taking chances.”
Mascherano, however, was much less forgiving of the team’s performance, slamming: “We played a bad game and we were not comfortable at any point.
“We had our chances but we did not develop our game. It is worrying.”
Meanwhile, Barca will be without Jeremy Mathieu for the next two or three weeks after the French defender suffered a calf injury during the defeat against Celta.
His absence will probably mean a recall for Gerard Pique, whose performances so far this season have come under much scrutiny amid growing speculation that Barca are prepared to sell the centre-back.
