#360view: Hysteria undermining Luis Enrique’s side

Andy West 02:44 17/04/2016
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  • Feeling the heat: Luis Enrique.

    Never mind the fact they have just been narrowly eliminated from the last eight of the Champions League by a very good team, or are now hoping to increase their advantage at the top of La Liga with a Copa del Rey final also on the horizon.

    Judging by the negative hysteria surrounding Barcelona as they head into Sunday night’s home clash with Valencia, you would think they are about to be relegated.

    As noted by Barca manager Luis Enrique on Friday, we live in a world of extreme reactions.

    And reactions do not get much more extreme than the furore which has met his team’s European exit against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night, because everywhere you turn it seems there are people desperate to tell you how the club is rapidly falling apart.

    The overreaction was most vividly demonstrated by Barcelona-based newspaper Sport, which on Friday emblazoned its front page with the dramatic headline ‘Porque?’ (Why?), followed by no less than 15 pointed questions into the team’s fall from grace. This was 24 hours after their cover photoshopped Lionel Messi and his team-mates in a mock-up of television series ‘Lost’.

    Another example of media fever came from one of the longest-established and normally more soberly-voiced British journalists in Spain, who appeared on radio to claim that Barca’s squad needs a serious makeover.

    Social media, naturally, is awash with criticisms of Enrique and his players, with Jordi Alba, Dani Alves, Neymar and even Messi mainly in the firing line. The reaction of one fan, who vehemently argued to me on Friday that Neymar and Messi simply must be sold this summer, was indicative of the current despondent mood.

    Amid the melodrama, shall we try to find some perspective?

    Of course, this has been a very disappointing period for Barcelona, who have only won one game in the last five – and even that was a bare-knuckle ride comeback against 10-men Atletico in the first leg of the tie they ended up losing.

    They have also lost their last two league games without scoring, including one against their most fierce rivals, and superstar Messi has not scored or assisted a single goal in his last five games.

    And if that kind of form continues for the remainder of the season, there would be genuine cause for concern that the team needs serious rebuilding and perhaps even a change of manager. But now, surely, is far too early to make that kind of dramatic conclusion.

    Five games is nothing. It is far less than 10 per cent of Barca’s season, and although they have undoubtedly been well below their best, that happens to every team from time to time – logically, indeed, it would be literally impossible for that not to be the case.

    Let us remember that until a couple of weeks ago, Barca were enjoying the second longest unbeaten run of all-time among major European leagues. Does that sound like an imploding squad which has entered a vicious spiral of inevitable decline?

    The danger with the extreme reaction seen this week is that it can be taken seriously and result in remedial action that does not actually need to be taken.

    That happened at Real Madrid last season, for example, when Carlo Ancelotti led his team to 22 consecutive victories but then suffered a downturn in form which resulted in delirious calls for, and eventually achieved, his sacking, which only served to set the team so far back they are only just recovering.

    Barcelona do not need any drastic action. Ideally, sure, in the summer they will move some players on and bring some in – but only in the way that every club does, every summer. But the core of the team can remain intact for years, and Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez will soon return to the scoresheet.

    They could well do so, in fact, on Sunday night – and then we can all calm down again.

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