When it comes to analysing Barcelona’s frantic 1-1 draw at Villarreal on Sunday night, it’s difficult to know where to start.
You could focus – as Gerard Pique opted to – on the haphazard decisions of referee Ignacio Iglesias, who somehow failed to notice obvious penalties for handball for both teams.
Or you could follow the lead of many Barca fans, whose understandable admiration of Lionel Messi’s latest masterpiece has overshadowed anything else that happened in the game.
And certainly, the standard of officiating in Spanish football – which is surely just bad rather than outright corrupt – and the outlandish brilliance of Messi – whose stunning free-kick could not have been executed any better – all merit plenty of attention.
But looking at the bigger picture, perhaps the most important conclusion to draw from the game is that it was yet another example of Barca’s ongoing struggles to deliver convincing team performances.
It’s nothing new. Even their last game before Christmas, when local rivals Espanyol were beaten 4-1 after a pair of outrageous assists from you know who, saw the Blaugrana deliver a pretty unimpressive team display when those isolated moments of Messi brilliance were removed.
In fact, this is fast becoming a formula for Barca’s season: play poorly, lack an effective team shape, offer few ideas of team-based creativity and hope that Messi bails them out.
Fortunately for the Catalan giants, Messi is so good that he often does exactly that.
He did so at Valencia in October, scoring twice, including a last-minute penalty winner. Once more at Sevilla a few weeks later, capping a sublime display with an equaliser and a sumptuous assist for Luis Suarez’s winner. And again at Real Sociedad in December, claiming a point with a crisply taken leveller.
And, of course, he was at it on Sunday night too, producing a free-kick of rare magnificence to grab a point from a game which looked lost.
But in the long run even Messi can’t win games single-handed every week, and it’s becoming increasing clear that on the occasions when their Argentine ace isn’t able to conjure up another piece of magic, Barca has little else to offer.
They have dropped points on seven occasions in 17 La Liga games this season, and are effectively eight points behind Real Madrid considering the league leaders will play their game in hand against struggling Valencia next month.
There are still plenty of games remaining and it would be ridiculous to claim that Barca’s title challenge is over but, at the present moment, they simply do not look capable of putting together the kind of winning run which would allow them to overhaul Real.
When Messi doesn’t shine, they are struggling to win, with the shocking absence of an effective midfield – as illustrated by Ivan Rakitic’s dramatic slump in form – leaving them looking a million miles from potential title winners.
We know these players are capable of turning it around; a haul of eight trophies in two years proves that. But right now, rather than the treble winners of two years ago, they are more resembling Tato Martino’s team from a year previous when they failed to win anything.
Unless their overall team structure drastically improves soon, they are heading towards another blank – whatever Messi does.
