Barcelona boss Luis Enrique has been given plenty of food for thought after his team suffered their first loss of the season against Paris Saint-Germain.
The Spanish club had enjoyed a very positive start to the season, but Tuesday’s 3-2 Champions League loss in France clearly demonstrated that some of Barca’s old problems still remain.
In particular, Enrique will be anxious to improve his team’s defending from set-pieces, with PSG scoring their opening two goals through that route, netted by David Luiz and Marco Verratti in the first half.
Dealing with dead-ball situations – especially corner kicks – has been a particular bugbear for Barca over the last couple of years, most clearly demonstrated on the final day of last season when Diego Godin was left unmarked and unchallenged from a corner to score the goal which secured the La Liga title for Atletico Madrid.
The manner in which diminutive Italian midfielder Verratti was allowed to head home at the far post from Thiago Motta’s delivery suggests few lessons have been learned, but Enrique claimed to be more concerned by his team’s mistakes which led to PSG’s set-pieces in the first place.
“We committed basic mistakes when moving the ball out of our half and that caused the dead ball situations from which PSG scored,” he said. “It was a catalogue of mistakes and they took advantage of our errors. It is not easy to correct but it is an area we are aware of. We have to analyse our mistakes and take more control.”
One player who emerged particularly badly from the defeat is goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who conceded his team’s first three goals of the season after seeing Chilean team-mate Claudio Bravo keep six consecutive clean sheets in La Liga.
But Enrique refused to condemn the young German, saying: “To me, his performance looked about the same as everyone else’s.”
And the Barca boss was keen to deflect the criticism away from all his players, adding: “I am the coach and the responsibility is mine. It wasn’t my best day.”
Midfield man Andres Iniesta, who captained the team until the emergence of Xavi from the bench, is taking an approach of collective responsibility rather than attempting to blame individual errors.
“We all win together and lose together,” said Iniesta, who provided a slick assist to Lionel Messi for Barca’s first goal of the night. “When we lose, you can’t blame the defence. It’s about the team not just the defence, the midfield or the attack. We are all responsible and at certain points of the game, they were superior.”
Barca are back in action on Saturday with a La Liga trip to Rayo Vallacano.
