Rift at Barcelona, Real surge ahead
LA LIGA Catalan club’s top players turn on coach Setien as Los Blancos open two-point lead at the top
MADRID:THE weight of blame may be shifting again towards their coach but Barcelona’s failures in the draw away at Celta Vigo on Saturday go deeper than Quique Setien.
Setien admitted on Monday he is “new to this situation”, a novice when it comes to the challenge of massaging egos of elite players and managing their frustrations.
“It’s true that you often have arguments with players as you do in everyday life and that’s nothing new,” Setien told a virtual news conference on Monday.
“I was not an easy player to deal with and I understand this perfectly well. What we have to do is try to convince everyone that we have to defend a common idea,” added the former Atletico Madrid, Logrones and Racing Santander midfielder.
Barca’s board might have foreseen that being a problem in January, when they tasked a talented coach with winning the Champions League, a competition in which he was yet to oversee a single match. They were attracted to Setien’s dedication to a Barcelona-style too, even if an identity shift mid-season, amid a chaotic transfer window, always looked impossible.
Instead, engrained fragilities remain five months later. And all of them resurfaced against Celta, where the 2-2 draw that might set Real Madrid on their way to the title ran like a checklist of Barca’s all-too familiar flaws.
Karim Benzema delivered another moment of magic on Sunday as Real Madrid took a twopoint lead over Barcelona at the top of La Liga by beating bottom club Espanyol.
Benzema’s volley against Valencia could be goal of the season and he might now have a claim to best assist too after his brilliant backheel teed up Casemiro to finish for a crucial 1-0 win. Madrid’s advantage in the table is their biggest since February and puts them within sight of their second league title in eight years.
“It’s a very important win,” said Benzema. “I can’t say we don’t look at Barcelona. But we’re focused on our own league. There are not many games left and every game now is a final.”
For Barcelona, against Celta, there was capitulation, an inability to defend a lead seen previously on a grander scale against Roma and Liverpool, defeats that have never been expunged from this team’s psyche.
Their trump cards were in play too: the brilliance of Lionel Messi, the goals of Luis Suarez and the match-turning saves of Marc-andre ter Stegen, who clawed one off the line late on to at least preserve a point. Repeatedly, those players have lifted this Barcelona side above themselves, carrying them even to consecutive La Liga titles, each time with a lead of more than 10 points.
But even if the unexpected happens, another domestic success for Barcelona will feel hollow and few expect them to threaten in the adapted Champions League in August, not even Messi. “The way we are now I don’t think it’s enough to win the Champions League,” he told Mundo Deportivo in February.
Messi, Sergio Busquets and Gerard Pique have all taken shots at the board in recent months.
Arthur Melo, with Barca’s DNA in his veins and who was circled as the long-term replacement for Xavi Hernandez, has been sold to Juventus as part of an accounting merry-go-round that allows the board to balance the books before June 30.
Antoine Griezmann came on too, the €120 million signing from Atletico Madrid has been rarely played in his best position.
Barcelona face Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou on Tuesday, looking to salvage their season but the future already looks bleak for Setien. He was asked about his job on Monday, five months after he arrived. “Victories hide many things, defeats reveal them,” he said. “Sometimes the results don’t depend on me.”