Barcelona's defensive problems fester despite healthy Liga lead
MADRID: Barcelona's title charge has been riddled with defensive problems and just as they looked to have found stability, another one landed at their feet.
Their 5-0 win over Levante last weekend may have been a triumph for attacking fluency, not to mention Lionel Messi, who scored a hat-trick, but more surprising was the clean sheet, their third in a row in the league for the first time since March.
"We are on a positive run," Gerard Pique said. "We are playing better, conceding less and scoring goals, it's all very positive."
But after Thomas Vermaelen, their fourth-choice central defender, hobbled off with a calf strain, the Barca board moved on Thursday to sign on loan Colombian international Jeison Murillo despite the 26-year-old having played only one La Liga match all season.
Ernesto Valverde had already switched to three at the back after Nelson Semedo withdrew lastminute due to pain in his knee.
And now Vermaelen is expected out for at least a month while Samuel Umtiti, Pique's principal partner, is in Qatar, hoping to find a solution to his own niggling injury to his knee. The Frenchman's return date is unknown.
That leaves Clement Lenglet, who is experiencing a predictably up-and-down debut season, and Pique, who has improved in recent weeks, but started the season off the pace, like a 31-year-old with his sharpest days behind him.
"It can't be that we concede every game," Messi said in October. "We have to be stronger defensively. We are following a year when it was very hard to score against us."
Barca are still three points clear at the top of the table, although 11th in terms of goals conceded and, given Real Madrid have changed coach and Atletico Madrid won just one away game all season, they might have hoped for a heftier cushion.
In the past, Valverde could have looked within for cover but Barca's youth ranks are not as prolific as they once were. Oscar Mingueza, Chumi Brandariz, Jorge Cuenca and Ronald Araujo are all defenders for the club's B team but none, seemingly, are deemed ready to step up.
Instead, the rumour mill has gone into overdrive, with a replacement sought in January ahead of the start of the knock-out stages of the Champions League. - AFP