The only thing worse than the result in Barcelona’s 2-0 defeat at Granada was their performance, dropping points for the third time in only five rounds of LaLiga and sending the Catalans into full crisis mode.
The club’s poorest return after five league rounds since 1994, the Blaugrana have yet to win away from home, and have the joint worst defensive record in LaLiga.
While the attacking is bad, the erosion of the defensive solidity that has marked the Ernesto Valverde era has been particularly damaging, leaving him with few arguments left to fall back on.
Valverde’s critics have been seething since last spring when Barcelona let their 3-0 Champions League semi-final lead over Liverpool slip in humiliating fashion, and while club president Josep Maria Bartomeu was able to silence dissenting voices back then, it is growing more difficult.
Reports that members of the squad are no longer as confident in their boss as they once were look significant: one of Valverde’s strengths is his ability to achieve dressing room harmony.
Barcelona aren’t a club prone to sacking their coach mid-season – they last did so in 2003. Yet for all that Valverde is putting on a brave face, arguing it only takes three days to enter a crisis and three days to get out of it, that’s not a particularly reassuring line for those convinced the problems have been terminal for months.
Click Here: Golf special