Just how bad do Barca have to get, Ernesto?!

Photo by Jeroen Meuwsen/Soccrates/Getty Images

Another error-strewn 90 minutes

Disjointed, disappointing, disgusting.

There’s simply no excuse for that. It was utterly dismal and as far removed from a proper Barça performance as I can remember.

If ever there was a definable metric of what ‘Valverde’s Barça’ is, that was it.

If we still manage to get out of the group and into the knockout stages, there’ll not be a single team left by then that will fear coming to the Camp Nou.

To even believe we have anywhere near the nous to win the tournament again this season is, frankly, a preposterous notion.

| #BarçaSlavia | Arsene Wenger's insight on FC Barcelona's situation.pic.twitter.com/vHyrcO4x1w

— BT Media (@BTVideoClips) November 5, 2019

Only Frenkie de Jong and Leo Messi emerge with any real credit from this one, and maybe Arturo Vidal for his industry.

The rest? Pah! Not fit to wear the shirt.

Please convince me that Ousmane Dembele and Antoine Griezmann are still worth over €100m. This was, with a big dollop of respect, a team that FC Barcelona should be wiping the floor with.

They may not be minnows, but Slavia Prague are hardly one of European football’s giants. And yet they made the Catalans look second rate for long periods.

The hosts were certainly second best.

Never seen @FCBarcelona so bland and without identity since the days of tata Martino and the twilight period of Rijkaard, honestly EVD has to go bc this isn't the Barça I am accustomed to! #UCL @jmbartomeu @MisturBets

— OkijaAmaka (@kizittotaurus) November 5, 2019

As with the debacle at Levante, the tactics were all wrong. The direction from the bench was non-existent, with players consistently in each other’s way or out of position.

Though the supporters have long been vocal in their demands to have Valverde replaced, it’s only recently that we have been led to believe that the dressing room have made their feelings clear too.

That’s as maybe, because those on the pitch need to play their part, and a large majority of the starting XI were woefully short of the standards required to wear the Blaugrana.

Both Clement Lenglet and Gerard Pique were rocked back on their heels for long periods, with the latter ruling himself out of the next match because of a deserved yellow card. Who knows how much that’s going to cost Barca.

[Opta] | #BarçaSlavia | FC Barcelona have failed to score in a competitive game at Camp Nou for the first time since February 2018 against Getafe in LaLiga (0-0). Tumble. pic.twitter.com/eObMXf0mzU

— BarçaTimes Statistics (@BT_Stats) November 5, 2019

Basic defending appeared to be beyond the pair, with Slavia’s players motoring past them at will.

Indeed, much of Barca’s work was pedestrian with no tempo whatsoever, and for the second game in a row that simply isn’t acceptable.

Where was the urgency? The desire? The short, sharp passing game that we are renowned for across Europe?

There can be no more margin for error from this team, it’s no longer just a wobble. We are only still top of La Liga because Lady Luck paid us a weekend visit.

After that funereal 90 minutes, I think we could finally be seeing the death of this current side, because it surely can’t get any worse than that.

Source: barcablaugranes.com