Barca’s total humiliation must bring about sweeping changes

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Seismic defeat in the Champions League

Where do you even start?

If many are honest, Barcelona were rightly the underdogs against what has been a well-oiled Bayern Munich machine since Hansi Flick took over.

It was going to take a first-class performance from the Blaugranes to even be in with a chance of winning the game, but the tone was set as soon as Thomas Muller fired the Bavarians ahead.

In just three minutes, we knew all we needed to know.

This group of players, for whatever reason, weren’t up for the fight. Don’t let David Alaba’s own goal or Lionel Messi’s shot against the post which might’ve put us ahead in the tie on another day fool you.

It was quickly apparent that the ghosts of Roma and Liverpool were still living in the majority of players’ heads.

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And when they needed direction and coaching, Quique Setien, a coach who has long been out of his depth at this club, just stood there. Like he always does.

But we can’t pin this one all on him. No sir.

Virtually every player that pulled on that shirt on Friday night should be embarrassed.

The subs were thrown into a battle that was long since lost, and at least Ansu Fati and Antoine Griezmann tried their best.

Nelson Semedo’s disaster-class of how not to defend has to be up there as one of his worst performances for the club, but to be fair you could pick apart the bones from that ‘performance’ and lay the blame at almost anyone’s door.

first time since losing 8-0 to sevilla in 1946

— Duncan Alexander (@oilysailor) August 14, 2020

Collectively, it was abysmal. In fact, it was so bad - the first time since 1946 that we’ve conceded eight goals - that it has to bring about change.

Not just sacking the manager, which will be the bare minimum that Barcelona will be expected to do at this stage.

Players that have been hanging onto this team by their coat-tails have to be dispensed with now.

No more excuses, no more lifelines.

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The chickens have really come home to roost for Josep Maria Bartomeu after this, and, on the basis that he won’t resign, he must act decisively.

If that means selling the likes of Luis Suarez and other big names, so be it. It’s time for a hard reset.

We keep hearing about ‘Messi’s final years’ but what about when the Argentinian has ridden off into the sunset?

We must have a team in place by then that is young (that was our oldest ever team, average age wise, in a UCL game), hungry and good enough to pull on the shirt.

It’s time for this recurring nightmare to be brought to an end.

Source: barcablaugranes.com