Barcelona's midfield is completely broken and it is sinking the whole team
Barcelona may be best known for their MSN trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar now, but the foundation of their success for the last decade-plus has been built on their midfield. World class attackers have always come and gone at the Camp Nou, but midfield play is how Barcelona became who they are. They were the team you couldn't get the ball from, that would win it back if you did manage a touch. Tiki-taka was theirs, and it was because of that midfield. And even as their style changed, they still boasted an enviable midfield that was the engine powering their shiny (and sublime) talents up front. But that is gone.
Now, due to a number of factors, the midfield the weakest part of the Barcelona team.
The scariest part for Blaugrana supporters? There's no immediate fix in sight.
MSN are as dangerous as ever, and the rotating cast in defense have been relatively dependable as well. It's where you'd typically expect Barça to dominate, in the middle of the park, where they've really struggled. In their shocking 4-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain, Luis Enrique's team were completely outclassed across the board, but the crux of their problems stemmed almost entirely from their inability to match up with the Parisians in midfield.
PSG beat Barcelona to every ball and the Catalans were unable to cope with the pressure. They couldn't build an attack, let alone stop one from coming at them. Messi, Suarez and Neymar don't mean much when they don't get the ball, and while that was the most egregious instance of the Barcelona midfield being overrun, it was hardly the first. The Catalans have struggled all season long against teams that press effectively.
Some might point to Enrique's tactical experimentation as the source of Barcelona's problems, and there's an argument there. Barcelona have long appeared Messi-dependent, and Enrique's attempts to continue his side's evolution beyond depending on Messi and his superstar partners up front, combined with individual struggles in his midfield, have seen mixed results. His attempts to play a more direct style have resulted in open criticism from traditionalists at Barcelona, with rumors of pushback from the players themselves over his methods. Counter-attacking isn't the Barcelona way, and Enrique's attempts to play in that manner were tantamount to treason. His tactical experimentation has yielded less than favorable results, and Barcelona just haven't looked like Barcelona far too often this season.
However, as much as Enrique should be held responsible for Barça's struggles, he's done his best to compensate for legitimate deficiencies in the team. He has made some questionable tactical decisions throughout the season, but the bigger worry is that the cracks are showing in Barcelona's foundation. And they're stemming from midfield.
Player for player, Barcelona have struggled to get quality play from their men in the middle. Usually one of Barcelona's most dependable and important pieces, Busquets has struggled with consistency throughout this season. Normally the conductor of Barça's controlled possession style, Busquets was a passenger as Paris Saint-Germain's overpoweringly athletic and fluid midfield corps ran rampant over the Blaugrana in the Parc de Princes. In fact, it's been a couple years since he was consistently at his best, as injuries have piled up and his form has wavered.
Iniesta, indispensable in his role in Barcelona's system, has suffered from injury woes this year, and that's given Enrique enough headaches. But against PSG, he was simply a non-factor. He was pressed, harried, and all around out-worked by Blaise Matuidi, Adrien Rabiot and Marco Verratti, and it was the first time in the modern era we've really seen Iniesta look old. Even his hair looked a little grayer that day.
With Barcelona's OG midfield duo in flux, it's been a steady battle between Ivan Rakitic, Andre Gomes, Denis Suarez, Arda Turan and Rafinha to stake their claim for a regular starting spot. So far those efforts have failed across the board.
Rakitic was one of the most underrated pieces of Barça's success in the league last year, but he hasn't been anywhere near the level of the bar he set in the previous campaign. He's failed to provide a regular goalscoring spark, and his energy in midfield hasn't been enough to stabilize a group that sometimes needs more control than frantic and constant movement. Despite possessing all the physical and technical tools to be a success, new signing Gomes has been a huge disappointment in his own right, and he still hasn't managed to put it together in an effective way for Barcelona. His €40 million price tag looks more and more exorbitant every time he steps on the pitch.
Iniesta's heir apparent, Suarez has shown glimpses of real promise this year, but he hasn't done it in enough volume for the Catalan side to truly have earned a regular position in the team. Almost-forgotten duo Turan and Rafinha round out the rest of the pack, drafted in from time to time to play their part, but they haven't shown anything that suggests they have what it takes to become an integral piece of Barça's first eleven.
There's no simple solution to fix this Barcelona midfield, and that's probably the most worrying.
They lack physicality, they've struggled to compensate for the loss of Xavi's influence, Iniesta is getting older and more injury prone, and Busquets simply hasn't been as good of late. Their role players haven't stepped up in any significant fashion, and Enrique's tactical attempts to compensate for their struggles in midfield simply haven't been successful.
Enrique will be gone after this year, but Barça's issues won't just disappear with a new manager. There's real work to be done, and there's no magic potion that will automatically solve the very real and pressing issue of their midfield struggles.
The idea of midfield struggles is truly baffling at the Camp Nou. This is the club that once boasted Pep Guardiola, Hristo Stoichkov and Michael Laudrup in the center of the park. It's the club that produced Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets. It's the club that changed the face of the game by passing teams into the ground, putting up insane possession numbers, and running the score up by virtue of their complete and total midfield domination.
But it is the midfield that has betrayed Barcelona, who are now facing an identity crisis, and there's no obvious solution in sight.
