I love this quote from the Barca website: “Barca took time to find their feet early on.” Hello — did they even find their ass? Make up your own withering Johan Cruyff quote about this debacle — I would just say that, for the first time in the Guardiola era, an opponent made Barcelona look old. Shamed in midfield. Pickpocketed so often as to prompt calls to Interpol. Dominated physically and by the frightening pace of Stuttgart’s rushes. Yes, in the second half, Stuttgart ran out of gas, and Barca’s numbing possession ball chloroformed their opponent. But “fortunate” cannot be stretched enough to denote the lucky position of Barca — thoroughly outplayed, but with an away goal and three weeks to figure out how to beat this clearly more motivated and energized opponent. And, how to get Gerard Pique in the box more, obviously.
Other complaints to the increasingly strong head winds:
- Busquets: A walking disaster, except for the entry pass for the goal. Invented new ways to turn it over every time he had possession.
- Yaya Toure: An immobile disaster; a statue. I’d say send him back to Barca’s training staff for more rehab, but there’s their results this year to contend with…
- Guardiola: Stop starting Iniesta at wing. Please. Unless you hate him and want to make him disappear and reduce Xavi’s effectiveness by 40%. If the idea is to start anybody instead of Pedro over Henry…that can’t be your idea, is it? Whatever the idea, it hasn’t worked all year, and it threw up on itself tonight.
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