Barcelona Must Learn From Last Season’s Mistakes

It was only two seasons ago that Barcelona conquered all before them both at home and in Europe when they completed a memorable domestic and European Cup double, culminating in that 2 -1 win over Arsenal in the Stade de France.

Puyol lifts the European Cup in Paris in 2006 after defeating Arsenal 2 - 1

It was Barca’s second European success and it was a fitting reward for, at the time, the most exciting attack minded team in Europe. However, the Catalan giants made a very disappointing defence of those two crowns the following season and they frittered away that hard earned and well earned reputation.

They exited the Champions League at the first knock out stage after wilting to the competitions previous holders, Liverpool, who were far more determined and focused . They then went on to surrender what was a comfortable lead in the Primera Liga, which to make matters even worse, was grabbed by the arch and fierce rivals, Real Madrid. It doesn’t get much worse than that for Barcelona! So having wrested the initiative away from Real the previous season, Barca simply followed up by seemingly adopting some of their own worst failings.

There were serious defensive flaws. There were dressing room rifts and what looked like a belief that skill alone could substitute totally for good honest hard work. It all contributed to their downfall and any chances of maintaining their previously hard-earned success and in so doing, prompted a major overhaul of the squad during the summer.

The former Arsenal striker and talisman, Thierry Henry, was the most high-profile new recruit and it is hoped that his signing wil help to make up for the loss of Samuel Eto’o who currently has a serious thigh injury. Of course, it was believed, at least their was a huge amount of speculation, that Henry would leave Arsenal for Barca following their Champions League final. However, Arsenal lost of course and there appeared to be a little bit a “bad blood” after the game between Henry and some of the Barcelona players.

Anyway, Barcelona also have two supremely talented young forwards waiting very impatiently in the wings. Firstly their is Mexican Giovani dos Santos and the under 17 Spanish international Bojan Krkic.

Perhaps more importantly for the team’s prospects for Europe this season, is last season’s wobbly defence. They have reinforced the defence with new signings Diego Milito from Argentina and France’s left back Eric Abidal. There is also the Ivory Coast international Vaya Toure who has been brought in to bolster the midfield. Are they all called Toure? There seems to be a least one Toure in every team these days!

Part of those dressing room squabbles that seemed to so disrupt Barcelona last season was Frank Rijkaard, the Dutch coach. There was certainly something going on behind the scenes (and quite often blatantly in public) between him, Ronaldinho and Eto’o. Maybe it was some sort of love triangle?! But there was huge speculation as to which of the three would leave the Camp Nou in the summer. It was definite that at least one of them, if not two, would move onto pastures new. However, they have confounded everyone and all three are still there!

Anyway, in the Champions League Rijkaard’s team have been handed quite a tough draw in the group stages. The group also has Olympique Lyon, who have dominated the French league in recent years and were actually some people’s tip for the Champions League last season, Stuttgart, who won the Bundesliga last season and Glasgow Rangers. You can’t bet there will be no room for slip ups in that group if Barca want to make it back to the knock-out stages!

Barcelona’s Sporting Director and their former player Txiki Beriristain said about the group, “With the champions of France and Germany and one of the two big teams from Scotland we’ve got three very strong rivals. The strength of the group means we will have to be completely focused for every game.” He’s not getting any argument from me on that!

So, it is going to be really interested to see how Barcelona can bounce back this season following their disappointment of the year. Just trying to win the title back off Real should be motivation enough for the Catalans!

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Many thanks
Rik