The referee blew the final whistle and Fermin Lopez collapsed onto the pitch, exhausted. In Barcelona’s technical area, there were smiles and knowing looks between assistant coach Marcus Sorg and the rest of the technical staff and the players still on the bench.
Barcelona had just beaten Valencia 7-1 and won a match in La Liga for the first time since December 3. It had been even longer since their last home league win, which came on November 3 (a 3-1 victory against Espanyol). Since that day, Barcelona had endured — to borrow head coach Hansi Flick’s phrase — a “s*** November” and a dismal December, a period in which they only picked up five points out of a possible 21.
From being top of La Liga, six points ahead of a Real Madrid team they had thrashed in the Clasico on October 26, they are in third, seven points behind.
All this might make you think that Barcelona were a team in crisis. But, watching them play, the sensations are rather different.
Barcelona are a team of extremes. Even while their form in La Liga was collapsing, they qualified for the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey, won the Supercopa de Espana by crushing Madrid 5-2 and eased into the knockout phase of the Champions League with a game to spare.
They have scored 29 goals in their last seven games, and brought up their century for the season (after just 32 games) against Valencia. That made Flick the second-fastest manager to reach that figure with Barcelona after Helenio Herrera in 1959 (31 games), according to Opta. They also scored their 101st goal, equalling the number of goals scored in the entire 2022-23 season in which they won La Liga.
Sunday’s win against Valencia was secured with ease. Barcelona never looked back once they had opened the scoring in the third minute when Lamine Yamal freed himself from his marker and crossed for Frenkie de Jong to finish. There were multiple impressive performances, although none could quite match Fermin Lopez, whose two goals and two assists meant he became the youngest Barcelona player to be involved in four goals in the same game since Bojan Krkic against Real Valladolid in 2008.
Fermin Lopez scores Barcelona’s fourth goal against Valencia (David Ramos/Getty Images)
All this was achieved despite Flick resting some important players — Gavi, Ronald Araujo and Robert Lewandowski — and Pedri being ruled out with a stomach problem. Lopez, Eric Garcia and Ferran Torres were brought in and took their chances.
Even Inaki Pena, their starting goalkeeper in La Liga since Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s injury in September, did not play, replaced by Wojciech Szczesny. That Barcelona still thrashed their visitors with such a changed line-up says a lot about Flick’s squad management. Practically every player is at their best and knows what Flick is demanding of them tactically.
Flick hinted at the spirit in his dressing room during his post-match press conference. “The situation that impressed me the most was when I spoke to Gavi, who I wanted to bring on in the last 15 minutes, and he said, ‘No, bring on Pablo Torre’,” he said. “This is incredible, it’s great. You can see how the players are connected to each other. I love Gavi for his attitude and to talk like that at that moment is fantastic.”
So why was there a drop in results? Except for matches against Real Sociedad (1-0 away defeat) and Getafe (1-1 away draw), performances were not poor. Yet, results undoubtedly suffered, with Barcelona drawing three and losing four league games.
“You could say that in La Liga we dropped five or 10 per cent,’ Flick said, before the game against Valencia. “In Getafe, it was our fault, we didn’t finish the game with the three points, we didn’t play very well, we weren’t focused. That has to change. We have to be focused from the start to the finish.”
Hansi Flick retains confidence in his young team (David Ramos/Getty Images)
Sources, who prefer to remain anonymous to preserve their relationships, close to the Barcelona dressing room consulted by The Athletic attribute this to the youth of the team and that it is difficult for inexperienced players to match the intensity of their performances against great rivals in what should be more routine matches.
This is one of the youngest Barcelona teams in living memory. They are talented but fluctuations between extremes are to be expected.
Despite their drop in league position, Flick’s side can still shape their destiny. They are three points behind second-placed Atletico Madrid and face them in March. The gap to Real Madrid is bigger but Barca have a home Clasico in May.
However, the doubts are less about how Barcelona perform on those marquee occasions and whether they can regain consistency, especially at home. That, in itself, could be shaped by how far they go in the Champions League and the Copa del Rey.
What is indisputable is that the Catalan club once again has a solid project to focus on — one that could still lead them to another title.
(Top photo: David Ramos/Getty Images)
