Barcelona are a ‘grey’ team in the identity of their Coach Ernesto Valverde, their former midfielder Marc Crosas believes.
Crosas came from the club’s La Masia youth system and starred for their C and B teams, before representing the first-team on a handful of occasions in 2007.
The central midfielder then went on to have stints at Lyon and Celtic before playing in Mexico, but he hung up his boots aged just 29 and has appeared as a TV pundit and analyst since.
Now 31, Crosas has taken aim at the Blaugrana losing their ‘essence’ as a club and now having less of a philosophy, with a greater emphasis on winning with star players.
He referenced the failures of the Catalan giants away from home and criticised them for becoming too similar to Real Madrid of Florentino Perez.
“Barcelona have become a grey team because it reflects their Coach,” Crosas said, as cited by Marca.
“Valverde is a good Coach, he has done important things, he has won two leagues with all of what that entails, but he is a grey Coach, like the team.
“The question is not if you are losing the essence, the essence has already been lost. Barça's philosophy no longer is no longer there, it should not be just about winning. Now the problem is to recover that.
“Barça is a team that depends more and more on the stars and less on the team. It looks more and more like Florentino (Perez)'s Madrid than Barcelona's six titles side.
“Defeat to Levante? It is a constant of this Barcelona playing as an away side, and not only this season. There is Rome, then at Liverpool, the ghosts appear.
“I do not know what happens for such a drastic change of the performances away from home compared to the Camp Nou.”
Barcelona boss Valverde has won a league title in each of his two campaigns at the club and despite three league defeats this season, his side remain top of the standings in Spain.
