Barcelona are licking their wounds following defeat to Real Madrid on Wednesday night, having been eliminated from the Copa del Rey in troubling fashion. As the Catalan side work out where things went wrong, a concerning trend has been pointed out by Diario AS.
Robert Lewandowski was signed ot be the leader and the star of this Barcelona side, paying over the odds to bring in the 34-year-old from Bayern Munich. He has so far scored 27 goals and given 7 assists in his 35 games this season, a stellar record that puts him at the top of the Pichichi race and Barcelona top of the league.
Yet in the cup competitions, his record is somewhat less impressive. He has 10 goals in 12 games, but at each of the crucial points, save for the Supercopa, Lewandowski has been unable to make the difference.
Defeat against Inter in Milan in the Champions League ultimately condemned Barcelona to elimination at the group stage. In the Europa League, Lewandowski was only able to get on the scoresheet via a penalty at Old Trafford, missing a crucial chance to level things late on against Manchester United. Finally, in the Copa del Rey, Lewandowski was absent for the first leg but unable to score in the second.
Lewandowski was poor at Camp Nou on Wednesday, and it made it just one goal in four attempts, his only effort coming in the Spanish Supercup. Diario AS highlight that Lewandowski was signed to be the face of this Barcelona side, yet his record in big games is questionable.
Perhaps the criticism is harsh given Lewandowski did score a brace against Inter at Camp Nou, and while it was a penalty, he did score against United. Yet it’s true that the performances in those big games have left Barcelona fans wanting more. At the age of 34, Barcelona can’t afford their €45m to come up short.
Although figures look decent, for the price payed and given his playing performances, Lewa it is a big floo.
He shows his age.
Unfortunatelly with these money Barca should have done better t invest in the future, not in the past.
Raphinha it is an even bigger flop. And Ferran, another crush of Xavi, landed on big bucks, is rubbing the bench.
I feel Xavi is very limited as a coach. He ia here already for 2 years, but still failing in a big way in most important matches.
He doesn’t know how and when to react. He is failing to create the best XI most of the time
Rl9 is a centre forward. Judging by barca style he needs good wingers to provide for him. Apart from dembele, pls name any good winger(is it that injury prone ansu or that terrible and useless ferran or that big flop raphinha) even gavi(a midfielder) is better than those mentioned on the wing. So to me is not to be blamed. Can’t we see what he was doing at bayern,he was banging goals bcos he had world class wingers like sane, coman gnabry beside him.
Check the strong teams in europe(man city,real madrid, bayern,napoli,man u, e.t.c ), compare their wingers to that of barca. Then u will see what i’m saying.
Amazeballs, this is a player whose first goal at the World Cup was a penalty having missed a crucial one the game before against Mexico. Even against that useless Lloris he took a pathetic penalty only for his blushes to be spared by being asked to retake it.
Of course he is a choker and always has been but he is not the only issue even though I think he slows down Barcelona’s attacks a lot.
You are playing Real Madrid and you think it is wise to play Busquets, Sergio Roberto and Alonso to counter them.
Not an ounce of pace between them. Yes they win the first leg but they got away with as Madrid battered them
I respect Xavi a lot with the way he shaped Barcelona after Koeman’s dreadful era shows he has the idea but lacks brain and tactics…….although we had some serious injuries we could have gone through to the finals. Using Gavi as a false Left flank has worked but on Wednesday the maestro wasn’t available Frenkie and should have opted for a three forward attack ferran/ansu, lewandowski and raphinha
In the midfield gavi, busquet and kessie and at the back he should have used Eric instead of Alonso.
Madrid knew the defence would be never counter their attacking force given that araujo would be taking care of Vini leaves benzema, rodrygo and valverde to cause damage to the team. I say Xavi should be tactically creative
You’ve said it all this is the real truth you’ve said we lacking winger if Barcelona can sign Lionel Messi back in the summer and also get a good left winger Lewandowski will surely goal many goals
barcelonia needs a good winger that is capable and can hold a ball see dembele and fati is a injury player they can take injury at any time but barcelonia lack money dis time but we will be glad if barca can bring messi back and silver but one option if barcelonia can sigh a right foot attacker winger that can use and hold ball