Toothless Barcelona Must Find Their Purpose After Real Sociedad Shambles

For a while we have given Barcelona the benefit of the doubt.

Their first-half performance against Manchester City at the Etihad and the second-half display against Sevilla at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan were held up as examples of their quality, even while struggling with injuries and other problems.

But against Real Sociedad at Anoeta we saw what happens when they play as badly as they did in the second and first halves of those two games respectively, but across the 90 minutes instead of just for half the game.

And it was not pretty. They left with a point after the 1-1 draw, a point which Luis Enrique said was the result of a miracle.

The coach was uncharacteristically open after the game.

“It’s the worst performance since I have been in charge,” he said, per ESPN. “We didn’t deserve the point we’re taking back to Barcelona.”

Lucho was spot on. Barcelona were lamentable, beaten black and blue by la Real, somehow making it in at half-time with the score goalless.

The hosts dominated virtually every statistical count at the interval, from shots to corners, including possession.

In fact, the Basques played in the way Barcelona were once famed for, with the Blaugrana insipid at best, self-destructive at worst.

It would have stung to see Eusebio Sacristan, a former Barcelona midfielder and B-team coach, organising his team in a way many pine for at Camp Nou, despite the success of the Luis Enrique era.

“It’s easy to explain [the result] because Real Sociedad were superior to us in all aspects,” continued Luis Enrique.

“It’s almost a miracle that it’s ended 1-1. They’ve not allowed us to string five passes together, they pressed us as and when they wanted, they won all the battles and you have to say that to be goalless at halftime was a miracle.

“In the second half we improved a little, but not enough. We got back into the game through an isolated moment between Messi and Neymar, but there was little else.”

That moment was the reason Barcelona walked away from Anoeta with one of the best results they have recorded in recent years, from a ground where they have not won since 2007.

It did not feel like a good result though. As Diario Sport director Lluis Mascaro wrote, “it was a draw that tasted like a defeat.”

Barcelona’s goal came from nothing, created purely by the speed and skill of Neymar. He lurched away from his marker down the left, driving past another defender before cutting the ball back to Lionel …

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