Balague: Barca in survival mode

In his weekly column, Guillem Balague gives us the latest on the title race in La Liga after Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid all won at the weekend…

Never in the history of a 20-team La Liga has it been this close, and never before have these three teams been fighting together in a position like this.

They are the three most successful clubs in Spain but they’ve never found themselves in this kind of situation. It’s extraordinary.

At this point the ends justifies the means. Coaches tell us the best way to win the game is via good football, but it’s quite clear in the last few weeks they’ve abandoned so much of their essence to make sure they win. Especially Barcelona, but Atletico and Real Madrid as well.

If you had to vote on the best football played this weekend, it was Real Madrid for some parts of their game, but generally the three teams were really bad with the ball.

Barcelona in survival mode

Barcelona are displaying a very strange attitude in their matches because if you watch them play, it doesn’t look like they are fighting for the league. Another way to understand it is that fear is stopping them from playing their normal football.

You have a team that is slow, doesn’t move off the ball, and plays a lot of long, diagonal passes to feet rather than space. Nobody can beat an opponent – Lionel Messi tried a couple of times against Real Betis but Neymar was unable to do so – and there is nothing from the bench still. They have nobody available to make a difference and now even Claudio Bravo is injured.

So Barcelona are still dependent on Messi moments, and the second goal against Betis, when he slowed to a …

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