One of the greatest football clubs in the history of the game is going through a major setback for the past 3 years. FC Barcelona who was nightmares of all the existing football clubs has certainly not lived up to the mark in the most prestigious competition of Europe, the UEFA Champions League. With arguably the best player in the planet on their side they still struggle in games away from home.
For the past two years the 2 time treble winning club has seemed completely clueless in most of the laliga away games as well as the UCL away games. In 2017 the humiliation in Rome where they gave up their 3 goal advantage to a mediocre side of Italy(As Roma) and crashed outside of the UCL quarter-finals followed by a repetition of similar incident this time in Anfield where they bottled another 3 goal lead against the likes of Liverpool and conceded 4 goals in 90 minutes and were kicked out of the UCL semis. Ernesto Valvarde’s preference of big money signings rather than turning to the La masia has been widely criticized and most of the big money signings have been either a flop or not adjusted to the club.
After Louis Enrique stepped down as Barcelona coach in the 2016-17 season and Neymar left FC Barcelona to join PSG at a record fee of €222 Million, nothing has been the same for this club again. After they performed the impossible against PSG in the RO16, coming back from a 4-0 goal deficit to win 6-1 at home to progress to the quarter finals only to get knocked out by Juventus and they also finished 2nd in Laliga that season lead to the resignation of Enrique. Ernesto Valvarde was appointed as the new head coach whose defensive mentality resulted into those two disasters in Rome and Anfield was certainly sacked by the board after getting knocked out by Atletico De Madrid in the Spanish super copa and was replaced by Quique Setien who is known for his attacking and possession playing style and one of the few coaches who beat Barcelona in the Nou camp eventually being the last one in recent times too.
The board hopes the Club will do well under him with a certain change in mentality. Results are awaited till the Coronavirus Pandemic comes to an end.
