The 14-15 season of Barça is simply unstoppable, the "MSN" combination with their teammates in the league to come back, snatched back the La Liga title, in the Champions League, they are even more than the champions of Manchester City, Paris, Bayern and Juve and other countries after the crown, coupled with Messi's winning goal to bring the Copa del Rey championship, Barca finally achieved the second "treble" myth in history. Compared with other teams in Europe that have won the treble in the past, Barca are the ones with the most wins, the most goals and the fewest goals conceded, and they can also be called the "kings of kings" in European football from ancient times to the present.
But the following season, Barca was slightly tired and sluggish in the opening stages, and Messi also suffered a two-month injury, which had a certain impact on the team's performance, but fortunately, Suarez and Neymar were in a stable state, allowing the team to quickly find the rhythm of winning. After Messi's return from injury, Barca was even more out of control, with triumphant singing at home and abroad, and the three fronts of the Champions League, La Liga and Copa del Rey all showed a strong momentum of defending the title. Even more astonishing is that from the beginning of October 2015 to the end of March 2016, Barca maintained a record of 39 unbeaten games in all competitions, which also set a new record for the longest consecutive unbeaten run in Spanish football, and was only a few steps away from breaking the European records of Juve and Nottingham Forest.
But April '16 is definitely the last time Enrique and Barca players want to look back. The Red and Blues suffered a huge blow from the Champions League and three consecutive league defeats this month, and Barca, which had vowed to defend the triple crown, completely collapsed in the blink of an eye. So, what is it that makes Barca's performances so far behind?
The impact of the national derby defeat
The contest between Barca and Real Madrid is known as the "Battle of the Century" and can also be called the Spanish National Derby. The result of the second-leg derby has been particularly important over the past few seasons, as it has been a watershed, with the loser likely to fall into a slump and spill over into the rest of the season. The winner was boosted and went on to beat them all in the Champions League and La Liga that followed. Last year's Barca was the best example, after losing the national derby and 1:3 in the first leg, they beat Real Madrid 2:1 in the second leg and started that five-time champions season.
The impact of the world derby is so great that Barca made mistakes in the second leg of the two sides. It may be that the first leg at the Bernabeu 4:0 is too easy, but also taking into account the intensive schedule and the problem of the physical fitness of the players, Barca at home to face Real Madrid with luck, want to achieve an unbeaten result at the minimum cost, and finally did not show enough excitement in the game, the midfield was fighting for each other, the defense was full of loopholes, and finally 1:2 was defeated by the 10-man Real Madrid who were far from the best in form, which not only greatly frustrated barca morale, but also stimulated the bloodiness of Real Madrid soldiers. The Victory of the Whites rekindled hopes of la Liga and won the Champions League that season.
Henrique's platoon
The team's physical condition is worrying, the player's state is deeply affected, and it is about to usher in a series of vicious battles, which requires the head coach to make effective adjustments to the starting lineup and have a certain trade-off on the field, but Enrique became hesitant at the critical moment and did not make the best choice.
In fact, Enrique has always liked to rotate players, but perhaps the aura of the championship has made him bigger, or too greedy to win all the victories, he has not rotated in the national derby and some leagues, which has caused Barca stars to miss the best rest time.
Champions League knockout round on 14 April. Atletico Barca ushered in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final match against Atletico, which was also the ultimate test for the treble team, but Enrique made a mistake again, this time he lost tactically to Messi's compatriot Simeone. Simeone's platooning and tactical intent are really top notch, Atletico played 442, and almost maintained the integrity of the formation throughout the game, without panic. Enrique has never been known as a master tactician, but he does have two brushes. He had a lot of trouble when he took over Barca last season, but then Ennick noticed the powerful destructive power of the MSN combination, and he used the South American tristar as the core to play a defensive counterattack on the basis of Barca's passing football, in short, it is the tactic of controlling the ball to protect the backyard and counterattacking to cripple the opponent. This tactic caught many giants off guard last season, and Barca also won the treble after picking out many titles in a row.
However, the development and changes in today's football world are changing rapidly, and when the other side is thinking about how to deal with Barca's counterattack and MSN, Enrique will have to come up with new tricks, but unfortunately he has not come up with a successful and feasible plan. In fact, the middle and lower reaches of La Liga that season have reminded Enrique more than once, but Barca can always win again and again with their strong overall strength, which to some extent also paralyzes the team at the same time. When faced with Atletico's impactful counter-attack and elastic defensive line, all dreams are shattered like bubbles, and Enrique has a sense of exhaustion and can only stand on the sidelines and hurry.
Heavy events and FIFA virus
That's the biggest reason.
Barca quickly fell to the bottom, and the biggest reason was fatigue. The team's previous half of the season has accumulated a lot of fatigue and injury hazards, and the final week of the national team match in March became the last straw that crushed the giant camel of the Red and Blues. According to past experience, April should have been the time when Barca's state broke out, and it was during this time that the team broke through and finally won the treble, and the reason why it suddenly collapsed in 16 years was because the players were too tired.
How tired are Barca's players? According to statistics, in the 15-16 season, in addition to the traditional three fronts, the team also has to play in the European Super Cup, the Spanish Super Cup and the Club World Cup and other competitions, the total number of games has exceeded 60 games, coupled with the recruitment of national teams, many players in the team have played nearly 70 games. This game is a severe physical and mental test for any professional player. Even with injuries, players can't get enough rest after recovering from injuries and have to come back and get back on the field.
It is worth mentioning that compared with Real Madrid, all from the BBC combination in Europe, Barca's MSN combination is from South America, the road is far from the need to suffer from boats and cars, and especially the core of the team Messi, at the end of March 2016, the two World Cup qualifiers he tried his best, although Argentina returned to the ranks of the South American qualifying teams, but Barca got a tired Messi. The team's important rotation player, French national Mathieu, was torn apart in the meniscus against Russia and was tragically reimbursed for the season, which made Enrique's choice of backline instantly stretched.
And when the national team game is over, the Barça players who returned to Spain are like a virus, exhausted in the la Liga and Champions League matches, the field is muddy, the running is obviously not active enough, and the score behind can not set off an offensive frenzy and break out the momentum of victory. The problem of physical exhaustion has prevented Barca players from playing as clean and efficient as usual. Coupled with the intensive suffering of the devil's schedule, Barca did not slow down for many consecutive games, continued to perform in key games and could not extricate themselves, and finally lost the national derby and the Champions League life and death battle, and also lost the entire season.