Real Madrid was on a roll, but Barcelona had ushered in a dark age!
That was the Catalan media's evaluation of the current state of the two La Liga giants.
It was widely believed that Real Madrid had entered a period of peace under Calderón's rule, while Barcelona under Laporta's rule had taken a turn for the worse!
The Catalan media listed seven major problems as the reasons for Barcelona's sudden collapse this season.
Reason one: Barça was infected with the "superstar syndrome" of Real Madrid during Florentino's era.
Today's Barça was becoming more and more like Florentino's "Galactica." They had the same expressions, the same pace, and the same bad habits.
The hunger that had been building up year after year had disappeared. The Barça players now felt satisfied. An honor had made them lose their appetite before it came out. They had won two league titles and two Supercopa de España titles. The team felt very satisfied.
Rijkaard's team was now more concerned about things other than sports. The superstars had become accustomed to missing training to attend advertising conferences. Even Barça's president, Laporta, had Barça play a time-consuming and laborious commercial game in Egypt when the battle for the La Liga title had reached its climax. The appearance fee of 1.5 million euros might have cost Barça a lot.
Reason two: Barça was biting off more than he could chew.
It was good for a team to have ambition, but it was not good if you did not look at reality and were blindly arrogant.
At the beginning of the season, Barça shouted the slogan of winning all the titles! Unfortunately, the team exhausted their energy for various useless trophies. Barça had won nothing so far except the Supercopa de España. They had been eliminated by Liverpool in the Champions League and humiliated by Getafe in the Copa del Rey. Now, only the La Liga was left. In fact, the defending of the La Liga title only existed in theory. No one believed that Real Madrid would give the title away. This was not a situation that Laporta had envisioned. However, if Barça had focused on fighting for one or two titles, they might not have lost both sesame seeds and watermelons.
Reason three: Rijkaard was regressing.
Unlike last season's wise decisions, Rijkaard had made enough mistakes this season. From a formation without a defensive midfielder to a formation with only one defensive midfielder, from the risky 343 formation to the conservative 433 formation, people didn't even know what Rijkaard was trying to do.
Although Rijkaard said he would stay at Barça, even he was not sure if he could stay in the Camp Nou next season.
In addition, without Tenkat by his side, Rijkaard also lost the ability to have in-depth conversations with the players. This season, Rijkaard's assistant, Neskens, had average ability and was introverted. He could not complement Rijkaard. Barça's coaching staff lacked a kind of authority, a person who could hit the table in anger at a critical moment.
Reason 4: The broken locker room.
Although many people denied it, Barça's locker room was now divided. Eto 'o's attack on Rijkaard and Ronaldo Jr. at Biafranca opened up the inside story of the internal strife in Barça's locker room. For the first time, people saw that Barça, which had always given people a harmonious impression, was actually hiding so many dark corners.
The relationship between Eto 'o and Rijkaard, and Eto' o and Ronaldo Jr. could not go back to the past. People talked about the struggle between Laporta's faction and Roselle's faction, but in fact, Barça's existence was more selfish.
This was the result of Rijkaard's so-called "self-management" strategy for the players.
Reason 5: Ronaldo did not play well.
Throughout the season, Ronaldinho's performance failed to meet the expectations of the fans, whether in the Spanish or European games. Ronaldo's brother never stopped flirting with AC Milan, which brought a lot of uneasiness to Barça.
Ronaldo's image was also questioned by the fans, from the fat on his abdomen to the inexplicable "kissing disease." His overall image this season was mediocre. Except for a few moves and some set pieces to score, it was difficult to say that he played the role of a superstar.
His goal statistics were still worthy of recognition, but they were far from the standards of the genius Ronaldo. The fans expected him to play better, but first he needed to work hard to train.
Reason 6: Poor fitness.
This was also another direct manifestation of Barça's "Galactica." Barça's fitness this season had always been poor. The players could not run. Even if there was one game a week, the Barça players found it difficult to last for 90 minutes. Everyone was criticizing the coaching staff for not doing a good job.
Ronaldo spent half of his training in the gym instead of the training ground. Many players also tried to avoid the training ground and hide in the gym.
Reason 7: Bad signing.
The players Barça brought in this season generally failed to meet people's expectations. Zambrotta, Thuram, and Gudjohnsen did not really integrate into Barça's tactical system. No one could play the role of Larsson, who could be in place at any time.
Many people thought that Barça's vice president, Bekiristain, who was in charge of the signing, should take the main responsibility. The fans began to miss the former vice president, Roselle, who was very good at transfer issues.
The problems focused on Barcelona began to explode. In addition to some general problems with the competition, the problems with Barcelona's top management began to be revealed.
The word "purge" began to appear on the lips of Barça's top management, which proved that the club really recognized the problem.
Cruyff had long said, "Football is cyclical. Each cycle is about three to four years. It is difficult to extend it. It is difficult to start a business and even harder to maintain it. It is difficult to keep an individual in shape for a long time. It is even more difficult to keep the whole team brilliant. Now it is time for Barça to decide who to buy and who to sell, and the vision can't be limited to one season. "
Barça's top management was not prepared to carry out a major purge of the team. Barça's vice president, Bekiristain, had said that the cycle of Barça's lineup was not over.
"Some players will leave, but not too many."
Rijkaard had also denied that Barça would carry out a revolution.
"Barça does not need a revolution because most of the players are performing well. The club does not need to make too many changes to the lineup."
Previously, Barça had insisted on not purging the lineup because the president, Laporta, had carefully designed the "2010 Plan" for the team. The vast majority of the players on the team had signed with the club until 2010. The Barça president had expected the players to maintain their aggressiveness until 2010, but now it seemed unrealistic.
Barça's rebuilding plan had to be launched ahead of time. The top management clearly said, "We are planning to build another great team to satisfy the fans and members. Now is the time to change. Winning the title will not change our signing plan because this is the decision we made after a season of summary. "
Rijkaard realized that his position as the manager was not stable. "I am willing to stay, but it is not up to me to decide." Once Barça failed to win the title, Rijkaard was likely to be forced to leave Barça. The Dutchman had led Barça into a dead end this season, whether in terms of management or tactics!
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