Granada vs. FC Barcelona (1-1) Match Review: LDJ Header, Gavi Blunders, & Chance for 3rd Place Lost

The Barca Breakdown discussed a tough draw against Granada CF in their first La Liga match of the new year and first match of the second half of the season. This was Barca's opportunity to take 3rd on the table, surpassing Atletico Madrid and Real Betis. Unfortunately, Luuk De Jong's Header was not good enough to secure the victory for Barcelona.

It became increasingly difficult for the Barca defense to lock down Granada's attacking force when a second poor foul by the youngster Gavi resulted in a red card and ejection. This left Barca with 10 men in the 10 minutes, just enough time for Granada to take a corner and find the Barca defense slacking. Puertas in the 89' was able to rocket a shot off the top post and in, scoring the game equalizer.

While we discussed many contributing factors to this draw, it is another example where Barca falls short when there are opportunities that they must take advantage of. Xavi, unfortunately put on Memphis Depay who ended up adding nothing to the team in place of LDJ. On top of this, once LDJ came off the pitch the Barca squad looked less organized in attack and no opportunities flourished in this formation of play.

Furthermore, the Barca squad looked less enthused to be on the pitch especially in the likes of Ousmane Dembele. His stay is extremely questionable at the moment, but we do not believe Barca played in the manner to open the field for Demebele. While we can sayGavi looked over zealous, hios chaotic tackles and poor choices was ultimately his downfall. In conclusion, the opportunity to rise on the table was thwarted by poor player output in combination with poor coaching decisions and a lack of adaptability. A silver lining of it all, is that Barca seem to be making improvements in different places. Although, they still have yet to fully fuse each incremental improvement into all aspects of the game simultaneously.

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