Defeat to Real Madrid in El Clasico did not go down as a disaster in Catalonia, after Barcelona showed they could definitely mix it with Real Madrid despite a number of absences. However it does open up space for inquests to be opened and questions to be asked about more worrying numbers.
The Blaugrana are now four points off Los Blancos at the top of the table with Girona, and have shown some impressive spurts of play. But on the whole, the statistics do not speak of an improvement, as highlighted by Sport. They are not just four points behind those two teams, but also off where they were last season (28 points).
Of the 10 games that Barcelona have won out of 13, 7 have been by just a single goal, illustrating that they have not been comfortable in the majority of cases. While the perception has been that Barcelona have been more impressive offensively, they have 23 goals this season, compared to 28 goals last season.
The most damning is no doubt the defensive numbers, where Barcelona have conceded triple what they did last season. Last season they had conceded just four times, while this time they are on 12 – a figure they took until May to reach last season.
Barcelona’s injury crisis has no doubt heavily influenced these issues, with Robert Lewandowski, Pedri, Ronald Araujo, Frenkie de Jong, Jules Kounde and Raphinha all missing a number of games. Yet the sense that Barcelona might not be excellent, but were able to dig out results is gone this season.