Man. I remember when I was in my teens (not even that long ago) I would be so emotionally attached to Barça, in both positive and negative ways. Ronaldinho against Madrid. Iniesta against Chelsea. I thought that, as you age, those emotions become less intense. Guess not. I think I actually feel physically sick today after watching that.
It's been said a few times, but Valverde's gotta go. A lot of stuff has been swept under the rug because of the good results in the past two years, and for me personally, last season I was OK with the less entertaining playing style in favour of more pragmatic and defensively sound kind of football, but this season, even though we won the Liga again, I have seen so many boring games, too many. Games where they don't give it their all, where they think they can win it just by being Barça or having Messi. There's no imagination, no creativity, no urgency. I've found myself, at times, not even feeling like tuning in to a Barça game, and it's been a long time since I felt like that.
I knew Liverpool would be our biggest test of the season, and I knew there was a great chance their high energy style of play would give this version of Barça an enormous amount of trouble. But I'd never though that without Salah, Firmino or Keita, they would be able to lay a beating like that upon us. But it is what happens when you have a manager that doesn't understand the meaning of intensity. I doubt he is even able to fire up this team anymore (or ever was). It's no coincidence they get destroyed twice in all or nothing CL games on the road. I can live with getting eliminated, but not like this. There's no coming back from this for Valverde. Also, I'm not going to put all blame solely on him, because about half the team were very poor, and the number of dumb giveaways (especially on goals 1 and 3) were excruciating.
But, congrats to Liverpool. Can't say it's not deserved, based on both games.
This shows what a poor league La Ligue is. Barca were not fit or strong enough and could not cope with the intensity. Barc play at a canter most weeks and NEVER have anyone go at them like Liverpool did tonight. Messi is for me the best player in the world and they have some other world class players, no doubt, but because the league is so weak they almost never face adversity so have no idea how to cope with it. They were rabbits caught in the headlights. That’s where the 4th goal came from, not only were they physically suffering they were mentally shot.
La Liga teams have been dominating European Cup tournaments in recent years, so I'm not sure how you'd just dismiss it as weak. Actually, I am sure, because the rest of your post clearly shows you barely watch La Liga. Plenty of teams, even the smaller ones, have a go at Barça like they have nothing to lose (because usually, they really don't). Look at the Barça v Betis game at the Nou Camp from earlier this season and tell me again how nobody has a go at them. Look at the games against Athletic, Rayo, Atletico, at Sevilla or at Villarreal and tell me how they don't face adversity. The one difference is those teams don't have the magic of Anfield, where (as someone put very nicely) all logic disappears on nights like this.
As Lightning fan this feels like redemption for me. People can say we pulled off the biggest choke EVAAARRRR by not even winning a game after a 62 win season and I can tell them they need to watch what's happened to Barca.
Try being a Lightning ánd Barça fan