The Barca crash in the second half reminded that of the last 20 minutes in the Super Cup against Atlético and calls into question the status of the players and the work plan of the technicians.
The physical fall of Barça in the Bernabéu was capital. Only from that crash can you understand the last half hour of the champion, who fell to weight and did not have a single response to the outburst of passion and heart of Madrid. With a view to what is left of the season, It was worrying to see key players like Semedo, Jordi Alba, Vidal, Busquets or Messi, missing in the second part and surpassed on a physical level for the intensity of Madrid. Semedo played a second spooky part, Alba suffered with Valverde, Vidal began to be a machine to lose balls, Busquets could not multiply as in the first half and to Messi lacked a lot of spark. So much that, in the most significant play of the game, Marcelo won the decisive duel in a symbolic image.
The scenario of the second part, which reminded of the last 20 minutes in Arabia against Atlético de Madrid in the semifinal of the Super Cup, feeds the legend installed long ago in the Barça locker room. A team that does not train much and that is not to hold games with a lot of rhythm. That it is prepared more in terms of self-management than of direction from the bench. And that has its consequences. It was to put Madrid's heart into it, put it one more point of intensity, and drop Barça. The pace of the team is also pasty. Veterans over 30, Piqué Alba, Busquets or Messi, determine the rhythm of a team that sometimes leaves horrific images when De Jong arrives at the opposite area seconds before the rest and has to stand up and start again at the pace that veterans ask for.
There are many doubts that Barça can physically reach the decisive part of the season. At the moment, he is already below in LaLiga and the toughest Champions League matches await him. It is a tremendously lacking equipment and that it numbs the one who wants to put it on, like De Jong or Braithwaite himself, that after leaving revolutionized and staying hand in hand with Courtois in his first minute in the field, he did nothing more.
Shorter than football in other seasons, fitness is the other major concern of Barça with a view to the last leg of the League. Injured Suárez and Dembélé, just out of an injury Jordi Alba, physically lazy Busquets and Messi, the worst news for Setién is that he has only 14 players of the first team and he must know how to handle them so as not to run out of options in any competition ahead of time. But in the club there is concern that if homework was not done in their day, putting workloads now makes no sense. Barça will have to face the end of the season with the physical base that has been worked during the course. And it doesn't seem like trusting.