They pushed Real Madrid all the way to the final day of the La Liga season, but it wasn’t to be for Barcelona, who conceded their title to their eternal rivals. A quarter-final exit in the Champions League made this season even more painful for their supporters, with the Copa del Rey win only putting a slightly positive spin on the campaign. Losing the league title was made all the more sickening for Barcelona given that they did the hard part – winning away at Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Valencia, Athletic Club – but slipped up in the more winnable matches, losing at home to Alaves and away at Malaga and Deportivo La Coruna.
While Real Madrid had excellent squad depth and were able to rotate their starters without experiencing much of a drop-off in performance, the opposite was true for Barcelona. Their starting XI was arguably better than Real Madrid’s and their front three of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar all performed to as high a level as they had done in previous seasons, but Paco Alcacer struggled to fill in whenever one member of the MSN front three was suspended, injured or rested. Another concern for Barcelona was the way their midfield was often overrun, with Sergio Busquets turning in some uncharacteristically disappointing performances and with Andrés Iniesta suffering from injuries throughout the year. In some matches, Luis Enrique almost seemed to want his players to bypass the midfield, a tactic which only had limited success. There were plenty of memorable moments from this season, from the last minute Clasico win to their PSG comeback, but Barcelona seemed to take their foot off the gas for the more winnable matches and that cost them dearly.
