During Tuesday night’s El Clasico post match questioning, Cristiano Ronaldo stated that Barcelona had become predictable and that it had become easy for Real Madrid to adapt to their style.
Ronaldo scored twice last night to help Real Madrid into the final of the Copa Del Rey and they did it in impressive style, outplaying Barcelona at the Camp Nou on their way to a 3-1 victory.
Of course, Jose Mourinho got his finger out and started to ‘ssh’ the Catalan crowd and for the first time in a long time Barcelona look, whisper it now, a little vulnerable.
This loss comes on the back of a 2-0 defeat to AC Milan in the Champions League, a score that will be difficult to overturn come the return leg in a couple of weeks time. Milan will set up to defend and hit on the counter attack and, as Chelsea and Celtic have proved recently, this tactic can be quite effective against Barcelona.
Does Cristiano have a point? Have Barcelona become all to predictable? Everybody knows they will maintain possession for a long periods during the game but when Lionel Messi isn’t firing in goals (rare, I know) Barcelona do seem to struggle to find a Plan B.
Having said all this, Barcelona have wrestled back the La Liga title from their rivals Madrid and it is difficult to criticise a team that has been so dominant over the past couple of season.
These losses, however, point to some possible chinks the Barcelona armour and it will be down to Tita Vilanova and his coaching staff to spice things up a bit.