Surely that was one of the issues on the agenda when Luis Enrique took over as coach, although there cannot be any deny that part of that reason stems from the fact that they only had two center halves the entire season (Pique and Puyol were injured for a bulk of the season, while Song isn't really even in the equation). One of them is just too raw (Bartra), and the other is a converted defensive midfielder (Mascherano), who sadly is being played out of position and as we could see at the World Cup is a damn fine player if he played in his natural position. The addition of Rakitic has helped, and an overall greater emphasis on keeping proper defensive shape has made Barca much more compact and gives them enough cover when their opponents break on the counter.... |