Barcelona’s front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez have struck up a good understanding this season
Barcelona moved to the top of La Liga on Sunday for the first time since November, as the Catalan giants hammered Rayo Vallecano 6-1 at the Camp Nou.
The usual suspects were on the scoresheet, with Lionel Messi grabbing a hat-trick, Luis Suarez scoring a brace and midfielder Ivan Rakitic also getting on the scoresheet.
Flattering
The score line was not flattering at all. In fact the Catalan giants could have scored more, but for a admirable display from Rayo keeper Christian Alvarez.
It was a routine win for Barca in the end and it ensured the men from Catalonia moved back to the summit of La Liga.
Surprise
Previous league leaders Real Madrid suffered a surprise 1-0 defeat at San Mames against midtable Athletic Bilbao, with striker Aritz Aduriz scoring the only goal of the game for Ernesto Valverde’s side.
Welsh star Gareth Bale came close to finding the net for Los Blancos from an audacious 40-yard effort, which may have been an attempted cross. However, cross or not it came close to being one of the goals of the season.
The defeat in Bilbao and slipping up against Villarreal at the Bernabeu prior to that has allowed Barcelona to jump ahead of Carlo Ancelotti’s men.
Together
It seems that Barcelona boss Luis Enrique has now come to grips with the major task of managing one of the biggest clubs in the world. The former-Barcelona midfielder took a while to settle as Barca boss, but his history with the Catalan club seems to have allowed him some extra leeway.
He has changed the style of the team slightly in his early days at the Nou Camp. They are now more direct than the days of Tiki-Taka as Barcelona almost search for a new playing identity.
Barcelona still like to past the ball, because that is the philosophy of the club. However, it is no longer pass-pass-pass, more like pass-pass shoot. That style has been developed to get the ball towards the fantastic attacking threesome of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez more quickly.
The Barcelona faithful seem far happier with Enrique, than predecessor Gerardo Martino, who just could not seem to buy into how the club worked. Enrique knows from his playing career what the club means to the Barcelona fans and people of the region and that has helped him enormously.
Improving
Luis Suarez’s move to Barcelona from Liverpool was one of the biggest transfers of the summer. The Uruguayan missed the first few months of the season through the suspension picked-up at the World Cup.
He made a slow start, goal-scoring wise anyway, and received some criticism from both fans and experts alike. Suarez always contributed to the team, even when he was not scoring goals.
The last few games has saw Suarez return to the player that tore the Premier League up last season for Liverpool, as he is now finding the net on a regular basis.
The former-Ajax striker has now scored six goals in his last four games in all competitions for Barcelona. However, more importantly he has developed a good understanding with Barca superstar Lionel Messi and Brazilian Neymar.
Barca’s is a dream strike-force in anybody’s book and when they click they are devastating. Suarez seems to have accepted the fact that Messi is the star of the team and that a lot of Barcelona’s play goes through the majestic Argentinian international superstar, which has been key to the Uruguayan finding his place in the team.
Problems
Barcelona’s arch-rivals Real Madrid seem to have hit a road block in recent games, after earlier this season recording 22 consecutive victories.
It seems that even though Spanish international Isco has been in good form, the Real midfield have missed the injured pair of Colombian international James Rodriguez and Croatia international Luka Modric.
Maybe complacency also crept into the mind of the Real players. Maybe they were finding it too easy at times. It is not too easy now as Barcelona have leapfrogged them in La Liga at a potentially crucial time with El Clasico just a few weeks away.
Favourites
Today’s results have definitely given Barcelona the advantage in the race for La Liga. However, with the quality in the Real Madrid squad they cannot be written-off at this stage of the campaign.
With 12 games to go the title race is delicately balanced and it promises to be a very interesting last few months in the race for the Spanish title.
Who will win La Liga this season?
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