3. Barcelona’s set-piece weaknesses exposed yet again
Boy, Barcelona cannot defend a set-piece, can they? Their defensive achilles heel was exposed repeatedly – and smashed to smithereens twice – by Deportivo. With Pique the only decent defender of the ball in the air, they were at Depor’s mercy whenever they conceded a corner. They missed Umtiti’s height at the back, and needed Suarez to double as main defensive header-out.
Their failings at the other end are less talked about, they won 8 corners and did the square root of nothing from it all. While they are a short team, surely Enrique and Unzue ought to work out patterns that can maximise their strengths moving forward – and minimise them while defending.
In fact, the closest anyone came to scoring from a Barcelona corner was when Deportivo broke forward and messed up a three-on-one situation in the last minute of stoppage time.