La Liga in focus: Ahead of title run-in, Barcelona’s biggest opponents are themselves

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  Atletico Madrid’s French forward Antoine Griezmann. Javier Soriano / AFP

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  Barcelona’s Uruguayan forward Luis Suarez (L) vies with Valencia’s goalkeeper Diego Alves. Lluis Gene / AFP

The last time a Spanish team went from being in such a dominant position at the top of La Liga to not winning the league was in 2003/04 when Real Madrid's form dipped alarmingly at the end of the season.

A decade later, this writer asked Carlos Queiroz, who had been manager at the Bernabeu at that time, what went wrong.

“I told the president and [sporting director] Jorge Valdano that we needed to reinforce the team in the December,” Queiroz said. “They didn’t do it. Had we been second or third they would have done. But we were top and playing great football. My mistake was leading the team to the top at the start.

“I also believe that the Madrid bombs hit our club hard,” a reference to the coordinated bombings on the Cercanías commuter train system of Madrid on March 11, 2004 that killed 192 people. “They affected the city, our club and the players in a terrible way. We played Zaragoza in the Bernabeu. It was silent; I could hear the players during the game.”

Read more from Andy Mitten:

• Once so sure, once so invincible, Barcelona do not know how to lose – and must learn fast

• La Liga in focus: Barcelona must restore earlier shine to reclaim title authority

Madrid, with their new star signing David Beckham, withered and finished fourth behind eventual champions Valencia, Barcelona and Deportivo La Coruna. All four are having a vital bearing on this season’s title outcome.

Queiroz was constrained at the Bernabeu.

“The problem was not with the players, but others off the pitch,” Queiroz said. “I signed a contract for two seasons, but the policy of six ‘galacticos’ and a couple of [Francisco] Pavons [then a young player] without the same quality in between, which Real Madrid demands, was wrong.

“I was invited to support that policy and I agreed to it, to try and bring young players through. The problem was that my decisions were overpassed to play the Pavons. I had to play players who never reached the expectations of the club. Yet some of the kids I selected from the junior teams are still playing first division in Spain. There were better players already at the club than the ones I had to play. Even a Ferrari cannot drive if it has three tyres.”

Queiroz made it clear that he never really had full authority over team selection, but the same can't be said of Luis Enrique at Barcelona.

Sport is so engrossing because it's so unpredictable. Yet people at the top of their game still make bold predictions. In February, Zinedine Zidane, a player at Real Madrid in 2004 and now the manager, said that the league was over. He was wrong, but few disputed his words. Barcelona were running away with the title and held a 10-point lead over Madrid when the pair met at Camp Nou at the start of this month.

Madrid won against a team unbeaten in 39 games, starting a run of four defeats in five games for the Catalans. Atletico Madrid are level on points with five games remaining, Madrid are a point behind. The title is still in Barca's hands. Win their remaining games, starting with a match on Wednesday in La Coruna, and they will be champions for the eighth time since 2005.

But what has gone so drastically wrong? Cules are stunned as their team, the Spanish, European and world champions, suffers from anxiety. They didn't play badly in a 2-1 defeat to Valencia at the weekend but missed nine clear-cut chances, but they look fatigued.

It’s no surprise given many of Barca’s players have already played over 50 games this season. They are playing twice a week every week and Enrique is reluctant to rotate beyond the players he trusts.

Barca already have a small squad which lost Pedro at the start of the season to Chelsea. New signings Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal have yet to impact. Enrique barely seems to trust Marc Barta, Thomas Vermaelen, Adriano and Douglas. All four of those are defenders, yet Enrique chose Sergi Roberto, mainly a midfielder, to play right-back in Sunday’s defeat at home to Valencia and he was culpable in both goals.

With Rafinha, a player Enrique does like, injured, the Barcelona manager is down to the core group of players who have served him so well. But when that core don’t perform he is limited in his Plan B.

Neymar is out of form and slows play down. Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez have been less than their usual spectacular selves.

Deportivo La Coruna will be tough, but Barca’s biggest opponents in the title run-in is themselves.

In Antoine Greizmann, Atletico Madrid have a real gem

Another week, another victory for Atletico Madrid as they beat Granada 3-0 to go level on points at the top of the Primera Liga. Koke, Fernando Torres and Angel Correa scored. The only surprise was that Antoine Griezmann didn't.

The French forward, who came from Real Sociedad for a fee of €26.4 million (Dh110.2m) in 2014, had scored at least one goal in each of Atletico's previous seven league matches. Only Pichichi winners Diego Forlan and Pruden had ever scored in eight consecutive league games for Atleti.

Crucially, Griezmann also scored both goals that knocked Barcelona out of Europe last week and pushed Atletico into a Uefa Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich.

Griezmann, 25, is at an age where consistency has come with maturity. A better player under Diego Simeone, he is deciding games at the highest level, something very few players have the ability to do. Simeone alters Griezmann's position between the left wing, second striker and centre-forward, but, full of confidence, Griezmann is effective in all. He has already scored 29 goals for Atleti this season, including 20 in the league.

Griezmann is already coveted by richer English teams and Atletico will receive offers this summer. They are under no pressure to sell and there is a strong argument for him staying in one of the best teams in the world in a place where he is loved and valued. He enjoys living in Madrid, too, but Atletico could not compete with the big English clubs if one was to offer a massive transfer fee in excess of £70 million (Dh292m) – he has a €100 million buyout clause in his contract – and to double his wages.

That is entirely feasible for Manchester United, one of the clubs who have been watching him closely. Chelsea have also watched him and are said to be interested. Chelsea will not be playing Champions League football next term and United are four points off fourth place in England's Premier League table.

Griezmann would be perfect for either. Rejected by his boyhood team Lyon for being too small, he is young enough to be the kind of player United want to sign, yet he is still improving and has the potential to be the absolute best.

Having left France at 14 to move to the Basque Country, La Liga’s Player of the Month for January is used to adapting. He was heart-broken when Lyon rejected him, happier after Real Sociedad spotted him in a youth tournament playing on trial for Montpellier. Griezmann lodged with a coach and crossed the border each morning to attend a French school. He went on to play 202 first-team games for the Basques.

With Barca’s stars temporarily fading and Griezmann in form, the league’s top scorer has a chance to shine at home, in the Champions League and in Euro 2016. Be it for his team or individual awards, the stage is his.

Player of the week

Diego Alves was magnificent in keeping Barcelonaa at bay as Valencia won 2-1 at Camp Nou. The 30-year-old Brazilian missed the first half of the season with a cruciate ligament injury. Brought back into the team by Gary Neville in February, his return coincided with Valencia’s first league win in 13 games. He is been performing well.

Game of the week

Barcelona at Deportivo La Coruna on Wednesday will be fascinating. Are the Catalans shot? Will Luis Enrique rotate, or use his substitutes earlier? Real Madrid have a tough game at home to Villarreal on Thursday, while Atletico Madrid will also do well to overcome Athletic in Bilbao. The big three will all have to be at their best to win.

What else?

• Levante have been playing reasonably in parts but struggling to get off the bottom of the table. That changed as they came from behind to beat Espanyol 2-1, thanks to two free kicks. Giuseppe Rossi, who arrived in January in the hope of helping them stay up, scored and increased their hopes. They are now only two points off Granada who sit safe in 17th place. Guess who play they Thursday? Granada against Levante in a game neither can afford to lose.

• Getafe keep losing and appear doomed. Real Madrid put five past them at the weekend, with the front three of Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema all scoring. Madrid are now the form team in Spain. They have 38 points from Zinedine Zidane’s first 15 league matches. Rafa Benitez picked up only one less. One difference is that Barcelona were winning and now they are losing, casting a much more favourable light on events at the Bernabeu.

• If Getafe go down – and it looks likely they will – they are likely to be replaced by another +team from a southern Madrid satellite. Leganes, who average only 4,000 in their 8,000 capacity home, are top of the Liga Adelante, though only five points separate the top seven teams and Leganes lost to neighbours Alcorcon at the weekend. Alaves, Real Oviedo, Gimnastic Tarragona, Alcorcon and Elche are all there in a very tight league where five teams all average more than 10,000 at home.

• Can Llagostera stay up? The smallest team by far in Spain’s top two divisions rose from second bottom to third bottom after a 93rd-minute equaliser at Numancia. Given that they haven’t won away all season, the draw is an excellent result. The Catalans, who play in a rented home on the beautiful Costa Brava to crowds of only 1,700, are five points from safety with eight games remaining.

• Real Sociedad beat Sevilla away and Barcelona at home, but they couldn’t beat Eibar in a Basque derby, going down 2-1. The league’s smallest team have 41 points, enough to keep them up for a third successive season in La Liga.

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