Back in the middle of December, Barcelona lost consecutive matches against Girona and Royal Antwerp. There was a time, not too long ago, when Barcelona would barely lose two games in a season, let alone two in a row to relative minnows like Girona and Royal Antwerp. That time, of course, was when Barcelona's current manager was still a Barcelona midfielder.
In response to the growing unrest about his team's performances, manager Xavi Hernandez took a defensive stance. "The media are not united but it is time for us to be more united than ever," he said then. "Alarm bells always ring when things are not going well, but we can still win four titles."
A month later, the alarm bells are ringing even louder and after Wednesday's 4-2 loss to Athletic Bilbao in the round of 16 in the Copa del Rey, Barcelona can only win two titles. "Can" should be understood in only the most literal terms: Per The Analyst's projections, Barca have just a 3.2% chance of winning LaLiga. In the Champions League, ESPN Bet's odds give Xavi's team about a 7% chance of lifting another European Cup.
- Stream LaLiga live on ESPN+: Barca vs. Osasuna (Wednesday, 1 p.m. ET)
Yes, Barca still can win two trophies, but when you take those two probabilities together, it means there's a less than 10% chance that they win any trophies.
So, what happened, and who -- or what -- is to blame? Like we did last month with Manchester United, let's analyze and rank -- from most blameworthy to least -- all the reasons for Barcelona's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season.
