Raphinha And Kounde Reveal Reasons Behind Barcelona’s Poor Form

Barcelona forward, Raphinha, has told ESPN that fatigue is the major reason for the team’s dip in form as they target a winning end to the year in Saturday’s top-of-the-table clash against Atlético Madrid.

Barça started the season strong, winning 11 of their first 12 La Liga matches, but they have struggled recently, managing to secure only one victory in their last six games after unexpected home losses to Las Palmas and Leganés.

Atlético, meanwhile, have won six in a row in La Liga and go into the game at the Olympic Stadium level on points with leaders Barça having been 10 points behind at the start of November.

“It’s down to us,” Raphinha told ESPN when asked about recent poor results. “We have been bad. We have dropped our level. Maybe we have lacked concentration in moments and it’s cost us.

“And tiredness as well. If I tell you we weren’t tired in certain games when we dropped points, I would be lying. So tiredness, I think, is the biggest factor, but we have also dropped our level.”

Barça’s short squad and injuries have meant coach Hansi Flick has been reliant on the same core of players since taking over in the summer.

Raphinha is among 10 players who have exceeded 1,500 minutes of playing time this season. Dani Olmo, hampered by injuries, ranks 11th with 787 minutes, while no other player in the squad has accumulated more than 700 minutes of playing time.

Only Iñigo Martínez (2,046 minutes) and Jules Koundé (1,975), who was this week revealed as the footballer who has played the most minutes across the whole of 2024, have played more than Raphinha.

Despite the challenges, the Brazilian remains confident that Barça will overcome this tough period. He believes that if the team can maintain the same level of focus for each match as they did in their victories against Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Borussia Dortmund, they can get back to winning ways.

“Yes, [we will] come through this,” he added. “I have a tattoo that says that ‘Everything passes,’ meaning the bad moments pass and the good ones, too, so it’s going to pass.

“We are doing good, we had a good moment [at the start of the season], entered a bad moment, and that will pass. That’s life. It’s how football is and life is also the same.

“What I think is we have to approach every game, every team, like the most powerful team in the world. If we did that, I think we would be much more focused on defending together, attacking together, and more focused to score goals.

“If we go into every game thinking it is the most important, we will be better.”

Kounde Addresses Barcelona’s Struggles

Defender Koundé agrees with Raphinha that Barça has risen to the big occasions. The French international hopes the weekend’s visit from Atlético will provide the platform to do so again.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” Koundé told ESPN when asked to diagnose Barça’s problems. “We are just playing a little less good in every aspect of the game.

“We start with the pressure [not being as good]; it’s also the focus; technically we are losing too many balls, especially in La Liga, because we’ve been doing good in the Champions League.

“I would say it’s us most of the time. I give credit to the team who beat us or drew against us, but in every game, we had the chance to win and we just didn’t play well enough or score our chances. It’s up to us to rectify it.

“We like these games [against teams like Atlético]. We’ve done great in these games, let’s say the big games, so far this season.”

Atlético have secured 11 consecutive victories across all competitions and matched Barça at the top of La Liga last week, all while holding a game in hand. They will face each other on Saturday in the final match of 2024 before the Spanish league takes a winter break.

“They are a contender [to win the league] for sure,” Koundé added.

“They have been good enough so far this season. They are sitting first in the table with us.

“I don’t know if they have the strongest squad, but I think this season they have more depth and a more complete team. We have been watching, obviously, and I think they’re playing great.”