4-0 is a very harsh and unfair result that does not look good for optics or inference on progress.Our tactics in a mechanical sense was very good and worked against Barcelona. The problem was the mentality of the players. They played without conviction, without belief, scared and tentative. So when the tactics allowed us to get into good positions, especially in behind their defense, the players were too tight and mentally switched off to make the most of those situations. Our midfield dominated their midfield but the players were also tight and tentative, and that played out and led to the first goal- Fernandinho nervously slipping and not getting up and then Otamendi allowing Messi to get on the loose ball. The tentativeness, tightness and poor mentality also led to the goal keeper's scared attempt to pass the ball, which led to the misplaced pass, his red card and this consequently finished the football match.
This may be due to the constant subliminal innuendos from the manager about how Barcelona are the ''best'' ever since the draw was made, or the manager did not instill genuine belief in the players that the match could be won or the players just did not believe themselves. Whatever it was, it is very disappointing that the players could not embrace the stage and freely express themselves and their talents. The only player that had the ''Ill take this on'' mentality was Sterling. I suppose Gundugan played well enough but for the others, especially when we created chances like the Stones header, he was too mentality switched off to actually head and direct the ball. De Bruyne (whose mental inconsistency has to be at least noted) and Nolito got in good positions but were too hasty and not composed to make the final ball count.We played like robots most of the match.
The mentality of the Barcelona players was not that great as well, for whatever reason. Their midfield was poor- Iniesta, Rakitic and Bosquets, as I have already said, lost the battle against our midfield. But due to individual errors on our part and some luck.. and some composed play from Messi and Neymar and co, they punished us in the final third. So Barcelona did not play that well either. Luckily for our team, the bad mentality did not lead to injuries like some of the Barcelona players. (when the mind suffers, the body cries out and so on..) So at least there were no injuries.
It was a strange tactical match without any real energy and freedom of expression (Messi is expression personified so you will always get some form of expression from him)- and the game was essentially decided by mistakes and bad incidents. It was fairly even and we looked even more dangerous and created more openings until the red card ofcourse.
This game showed that we have the footballing quality to match any team in the world if we have the belief and the right mentality, ask Athletic Madrid,.... and this has to be installed on the players..again.
