Barcelona were hammered by PSG 4-0 in the Champions League Tuesday.

I found the following passage featured in this article from Sid Lowe fascinating: https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/feb/15/barcelona-luis-enrique-humiliation-paris-saint-germain-champions-league?CMP=share_btn_tw

“El Mundo asked readers if they remembered that team who “respected the ball”, that reigned through an “endless series of indecipherable passes” and “cared for and nurtured the midfield”. The verdict was damning: “It no longer exists.” Juan Jiminez lamented in AS: “Barcelona used to be something else, something healthier.”

I found this interesting, because after a heavy Spain or Barcelona defeat, most Anglo* journalists seem to focus on the winning team's ability on the counter-attack and/or superior physical presence. Another topic that has cropped up recently is the waning generation of Spanish footballers leaving their respective teams unable to play an effective possession-based style.

The reaction in Spain, meanwhile, seems to take up an opposing viewpoint. They point out that Barcelona has drifted away from their identity, and that they no longer bring the youth players along into the first team. While the outside world hammers them for their identity, there are many in Spain clamoring for a return to it.

*I generalize Anglo to mean American or UK based journalists. I'm fluent only in English, so these are the journalists I most consistently read. Obviously these are not homogenous groups of people and ideas, and I am generalizing.