Barcelona's continuous drama

The struggles in attack and problems in defence have cost Barcelona a handful of points so far this season under both Ronald Koeman and Xavi Hernandez.

In Saturday's 1-1 draw away at Granada, Barcelona produced just one shot on target as they hardly managed to create any danger in front of Luis Maximiano's goal.

The Blaugrana tried to threaten their opponents by putting crosses into the box and that's how they managed to open the scoring through their top performer Luuk de Jong.

Meanwhile, Barcelona lacked intensity in defence again in the last stretch of the game. It has happened various times this season, with Granada's equaliser uncovering their opponents' defensive frailties, as two players of the Andalusian team were unmarked at the far post after the corner kick from which they manage to level the game.

The turning point in the game was Gavi's sending off, as Barcelona dropped back in their attempt to secure all three points at the Nuevo Estadio de Los Carmenes.

"The sending off made things difficult for us," Sergio Busquets acknowledged after the duel.

"It changed the game completely."

No Barcelona player has been penalised more times this season than Gavi, as this was the 17-year-old midfielder's seventh yellow card in 2021/22.

More injuries

Following the injuries of Ronald Araujo and Frenkie de Jong in the Copa del Rey game against Linares on Wednesday, Eric Garcia was the latest Barcelona player to pick up a knock this season. Back in December, Barcelona announced the incorporation of doctor Ricard Pruna, who was at the club when Xavi was a player, but they keep losing key players to injuries.

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