A Barcelona without a stand-out midfielder

Something is not right, when in a giant team such as Barcelona, there is not a stand-out starting 11 for the best occasions. Barcelona continue to show weakness away from home and Valverde still cannot get the hang of it with the midfield positions, an area of the field which usually Barcelona have dominated over the past decade.

Neither more nor less than four different central midfielders have played in the position this season, with one single, stand-out man, Frenkie de Jong.

Gone are the times when the Barcelona line-up could be recited from memory and there had been no doubts in midfield, with Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta entertaining us all in the central zone.

The years passed and these grew older, after going in search of a golden retreat in leagues of lesser importance. And Barça still cannot find life insurance in the area, mainly after the departure of Fuentealbilla.

For some time, Rakitic was the untouchable force that was in Barca's plans week on week, but this campaign it seems that the Croatian's rest time has come. He has hardly played and in his first match in which he started, against Granada, he was ineffective.

Only De Jong, a determined bet of the club, has started in all 6 games, but has had some great performances, just hasn't been able to produce anything offensively.

And not to mention Busquets, who has lost regularity after becoming the best midfielder on the planet. Years have gone by and he no longer has the physical or mental freshness of the previous years, despite Barca missing him a lot when he doesn't play.

Sergi Roberto, who has been playing exclusively as a midfielder this campaign, has been named in the starting XI four times, but he has returned to defence as soon as unforeseen circumstances arose for Barca. And unfortunately a lot has happened in this tumultuous start of the campaign.

Alena, who started in Bilboa and has been forgotten about since then, has been the other midfielder that has achieved a start in the six games, together with Arthur. The Brazilian did well against Osasuna and very well against Valencia, but was completely overwhelmed against Dortmund.

For this reason he did not play at Granada and has not fixed his place in the starting XI. Arturo Vidal saw some minutes there, however and was refreshing for the team, but the Chilean gave away a decisive penalty almost as soon as he stepped on to the pitch.

Many men for three positions and little continuity in a decisive zone for football that Barca wants to build on campaign by campaign. And that has been one of the reasons why the Barca team is being threatend in this campaign so much. They are no longer seen as a threat and that is why they are overwhelmed every time they play away from Camp Nou.