Following a 2-1 victory over Real Betis on away soil, Barcelona returns home to host the other team from the city of Seville. Los Blanquirrojos have been on a huge downfall this season, indeed, they’ve just started to slowly climb out of the pit in recent weeks but they are still far away from being competent challengers for La Blaugrana.
The summer transfer window was already a bad omen for the Sevillistas, as they have lost their crucial starting center-back partnership in Diego Carlos to Aston Villa and Jules Koundé to Barcelona. Halfway through the season, it’s safe to say that the Marcão–Nianzou pairing failed to perform up to expectations. Thus, not once happened that either Fernando or Gudelj had to retract to the center of the defense, but clearly, it wasn’t the best fit for the midfield duo.
To somehow stabilize the disastrous defending, Sampaoli opted to deploy a back 5, which required even more players at the back. And even despite the fact that Loïc Badé proved to be a refreshing surprise coming in the winter, maybe the defense is the area where Sampaoli managed to put across the least significant improvement. But is this Sampaoli’s mistake?
What seemed evident after a catastrophic season start, the relationship between the squad and Julen Lopetegui came to a fatal state, and a change was bound to happen. Eventually, after a 4-1 trashing suffered from Borussia Dortmund, it happened back in October, but it bereft the Argentine master to have a proper preparation and the obvious relapse in quality also made it hard for him to make his football blossom.
