Liverpool vs Barcelona: Yet another pathetic Champions League collapse leaves Barca with much to ponder

It is just not normal for a team this talented to suffer this again, no matter how exceptional Liverpool were - there must now be explanations

If the inquest at Barcelona will now go very deep, manager Ernesto Valverde’s comments did not.

“It is what it is,” he responded to one press conference question, so calmly, and so out of synch with the chaos we’d all just witnessed.

Because what it was was a second cataclysmic Champions League collapse from his Barcelona side in successive years, to only worsen this club’s notorious neurosis about this competition. It was also a humiliation that blew another chance at a treble after the 3-0 to Roma last season, and that against a Liverpool missing two of their best players. In that, the Catalans didn’t just squander a 3-0 lead, but also the best chance to win a Champions League in years. It is, in football terms, unforgivable.

“There are no excuses,” Valverde pleaded.

But there must be explanations, even if the stony-faced players were aghast at one Barcelona coach's attempt to look for them in the immediate aftermath of what happened at Anfield. The scene there was "like a funeral", as players struggled to comprehend what had happened. It is just not normal for a team this talented to suffer this again, no matter how exceptional Liverpool were. The home team's force was only one side of a multi-faceted failure.

Valverde did initially make some tactical errors. It was a mistake to pick Arturo Vidal in a match that merely required control. It was a control that they could never muster.

But such tactical factors still only go so far. They still don’t offer rationale for how ruinous this got.

It’s difficult not to primarily put it down to something as elementary as mentality - especially not when it’s as transparent as for something as triumphantly bad as the basic awareness for the fourth goal.

That was only the most visible example. What was worse - beyond the reality that the 4-0 did not flatter Liverpool - was the many different ways that bad mentality manifested itself; the many different individual champions that performed so badly.

There was first of all the conspicuous complacency with which they started the game. It did appear as if, psychologically, Barcelona felt they were already in a final. And once Liverpool made it emphatically clear to Barca that they were actually still in a competitive tie, the Catalans couldn’t rouse themselves. They tried to slow the pace of the game with some methodical possession, but the only consequence of that was that they then didn’t have the necessary intensity to actually compete with Liverpool in individual battles.

Too many of their players were being caught out, especially Jordi Alba for the first goal and second goals and - of all people right throughout the game - Sergio Busquets. It meant they began to panic.

Origi's winner typified everything that is wrong with this Barca side (AP)

As was the case against Roma, they never again really escaped that panic, particularly in defence. Every Liverpool attack felt like it could cause a detonation.

The half-time break didn’t even see them settle in any way. It only seemed to make them more intimidated, more susceptible to the force of Liverpool’s surges. By the time Gini Wijnaldum’s shot made its way through Marc-Andre ter Stegen, such callowness had given way to pathetic fragility.

They were mentally gone. That was confirmed by the frankly astonishing build-up to the fourth goal, before that fourth goal itself confirmed they were out. On one of the most embarrassing ever nights for the club, this was the most embarrassing possible goal any team - at any level - could concede. What were they thinking? What must the Barcelona hierarchy now be thinking?

Messi could only watch as his side crashed out in humiliating fashion again (REUTERS) (Reuters)

They may well make a big decision on Valverde, because it’s difficult not to put this down to the atmosphere he creates.

For anyone who thinks that is some airy notion, you only have to compare it with the conviction Jurgen Klopp inspired in Liverpool.

There was a world of a difference. And it made all the difference for the best player in the world.

Messi was far from blameless on a bad night, when he displayed some complacency himself. He could at least have channelled his evident fury by putting in a tackle. It was still hard not to comprehend his emotions as he blankly looked up at that scoreboard, that had such an improbable scoreline. He has carried this club for too long. Valverde's very formation illustrates this. The club's signings illustrate this. They've probably not been to the level, or the planning, required. Kevin Prince-Boateng?

One Barcelona source was already arguing after the game there may be repercussions. “I’m expecting Messi to react in some way.” That may not necessarily be a demand to leave, but there will be some other strong demands.

Valverde now finds himself under huge pressure (AP)

It’s just as well they’ve got a player like Frenkie de Jong coming in, and maybe Matthijs de Ligt. They need that refreshment. They need vibrancy. They need mental fortitude, and bravery.

They may need a new manager.

Valverde has proven hugely effective at putting a workable structure around Messi in the league, but it is too limited when Barca are pushed to the limits in the Champions League. It means they struggle to respond, because there is too stand-offish an approach for the whole team.

It is no longer what is best for this team, and led to one of the club’s worst ever nights.