The attitude of Neymar is a problem for Barcelona

When it seemed as though the truce between Luis Enrique and Leo Messi bore fruit and Barça got back on track after the infamous match at Anoeta, a new problem has reared its head in the Blaugrana dressing room. Neymar has a habit of challenging his coach whenever he is substituted. The latest episode was on Saturday in Seville.

As happened when he had the problem with Messi, Luis Enrique chose to publically downplay the incident with Neymar. After having a heated discussion with the Argentine in training the Spaniard was asked about the problems with Messi and responded robotically, saying: “I do not enter into controversy.” On Saturday, regarding the behaviour of Neymar, he said: “I’m not interested in stupid things. For me, the only thing that interests me is football.”

The Barça coach’s public comments are one thing, but his anger towards some of the attitudes of his players is something else. The day before travelling to Seville he responded to the quotes from Luis Suárez, who told COPE that it was Messi who told him where he had to play, ironically stating that he “only told him where to play when we won”.

Resolving things. Luis Enrique is looking at the things in the dressing room, especially his big stars, and making his authority known when things look set to get out of hand. The first step would be to drop Neymar to the bench on Wednesday when Barcelona visit PSG in the Champions League. The coach needs to assess their strengths before launching his plan.

As a footballer, Neymar demonstrated in Seville that he is one of the best in their team and that competition will be needed to ensure the team can progress well in all competitions. The situation is not so serious that it cannot be fixed with a talk but the communications between the players and the coach have long been missing.

This is where Barça miss a strong sporting director. Or for Bartomeu to take action on the matter.

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