The stone in the shoe that makes Barça limp

BarcelonaWhen Xevi Pujol designed the 2026-27 Barça, he was very clear about the style of play he wanted to commit to with Aleksander Sekulic. The proposal was to fill games with fast-paced actions and increase the number of possessions. The team has shown signs of the advantages of accentuating this style, but it has not yet found consistency in its play. Furthermore, the 'culer' team suffers from some of the logical consequences of this game, such as conceding more points than usual.

Barça has conceded 400 points in the four Endesa League games it has played so far. The average is 100 points per match. In fact, there are only three teams (Surne Bilbao, Leyma Coruña, and Kids&Us Manresa) that receive more points. The average number of possessions for the blue and garnet team (76.4) multiplies their offensive options, but at the same time allows opponents to shoot many more times. "Everyone wants to see fewer points, but basketball today is like this too. There are many more three-point shots and it is not easy to get your opponents to shoot less," acknowledges Sekulic.

"We must see what the common errors are that we are not correcting and continue growing as a team,” argues the Slovenian coach, who recalls the level of the Liga Endesa. “It is a very demanding competition, especially for us. After weeks of double games, we do not have time to prepare for it. Therefore, we need to be 100% prepared, because any ACB team can beat any opponent,” he warns.

Barça does not plan to negotiate its style of play, as it has built the team with a very specific profile of players. “My philosophy is to bet on a dynamic game with many possessions. We want to play together, in sync, with a fast pace, many possessions, aggressive defenses, and fighting hard on the court,” says Sekulic. “He is a coach with a very modern basketball mentality. He manages to make his teams proactive and able to press in the right way on defense, and in attack, they seek to be dangerous from the first seconds of possession and attack the offensive rebound,” analyzes Pujol, who usually watches the games alongside Kuzey Kiliç, a young scout from Turkey in whom he has the utmost confidence.

Most of the players Barça has signed have good defensive skills, but they need time to assimilate the collective tactics that Sekulic proposes and to adapt to two competitions that many of them do not know: the EuroLeague and the Liga Endesa. Furthermore, Yoan Makoundou has not yet been able to debut due to some knee discomfort. "I feel that the intensity of the game is higher here. The feeling is like that of some play-offs in the NBA and I have to adapt to it," admits Tyrese Martin.

New fire test

Hurt by Sunday's defeat in Badalona, Barça visits Armani Olimpia Milan this Thursday (8:30 PM, Movistar). "The EuroLeague is a long season, so I don't think at this moment we can say which teams are in the bottom part. I wouldn't say that Milan is not a good team. They have great shooters and are strong in both defense and offense. And in the last four games they are playing better, especially after the home defeat against Maccabi," opines Sekulic. "Last week we didn't have the results we wanted, obviously. We learned a lot about ourselves in the games, now we have to train well and think about the next game," adds Martin.