La Liga: Real Socieadad 3-1 FC Barcelona: Player Ratings

Valdes started the game strong with a couple good saves on free kicks, but at no point did he look entirely comfortable in goal. He flopped at a couple crosses and in my opinion he could've done a bit better on the cross that led to the third Real Sociedad goal, but I'm not faulting him for it. In fact he could do little to save the first two goals also, but his lack of command of the area was worrying.

Montoya was put in a tough spot starting the game against a notoriously difficult opponent after spending much of the last month on the bench. He spent little time on the attack, however, he did manage to get on the scoreboard with an assist on the only Barcelona goal. In defense he fared even a bit worse as he struggled to contain Real Sociedad's attacks, but he wasn't necessarily the man that was at fault for any of the goals allowed. Still, this was a step in the wrong direction in his development, but hopefully he learned something from this poor experience.

Oh, boy. Where do I begin. I read a good comment somewhere yesterday that a world class player not only has enough talent, but is also consistent. Pique is clearly talented, but he's anything but consistent. After a magnificent performance against Manchester City Pique laid an egg making mistake after mistake, single-handedly gifting two great scoring chances to the hosts. Those two weren't converted, but one that had Geri in the thick of it was. On the second goal of the game Pique let go of Vela, who went on to assist Griezmann, even though he at first was in good position to make the play. His communication with Bartra was also poor as both clearly saw Zurutuza making the run on the third goal, but both decided to cover Vela on the edge of the box.

Bartra also struggled yesterday, but who didn't, yet he fared a bit better than Pique. He made more defensive plays, but he also has to share the blame for the second La Real goal of the game as he was unable to head the ball clear, only nodding it straight into the path of Vela. At times he was poorly positioned which led to him picking up a yellow card late in the second half. Bartra got involved on offense a couple times on corner kicks, even heading a ball on goal, but it lacked power to beat Claudio Bravo.

To those saying Adriano is a better defender than Jordi Alba I give you exhibit A: take a look at the second goal of the game and look at who gave up on running with Griezmann about 40 yards from goal. I'll give you a hint: it was the left-back. No idea where he was going, but he simply gave up on his man, hoping that Pique will pick him up. I'll admit, Adriano made a couple good looking plays, but loosing his man on that play was the biggest contribution he made in the entire 90 minutes.

A night to forget for Alex Song. Playing behind Busquets and Iniesta, the ex-Gunner was sat very far back and effectively formed a five man defence. This defence was tested in the 30th minute when Sociedad played a short corner. Song never really got close enough to his man and the ball deflected off him into the Barcelona net. Nothing seemed to go right for the player and some of the blame for the third Sociedad goal can also be accredited to Song as no one picked up the run of Zurutuza from midfield. Best for him to forget and move on.

With Song behind, Busquets played further forward and he seemed quite comfortable in the early stages. Pushing high up, attempting to trap Sociedad in their half. The highlight of his first half was his great awareness which led to him dummying the ball for Leo Messi. The Argentine scored and Barcelona looked to start dominating. But Busquets, like Song, could’ve done more defensively. Unusually, Busquets didn’t track any runners and they had a free run at the Barcelona defence, this led to Barça’s box becoming overloaded and can be one of possible reasons as to why Sociedad’s second and third goal went in. When Song left the field Busquets returned to his natural position but despite performing better there it wasn’t enough to turn the game around.

Iniesta started the game very brightly. A neat one-two with Pedro looked likely to open the scoring but the winger blasted over. But as the game wore on, Barcelona struggled to hold midfield dominance and this affected Iniesta’s game. There were less chances for him to run at the Sociedad defence and he rarely made it within ten yards of the Sociedad box. Iniesta’s first game in five where he didn't produce a man of the match performance and a game that highlighted the importance of Xavi in bringing midfield control.

The only constant with Pedro is that he will always run. This time however? That was all he did and didn't do it well enough for it to matter.

Invisible the whole game, but like only Leo can score and still not matter. Team desperately needed him to "matter". That said, I believe our midfield and defense messed up so bad, that even hoping for either to support Messi in attack was hoping for way to much.

Worst game in Barça colours. Was definitely not fit yet and we probably would not have noticed if he hadn't played. Set up Messi once (but Leo couldn't convert). I choose to believe it was an injury but if that was the case, I'd have preferred he took himself out in the 2nd half instead of playing on.

Stripped and readied shortly after Real Sociedad reclaimed the lead last night, Cesc Fabregas was unlucky to enter the game just minutes after the hosts unexpectedly doubled their advantage. Consequently, Fabregas was almost being inserted into a game he was expected to save from a Blaugrana perspective; a task that would prove impossible even for the in-form Catalan midfielder. Much like his colleagues, Cesc couldn't find a foothold against the dedicated Sociedad midfield, and couldn't break down their resolute defense -- making this a rare night to forget for Fabregas.

I'd be surprised if my rating was within two or three points of the community's judgement, but that's a story for another day. Yes, Barcelona lost and were downright poor, but since when is that a surprise? For one, this is February. Secondly, the win over Manchester City must have been draining and was far from ideal preparation for this game. Thirdly, when have we ever fared any better at the Anoeta? And lastly, does it really matter, just so long as Barça do win those crunch games against the Manchester City's and the Real Madrid's of this world?

Note: to the select few members who argued that Tata was terrible against Manchester City, I think we would have realised if Martino really had a poor game. Like last night for instance. That was a poor showing; from the odd selection (too much rotation for a match of this difficulty) to his uncharacteristic dismissal, it was probably the worst night of Martino's reign.

I was slightly surprised by the results of this voting, not because of who finished first, but because of who finished second, though I might be slightly at fault for that for not making entirely clear I changed the concept for this game. Sorry about that, but anyway, Tata won the voting with 28% with Messi finishing second with 23% and Alex Song rounding out the top three with 18% of the votes. After some time to reflect on the game I award my Man of the Match, not Flop of the Match, vote to Iniesta.