Why are Real Madrid and Barcelona suddenly a bit ordinary?

Both are facing a battle to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals – something that would be unthinkable even two seasons ago – while Barca are one league defeat away from amassing their most in 12 years.

So ahead of La Liga’s return on Thursday, we recruited Spanish football experts Graham Ruthven and Michael Hincks to the Game of Opinions podcast to give their thoughts on where it’s gone wrong for the big two.

"With Barcelona… Andres Iniesta hasn’t been replaced. They tried to shoehorn Philippe Coutinho into that position, and it didn’t really work. They’ve spent a lot of money on Arturo Vidal, who I actually think is a great player and looks like a Barcelona player, but now there are rumours he’s going to Juventus," said Ruthven.

"With Coutinho, a lot of Barcelona fans struggled to see what the fuss was about. He looked out of sorts in that team. He thrived in the Premier League on chaos and at Barcelona you don’t really have that level of chaos. It’s all very structured and you have to fit into their system.

"Antoine Griezmann is a great player but being a great Barcelona player is something entirely different. How do you fit in with Messi and Suarez? A lot of the time Barcelona buy players without thinking how they are going to fit into their team and that’s resulted in a lot of problems."

After Sevilla and Betis restart the season on Thursday, Barcelona resume their Liga campaign at Mallorca on Saturday while Real Madrid host Eibar the following day.

"Real Madrid are a little bit closer to knowing what they want to be," Ruthven continued.

"But even still, you look at the left side of their attack and they’ve got Eden Hazard. But positionally, did they need someone on the left side? They already had Vinicius and Rodrygo, and Isco is capable of playing there.

"Both teams are struggling from lack of clarity. In terms of their ideology and their philosophical outlook, the two teams have similar issues."

The absence of new faces in the starting XIs is something noted by Hincks, who says the lack of investment up until last summer is partly to blame for Real and Barca's malaise.

"Only last summer did they really wake up and realise they needed to make this transition. It might not be until this summer, or maybe the one after due to the coronavirus pandemic and all the financial implications, that we see them form the starting XIs that they want," he added.

"It’s been four or five years where they’ve been relying on two obviously quality starting XIs. But you can’t remain static if you want to keep winning Champions Leagues."