GRANADA • Not even Lionel Messi's first La Liga appearance of the season was enough to prevent Barcelona from making its worst start in the Spanish league for 25 years.
The captain, along with 16-year-old sensation Ansu Fati, came off the bench in the second half, but could not inspire the visitors as they lost 2-0 at promoted Granada on Saturday night.
The Spanish champions are seventh with seven points from their first five matches, and not since the 1994-95 term - when the team had five points after the first five games - have Barcelona kicked off their campaign so dismally.
Admitting that no wins from four matches on the road was a "clear symptom that we are not in a very good situation", under-fire coach Ernesto Valverde said: "Clearly it hasn't been a good start to the season.
"I'm worried because away from home, we're not getting good results. We dominated the play, but couldn't manage to create many chances and we never looked like getting back into the game.
"There are a lot of matches still to be played, but it's obvious that we need to improve."
Ramon Azeez and Alvaro Vadillo scored either side of the break for Granada, who beat Barcelona in the league for the first time since 2014.
It was a deserved victory - their third straight in La Liga without conceding - while the visitors have now shipped two or more goals in four successive league matches for the first time since 2009, leading forward Luis Suarez to reveal his fears that they "have a tough year ahead of us".
But Valverde's men have not won away since April, and with nine goals shipped, they have the joint-worst defensive record in the top flight with Real Betis and Espanyol.
Imploring his players to show more penetration, he added: "We are not creating enough chances. We need to translate our dominance into scoring chances and into victories."
They spent big in the summer, bringing in the likes of Frenkie de Jong and Antoine Griezmann, but did not address their long-standing problems in defence, and the coach conceded his job is on the line.
"It's clearly not a very good statistic for us," he said. "The players are the actors, but in the end, the coach is the one who is responsible for what happens."
Fans took to social media afterwards to demand his sacking, and just like after their King's Cup final loss to Valencia and the Champions League humiliation by Liverpool, the #ValverdeOut hashtag was trending in Spain.
According to French website Le10 Sport, Barcelona have sounded out Paris Saint-Germain boss Thomas Tuchel as his replacement.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
