BARCELONA will top their Champions League qualifying group irrespective of the result from tonight’s final pool game at Camp Nou against Borussia Monchengladbach. Their impressive performances in Europe this season, including a 4-0 defeat over second-placed Manchester City in October, have not been replicated domestically, however.

On Saturday afternoon, they conceded a last-minute equaliser to Real Madrid in the clasico, a draw that means they trail their old adversaries by six points in the league table. Even though the league is only a third of the way through the fixture list, Barça’s coach Luis Enrique said after the game that his team needs to win all of their remaining matches if they are to beat Real Madrid – who are on a 33-match unbeaten run – to the title.

There’s something listless about Barça’s play this season. Against Real Madrid, their vaunted strike force, the MSN – as the Lionel Messi-Luis Suarez-Neymar Jr axis is known – could only muster two shots on target in the whole game.

Enrique, whose contract expires at the end of the season, and whose mop of curly hair has greyed visibly in a couple of years, has yet to commit his future to the club. He has openly fed the gossipmongers by discussing in his press conferences the merits of candidates who might replace him. Among the names being touted as a successor is Everton’s Ronald Koeman.

The Catalan press have been feasting on the entrails of several recent lacklustre performances. Barça are enduring their poorest start to a season in more than a decade and have only won three of their seven home games so far this season.

In their previous league match – a 1-1 draw with Real Sociedad – their Basque opponents enjoyed 52% possession, which was only the second time since May 2008 that Barça conceded more of the ball to their opponents in a game.

“Barcelona are embarrassing,” wrote La Vanguardia in despair after the Real Sociedad match. Enrique said it was a “miracle” that Barça managed to escape with a point from the match. There are problems throughout Enrique’s squad.

Neymar Jr – who is suspended for the match against Borussia Monchengladbach – is going through an alarming dip in form. Against Real Madrid, he lost possession 25 times in the game, more than any other player, and ballooned a clear-cut chance over the crossbar in the second half that would have won Barça the match. He hasn’t scored in open play since September.

The Brazilian is under untold pressure off the field, as his national team coach Tite made clear in an interview with Reuters last week, saying it was naïve to think that the 24-year-old’s play wasn’t being affected by the legal cloud that hangs over him: “It is a lie to say he is coming to work and leaving all his problems off the field.”

In July, a Madrid court dismissed a case of alleged irregularities into Barça’s 2013 transfer of Neymar Jr from Santos in Brazil. A deal between the clubs was initially quoted as being worth €57.1m. In reality, it’s closer to €100m, a hole in the accounts that led to the resignation of Barcelona’s club president Sandro Rosell in January 2014.

That court ruling was overturned in September. Neymar Jr, his father, who acts as his agent, and the player’s mother, who is a 50% shareholder of the family company, N&N, all face corruption charges, as does Rosell, although charges have been dropped against the current Barcelona president, Josep Maria Bartomeu. The public prosecutor is demanding that Neymar Jr is sent to prison for two years.

The Brazilian has been through the wringer, of late. On his way to meeting up with his team-mates on the morning of the Real Sociedad match, he crashed his Ferrari 458 Spider. He was unhurt, but the damaged sports car had to be removed from the motorway by crane.

Barça are missing Dani Alves – who was sold to Juventus during the summer – and those tireless raids he used to make down the right-hand flank. Sergi Roberto who has been deputising as a converted right back is a fine player, but he’s not an unpredictable, world-class operator like Alves who won four Champions League titles in his time at Barça.

It’s no surprise that Barcelona is having trouble replacing a golden generation. Its spending off-season has been wasteful. In the summer, for example, it coughed up €123m for six squad players. None of them have scored a goal yet for the club. Only eight of Enrique’s players have scored goals this season. This compares with 19 from Real Madrid.

Approximately €32m was spent on Paco Alcacer, bought as a fourth striker to drop into games occasionally when one of the MSN was injured or needed resting. He’s been dismal. He went 31 minutes, for instance, without touching the ball in a 0-0 draw against Malaga in a mid-November league match.

But at least he shows up. Aleix Vidal, who was bought in the summer of 2015, to deputise on the right side of defence for Alves, was absent for the Real Sociedad game because he was on his honeymoon.

Of their starting XI, Barça’s once regal midfield has been dismantled. Xavi Hernandez is playing out his final days in Qatar. Opposition teams this season have targeted Sergio Busquets repeatedly, sacking him in possession like an isolated quarterback.

Andres Iniesta, 32, made an eye-catching return as a second-half substitute against Real Madrid after suffering a knee injury six weeks ago. His guile has been sorely missed. When Enrique was asked in the post-match press conference after the draw with Real Madrid, if he should have started his captain, he responded obliquely: “If my grandmother had wheels she would not be my grandmother. She would be a motorcycle.”

The Champions League – which will feature a team sheet with several rotations tonight, among them squad players such as Alcacer who needs to score – could be where Enrique has a chance to get his side motoring again.