Manchester United legend Paul Scholes says this season's Barcelona are lacking in motivation and inspiration. Scholes wrote in the London Evening Standard: "I went to the see them play away at the Mestalla on Sunday with my old team-mate Phil Neville, as guests of Peter Lim, who owns Valencia and has an investment with us in Salford City.
"I watch Barca as much as I can on television, and this was just a snapshot of their season so far, but for much of the game I felt they were a ghost of the side they had once been. They still pass the ball relentlessly but that old drive and tempo is not nearly as urgent.
"The breathtaking speed and penetration has gone. They won the game in injury time but even in those final stages, they hardly created chances.
"When I try to find a way of summarising the attitude of the team, and of some longer-serving individuals, I keep alighting on the word 'bored'. It is not meant to sound flippant but seems the most accurate way to describe how the team seem to treat the style of football that once made them the best - and some of them having been playing that way for a long time. The midfield on Sunday was Xavi, Javier Mascherano and Sergio Busquets."
