If they can trash big teams why do you think they can’t beat those smalller teams..besides, if you check the matches they lose, most of it comes out with a result of Barcelona performing better than the team.. why??
You see , the current season Barcelona are performing good and much more better than they used to but what I think might be affecting them is that they feel relaxed whenever they are playing these smaller teams especially the defense and some of the strikers( remember they are performing good so this might not have effect in the stats just that they feel relaxed), they waste more opportunities unlike playing bigger teams which they become more serious ERO secure as many as possible goals to secure the game. This is my view on it actually..
You still don't get the point, who's talking about better performance here, you can still perform better and lose the match. I'm talking about Barca's high line defence which keeps the opposition offside when they attack to score. Barca players are not relaxed, it's just that they didn't penetrate the the defence of small teams than they do for big teams, besides most big teams don't like to defend, they attack which opens up loopholes to exploit by Barcelona attackers while their defence keeps the high line just incase of any counter attack from the opponent.
I enjoyed your assertions about the big teams who are always more interested in offensive rather than defensive game and the small teams interested more in defensive than the offensive game. These big clubs always have the mindset that they're already doing great and need to work hard to score goals so as to prove their worthiness thereby not tightening their defense whereas the small teams are usually more scared of not losing out therefore adopting more of this defensive game particularly against the A-list teams.
Some of these teams do even perform well but usually get carried away by the quest to score goals without concentrating on protecting their 18-yard box resulting to counterattacks from the opponent.