Barcelona's Argentine defender Javier Mascherano insists the club is not in crisis, but needs hard work, humility, serenity and positive thinking to rediscover its form.

Barca has an 11 point lead atop La Liga but faces an early Champions League exit to AC Milan and was knocked out of the Spanish Cup and beaten in the league by Real Madrid last week. The prolonged absence of coach Tito Vilanova, who is recovering from cancer surgery in New York, has been an unwelcome disruption.

"This is a very dynamic sport," Mascherano said. "Three weeks ago it looked like Madrid was going down in flames and now everything is fine. And a few weeks ago this place was Disney and now apparently it is the House of Horrors.

"We haven't been doing justice to what this team can do and we need to get our game back. We don't have to go crazy, we just have to have the serenity and humility to find what we're missing and from there go back to being the team we were a few weeks ago. Sometimes the results just don't come and it feels like it's all caving in. But as long as we stay calm, we'll get through this."