Barcelona's season is over, but the football isn't!
Barcelona's season is over, but the football isn't!
Barcelona 2-0 Real Sociedad
After a nonsensical month where they conceded 13 times in four games and completely chucked their season in the bin, Barcelona got back to playing football and beat Real Sociedad 2-0 at Estadi Lluis Companys.
There’s something to be said for how hilariously Barcelona went from looking like viable Champions League finalists with an outside shot of hauling back Real Madrid in La Liga all the way into an omnishambles of a club where the club is (seemingly) briefing against their young star striker as a way to warm up the club’s PR machinery before they have to try and sell a major first-team star this summer.
Anyway, the win over Real Sociedad was genuinly impressive and competent and not at all a ridiculous farce like the previous month had been.
Here’s four quick things to take note of:
1. Lewandowski looks back at it in 2024
Robert Lewandowski started his Barcelona career in fantastic form. He looked dynamic and dangerous and, bar one shocking display away to Bayern Munich, brought the pain for his new club.
Then he got sent off, got an extended ban for touching his nose, went to the World Cup, and proceeded to look terrible for a year.
Like, literally a year. Lewandowski just didn’t look “right” for all of 2023.
He has claimed it was an error in physical preparation coming back from the winter break, but that doesn’t seem like it would explain why, even after a full pre-season, he was basically rubbish for the back half of 2023 as well.
Still, since Xavi announced he was leaving, Lewandowski has got his act together. He now looks stronger, more dynamic, and he’s linking with his team-mates better.
“Lewandowski's change was for rest because there is a game on Thursday, and for tactical reasons, Ferran and Fermín gave us more power in those minutes. I understand Robert's anger, I didn't like being changed either, but the coaches, we are here to decide.” — Xavi
He bagged a hat-trick against Valencia, and against Real Sociedad he was an incredible presence at the top of the pitch. He physically battled La Real’s centre-backs, found his team-mates with nice flicks, and played a huge role in the opening goal of the game with a frankly disgusting reverse pass to eviscerate Real Sociedad’s high-line and set Ilkay Gundogan away.
Considering his wages are about to increase for 2024/25, and considering that Barcelona are a team desperate for goals, Lewandowski returning to form can only be a massive win as Xavi plans his squad for next season.
2. Vitor Roque must REALLY suck (or maybe not?)
One of the players who was supposed to play a big role in 2024/25 now looks like he may not even be at the club come that season.
If that sentence seems ridiculous, it’s because it is.
Vitor Roque signed in January, joining the club early so he could have extra time to adapt to La Liga before full integration during 24/25.
Except he’s barely played since a ridiculous red card he picked up away to Alavés. The subsequent suspension coupled with Robert Lewandowski’s return to form completely put a stop to any momentum the Brazilian had generated.
“Vitor Roque? At Barça, there is competition. He's a young footballer and he needs to improve to compete against high level footballers.” — Xavi
His first game back after the ban saw Xavi start him… at left-wing. Predictably he struggled and lasted just an hour. Since then he’s had a handful of short cameos before getting an hour up-front against Cadiz.
However, he couldn’t really showcase anything against the physically powerful Cadiz because Xavi had rotated the entire XI and so Vitor Roque, a striker who needs service, had none of the needed playmakers to give him some.
Since that game, over a month ago? 0 minutes. He’s not got off the bench, not even with Barcelona desperate for goals against PSG, Real Madrid and Girona.
“Vitor Roque hurt his ankle yesterday. That's why he didn't even warm-up.” — Xavi
Now the media are briefing that Xavi doesn’t rate him and he may need to leave the Camp Nou for regular minutes next season — if true, that is genuinely absurd. He just got to Barcelona and before that red he had 2 goals in 2 games!
Either he is terrible in training, or he’s the collateral damage in a conflict for control between manager Xavi and the club’s sporting director Deco.
And given how good he was looking before that red, it seems much more likely to be the latter, which is just very, very sad.
3. The Frenkie Problem
Anyone notice how easily and smoothly Barcelona moved the ball through midfield against Real Sociedad? How quickly things progressed?
Look at the first goal: yes, Lewandowski does wonderfully with that reverse pass, but how does the ball reach him in time for him to make that pass? Pedri got the ball, carried it for like two touches, then fed it into the Pole.
Quick. Fast.
Anyone notice how Frenkie de Jong wasn’t on the field?
“It's an important win in an important week and against a difficult opponent. It feels good and brings back the momentum we lost a little bit.” — Ilkay Gundogan
Look, 97 Passes isn’t trying to start anything. Frenkie de Jong is an astounding footballer. But his major weakness, at least when it comes to playing for Barcelona, is the fact that he likes to take touch after touch after touch.
He gets the ball, and waits.
Then he waits some more.
Then maybe he’ll make a pass, but chances are he’ll wait some more.
He doesn’t move it on quickly, while Andreas Christensen and Pedri do. They understand that, at Barcelona, speed of thought is as important as speed of body. Gavi knows this too, ditto Fermin Lopez (even the poor Sergi Roberto), and while Ilkay Gundogan can sometimes take a lot of touches, he is also excellent at speeding the game up into a one-touch passing roulette to carve an opponent to pieces. Not for nothing he’s created more chances than anyone else in La Liga this season.
This, more than any other issue, is what has held Frenkie de Jong back at Barcelona. He’s obviously excellent but, in terms of on the ball play, he makes the team so stodgy when he plays. So sluggish.
This was hugely evident in the home loss to PSG where, when confronted by the PSG press, he constantly dithered. This slowed the team down and prevented them from pressing home their advantage (hell at times he flat-out just turned the ball over with his nonsense).
At some point you would have thought he’d have learned to play it quickly, but at 27 years-old he shows no signs of changing.
This is The Frenkie Problem.
How do Barcelona solve it?
Sell Frenkie?
Dare they?
The injury to Gavi is probably going to mean that Frenkie gets at least one more season because without the young midfielder ready to go at the start of 2024/25, it’s unlikely the Blaugrana will want to lose a talent like Frenkie with no viable replacement.
But would it really make them that much worse?
4. Dangerous Wingers = Winning Barça
While Robert Lewandowski didn’t score against Real Sociedad, Lamine Yamal and Raphinha got it done for the club. The wingers delivered the goals. Nothing too outrageous but a very rare incident for Barcelona.
It was only Lamine Yamal’s fifth goal of the season, and Raphinha’s sixth. Ferran Torres and João Felix have more goals (each have 7). No one besides Lewandowski has double figures in La Liga.
Compare that to Real Madrid, who have Jude Bellingham on 18 goals like Lewandowski’s 17, but then Vini on 13 and Rodrygo on 10. They even have Joselu on 9 and Brahim on 8 — and those guys have barely played!
Barcelona simply haven’t gotten enough production from their wingers this season, and it’s shown in the results. Especially in the first-half of the season, it was just far too difficult for the side to score goals.
And while you’re inclined to cut Lamine Yamal some slack here because, y’know, he’s 16 years-old. The others really have no excuse given their talent and minutes.
It was notable that Ferran Torres missed a great 1-v-1 when he came onto the bench late against La Real. Another sad and frustrating season of not quite hitting the elite level for the Spaniard. He reached 7 goals back in January following his brilliant hat-trick against Real Betis.
Back then, 97 Passes speculated that this could be the start of a truly excellent season for Ferran. One where he had truly arrived as a Barcelona player. Instead he literally has not scored a single goal since then.
You want a fun comparison? When Ferran smashed that hatty it was the same day Vini Jr. also scored against Almeria. That was just Vini’s fifth goal of what had been to that point an inconsistent and disappointing season for the Brazilian.
Vini has since scored eight times in La Liga, including against Barcelona. Not to mention three times in the Champions League including his massive brace against Bayern Munich (Ferran hasn’t scored since the group stages) and you see one winger kicking on to have a great season and the other languishing in mediocrity.
Not for nothing that Barcelona have been linked with spending what little money they have on the electric Nico Williams (only 4 goals in La Liga, but also a massive 10 assists at just 21 years-old) and Xavi Simons (7 goals and 11 assists in the Bundesliga, also at 21 years-old). Both players full of explosive and goalscoring potential, something Barcelona’s wingers need more of.
Against La Real the two wingers that did play showed how dangerous Barcelona can be when their wingers carry with them the threat of goals.
Raphinha was electric. This move to play on the left has unlocked the Brazilian by giving him more positional freedom as well as putting him into a position where he isn’t asked to dribble anyone. Instead of moves off the ball, makes runs into space, and takes shots at goal. All things he’s great at.
His goal was a penalty (expertly dispatched) but before then he was a constant thorn in La Real’s side, striking the post and constantly threatening the back of their defence, giving a massive sense of verticality.
“With Robert we have commented on two plays of the game, but very good vibes.” — Lamine Yamal
Meanwhile Lamine Yamal… goodness!
It’s rare to see because 16 year-olds almost never play this frequently, but the kid has been getting faster and more explosive as the season has gone on! As he has grown into his body, he has become such a difficult prospect to handle. His exceptional technical level is now being buoyed by an explosive energy that makes him impossible to mark.
His goal was a sensational first-time finish and he quite honestly should have had a hat-trick. The teenage terror got into space with unerring ease and his team-mates found him there, but he wasn’t quite as nerveless as he was on the goal and the chances were wasted by taking too many touches (or not making simple square balls to team-mates for tap-ins).
Still, once again: 16 years-old.
This kid is frightening. And while Barcelona absolutely must manage his minutes even next season, keeping a lid on him so he doesn’t overload himself (he’ll play the Euros for Spain this summer), he is well on the way to being a world-class winger.
And that’s what Barcelona need.