Messi is leaving, Harvey is returning, and Bartomeu's "legacy" is dissipating.
Barca are currently back in second place in the league, ensuring that the team can appear in the Champions League next season, according to previous news, after Xavi returned, Barca got the same points as Real Madrid, which is hope.
However, six months after Harvey's return, he led the team in 34 games with a winning percentage of only 55.8%, even after the 59.7% win rate of the Koeman era, which is questionable.
Coutinho and Griezmann may be bought out, but there is also a possibility of returning; Dembele, Luc De Jong, Adama Traoré, Roberto, Alves are all facing the expiration of their contracts or loans, and what kind of lineup Barca will be next season, no one knows.
Harvey's return brings hope
From the moment Messi left, Barca's attacking line encountered difficulties in restructuring, during which the addition of Aubameyang and Torres gave fans some hope, but as the season progressed, the performance of these players returned to normal, Barca gradually lost a short-lived edge, and everything still needed to start over.
Take La Masia as the bone and create the new "Barcelona"!
1. La Masia's summoning order
On November 6, 2021, Xavi returned and Barca began to act almost immediately, with Spain international Ferran Torres joining, Aubameyang signing off visa-free and Traoré joining on loan in January.
If you add Alves, who has previously contacted Harvey and successfully returned, Harvey's action is very simple, keeping the team young, while regaining the "La Masia gene" is basically the same as La Porta, it is clear that this is the key reason why Laporta is trying to get back Harvey, Harvey has the seniority to lead the La Masia department.
Among them, Alves is a special case
Alves is not a product of La Masia's academy, but he is one of the representatives of La Masia at the top of world football, and the likes of Alves and Pique are indispensable if Laporta and Xavi want to reshape the culture of the dressing room.
At the same time, although Alves is 39 years old, he has gained the recognition of the players during barca's period with the team, coupled with the extremely low annual salary he himself requires, which can not only enhance Barça's important position in the hearts of the players, but also use "La Masia" players to gradually disintegrate the chaotic locker room of the Bartomeu period.
If you have any doubts about this, you can look at the operation of Barca's two transfer windows, among the big players sent by the first team: Griezmann, Pjanic and Coutinho, these three players not only have higher salaries, but also have a very clear identity, non-Spanish nationality, not From the La Masia Academy.
Barca and Xavi won't want them back
Barca are working hard to find some La Masia genes, but at present, there are not many players who can return and bring benefits to Barca, so under this very conspicuous summoning order, Barça is actually increasing the proportion of youth players playing!
2. Increase the percentage of Players played by La Masia (or Spain).
This season, there is a player in barca's squad whose appearances have changed a lot, and I believe some Barça fans can easily guess: he is the French international Lenglet, who has been the absolute main force of Barca for the past three seasons, but this season is different, he has only made 24 appearances, of which only 9 are starting.
He is replaced by Eric Garcia, the 21-year-old who has returned from Manchester City, and the youngster has made a total of 35 appearances this season, which has surpassed the opportunities he has won in two seasons at Manchester City!
LaPorta changes the ecology within the team
The people who contributed to this change were mainly Laporta, a situation that he had been pushing for since the beginning of his tenure, and immediately after Garcia's return, he formed an old and new partner with Pique.
This was followed by Nico Gonzalez, who was promoted to the first team this season and performed well, and in the case of Messi's departure from the team and Pedri's injury at the beginning of the season, Gonzalez quickly got some appearances, and this season, the 20-year-old Gonzalez made a total of 37 appearances.
Much the same is the 17-year-old Garvey, a 2004-born talented midfielder who has made 44 appearances for Barca this season and has also been in the Barca first team since Koeman did not leave the class.
After Koeman left class, Harvey did not change his strategy and continued to do so.
Garvey is still firmly in the main force
From these contents, it can be seen that although Barca are facing financial pressures, cleaning up many high-paid stars who cannot integrate into Barca is not only to free up salary space, but more importantly, to accelerate the pace of developing young players.
But among them, fati and Pedri's injury problems are the most painful for fans, they are the future of Barca, this is the best age for them to grow, but they are facing many injuries, and whether they can grow smoothly will be the key to the advancement of La Porta's "La Masia" plan!
This is a transitional period for Barca, but Barca still need to fight for honor
1. During the transition period, Harvey's choice
Xavi's choice at Barca is important, in the past year, Barca sent away High-paid veterans such as Messi, Griezmann and Coutinho, but when the results are difficult to continue to improve, Barca is forced to go back to the normal route, that is, to maintain the competitiveness of the club's team by bringing in veterans.
Aubameyang is the most important link in this, when Barca have the ability to create opportunities but can not turn into goals, Xavi thinks that skipping Aubameyang will be a good result, so Barca did so.
Aubameyang came to Barca to play the game
Early in his time with Barca, Aubameyang quickly showed a keen sense of smell that young players do not have, scoring eight goals and assisting in eight games in the month of February 20-March 21.
This efficiency conversion is of great value to Barca, first of all, Barça has successfully returned to the top four during this time, basically ensuring that the team can participate in next season's Champions League, and secondly, Aubameyang scored a goal against Galatasaray, allowing Barca to reach the quarterfinals of the Europa League.
But over time, you can see that Aubameyang's threat has begun to diminish dramatically, as many teams are already familiar with the new combination of Barca's frontcourt: Aubameyang + Ferran Torres, and Barca need to find new ways to solve the offensive problem.
To verify this, you can refer to the figure below.
Isn't it a feeling of déjà vu?
After joining Barca, Ferran Torres contributed a total of 7 goals and 6 assists, and during Aubameyang's excellent performance, Ferran Torres scored 5 goals and assisted 3 times.
This period was also barca's best performance period, averaging more than two goals per game, including a 4-2 win over Napoli, a 4-0 hammer for Real Madrid and other games that made Barca fans rejoice.
However, the sudden power outage of Aubameyang and Ferran Torres directly added a lot of pressure to Barca, including the elimination of Eintracht Frankfurt, which hurt Barca a lot, and Barca's original expectation was the Europa League final.
As a result, Xavi must choose Barca's future forwards, first of all, Depay, who has lost Komman's support, has been reduced to a substitute striker, and coincidentally, Depay is also a non-La Masia player in Barca's squad who can sell for more money.
Depay lost his place
Recently, Depay has played 14 games for Barca, but he has only started 1 game and played the whole game, Barca fans will surely remember clearly, before Xavi came, Depay was the absolute main force of the team, even if he did not perform well, Koeman only once to replace him early.
However, harvey's choice has now been determined, and Depay, Luc De Jong and Brayswirt are not the future of Barca.
Xavi's choice is for young players such as Fati, Ferran Torres and Pedri, who either have La Masia genes or have Spanish citizenship.
Although Aubameyang's contract with Barca still has three years to expire, He even believes that as long as Fati stay healthy, Aubameyang may become a substitute next season.
In recent matches, Barca fans have been able to feel how strongly Xavi supports the "stealth" performance of Ferran Torres.
Xavi's decision will affect barca's future, and whether Barca's young players can grow up will determine barca's future.
2. What honors Barca can compete for
With their current strength, it is very difficult for Barca to compete for the Champions League title, but Barca are not without a chance to compete with Real Madrid for the league title.
At present, Barca's midfield pattern is stable, and after Laporta took office, the main target of the knife is the front, that is, Barca's midfield and Messi have only a few changes.
With Pique as the centre of the back line and Buttskec as the lower limit in midfield, this is barca's ability to clear the high-paying players, in addition to Barca have completed the signing of Araujo and are also pushing for an urgent contract extension with Roberto.
The foundations of Barcelona are still there
From the data display, it can be seen that Barça's foundation is still there, such as an average of 64.6% possession per game, and the foundation of possession is still there, Barça will be a competitive team.
Secondly, in the passing data and goal data, Barca are also among the best! And in the shooting statistics, Barca averaged only 9.3 times per game, which is also better than Real Madrid.
In the comparison of excellent opportunities data, although Real Madrid beat Barca with 102 times, Barca is only 2 times less than Real Madrid, and the perfect opportunity means that Barca still has the ability to dominate La Liga, as long as Xavi can stimulate the attacking power of the front, Barca will not worry about scoring.
Aubameyang is important in the short term
For Barca, there is almost no better striker than Aubameyang in the short term, and if a new centre-forward is introduced in the summer, then the introduction of Aubameyang in the winter window will inevitably become a chicken rib, so Barca needs to maintain Aubameyang's state and stimulate the morale of the Gabonese.
As long as it can inspire Aubameyang's form at the peak of Arsenal, Barca will be able to compete with Real Madrid for the La Liga title.
In addition, Barça has defeated Real Madrid in the second half, the Copa del Rey, the Spanish Super Cup, but also barca need to strive for the goal, although for a club like Barca is a little chicken ribs, but now Barça should not be picky, trying to get any championship that can be won, is the key to ensuring the team's self-confidence and combat effectiveness!
Conclusion: How should Barca judge this season?
The following are personal opinions only:
First of all, let's talk about what kind of goals Basa has.
First, to guarantee champions league qualification next season, Barca did a good job.
Second, the team is young, La Masian, from the current Barca squad ratio, 27 first-team members, 18 have at least Spanish nationality, not only the "Dutch gang" is about to disband, even the French gang is about to be broken, Latin has become the absolute mainstream of Barça, Barça is also very well done.
Third, the competition for the championship, Barca finally four empty.
Chat Ball Jun believes that Barca's goal has basically been achieved, Barca's task this season, the most important thing is the first two points, why say so? Because Messi left.
Messi's departure was crucial
When a team lacks a player who can score at least 30 goals a year, no one can guarantee that the team will adapt at once.
Therefore, Barca's primary goal is to adapt to life without Messi, and in the past two years, Barca's front line has been almost "collapsed" reorganization, from the departure of Suarez two seasons ago to the departure of Messi, Griezmann and Coutinho this season, Barca's main force has changed in two years.
In such a situation, even if you can't win the championship and guarantee the runner-up in the league, Chatball Jun thinks that Barca is passed, but the pain of Messi's departure is not over, the test has just begun.