La Liga midseason report card: FC Barcelona

Barcelona are top of the La Liga at the halfway mark. What grade did they get for their performances over the first half of the season?

The Good

Heading into the season, the retirement/departure of club legend Andres Iniesta coupled with the inevitable aging of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez was giving the Barcelona alarmists all the signals they needed about the potential and inevitable decline of the Catalan club. Halfway through the season and Barcelona are sitting atop of La Liga having thumped their eternal rivals Real Madrid 5-1 in the October El Clasico.

Barcelona owes much of its success in the first half of the season to the savvy player transfer policy of the past 18 months followed by the smooth integration of new acquisitions, along with an outstanding first half of the season from veterans such as Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and as has been the case for the last decade, the all-time great Lionel Messi.

Last season was a season of retooling, with the Catalans bringing in acquisitions Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele, Arturo Vidal and Arthur. Credit goes to manager Ernesto Valverde and the technical staff for the way the new acquisitions have integrated and contributed decisively to the team’s success. By not being married to a certain style nor a formation, Valverde understood that the success of the club hinges on maximizing the potential of the new wave of players, without any detriment to the play of the veterans.

To this end, Valverde can be given tremendous credit. Valverde ensured that players like Coutinho, Dembele and Arthur play a key role, and do so in their respective preferred and natural positions, without the pressure of carrying the team placed on their shoulders. Barcelona played a very flexible 4-3-3 into a 4-5-1 or 4-4-2 for much of the season with Coutinho as part of the three-pronged attack on the left, allowing him to cut inside on his favored right foot, while Arthur played behind him as a deep-lying midfield with creative responsibilities in the mold of (dare we say?) former club legend Xavi.

As always Barcelona measures their success by how well they do against their eternal rivals Real Madrid, and to that end, a 5-1 drubbing at the Camp Nou courtesy of a Luis Suarez hat-trick goes a long way to define a very successful first half of the season.

The Bad

Despite their relative success, it still feels like Barcelona is overly relying on a number of players on the wrong side of 30. Father Time will continue to exact its toll on club legend Messi and veterans Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Ivan Rakitic and Pique. This is still the core of the team, and while the team may be able to withstand the absence or decline of any one of these players, it is becoming more likely that this group will decline as a unit, ending one of the most successful eras in the history of club soccer and signaling the inevitable decline. For all the bright spots that Coutinho, Dembele and Arthur provided in this first half of the season, you still get the sense that they are not ready to carry the team once Messi, Suarez and Busquets are incapable to do so.

There are concerning signs about the maturity level of Dembele whose formula for success of all night Fortnite and junk food binges may not be sustainable in the long run.

The other concerning aspect is that not only does Barcelona continue to struggle defensively, it also appears to be lacking a solid succession plan. Pique continues to carry the load defensively without an adequate successor in sight. Samuel Umtiti may have what it takes to be one of the center backs of the future, but his constant injury woes leave a lot of questions regarding his dependability. Barcelona have had to rely on 33-year-old Thomas Vermaelen this season a bit more than they would have liked to.

What’s next?

As usual, an intense spring lies ahead as Barcelona will continue to challenge on all fronts. It appears that the biggest challenge for the title may come from Madrid’s other team, Atletico who are three points back in the standings. At a minimum winning the title will determine the success of this team, but in a down year for Real Madrid, the true measure of success will come in the form of a Champions League win. Barcelona have shown that they have the depth on their roster and the quality to turn it on when needed. Whether they can grind it out the rest of the season in La Liga and Champions League, relying on their aging veterans alongside the promising but still green young talents is the question that will determine the level of success for this season.

The Grade

A-

This is a borderline B+/A- performance, but leaving aside the concerns regarding the transition in the eventual post-Messi era, the first half of the season has gone about as well as it could have been hoped for the Catalan giants.