FC Barcelona has already started much-needed squad planning for next season according to SPORT, which cited anonymous sources.
Barca is currently without a head coach as of June 30 after Xavi Hernandez announced he will step down on said date.
Irrespective of who is in the hotseat from the summer onwards, though, with Brighton’s Roberto De Zerbi and Hansi Flick among the most preferred candidates, Xavi’s successor will need better tools to work with than the Catalan has had in 2023/2024.
SPORT laments that the “set-up of the team this season has left a lot to be desired” with poor results in a limp defense of the La Liga crown “still the result of this poor planning”.
Barca started the season with five centre-backs but just one of each of a right back, defensive midfielder and striker in addition to two wingers for each channel.
Vitor Roque at least arrived in January to provide more options up top, but he has been seldom used by Xavi with fans and onlookers confused by the refusal to use him on Friday at the Montjuic Stadium even though usual first choice Robert Lewandowski was benched.
One positive is that this lack of planning, and the lack of funds that has been a constant for a cash strapped club since the pandemic, has resulted in relying on La Masia then the unearthing of the likes of Hector Fort, Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Marc Guiu and Pau Cubarsi.
Lamine and Cubarsi in particular are being talked up as the future of the Blaugrana, which is no better communicated by the club, according to MARCA, refusing a $220 million offer from Paris Saint-Germain for Lamine at the weekend.
Steps are also being taken to renew Cubarsi and do away with his paltry $11 million release clause.
But as SPORT points out, if the plan is to build the defense around the 17-year-old, it makes no sense for the squad to have more than three center backs.
Ronald Araujo would definitely be a guaranteed name to make a trio while it is then a toss between Andreas Christensen, currently operating as a pivot, Jules Kounde, Inigo Martinez and Eric Garcia, who will return from Girona on loan, for the vacant third spot.
Some of these men – as well as a couple of forwards such as Raphinha and Ferran Torres – can possibly be sold in order to sign a defensive midfielder and a right back.
But what the team also needs is someone who is more decisive in front of goal for Barca to break away from a trend of winning by slim one-goal margins which has been a constant over the last two seasons.
