Tuesday 17 May 2016 13:59, UK
Sky Sports pundit Terry Gibson believes Barcelona need to freshen up their squad in the summer to avoid a similar end-of-season burn-out next year.
Luis Enrique's side were knocked out of the Champions League by Atletico Madrid in April before going on a run of defeats in the league that allowed Atletico and Real Madrid back into contention in the La Liga title race.
Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal were the high-profile new faces in the Barcelona squad when the club's transfer ban was lifted at the turn of the year, but Gibson thinks that Enrique needs more youth to give the squad an edge for next season.
"I'm not sure if Luis Enrique's trying to make a point to the hierarchy at the club - but he doesn't have too much faith in too many of the squad players, so he's constantly relied on the same players time and time again," Gibson told the La Liga Weekly podcast.
"It's an advantage to play a consistent team, which he's been able to do in the last few weeks because of not being in the Champions League. But next season if you looked at those two games against Arsenal, those two games against Atletico Madrid, that's when he could have done with some extra players.
"I think it's no secret that their best players are in their late 20s and early 30s. Neymar is 23, there's Rafinha and Sergi Roberto who he seems to trust, but Marc Bartra's gone off to scowl, Thomas Vermaelen hasn't contributed enough, Adriano hasn't - those types need to be better and younger probably.
"I wonder how much they can raise from just selling the players who are on the fringes of the squad. On the face of it I was excited when they signed Arda Turan, but looking at it now - he's 29 and they probably needed a similar player but younger. Aleix Vidal is a little bit of a mystery.
"This isn't a criticism of the age of the players who are serving them so well at the moment, but are they capable of playing the level that they need to at Barcelona for 60 games a season?"
One player who Gibson has been particularly impressed by is Barcelona striker Luis Suarez, who scored a hat-trick against Granada on the final day of the season to secure the title and claim the Pichichi with 40 league goals in the season.
"Luis Suarez up-front sometimes looks like an ugly duckling in the Barcelona team," Gibson said. "Although his touch is good and he's a great player, he is different and you can tell he hasn't been brought up through the same system.
"If ever a player was responsible at crunch time of the season in dragging his team by the scruff of the neck, lifting them across the finishing line, it was him. He has added so much to the team. He allows Messi to drift away. We see a different Messi now, who's not obsessed with the goals that he scores."
If ever a player was responsible at crunch time of the season in dragging his team by the scruff of the neck, lifting them across the finishing line, it was Suarez.
Real Madrid's 2-0 win on the final day of the season against Deportivo La Coruna meant that the gap at the top of the table ended as just one point, but Gibson thinks the best team have come out on top.
"We quickly forgot all the praise and adulation they were receiving from everyone when they were on that 39-game unbeaten run," he said.
"They were coasting home and I think that was the problem. They didn't seem to be too fussed when they lost to Real Madrid, despite it being a Clasico, because the point gap was still significant, but then there were the defeats to Real Sociedad and Valencia and the panic button was pressed.
"I never had any doubt that they wouldn't win those five games, but I didn't think they'd win it in such style.
"I genuinely do believe that, apart from that run of four or five games, Barca have been clearly the best team in the league and I think it's testament to Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid that they've got close to such a good team."
