Barcelona draw in Valencia shows overreliance on Messi, Suarez, Neymar

Posted Tuesday, December 08, 2015 by ESPN

Barca's front three will always do the bulk of the scoring but more variety is needed to win close games

The performance Barcelona's front three produced Saturday would have earned their team three points on most nights. Neymar's humiliation of emergency right-back Ruben Vezo alone was enough to create several clear-cut opportunities for the Blaugrana strikers, and the final score could easily have been 4-1 to the visitors had a few shots been slightly better struck or more accurately placed.

On this occasion, it wasn't to be as the game ended 1-1. For once, Barca couldn't rely solely on the trident of Neymar, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez to secure a win even if the Uruguayan in particular came close to doing so. For the seventh league match in a row, Suarez found the back of the net, taking his tally in all competitions to an impressive 19. Neymar isn't far behind with 16, while Messi can lay claim to nine goals despite being out of action for almost two months. The trio have managed 44 in total by the first week of December, impressive numbers by any standard.

Yet their club's scoring charts also reveal a small cause for concern. The starting front three have scored 31 of Barca's 34 goals in La Liga this season, an imbalance that shows the huge degree to which they are relied upon to bring home wins. In the same competition, the three forwards have scored all but one of the team's past 29 goals in succession, Andres Iniesta's strike at the Santiago Bernabeu on Nov. 21 being the only exception. While those figures may be a positive reflection of the staggering consistency with which Luis Enrique's attackers deliver, they also show a clear lack of quality in front of goal from other players in the squad.

If that doesn't change, it could be costly for Barca in the long term. Like this year, last season Neymar, Suarez and Messi scored with astonishing regularity and their 122 goals were evidently a huge part of the treble. Yet there were also key contributions from elsewhere.

Most would be hard-pressed to recall Gerard Pique's headed winner in a 1-0 victory over APOEL in September 2014 for example, but it got the ball rolling in the Champions League by ensuring an opening group stage win for his club. Ivan Rakitic's solitary strike at the Camp Nou in the last 16 against Manchester City doesn't stand out in hindsight, but its arrival on the half-hour mark quickly killed off any slender hope City had of rescuing the tie. The Croatian's timing was even better a few months later when he broke Juventus' resistance with only four minutes played in the Champions League final. The front three were the big stars, but the supporting cast also were worth their weight in gold when they needed to be.

Between Rakitic (8), Pique (7) and Pedro Rodriguez (11), Barcelona successfully struck the net 26 times in 2014-15, a figure that many starting strikers would be happy with at the end of a competitive year. In the 2008-09 treble under Pep Guardiola, it was a similar story: The forward three scored the majority of the goals but Bojan Krkic, Xavi Hernandez and Seydou Keita also chipped in with a combined 26. Not coincidentally, when players beyond the starting forwards step up in key moments and deliver goals, Barcelona are more likely to take every trophy available.

At present, that isn't happening. Beyond the club's fabled three, Barca's nearest top scorer is currently Sandro Ramirez, whose three goals for the season all came in one cup game against third division Villanovense. In La Liga, things are particularly unbalanced. Aside from Messi, Suarez and Neymar, only Marc Bartra, Thomas Vermaelen and Andres Iniesta have scored, managing a solitary strike each. That isn't something to celebrate: Even Pedro has managed to score one goal for Barca this season and he left the club back in August.

The need to replace the Tenerife native's goals from the bench is clear, particularly with other supporting players not delivering. Luis Enrique has been pushing to sign Celta Vigo's Nolito since last summer and with the Andalusian scoring eight times in La Liga, it is easy to see the attraction. A combination of bringing him back to the Camp Nou and improving the goals tally from other areas of the pitch would make Barca much stronger candidates for all three trophies, increasing the likelihood of turning draws like last Saturday's into wins.

When the final whistle went against Valencia, Sergio Busquets gave the immediate post-match interview on the Mestalla turf and used the occasion to praise Suarez as "the best central striker there is." The midfielder may well be right -- the quality of Suarez's goal certainly supported his argument -- yet despite having three of the best finishers in the world on the pitch, Barcelona still dropped points.

In the corresponding fixture last season they won, and not because of the outstanding quality of their three heavyweights -- instead, it was thanks to a scrappy Busquets rebound in the dying minutes. Sometimes those kind of goals from a less likely source are the difference, and Barca need more of them these days.