FC Barcelona are in the middle of a rebuild. Following the arrival of former player Xavi as the manager in November, the Catalan club secured the signings of Ferran Torres, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Adama Traoré and former player Dani Alves in January. The summer window of 2021 saw Barcelona sign Luuk de Jong, Eric García, and a few other players from Barcelona B.

The following visualisation shows Barcelona’s age profile. The Y-axis on the right is the percentage of league minutes each player has played so far this season.

Summer signings Luuk de Jong, Eric García and Memphis Depay have all failed to regularly start games since signing for the club. Ousmane Dembélé has once again had a frustrating season for Barcelona playing less than 25% of the overall league minutes. 17-year-old midfielder Gavi has played 60% of the league minutes so far. Philippe Coutinho, who found it difficult to get playing time in the first half of the season, secured a move away from Barcelona in the winter window. Frenkie de Jong looks to have settled in well and is now probably one of the first names on the team sheet. Clément Lenglet and Sergi Roberto have struggled to play regularly because of injuries. The biggest problem for Barcelona will be to replace Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba and Gerard Piqué who still continue to play regularly, featuring in more than 75% of the minutes.

Barcelona have a good group of U23 players in Ansu Fati, Gavi, Ferran Torres and Eric García, who are all expected to play regularly with injuries permitting. The additions of Adama Traoré and Aubameyang mean that they have good players for key positions. Their next target should be to sign replacements for Alba and Pique.