#2 Central defence
Another aspect of Barcelona’s defence that needs an upgrade or at least support is central defence. Ernesto Valverde’s side is an aging one and although they have as many as 5 central defenders in their ranks namely Gerard Pique, Javier Mascherano, Samuel Umtiti, Jeremy Mathieu and Thomas Vermaelen, apart from the new signing Marlon Santos, there are only two who are arguably of world class quality.
Mathieu is no longer of the quality needed for a team of the stature of Barcelona and that was evident by the lack of game time the Frenchman received in the second part of last season, and will most likely be allowed to leave. Vermaelen has also failed ever since his move from Arsenal and it is unlikely that he will feature too after spending a year on loan at Roma.
Javier Mascherano has lost a bit of pace and struggles against mobile opponents, who can beat him with their pace and is a liability in the big games. That leaves us with Gerard Pique, Samuel Umtiti and the new signing Marlon Santos – who gave a decent account of himself for the last couple of games of last season when he was on loan with the Camp Nou outfit – but trusting your two recognized centre-backs to see out the whole season is a massive gamble for any team and more so for Barcelona – who play around 60 games per season.
Therefore, signing a young central defender with very good potential is also of utmost priority for Barcelona, unless they have a Carles Puyol coming through the ranks of La Masia. Aymeric Laporte can be a good shout for this, given that he has already worked under Valverde at Bilbao.
