5 statistics that sum up Ernesto Valverde’s Barcelona

Barcelona’s final season under Luis Enrique was an underwhelming one and it wasn’t particularly surprising when the club opted to start afresh in the summer.

Ernesto Valverde was named as the new manager and once again a former Barcelona player was at the helm. It was Valverde’s Athletic Bilbao that beat Barcelona 5-1 on aggregate in the Supercopa de Espana in 2015.

The new manager’s first official match in-charge was against Real Madrid in the Supercopa de Espana and it was baptism by fire as Barcelona lost both legs and conceded the trophy to their arch rivals.

Since that defeat, things have only gotten better for the Catalan club and these five statistics sum up Barcelona’s season so far under their new manager.

---

#5 Club record unbeaten run in league - 33 games

Barcelona have not lost a single game in the league or Champions League this season

After losing his first two matches in charge of the club, Valverde has tasted defeat just once in all competitions since (a 1-0 defeat to Espanyol in the Copa del Rey).

In the league, the team has not tasted defeat yet under the new manager, winning 20 and drawing 6 of their games so far. This coupled with the last seven league games under Luis Enrique takes the team’s unbeaten run in the league to 33 games, surpassing the previous club record 32 match unbeaten streak set by Pep Guardiola’s side in 2010/11!

The all-time La Liga record for an unbeaten streak currently belongs to Real Sociedad, who went unbeaten for 38 games between 1979 and 1980.

Valverde has a win percentage of 69.77 and has faced defeat only thrice in his 43 games in charge. Since losing both legs in the Supercopa de Espana, Barcelona have faced the likes of Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea and Real Madrid without losing a game.

#4 No player has been involved in more goals in Europe’s Top 5 leagues than Lionel Messi (35 goals)

Unsurprisingly, Messi leads the way

This should be the least surprising of all the statistics mentioned in the feature because it belongs to Leo Messi.

The Argentine has been at his scintillating best as usual and has been the driving force behind the team's unbeaten run. He has single-handedly carried the team across the line on several occasions already.

Messi has 23 goals and 12 assists to his name already in the league which is the highest goal involvement for any player in Europe’s top 5 leagues. What makes this even more interesting is that only Harry Kane has more goals than Messi while only Kevin De Bruyne and Neymar have more assists than Argentine.

The astonishing fact is that Messi has hit the post 14 times this season in the league alone, which is also a highest among Europe’s Top 5 leagues!

In all competitions, Messi already has 31 goals and 15 assists to his name.

#3 Barcelona have the second-best defence in Europe’s Top 5 leagues (13 goals conceded)

Ter Stegen has been a revelation this season

Much of Barcelona’s recent success was due to their attacking philosophy. Don’t get me wrong, their defence has always coped well but it was never their strength.

However, this season, things are a bit different as Barcelona have conceded just 13 goals in 26 La Liga games so far, making it the second-best defence in Europe’s Top 5 leagues.The best record belongs to their La Liga rivals, Atletico Madrid, who have conceded just 11 goals so far.

One of the main reasons behind this drastic improvement has been the form of Marc-Andre ter Stegen. The German has kept 15 clean sheets already with a mind-blowing average of 4.77 saves per goal conceded!

To put things into perspective, David de Gea, often considered as the world’s best goalkeeper, averages 4.37 saves per goal conceded!

Ter Stegen’s counterpart at Atletico Madrid, Jan Oblak, has conceded fewer goals but both keepers have made 62 saves each in the league so far.

Maybe, it is time to put the Barcelona shot-stopper on par with the world’s best.

#2 Luis Suarez and Messi have scored 54.5% of Barcelona’s goals this season

Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez have had little difficulty in finding the back of the net

This could be an area of concern for Barcelona fans.

With the departure of Neymar, the bulk of the goalscoring responsibility has fallen to Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi. The duo has scored 53 of the team’s 99 goals so far.

Messi has 31 goals to his name and Suarez has 23 in all competitions, no other player in the team has touched the two digit mark yet - with Paulinho coming in at third with his 8 goals.

The 46 goals that were not scored by Messi or Suarez was a combined effort of 14 players!

The club’s previous record signing, Ousmane Dembele has struggled with injuries and is yet to open his account for the club.

#1 Most money spent by a club in one season - €323.8 million

Coutinho is presently the second most expensive player on the planet behind Neymar

Barcelona always had the financial might to spend heavily but for many years, they relied on La Masia (Barcelona Youth Academy) but the 2017/18 transfer window was further proof that gone are the days of La Masia graduates doing wonders at the club.

The club broke the record for the most money spent by any team in a single season, a whopping €323.8 million over the summer and winter transfer windows. This surpasses Manchester City’s €300 million spent this season!

The bulk of the money Barcelona spent was from the sale of Neymar though, as the Brazilian was sold for €222 million to PSG.

Most of the money the Catalan side spent this season has gone towards securing Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele for €120 million and €105 million respectively. Their fee could go up in the future by €40 million each depending on add-ons.

The remainder of the money went into securing deals for Paulinho, Nelson Semedo, Gerard Deulofeu, Marlon Santos and Yerry Mina.