Barcelona 5-2 Rayo Vallecano: 5 Talking Points

FC Barcelona came back from the international break strong to beat Rayo Vallecano 5-2 at the Camp Nou last night. Neymar scored four goals in an entertaining game which saw Barcelona move to second in the league behind Real Madrid, who also won their game against Levante. The game between Celta Vigo and Villarreal will decide how the league table will look after this weekend’s fixtures.Barcelona started the game strong but missed a couple of easy chances before Javi Guerra scored one for Rayo from a corner kick. Barcelona pulled back two in quick succession though, winning two penalties with Neymar scoring both of them. The Catalans struggled in the second half initially but regained their composure when Neymar scored two more quick goals followed by one from Luis Suarez. Jozabed Sanchez got a consolation goal for Rayo late in the game. Here are the major talking points from the game.

#1 Neymar steps up in Messi\'s absence

According to Neymar himself, this was his best game so far in a Barcelona jersey. He gave an absolutely thrilling man of the match performance, scoring four goals and assisting another to take Barcelona to victory in the absence of Lionel Messi.

After going down against Rayo, Neymar won two penalties and scored both of them comfortably to secure the lead for Barca. Later in the second half, when things were seemingly starting to go wrong, he brought back life into the game scoring another brace in quick succession. Just a few minutes later, he assisted Luis Suarez for the team’s fifth goal, completing a good night’s work. With this super hat-trick, Neymar is now the top La Liga goal scorer with eight goals.

Suarez had a great game too, assisting Neymar twice and scoring one himself. While he was offside on certain occasions and did miss a couple of chances, he more than made up for it with his performance over the course of the game. If Neymar and Suarez keep performing like this, Barcelona should not have any major problems till Messi and Andres Iniesta are back.

#2 Barcelona\'s defensive woes continue

Rayo opened the scoring at the Camp Nou due to some lax defending on a corner

While Barcelona’s attack was on fire, the defence was in shambles. For the first time in many weeks, Barcelona had their full defensive lineup available for selection and Luis Enrique chose to start Jordi Alba, Gerard Pique, Jeremy Mathieu and Dani Alves – none of whom had a great game.

The scoreline might say differently, but the team made many defensive blunders, only to be saved by Claudio Bravo between the posts. If Bravo hadn’t been on top form, the story might have been different.

Pique and Mathieu’s bad form continued as they found themselves in awkward positions and failed to clear the ball on many occasions. Alves was not his usual sharp self and was struggling going forward. Alba was one defender that had been performing exceptionally well this season and even he had a bad game by his standards, losing the ball frequently.

Conceding two goals that shouldn’t have been, the defence certainly needs to improve if they are to stand a chance against the big teams and defend the league title. Maybe Luis Enrique should give Marc Bartra and Thomas Vermaelen a few chances?

#3 Barcelona youngsters fail to make an impact

With the growing list of injuries, Barcelona’s youngsters have had a few games now to prove their worth. And given these past few games, it is safe to say that they have failed to do so. With Messi and Rafinha absent, Munir El Haddadi and Sandro Ramirez have had quite a lot of playing time between the two.

While Munir has shown some moments of promise, Sandro has pretty much failed to impress. Same was the case last night when Sandro failed to control the ball properly and was poor with his finishing. He missed a very easy chance that could have been an goal had it been any of the other Barcelona forwards.

Gerard Gumbau and Douglas Pereira came on late when Barcelona were already winning comfortably. While they both didn't have much time on the field, they both made some mistakes here and there which should have been avoided. These youngsters need to step up their game if they want to stay in the team when January comes around.

#4 Sergi Roberto - a star in the making?

Apart from Suarez, Neymar and Bravo, the one player that stood out was Sergi Roberto. The player that has just been phenomenal this season had another exceptional game. Having played flawlessly both at right back and in the midfield this season, he hasn’t failed to impress.

Last night was another game in which he kept the midfield ticking, helping equally in defence and attack. He was a threat while attacking on many instances and even helped to win the ball back when Rayo launched attacks of their own.

Not given many chances during the last season, he is finally showing his potential this time around. Once dubbed as the future Xavi, he might actually turn out to be. Filling up for Iniesta can never be an easy task for anyone, but he has managed this with relative ease.

After Neymar, he was arguably the best Barcelona player on the field last night. If he keeps up with these performances, he is guaranteed a place in the Barcelona squad for years to come.

#5 Barcelona not the passing kings anymore

Barcelona have always been known for their possession game and quick accurate passing, at least for the past many years. This hasn’t been the case so far this season and certainly wasn’t the case last night.

Losing the ball in the defensive and midfield areas too easily, the team had a lesser passing accuracy than their opponents. Yes, you read it right – Barcelona outplayed by Rayo Vallecano in terms of passing accuracy. This again comes down to the defenders not being able to hold on to the ball and giving it away way too easily. Luckily, Rayo couldn’t do much with the huge share of ball possession they had.

While missing out on the likes of Messi and Iniesta is certainly one of the major reasons for this happening, this doesn’t change the fact that the rest of the team needs to step up. Barcelona have a relatively easy set of fixtures for a while going forward, but they cannot afford to lose any more points given the current situation.

Today Barca had the least amount of ball possession (45%) in a La Liga match played in Camp Nou since 27.04.03. Yea, 12 years!!!

— MisterChip (English) (@MisterChiping) October 17, 2015