Barcelona are nonetheless looking for life after Robert Lewandowski. For 4 seasons, the Catalan membership knew who the spearhead of their assault was.
Pedri may flip away from stress. Raphinha may arrive from the blind facet. Lamine Yamal may isolate his full-back and bend the sport in the direction of his left foot.
Someplace forward of all of them stood the legendary Robert Lewandowski, the mounted reference round which the remainder of Barça’s assault may operate.
Now, that reference is gone. Lewandowski departed after 4 years and 120 targets for the membership, ultimately becoming a member of Chicago Hearth in MLS. His ultimate marketing campaign had already proven indicators of transition, with solely 15 La Liga begins and 13 league targets.
Nonetheless, changing him shouldn’t be merely a query of replicating the numbers. It’s about changing the presence he introduced up entrance.
Hansi Flick is aware of it too. Talking throughout Barcelona’s pre-season camp in England, the German admitted that Barça “have to do something” in regards to the centre-forward place.
He urged names like Ferran Torres, Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi, who can play in that place. There was yet another identify he talked about that caught everybody’s consideration: Lamine Yamal.
Hidden inside that suggestion might lie one of the fascinating tactical prospects of his third season.
As a result of Barcelona may often resolve the absence of a No. 9 by eradicating the No. 9 altogether and placing Lamine Yamal on the centre of all the things.
Lamine’s journey inwards has already begun
The thought shouldn’t be as unnatural as it’d initially sound.
Barcelona might take into account Lamine Yamal a proper winger and his profession might have begun on the touchline, however Flick has already experimented with shifting him barely inwards throughout video games.
There have been video games the place Lamine has virtually been used like a right-sided inside attacking midfielder.
Nonetheless, that’s not fairly the identical factor as taking part in as a false 9.
A quantity ten searches for areas behind a striker. A false 9 creates these areas by pretending to be the striker.
Think about Lamine starting between two centre-backs earlier than drifting 10 yards in the direction of Pedri. All of the sudden, the defender has a call to make.
Comply with him and area opens behind him. Keep, and certainly one of soccer’s most harmful creators receives between the strains going through objective.
Ask a midfielder to trace him as an alternative, and one other Barcelona midfielder turns into free. A false 9 thrives on this hesitation.
Lamine’s pure intelligence may make him an excellent match for this function.
Why Lamine may make the function work
For many opponents, defending Lamine on the precise has already change into a case of injury limitation.
A minimum of there, the defenders know the sample. A full-back can present him in the direction of the touchline, defend the within channel and anticipate assist. The sideline itself turns into one other defender.
Transfer him centrally and all hell may break unfastened.
Lamine completed the 2025-26 La Liga season with 16 targets and 12 assists and was named the competitors’s finest participant.
He nonetheless destroys defenders from the skin, however he can now management matches from inside them. A false-nine function would exactly emphasise that high quality.
Barcelona wouldn’t want him wrestling centre-backs along with his again to objective. They want him to drop on the proper moments and discover pockets of area to show.
With runners like Raphinha, Gordon and Adeyemi on both facet of him, Lamine can then discover them to perfection.
That might additionally shorten one of the essential distances on the pitch: Pedri to Lamine. With Lamine shifting centrally and dropping deeper, he can mix higher with the Canary Islander.
This relationship may enhance Barça’s assault to devastating impact.
Gordon and Adeyemi change the equation
A false 9 who drops in the direction of the ball is ineffective if everyone else does the identical. Somebody should assault the area he abandons, and that is the place Barcelona profit from having runners in all places.
Gordon arrived from Newcastle after scoring 17 targets in all competitions final season, together with ten within the Champions League.
Adeyemi adopted him from Borussia Dortmund with the popularity of being a participant who as soon as clocked 36.65 kilometres per hour within the Bundesliga.
Each can function throughout the frontline. That flexibility creates prospects.
Gordon-Lamine-Adeyemi; Raphinha-Lamine-Adeyemi; Gordon-Lamine-Raphinha, all three ahead strains have an actual likelihood of thriving.
When Lamine comes quick, Gordon can assault the channel. Adeyemi can threaten to interrupt behind the opposition line with tempo. Raphinha can do what he does finest: make diagonal runs with good timing.
It additionally matches Flick’s desire for verticality. His Barcelona have by no means merely been a slow-possession workforce.
Their finest assaults mix management with sudden acceleration, utilizing runners past the opposition as soon as central areas have been opened.
Lamine may also help the workforce change into much more devastating on this regard.
A job with no place
The error can be confining Lamine to a place with the label “striker” on it. Probably the most fascinating factor Flick can do is maintain it as fluid as doable.
Throughout one sequence, he may start centrally and drift in the direction of the precise half-space. Throughout one other, Gordon may change into the best attacker whereas Lamine drops alongside Pedri, permitting Dani Olmo to run past each of them.
The opponent’s drawback would not be figuring out Barcelona’s striker. It could be figuring out who Barça’s striker is at that second.
This dynamism is essential as a result of it additionally protects what already makes Lamine extraordinary. His false-nine invention shouldn’t come at the price of his right-wing prowess.
The opposite essential factor to recollect is that this tactical thought ought to be utilized in selective video games, because it can not work towards all opponents.
In opposition to a deep five-man defence, there could also be little area behind for Gordon or Adeyemi to assault.
Barça may have a extra bodily reference up entrance, like Hamza Abdelkarim or, to an extent, Ferran Torres, and in such recreation states, Lamine may return to the precise wing.
That is why the false 9 ought to be used as a weapon, not the template.
Barcelona have seen the trick earlier than
The historic parallel is inevitable. In Might 2009, Pep Guardiola moved Lionel Messi right into a false-nine function towards Actual Madrid.
Fabio Cannavaro and Christoph Metzelder couldn’t determine whether or not to observe him into midfield, Barcelona repeatedly attacked the ensuing areas, and the night ended 6-2 of their favour.
Nonetheless, Barça shouldn’t place expectations on Lamine based mostly on the precedents set by Lionel Messi in that place.
Barcelona’s nice discovery that evening was not merely that their finest participant may play by the center. It was that their finest participant may trigger havoc when unshackled from the precise wing and moved centrally.
In fact, all this is dependent upon what Barça do within the switch market between now and the top of the window.
If Deco ultimately indicators the striker Flick desires, all these tactical experiments might have to attend, and Lamine must persist with his right-wing function this summer season.
Nonetheless, the prospect of taking part in Lamine by the center is tantalising, and Flick ought to maintain the choice open to unleash him when the second is true.
