The issues Barcelona need to solve next season after winning La Liga

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Lamine Yamal grabbed the corner flag and decided it would be a good idea to take it with him during his lap of honour at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys. He then met CAT, Barcelona’s popular new mascot modelled after a wildcat, and started dancing with it.

While he was doing his lap with the corner flag, Marc Casado saw him and decided to grab another one to follow him. They both played with them until Yamal pointed to the people on the pitch waving giant flags. They went straight over to them, greeting every single person in a reflective yellow vest who was working there.

The pair took the flags, stopped in the middle of the pitch and started waving them. Yamal chose the club flag, with blue and red stripes. Casado chose one that said ‘soc cule’ (“I’m a Barca fan”), which couldn’t have been more fitting after he was seen walking alone to Canaletes, the fountain in the city centre where Barca fans celebrate their titles, after winning La Liga at Espanyol’s RCDE Stadium on Thursday.

lamine dancing with cat 😭😭 i love himmm pic.twitter.com/2YR28CYa6O

— emi (@taypedri) May 18, 2025

On Sunday, Barcelona celebrated its great season for the last time — La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup — after the nighttime celebrations of the last few days and the parade through the streets of Barcelona. It also said goodbye, hopefully for good, to Montjuic hill, a place that did not always bring them joy, but which they knew how to bid farewell to in style with celebrations. The aim is not to play there again next season and to return to their new home, the renovated Camp Nou.

These celebrations took place after the last home game against Villarreal, a match that served more to bring together 49,558 people at the stadium to celebrate than anything else. Barcelona were already league champions but Hansi Flick preferred to field a full-strength side so as not to spoil La Liga’s competitiveness.

Villarreal were the special guests at Barca’s party but they also wanted to secure their place in next season’s Champions League — and they achieved this, beating Flick’s side 3-2.

You could tell that Barca had been celebrating in the days leading up to Sunday’s game. There was a noticeable drop in intensity, especially when they didn’t have the ball, although they came close to getting a point. Another moment of genius from Yamal and a goal from Fermin Lopez would have been enough if the team hadn’t been so soft in defence.

Yamal has scored the same goal in three consecutive games. The 17-year-old dribbles diagonally past the opposing defence, positions himself in front of goal and fires a shot into the top corner. He did it against Real Madrid in the last Clasico, in the derby against RCD Espanyol and again on Sunday to equalise against ‘the Yellow Submarine’ after Ayoze Perez’s early opener.

Lopez is not far behind. He came close to scoring in El Clasico — his effort was disallowed for a handball in the build-up — he scored the last goal against Espanyol and found the net again against Villarreal, but goals from Santi” Comesana and Tajon Buchanon sealed a crucial three points for the visitors.

Marc-Andre ter Stegen also played his second game after returning from a long injury to his right knee tendon, which he sustained on Villarreal’s pitch in September.

Fermin Lopez celebrates his goal against Villarreal (Judit Cartiel/Getty Images)

It wasn’t the best game and Barcelona were beaten but it was a bittersweet result that didn’t spoil the party for anyone given how little it meant for Flick’s side.

The season has ended with two major titles, the Spanish Super Cup and a Champions League semi-final against Inter. Barca have the whole summer to enjoy the party but a busy summer lies ahead.

“It’s not that it’s over now. We’ve just started this journey and for me, it’s important that we improve a lot of things next season, but I also know that we have a lot of potential,” Flick said in his post-match press conference. ‘The president (Joan Laporta) wrote me a letter and told me that it wasn’t just about winning: it was about playing good football.”

To do that, Flick will need to answer other questions this summer.

The Villarreal match, although insignificant, once again exposed one of the team’s problems: defence. When they had the ball, it was fine. Barca knew how to create and were dominant. Without it, they took too many risks that cost them three goals in this match and many others during the season.

Flick’s team needs to return to the point in the season where they were able to play with a high defensive line but do so with confidence. Because what this team have done this season has made them one of the most entertaining teams in Barcelona’s history. They were capable of the unpredictable. They were the Barca of comebacks, with nine completed throughout the season.

But being unpredictable also makes you imperfect, and Flick’s team were superb in attack and in creating chances, but not so much in defence.

“Defence is not just about the back four — it starts at the top, with the forwards,” Flick said in the build-up to Sunday’s game. “We need a compact system. With possession, it’s important to be in the right position too. When we make a mistake, we talk about it at half-time and the players know how to correct it. I want everything to be clear from the start, for everyone to know how to press and what each player’s job is. Also with the ball.”

Two of the big issues to be addressed by the board in planning for next season are bringing in a No 9 who can give Robert Lewandowski a rest and eventually become the starting centre-forward, and a goalkeeper.

A 7-6 aggregate defeat against Inter showed how crucial this position is, and the club understands that it needs a goalkeeper who can win games, as Yann Sommer did for the Italians in both the first and second legs.

Wojciech Szczesny exceeded expectations and his experience was key at certain moments of the season, such as in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Benfica, but the team lacked a decisive goalkeeper who could make saves to earn them points or a place in the final.

Now Ter Stegen is back and several issues will have to be resolved in goal. By signing the Pole when the German was injured, the club sent a very clear message to the team’s second goalkeeper, Inaki Pena: they are not betting on him.

Wojciech Szczesny exceeded expectations after signing for Barcelona as a free agent in October (David Ramos/Getty Images)

Although the Catalan goalkeeper played as a starter until January, he arrived late for the pre-match talk for the Spanish Super Cup semi-final and Flick punished him by not playing him in that match. Szczesny played and kept his place.

Flick has acknowledged in press conferences at the end of the season that this was the most difficult decision he had to make this year. The Polish player has a two-year contract renewal offer from the club, and the next step will be to see whether he accepts it or not.

It’s a shame that he left the Montjuic party after the match against Villarreal looking very unhappy, as he could be one of the departures this summer.

This will be the first summer that Barcelona will start from the 1:1 rule — when all money raised by the club can be spent on new players — in order to be able to sign players in the summer after many seasons of not being able to do so. The club’s financial situation is still not the best but the sale of VIP seats at the new Camp Nou allowed Dani Olmo and Pau Victor to be registered at the time, and also allowed the club to return to operating under this rule.

However, La Liga later reported the auditor who certified the income (€100 million) from that sale to the authorities because it no longer appeared in the club’s accounts.

“We are working to ensure that our accounts allow us to be in fair play compliance next season. We think we are on the right track,” Barcelona president Laporta said in an interview with La Vanguardia this week.

“What happened a few weeks ago was a matter of time. When the interim financial statements arrive at La Liga, they arrive on March 31, and at that time we had a change of auditors and the new ones did not accept transactions that have served to get UEFA to recognise the work we have done. When it came to accounting for VIP seats, they said there had to be one more step. This step has now been taken and they will be accounted for shortly.”

Then there are other cases that need to be resolved. The players on loan: Clement Lenglet, to Atletico Madrid, Alex Valle, to Como 1907, and Oriol Romeu, to Girona. Lenglet and Romeu do not seem to have a place at Barcelona as the centre-back and midfield positions are more than covered.

There is also the futures of players such as Pablo Torre, Ansu Fati and Pau Victor, who have barely played this season. Of the three, Victor is the one who has seemed to count most for Flick in recent games, coming on as a substitute in the second half on Sunday.

The last game of the season is still to come, at San Mames against Athletic Club on May 25, but with their homework done, Barcelona are facing a much quieter summer than last year, with two months to resolve all these issues. And let’s not forget that, when in doubt, they always have the talent of La Masia.

(Top photo: Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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