Barça Have More No.9 Options Than Open-Play Goals

Barcelona have scored three goals in their first three pre-season tests. As Mundo Deportivo points out, two came from penalties and the other from a rebound. Hamza Abdelkarim scored both goals against Birmingham, while Raphinha converted the winner against Nottingham Forest. Barça then drew a blank in the 1–0 defeat to Udinese.

Flick’s team scored 20 times in four friendlies last summer. This is not a perfectly fair comparison: two of this year’s games lasted only 45 minutes and several World Cup players have yet to return. Lamine Yamal and Dani Olmo are due back on August 12. Robert Lewandowski, however, has already left, while Ferran Torres reportedly wants to join PSG.

Pre-season results are no reason to panic. They can still expose the order in which a squad has been built. Barça strengthened the wings, allowed their starting striker to leave and opened the door for his main replacement to follow. Finding someone to score the goals came further down the list.