Barcelona fell short on the final day of the season, despite a 4-2 win over Eibar, by three points to lose their title to their arch rivals Real Madrid after five long years. It was not a very good season for the Catalan giants, with their only hope to win a silverware resting this season on the Copa Del Rey final, where they will be facing Alaves.
A number of players performed well throughout the season, while some of them were not at all up to the mark for the Catalan giants. The players who played well for them are-
Lionel Messi-
Having scored 37 goals for his team in the Spanish La Liga this season, the Argentine skipper has undoubtedly been the best player for Barcelona. However, his brilliant display of pace and prowess was not enough to retain the glory for his team and he had to remain happy with the award of the highest goal scorer for the recently concluded season.
Ivan Rakitic-
The Croatian playmaker has been one of the better players for the Catalan giants and tried to revive the season for them with his full effort. However, despite his valiant effort, it was Real Madrid who went on to become the champions this term. He scored 8 goals and laid off 5 assists to help his teammates score goals.
Samuel Umtiti-
The French defender made a solid impact for his side and held together the defence throughout the season for his club. However, lack of support from his teammates and unavailability of a good partner in the Barcelona backline stopped Umtiti from saving his team from losing their title to Los Blancos.
There have been a number of players who piled on the problems for Barcelona rather than solving them. They are-
Paco Alcacer-
The Spanish forward has been rated as one of the players who was brought into the side to provide pace and flair up front. But Alcacer was far from good for Barcelona and was left most of the time on the bench throughout the season and might be offloaded during the summer.
Jordi Alba-
The left back was not in form for the chunk of the season, allowing the opponents to dominate over him and make it worse for Barcelona in the back. He might also be offloaded in the summer.
Neymar-
The Brazilian superstar has not been anywhere near the form that he showed in the previous two seasons, scoring only 19 goals this term. There is a possibility that Neymar might be left to leave Nou Camp in the summer.
