Barcelona 2017/18 Season Review: Flop of the Season

So it’s safe to say Barcelona had a good season. Not great, certainly not spectacular, but good. A domestic double and another Lionel Messi season from Lionel Messi, along with the arrival of Philippe Coutinho that promises a lot for next year. There are things to be excited about with this team, that’s for sure.

But there are also things that left us disappointed. The Champions League exit is the big one for the team, for sure, but some players left A LOT to be desired individually. And that’s what this article is about. Who is the flop of the season in 2017/18 for Barcelona? Let’s find out!

Honorable Mentions

Yerry Mina: Came in January, struggled a lot to adapt, played very few minutes and was quite bad in most of those minutes, and is now definitely going out on loan. We should have kept Marlon.

Denis Suarez: Denis frustrates the hell out of me. There’s clearly a lot of potential there, and there are flashes almost every time he plays, but there’s just no consistency. At all. Get it together, kid.

Luis Suárez: YUP. Luis Suárez indeed. He did score 25 goals in La Liga and was always good in the big domestic games. But he scored ONE Champions League goal. ONE. In 10 appearances. ONE. And he was ridiculously out of shape for 77% of the season. This was without a doubt the worst we’ve seen of Suárez since he arrived in 2014. He did get a lot better in the final two months of the season, so maybe he was really injured in those months when he was awful. But he was still awful and deserves a mention here.

Paulinho: He’s not a Barcelona player, but he was never brought in to be one. He’s a midfielder who scores goals and works his socks off, and that’s what he did. He’s in this list because he didn’t play great, but he’s not a great player anyway. He didn’t flop, he was just Paulinho.

Photo by Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images

Flop of the Season: André Gomes

When Ernesto Valverde fully established a 4-4-2 formation, I personally had high hopes for Gomes. The wide players in Valverde’s system aren’t wingers, they’re midfielders, and André’s best games when he was still at Valencia were as a wide midfielder, playing mostly on the left. Gomes just wasn’t good enough in central midfield for Barça, but Luis Enrique was asking him to be Xavi or Iniesta when his skill set is completely different. I thought that his work rate (which is great) and his dribbling ability would certainly make him a great fit for the 4-4-2 system. It wasn’t, and Gomes looks completely lost whenever he’s playing.

What’s weird is that Paulinho looked so bad at times that we wanted Gomes in his place, but as soon as Gomes played we just accepted that Paulinho was the less horrible option available. I still think that Gomes is better suited for a holding midfield role, but neither Enrique nor Valverde gave him real chances there, so he’ll just go down as a bad signing in Barça’s history books. Which is sad, but that was a real possibility the second he was signed. So why was he signed again?

So that’s our list! Did we leave any out? Do you agree with our choice? Let us know in the comments below!