Pedri in, Memphis out: The Barcelona flops Xavi must axe

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 9 Dec 2021 09:17 GMT
• 5 min read

Barcelona are at their lowest ebb in two decades.

This week they failed to qualify for the knockout round of the Champions League for the first time in 21 years, finishing third in a group alongside Bayern Munich, Benfica and Dynamo Kyiv.

Heading into the final match of the group, Barca needed to defeat Bayern at the Allianz Arena to make sure of their progression as they needed to match or better Benfica's result versus Dynamo.

In the end, Bayern didn't even need to break sweat as they cut apart Barca at will, eventually winning 3-0 on the night.

THE VALUE OF EVERY BARCELONA PLAYER

With Benfica defeating Dynamo Kyiv, Barca were knocked out, and deservedly so.

New head coach Xavi is trying his best to bring some kind of structure back to the team but even he could not have predicted the herculean task he now faces.

Only a handful of the players within the squad are good enough to play for FC Barcelona.

Let's take a look at who should stay and who should be axed, whether that be sold on or simply left out of the team.

Barca players who must stay

Gerard Pique, like Barcelona as a whole, has not been at his best for a number of years and was shown a clean pair of heels by Robert Lewandowski for the opening goal against Bayern.

But, axing him completely wouldn't make sense due to his experience, so Xavi will keep him around.

Ronald Araujo can be very rash but hopefully that will fall out of his game with time. Is he top class? No. But, he will do for now.

Jordi Alba is getting on in years, but will be kept.

Frenkie de Jong is getting lost in the mess that is Barca at the moment, but he remains terrific on his day - so he needs to be played in his best position just in front of the defence.

Pedri, Gavi and Nico represent the future of the midfield, even if Gavi looked desperately lightweight against Bayern. Riqui Puig should also be kept on as Barcelona need midfielders, but his window to impress is closing.

Ansu Fati is the heir to Lionel Messi and must not only be kept, but kept fit.

Ousmane Dembele should be kept for the moment for no other reason than it would be extremely embarrassing for him to be let go on a free transfer after the club splurged €105 million on him. He has proved time and again that he is not the answer, though.

Barca players who must go

It should be noted that, due to the club's financial situation, they cannot go out and simply replace unwanted players, but in an ideal world, the following would be out of the picture.

Marc-Andre ter Stegen has been fortunate that his team-mates outfield have taken the majority of the criticism over the past 18 months as his own form has dipped to the point where Barca should consider selling him if it meant making some money. His attempted save for Leroy Sane's strike on Tuesday was just odd.

Neto can go also.

Oscar Mingueza admirably stepped in at points during the Ronald Koeman era but simply isn't good enough, no matter what position he plays in defence.

Eric Garcia has been a disaster of a signing - even if it was free.

Sergino Dest has proved that he is a decent athlete but not capable of a final product bombing down the right.

Clement Lenglet is average, and will probably stick around, but he is not a long-term option.

Barca have been trying to get rid of Samuel Umtiti and Philippe Coutinho for well over a year now, even offering to cancel the former's contract, so they'll be gone sooner or later.

The next one for Xavi will be a very tough decision considering their history together, but Sergio Busquets must be axed from the starting XI at the earliest opportunity. The Spaniard has become a liability in big matches due to the pressing of elite teams, as displayed by his early booking against Bayern.

Miralem Pjanic is on loan at Besiktas after a disastrous, inflated €60m move from Juventus last year. Barca should do all they can to make that transfer permanent.

On paper, the signing of Memphis Depay on a free transfer was a good one. His numbers from Lyon were excellent, but again he has struggled to make the step up to a truly elite side. He was hopeless against Bayern, too, and just looked out of place.

Sergio Aguero, unfortunately, may be forced to retire.

Luuk de Jong, a crazy signing from Koeman. He'll be one of the first to go.

Martin Braithwaite epitomises the desperate nature of the current Barca era. A panic buy, he was never, ever good enough for the club.

Barca should campaign for Atletico to give them some kind of money for big-money flop Antoine Griezmann, while the same could be said for Francisco Trincao at Wolves.