Does Luis Enrique Lack Faith in Barcelona Youth or Has the Top Talent Dried Up?

Barcelona will resume their defence of La Liga this weekend against Rayo Vallecano, after the recent international break came to an end. For the Catalan club, it will be something of a relief to have had two weeks without a game; with several star names still out injured, senior bodies have been thin on the ground for Luis Enrique, and he has had to repeatedly turn to the B team to flesh out the subs bench of late.

While those youngsters being involved with the first team will certainly appreciate being around the bigger star names at the club, and it will be invaluable for their overall education as footballers, they can't exactly claim to have had unconditional support and belief in them from the manager.

Indeed, after an incredible golden period where La Masia churned out the world's biggest talents, it appears the production line is faltering somewhat more than usual of late, and Barcelona's approach to developing the team is, increasingly, to look to the transfer market for reinforcements.

Cycles

For an established and successful team such as Barcelona, by its very nature, academy production must be cyclical.

The team which isn't doing well promotes youth, who, when successful, encourage a new, younger and more talented side overall. The next wave of youngsters coming through then have to be even better to make the grade, and so on—until, inevitably, one age group cannot possibly match the standards of those who came before them.

There is an upper limit to technical talent in football and Xavi Hernandez, Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta were pretty much that for Barcelona (and, indeed, for football in general, some might say). World class, World Cup winners and multiple league and European title holders each of them, it's no slight on any Barcelona-bred midfielder who hasn't made the grade since that triumvirate took hold.

Even so, as that team ages and breaks up—Carles Puyol, Xavi, Pedro and Cesc Fabregas are all gone for differing reasons—it would be reasonable to expect a similar number of names to come through and replace them, keeping the identity of Barcelona in place if not the same names.

It hasn't happened and the Catalan club's influence on the Spanish national team (including those Spaniards bought rather than produced in-house) is clearly and visibly deflated.

Injury and Opportunity

This season has been a huge test of Barcelona's squad already, just two months into the campaign. Sales over the summer and a ban on registering any new signings meant a depleted cast for Luis Enrique to choose from right from the off.

Rotation was always likely to play a role this season, with the versatile players such as Rafinha, Adriano and—suddenly—Sergi Roberto likely to play an increased part as a result, but early injuries to a number of first-team players meant even the barest form of rotation became an art, not a luxury.

Claudio Bravo, Jordi Alba, Thomas Vermaelen, Dani Alves, Neymar and Adriano had all missed fixtures barely a month into the campaign, with Gerard Pique missing four games through an unnecessary suspension to make things harder.

Add in a season-ending injury for Rafinha, the loss of captain Iniesta to a hamstring strain and, worst of all, an injury lay-off for Lionel Messi, and it's plain to see Barcelona's resources have been pushed to the limit.

VI-Images/Getty Images

But, as ever, with each absence comes an opportunity for another. Vermaelen looked to have taken his at centre-back early on, before another injury held him back.

Sergi made light work of the absence of Alves after starring at right-back, a position he is quickly making his own, but further forward the success has not been as noticeable.

Gerard Gumbau, 20, looks talented, but even with two of the four starting central midfielders injured and three places available, he has barely featured—just 28 minutes across two games so far.

Sandro Ramirez and Munir have swapped a front-line position between them, neither impressing in sustained patches yet.

In fairness to the latter two, the disparity between themselves and the player they are attempting to fill in for, Messi, means they are already at a severe disadvantage before setting foot on the pitch in terms of perception and influence.

Current Achievers, Underachievers

Munir and Sandro are, though, the current leading lights in terms of progression from B team to first-team members, following the path of Sergi and Rafinha, who look to be the two who have managed the step up and will remain in place on a regular, long-term basis.

As for the two attackers, both aged 20, question marks still hang over them. They have clocked up 544 minutes between them this season, with no goals to show for it and precious little consistency in the final third in build-up play either.

Messi made his first-team debut in the 2004-05 season. In 2007-08, Pedro broke through for the first time and Busquets made his senior bow one campaign later.

Since then? A long line of broken dreams, buy-back clauses, unfulfilled potential and a long, long list of overhyped but ultimately average attackers: Gai Assulin, Jeffren Suarez, Fran Merida, Bojan Krkic, Isaac Cuenca, Dani Pacheco, Cristian Tello and Gerard Deulofeu.

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Some opted to depart early, some moved through a lack of game time later on. One or two—Deulofeu and Bojan—have even managed to impress elsewhere since, but, with respect, Everton sub and Stoke starter are not where the fan-driven hyperbole and early media headlines placed those players by this stage in their careers.

The one undisputed top-class talent to emerge was Thiago Alcantara—who promptly packed his bags and set off to follow former coach Pep Guardiola to Bayern Munich, rather than rule the centre of Barcelona's midfield.

Bench of the Babies

Who else is there? Gumbau aside, Barcelona have been down to 14 seniors at one point this season and still nobody else has threatened a breakthrough. Juan Camara, 21, has been on the bench but not off it.

Defensively, Barcelona have more depth than in other areas of the team—but it tells you everything you need to know about their view of younger defensive prospects when you see they have played Marc Bartra, excellent but still untrusted in the bigger games, as often as Pique this term and have even had Douglas on the bench twice—but not one B team defender. At all.

Last season there were five additional B team players involved in matchday squads: Diawandou Diagne, Edgar Ie, Adama Traore, Alen Halilovic and Sergi Samper. Two have been sold, two have been loaned and Samper remains in the B team.

It is Samper who was most highly thought of, and he who lingered in the B team last year in the hope of stepping up when he had the opportunity to move to the likes of Arsenal or Manchester City. Now? The 20-year-old has dropped behind Gumbau and hasn't made the bench once for the first team this season.

Luis Enrique

The manager's subs bench, as mentioned, contains lots of youngsters—but he is not necessarily giving them experience.

A watching brief is doubtless a powerful tool, but Barcelona's results are still very much about coming first rather than looking to blood the next age group.

"

Barcelona haven't used all 3 subs in 6 of 12 games this season #fcblive Last season: 0 after first 12 games, 11 in total 60 games [via l'e]

— barcastuff (@barcastuff) October 9, 2015"

Is it something which can reasonably be levelled at Enrique? Has he ignored the program of promoting youth talent to ensure short-term (but astronomical) success? If he has, and the prizes have been delivered, does that make him right?

Or is it simply a referral back to the cyclical nature of academy work, and Barcelona are simply accepting that, right now, the top-tier talent isn't quite there?

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B team full-back Alejandro Grimaldo, once the latest "next graduate" in the eyes of many, isn't in much doubt as to what his future holds.

Now aged 20, he is out of contract in the summer and, according to RAC1 (h/t Marca), has no hesitation in leaving behind dreams of featuring at the Camp Nou due to a complete absence of a relationship or encouragement from the first-team manager. Grimaldo is quoted as saying, "He has never said anything to me and I've had absolutely no contact with him. I don't have anything to say to him anyway."

At the end of last season, Barcelona B were relegated from the Segunda Division. Enrique spoke, per the club website, about his unhappiness with the players' efforts, saying he expected more from all of them.

January will bring with it the transfer window and a much-needed opportunity for Barcelona to boost their numbers, with Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal being registered and rumours continuing of a bid for Andriy Yarmolenko, per Sport.

The common theme? All outsiders. All players Barcelona have to fund to bring in from afar. Now, last week, next week or next month, Luis Enrique could have another couple of players fighting for places by simply incorporating the B team youngsters, as so many of his predecessors have done.

Now though, Barcelona are one of many, rather than an isolated case. By the manager's design or the failings of La Masia and the players within, the self-regeneration of the club has come to an end.

Game time stats from Transfermarkt.

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