Ranking Barcelona's Top 5 Players for 2015
What a year 2015 has been for FC Barcelona. Everything they touched turned to gold.
Well, nearly everything, with the Spanish Super Cup eluding them.
Athletic Bilbao crushed them over the two legs, but at least it gives the club something to aim for in the new year.
Barcelona won La Liga, the Champions League and the Copa del Rey fair and square, crushing all who came before them in a terrifying second half of the season, before they picked up the UEFA Super Cup after that, beating Sevilla.
Here are their top five performers in 2015...
5. Andres Iniesta
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The Spanish midfield maestro insists he never disappeared, but the Andres Iniesta of 2015 is playing at much higher levels than the Andres Iniesta of 2014 ever managed.
"Am I back? I never went away," he told reporters, per the Daily Mail, after a wonderful display against PSG in April.
The game was one of the highlights of his year, the key moment being his wonderful dribble to help set up a goal for Neymar as Barcelona progressed in the Champions League.
For the first half of the season, Iniesta seemed to be struggling to find his place in a side that featured three star attackers and a midfield that needed to pull its weight.
But now he is in sync with the stars ahead and his midfield partners, adapting his game to play a little deeper on the pitch, helping make up for the absence of Xavi and keeping Barcelona flowing.
With the trident in such spectacular form, it's easy to forget about Iniesta, but he deserves his share of the credit.
4. Gerard Pique
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Under Tata Martino, Gerard Pique floundered, looking nothing like the commanding centre-back he had been.
However, Luis Enrique has helped the defender restore himself to his best level: someone who delights Barcelona fans on the pitch as much as he does off it.
While Pique often hits the headlines for his barbs aimed at Real Madrid, he needs to be commended for how he has raised his game.
Without Carles Puyol by his side, it might have been easy for the defender to lapse, but instead he has become a true leader.
Sport's Albert Masnou agrees, explaining that he is a fundamental part of the club's philosophy, thanks to being able to play the ball out from the back:
"He is a key part of Luis Enrique's team, like Busquets, Iniesta and Messi, he represents an understanding of the play, the spine of the team, the start of moves. His performances this season are becoming spectacular. More than ever, he is combining security, seriousness and leadership.
He brings the ball out well and has been impeccable in the air, becoming the biggest recoverer of balls for the team - an average of 10 per game. Mascherano is on 9, Busquets 7.1, Rakitic 5.1. He's shown the intelligence to which is father refers, to become a reference point not just at Barcelona, but also in current football. Pique is the new leader.
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With Barcelona's defence meaner than ever from set-piece situations, fixing an old flaw, all the back line and both goalkeepers deserve a tip of the hat—Pique especially.
3. Luis Suarez
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This has been the best year of the Uruguayan hitman's career.
Luis Suarez has been dynamite in 2015, hitting his best form after switching positions on the pitch with Lionel Messi and taking up a more traditional centre-forward position.
He has scored a blistering 46 goals in 54 games, but what's more, his unselfish work and creative play have yielded more space, time and opportunities for Lionel Messi and Neymar.
Perhaps the highlight of his year was the two goals in the 4-0 Clasico triumph at the Santiago Bernabeu against Real Madrid, around a year on from the time he made his debut in the same stadium—so much has changed since then.
Suarez scored two goals against Manchester City in England and two against Paris Saint-Germain in France to earn Barcelona away victories in the Champions League, and it was his goal against Juventus that technically won them the competition in the final.
What's more, he nearly has as many goals this season already as he managed to score in the whole of the previous campaign, showing his star is still rising.
He scored five of Barcelona's six goals in the Club World Cup in Japan, helping them secure their fifth trophy of the year.
The only way his 2015 could have been better is if he had received the nod to be on the Ballon d'Or shortlist, along with his two friends and team-mates.
2. Neymar
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For Neymar, 2015 has been what dreams are made of.
Aside from a disastrous Copa America with Brazil, the red-hot forward has enjoyed stunning success on a team and individual level.
In the absence of Lionel Messi, out for two months with a knee injury, Neymar took the reins and dominated matches for Barcelona.
It showed how much he has grown, with even Fabio Capello impressed. Per Sport he said: "When I saw him play with Brazil he was a good player, but he played 10 minutes and then disappeared. Now he runs a lot, he fights a lot."
More than that, Fabio, he crushes his opponents. Just ask Danilo, whom Neymar tore to shreds several times during the recent Clasico.
He has 41 goals in 52 games this year, but it doesn't even begin to tell his contribution as a whole.
Even including Lionel Messi, there is no player in the Barcelona side so capable of eviscerating a rival in a one-on-one.
Neymar has been shortlisted for the Ballon d'Or for the first time, and even though the odds are he will finish behind Cristiano Ronaldo, the Brazilian's time is coming.
1. Lionel Messi
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Lionel Messi will win his fifth Ballon d'Or in January, taking it back from Cristiano Ronaldo, who has won the previous two editions.
Messi has been at the heart of everything good Barcelona have done this season. He is the best player in the world, and in 2015 he decided to prove it once and for all.
Messi scored the goal that won Barcelona the league, helping them see off Atletico Madrid at the Calderon in May.
It was Messi who scored twice against Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final, too, one of them arguably the best goal of his career.
Messi struck two perfect free-kicks against Sevilla in the UEFA Super Cup, too, with the only big game he failed to score in being the Champions League final.
It wasn't a Messi no-show, though, as the Argentinian had a hand in each of Barcelona's goals.
His key performance in that competition came in the Champions League semi-final, in the home leg against Bayern Munich.
He scored what was voted the best goal of the competition, destroying Jerome Boateng and dinking the ball over Manuel Neuer.
When even Ronaldo thinks Messi will win the Ballon d'Or, you know it's been a very, very good year for the Argentine.
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