Statistics That Defined Barcelona's 2016-17 Season

Barcelona brought the curtain down on their 2016/17 season by winning a third consecutive Copa del Rey trophy, beating Deportivo Alaves at the Vicente Calderon.

While not a vintage year for Barca, given their lofty standards and the fact they were beaten in La Liga by Real Madrid and the UEFA Champions League by Juventus, 16/17 has still provided plenty of highlights and two further pieces of silverware.

This coming summer is set to be one of transition, though, with Luis Enrique on the way out and Ernesto Valverde appointed as his successor.

Here's a look over the entire season for the Camp Nou club and the numbers which mattered most along the way.

Goals

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Firepower is an integral part of Barca's approach in any season, but even so they really hit the goal trail in 16/17.

A massive 116 goals were scored in La Liga alone—that's an average of just over three per game, or one every 29.5 minutes of play for the entire season.

Add in the Copa del Rey, Champions League and SuperCopa fixtures and Luis Enrique's team netted a phenomenal 171 strikes all told.

Even so, the 116 in La Liga wasn't enough to land top spot, and nor was it the biggest haul La Liga has seen: Real scored 118 in 14/15, and 121 in 11/12.

Barcelona scored five goals or more in a single game on eight separate occasions in La Liga this season, as well as twice in each of the Copa del Rey and Champions League.

Messi

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Once again it was Lionel Messi who provided the biggest driving force behind Barcelona's season, leading the scoring charts with 37 goals in league play and 54 in 52 games across all competitions.

The No. 10's scintillating strike-rate continued at a rate of a goal every 82 minutes this season, which is astonishing in itself—but perhaps even more wondrous given he only notched two hat-tricks, both in Europe.

Other than those trebles, he was simply a beacon of consistency in front of goal, scoring one or two with regularity and ensuring his team always had a goal threat across every match, not just in the big games or against the smallest sides.

He netted in seven of his last nine matches of the season, and in eight successive games across December to January.

Most astonishing of all, despite only missing seven matches all season, Messi only once went for two successive games without scoring: in April, against Malaga and Juventus.

With 4,452 minutes played this season, he featured the most for the club across all competitions.

Summer Signings

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There were contrasting fortunes for Barcelona's signings ahead of the 16/17 season, but unfortunately most won't remember their debut campaigns with a huge amount of fondness.

Indeed, the game time received by each attests to perhaps Barca not making the best decisions over the summer as to where they needed to strengthen the squad, and who would offer them the quality needed.

Samuel Umtiti, signed from Lyon, featured by far the most—the only new signing to play more 3,000 minutes, with his tally of 3,700.

Andre Gomes picked up 2,600 largely disappointing minutes in midfield, while none of Lucas Digne, Denis Suarez or Paco Alcacer managed to hit even the 2,000-minute mark. Jasper Cillessen played only 900, but as backup goalkeeper that was to be expected.

At a combined fee of around £105 million, the six signings could have been expected to feature a whole lot more and help bridge the gap to Real Madrid's squad depth.

Possession to Shots

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Since Luis Enrique stepped into the manager hot-seat, there has been a lot more emphasis on getting the ball into the front three and letting them work their magic—but that doesn't mean Barca don't still dominate possession.

The speed of transitions, the areas they look to recycle play in and the role the midfielders play have all been altered with Lucho's approach, but Barcelona remain extremely tough to get the ball off and their dominance in matches is often rewarded by that attacking trident being in dangerous areas more quickly.

In terms of possession, Barcelona are still clearly out in front in Spain's top flight.

Their average of 62 per cent possession per game was vastly superior to Las Palmas (57), Sevilla (56) or Real Madrid (55).

On a European scale, that domestic dominance places them second to only Bayern Munich (65), while the German Bundesliga club also marginally topped the Champions League possession stats, 62 per cent average to Barcelona's 61.

If they're so dominant, why haven't Barca gone closer to winning the major trophies this year?

Perhaps the answer lies in actually getting shots away at the end of those periods with the ball: Real Madrid managed slightly more shots per game than Barca in La Liga, with the Catalan outfit's haul of 17.1 good enough only for sixth across Europe's top five leagues.

In the Champions League, that goes down to 13.1 shots per game—and just the 13th highest among those clubs in the elite competition, with Real Madrid top in that department once more.

Luis Enrique

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Luis Enrique's three-year tenure is over, and it has been a hugely successful period for the club with the former midfielder in charge.

Infamously grumpy with reporters, always animated on the touchline and always battling the pressures that come with managing one of the world's biggest clubs, Lucho has handled the role with dignity more often than not and certainly continuing the tradition of lifting titles.

Even in 16/17, winning the Spanish SuperCopa at the start of the season and the Copa del Rey at the very end means the silverware has continued to roll in.

All told, the boss leaves with nine trophies won of a possible 13 in his time at the club.

It's a big act for the next man to follow...

Handover to Valverde

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...and that man will be Ernesto Valverde, arriving in from Athletic Club.

The Basque team finished seventh in 16/17 and Valverde has long been mused as a likely Barca boss, having played for the club previously and largely impressed at San Mames.

Tactically, though, there's a dilemma to ponder: will he be his own man and continue as he has done at Athletic, or will he adjust into Barcelona's more familiar, ingrained territory?

While 4-3-3 is the formation of choice for Barca, Luis Enrique switched things up in the second half of 16/17.

He played a back three twice in Europe, and nine times in La Liga, with the likes of Jordi Alba missing out and Rafinha or Ivan Rakitic acting in tandem with Sergi Roberto down the right side to make up for the lack of forcible, attacking full-backs.

At Athletic, Valverde has been a straight-up 4-2-3-1 man, a system reasonably alien to most of the players at Barca considering how the manager's wide players, in particular, were far more wide midfield outlets than in-from-out wide forwards, as Lionel Messi and Neymar have been at Barca.

Home and Away

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At the end of the season, a three-point margin in La Liga isn't a huge one and it's easy to look back on matches and wonder just where the league title was lost.

For Barcelona, usually so imperious at the Camp Nou, the six times they didn't win at home (across all competitions) might be seen as so out of the ordinary that it must have had an impact over the last 10 months: Alaves, Atletico Madrid, Malaga, Real Madrid, Atleti again in the Copa and Juventus in the Champions League all came to the Camp Nou, and left with something.

The early season home defeat against Alaves, in particular, must rankle, as will the last-minute draw to eventual champions Real.

But, on the road, Barcelona failed to win on 11 occasions.

And, more than that, they didn't win more than two successive away fixtures after September until the penultimate day of the season, when a win at Las Palmas ensured a third away win in a row.

There's plenty for Valverde to look to fix in 17/18.

MSN

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It's far from all negative for Barcelona, though.

They did win two trophies, they did produce one of the most stunning comebacks in European football history with their win over Paris Saint-Germain...and they do still have the best attack in the world, the trident of Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.

The trio scored 111 times between them, and their impact wasn't merely limited to putting the ball in the net.

Suarez topped the assists charts in La Liga with 13, with Neymar on 11 in third.

While Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid had the most shots per game, 5.6, Messi (5.3), Neymar (3.5) and Suarez (3.4) took the next highest spots, with Neymar the most creative in Spain's top flight, landing 3.0 key passes per game.

Both Neymar (first, 5.6) and Messi (second, 3.7) were the dribble kings of La Liga too, showing there's still plenty to look forward to next season and beyond.

All stats via WhoScored.