Last season, Barcelona won LaLiga over Real Madrid by a considerable margin; this season, the tables have turned dramatically. With Barca suddenly in crisis, what would it take for them to catch up?
Ryan O'Hanlon is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He's also the author of"Net Gains: Inside the Beautiful Game's Analytics Revolution."
By far the most important thing a soccer team can do is create better chances than it concedes. But some teams and players are better at preventing or converting chances than others, and teams aren't necessarily always trying to maximize their expected-goal numbers, so this approach picks up on some of that.
Funnily enough, although Barcelona's performances have been worse this year, the results really haven't been. Last season, they were eliminated from the Champions League at the group stage. This season, they made the quarterfinals and were leading the tie with just about 40 minutes left to play. And although they're eight points behind Madrid, who they finished 10 points ahead of last season, it's not really because they aren't winning matches.
Barcelona's haphazard team-building approach has led them to the inverse of their eternal rivals. The only €90m+ player on Barcelona is 19-year-old, who made the jump from good young player to good player this year ... but tore his ACL in November.
Real Madrid make more money than Barcelona and don't have debt issues limiting their ability to spend. With that €727m limit, there should be plenty of room for them to absorb Mbappe's presumed highest salary in world soccer. Beyond that, none of the other moves they'll need to make over the next few seasons -- some new defenders, maybe another passer in midfield to replace
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