A concering statistic surrounding the endeavours of Barcelona without the contributions of Lamine Yamal has come to the fore on Sunday evening.
This comes after Barca were condemned to a surprise defeat at the hands of Real Sociedad.
Hansi Flick’s troops made the trip to Anoeta a short time ago, for their final La Liga fixture ahead of the November international break.
The Blaugrana headed into proceedings brimming with confidence, with sights on an 8th successive victory across all competitions.
When all was said and done, however, the evening’s visitors, instead, were condemned to defeat.
Owing to a solitary goal on the part of Sheraldo Becker, it was Imanol’s Sociedad who emerged on the right side of an eventual 1-0 result.
Barcelona, over the course of the 90 minutes, struggled to create, looking largely toothless save for a disallowed Robert Lewandowski strike early on.
This, of course, came after a stretch of scintillating form in front of goal over recent weeks.
It cannot be considered a coincidence, then, that the woes of the Blaugrana on Sunday came sans the services of youngster Lamine Yamal.
Wide-man Lamine was forced to sit out in San Sebastian owing to an injury, with his creative flair having been sorely missed on the part of his teammates.
And as much has since given rise to an altogether noteworthy statistic.
Barcelona have now fallen to defeat in two of their 13 La Liga fixtures this season.
And these two outings also happen to have been the only two in which Lamine was not afforded a starting berth…
Could the Catalans already be overly dependent on their 17-year-old prodigy?
Conor Laird – GSFN
