Guillem Balague: Barcelona need fresh blood in their squad

Sky Sports' Spanish football experts Guillem Balague and Terry Gibson feel the Barcelona squad needs freshening up sooner rather than later.

The Catalan side scraped past Real Betis over the weekend to remain top of La Liga with two games to play but are level on points with Atletico Madrid with Real one point adrift.

Manager Luis Enrique has come under a lot of criticism for his team's poor form that saw them blow a 10 point lead in the league and crash out of the Champions League.

Speaking on the La Liga Weekly Podcast, Balague feels the squad is in need of freshening up if they are to maintain their dominance of Spain and Europe over the next few years.

It's been a while since Barcelona produced their own players such as Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Carles Puyol.

"The problems of Barcelona seem to be physical first of all but it goes beyond the physical," Balague said.

"Why doesn't he trust the people on the bench? Who bought those players? Are Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal his choices? It's something that could carry on to next season. Barcelona just feel it's a team in need of fresh blood."

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Gibson is also concerned about how the famous La Masia academy has dried up producing players that are good enough to play in the Nou Camp.

"The production line of the young players developing and given their chance in the first team isn't there as much," Gibson insists. "Sergi Roberto and Rafinha are probably the only two.

"It's been a while since Barcelona produced their own players such as Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Carles Puyol. There are lots of Barcelona youngsters dotted around the place performing well at other clubs. It's still questionable whether they would be good enough for Barcelona but it is an issue they are going to have to address.

"This group of players can go again next season - they are not past it yet - but it does need to keep an eye on in the long term."

However, Gibson insists Enrique may not even be around in the summer to undertake the revamp, especially if Barcelona bottle the chance to win La Liga and the Copa del Rey final against Sevilla.

"A month ago they were in the running for everything," Gibson said. "They were big favourites to win the league, they were big favourites to win the Champions League and the Copa del Rey final is still to come.

"It will be interesting to see how he is judged. They could still win the Copa del Rey and will finish in the top three in La Liga and if they throw it away in those circumstances - but that is the pressure of being the Barcelona manager."