Barcelona sharing goals around in early stages of La Liga
Messi, with five, leads the way, but there have been six other scorers
It's, without doubt, one of the positives of the season so far. Barcelona are sharing the goals around more than ever. Despite the league season only being five games old, they already have seven different scorers. It's motive for Ernesto Valverde to smile, as he sees other players contributing in the final third.
Lionel Messi leads the ranking with five goals and is followed by Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele, both with three. Then come four players with one goal: Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba, Ivan Rakitic and Philippe Coutinho. It's important that defenders have contributed, of course, but even more important for midfielders to get forward and score.
Rakitic's goal against Huesca and Coutinho's against Alaves are goals to grab hold of. It's vital for Valverde and for the team that the interiors find the net regularly. Only Sergio Busquets of the Gala XI has not scored from midfield. But in his case, as the pivote, it's different.
"Until now, I've not felt it convenient to rotate in attack because the three up top have been fresh and didn't have a big work load in the international break. With the accumulation of games, that could change," Valverde said on Tuesday.
That means we could see new faces in the final third. Munir, Malcom and even Rafinha could be reliable alternatives in the front three.
Sixteen players scored in La Liga last season. Messi, with 34, scored 34 percent of the goals followed by Suarez (25 goals), Paulinho (nine), Coutinho (eight), Alcacer (four), Dembele (three), Pique, Denis Suarez and Jordi Alba (two each) and Rakitic, Deulofeu, Iniesta, Aleix Vidal, Sergio Busquets, Umtiti and Sergi Roberto (all one).
