Barcelona's dilemma when it comes to their older spine

Barca won the Champions League in 2015 in Berlin, Of the 11 starters, seven are still in the squad.

Of them, six are already 30 or older. They are the spine of the team, the captains and the winners in this Barca cycle. How the club runs the rule on these players will be important for the future of the team and the club. It’s a unique situation.

Pique, Alba, Busquets, Rakitic, Suarez and Messi - along with Ter Stegen, started in Berlin.

The objective is to reign in Europe again and for that Barca need young, fresh players who have the desire to eat the world, along with veterans, with experience of all kinds of scenarios.

Messi is without doubt staying, and he’s linked well with the youngsters, including Ansu Fati and Riqui Puig.

Busquets and Alba are still starters, but the club will look for other options to give them a break. There are no doubts with Pique yet either.

Rakitic is amortised and the club would be happy to let him go. Suarez’s case is more delicate. His contract ends in 2021 but he is still scoring important goals.

Arturo Vidal also played in the 2015 final, but for the other team, Juventus, and is 33. He represents the Barca paradox well though.

Surely he should step aside for younger players with Barca DNA, but he is much loved in the dressing room, appreciated by the technical team and everything looks like pointing towards him staying for another season, unless an unrejectable offer arrives.

Apart from Eibar, Barca have presented a starting line up older than every other team in the league.

Against Sevilla the Barca XI had an average age of 30.7 years. Only Eibar have older - 31.6 vs Real Sociedad in week 15.

Barca didn’t lose the league just because of age, but it’s true the team lost steam in this fast and furious run-in.