Scouting Barcelona’s academy – data analysis

Barcelona are a team well-known for their renowned academy, La Masia, as the Catalans’ production lines is responsible for some of the best players to ever grace the footballing pitch, not just in La Liga, but across the globe.

But it’s been years since the golden generation conquered the world, clinching Champions League and domestic titles for Barcelona in its rampage, and there is a sense that the well has dried up just a little bit.

For that reason, this data analysis will use statistics to find the best talents currently at Barcelona B and use that data as a foundation for further tactical analysis over the next weeks.

Initial data check

Before we delve further into this data analysis, we must explain the metrics that will be used in detail. For this particular analysis, we’ve decided to take a look at all the Barcelona B players Wyscout have in their database for the 2019/20 season.

Since we are talking about really young prospects that play in a league not as widely covered, some of the data will be scarce and will undoubtedly skew our findings. So it’s important to note that we’ll only highlight the players who have played more than 500 minutes for Barcelona B this season and only the ones whose data set allows us to take a more in-depth look.

With that in mind, we’ve decided to look for the most proactive attacking-minded players in the squad, analysing their goal contribution, creativity, and ball progression to give us a clear picture of some of the most influential players the young Blaugrana squad has to offer.

The first graph, therefore, will outline the players’ goal contribution per 90 (goals per 90 combined with assists per 90) and their expected goal contribution per 90 (expected goals combined with expected assists per 90 minutes).

Immediately, we can see a couple of names that stand out in the scatter graph above. While Nils Mortimer has exceptional goal contributions in 2019/20, averaging 0.54 G+A per 90 minutes from 0.38 xG+A per 90, he has only played 500 minutes this season and will therefore not be included in the shortlist.

Álex Collado and Ilaix Moriba, however, are the other standout performers, tallying 0.36 goal contribution per 90 from 0.41 expected goal contribution per 90 and 0.36 from 0.46 respectively. Both values are above-average in both of the categories. Apart from them, Abel Ruiz (0.28 from 0.44) and Monchu (0.32 from 0.37) are also worth keeping an eye on.