Lamine Yamal’s biggest problem is Ferran Torres

Barcelona are flying high currently and are favorites to win the La Liga title and Copa del Rey crown again, and Lamine Yamal deserves a lot more praise than he is getting as a Ballon d’Or frontrunner once more in the 2025/26 season.

On paper, Yamal’s nine goals and eight assists do not seem as impressive compared to the numbers Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe, and even Michael Olise are putting up in their respective leagues.

But when it comes to the underlying numbers, Yamal is on a different plane entirely. No player in European football has been as devastating at carrying the ball and winning one on ones with the Spanish international putting up a whopping 5.4 dribbles completed per game.

The teenage superstar is also filling up the stat sheet with more insane numbers, averaging 2.9 key passes and 2.1 fouls drawn per game. Yamal is playing at an untouchable level that should be reflected much better in his statistics, including the assists.

But the players around him are a bigger problem than Barcelona think, and only the diehard fans understand that having a player like Ferran Torres as the starting striker for a team that is otherwise as talented as Barca is cannot be tolerated.

Torres has been horrendous this season, and even when Barcelona have big wins like against Elche and Albacete, Torres stands out as a major weakness because Barca could have won these games by double or even triple the score line margin with a better striker.

So far this season, Torres has scored just 12 goals in 20 La Liga appearances despite being spoon fed easy chances by the likes of Lamine Yamal and Pedri. He is leaving so many goals on the table.

Barcelona have to find a better striker than Ferran Torres. Yamal would have 16 assists by now with a better striker on board, and Torres is the biggest reason why Yamal is not getting even more Ballon d’Or love.