Barcelona recorded a dramatic victory away at Villarreal, having seen a 2-0 lead slip before winning 4-3, and one of the substitutes played a crucial role in the win.
Xavi’s side had somehow found themselves 3-2 down after initially going 2-0 up within 20 minutes, and Villarreal had been troubling their defence.
Barcelona then made a bold substitution, replacing defensive midfielder Oriol Romeu with attacker Ferran Torres, and this helped change the game completely.
Torres provided some much-needed pace in attack and sparked creativity going forward, before then finding an equaliser, finishing beyond Filip Jorgensen in the Villarreal net to make it 3-3.
The Spain international completed 20 of his 21 attempted passes, whilst also creating a big chance and winning three duels as per Fotmob.
It was an inspired performance from him, and his goal was his second in two games, having also netted against Cadiz, and he is now perhaps the Barcelona attacker in the best form, following on from his strong pre-season campaign.
Ferran Torres deserves to start
Xavi has been employing a system that sees four centre-midfielders in the team, with one winger, in this case Lamine Yamal, and striker Robert Lewandowski forming the attack.
This has meant the likes of Torres, Ansu Fati and Abde Ezzalzouli have been on the bench all season, but Torres has shown that he deserves to start.
The 23-year-old is arguably in the best form of his Barcelona career, and physically looks much sharper than Lewandowski.
Torres has shown dramatic improvement this season after a fairly underwhelming campaign last year, and admitted after the game that he has been working hard on his game.
“I have been working very well and sometimes it cannot be seen. The most important thing is to be able to help the team,” he stated.
It is now time for Xavi to start Torres, either as a centre-forward, if he is willing to drop Lewandowski, whose performances have been underwhelming, or in place of one of the centre-midfielders to return to a 4-3-3 with two wide attackers.