Levante 5-4 Barcelona: 5 Talking Points

#3 Vermaelen and Mina may never be seen in a Barcelona shirt again

Mina turned in a performance to forget

With the title long sewn-up and another three points seemingly in the bag, Valverde opted to bench Gerard Pique, his only first-choice centre-back available. The other centre-back, Samuel Umtiti, was ruled out with a knock sustained in the Clasico. The Barcelona manager played a makeshift centre-back pairing of Yerry Mina and Thomas Vermaelen.

But little did the manager know that he was in fact, signing his own death warrant.

Vermaelen was completely out of sorts and Levante had a gala time pressing at the visitors' defence. The rash challenge on Boateng that earned him a yellow summed up his troublesome evening. He was then replaced after just 30 minutes by Pique.

But, Valverde let Mina stay on, and that proved to be a bigger mistake. The Colombian, to say the least, was a disaster. He was found out of position on numerous occasions. He was like a passenger in the Barca backline, not jumping into tackles or making any sort of interceptions when he was needed to.

Vermaelen and Mina lacked communication and Levante resultantly struck twice inside the opening half hour. After this horror show of a performance, Valverde would think twice to play those two together again.