Neymar: Is he really who Barcelona need?

The stalwart of the Camp Nou is ageing quickly and there are no suitable replacements within the club to take his place. In the absence of Puyol, even the normally reliable Gerard Pique was shaky at best. It is because Puyol is the fulcrum of that back four and without him, Barcelona’s defence looks very, very vulnerable.

Much has been made of Marc Bartra and rightly so, because the La Masia graduate is a cultured player but he is nowhere near filling in for the legendary Puyol at centre-back. Several world-class centre backs such as Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany and Borussia Dortmund’s Mats Hummels and a few other capable ones including Kompany’s team mate Joleon Lescott and his countryman Thomas Vermaelen have been linked to Barcelona in the past and it is time they brought in someone capable of holding the line at the back.

“In the past Puyol has been the unshakable foundation of Barcelona’s defense. Imagine him as an incredibly strong pillar holding up a house, it doesn’t look stable, it probably shouldn’t work, but because of Puyol being able to do exactly the job he was needed to do, it did work.

Without Puyol in the lineup, or in most cases even with him in it, the pillar has eroded and cracked, becoming weakened and unable to properly support the house.”

- Zach Woosley, SB Nation

Even when Puyol does play, he only looks to be a shadow of his former self. There is little wonder surrounding that, though because a combination of age, injuries and the resultant lack of game time have surely taken its toll on the club captain.

The reason Neymar has come in is to make sure that what happened during the return leg in Catalonia against both Bayern and PSG does not happen again. Bereft of Messi, Barcelona looked clueless without him against Bayern and needed him to come off the bench to inspire a comeback against the Parisians.

Now that they have brought in world-class talent to sharpen their sword, it is time they reinforced their shield with someone as equally skilled at defending as Neymar is up front.

Because the reason Barcelona flopped on the biggest of stages last season (with or without Messi) was because their defensive foundation had cracked.

And only they can make sure it is rebuilt.