Barcelona are scoring for fun in La Liga. Who needs a new No 9?

“People always want a striker who scores 40 a year, but I can tell you: this team is not going to go short on goals.”

This is what Pedri told Spanish TV station Movistar when asked about Barcelona’s dominant start to their La Liga title defence this term. Valencia had just become their latest victims, with Hansi Flick’s side sweeping them aside with frightening ease in a 5-0 victory on Sunday.

Barca are top of the Spanish table with four wins from four, having scored 17 goals in the process. It’s not just what they are doing that is so impressive — it’s how they’ve gone about it.

Having failed to sign the forward they wanted in Julian Alvarez this summer, Barcelona are playing without a classic No 9.

Flick’s new-look front-line has Raphinha operating as a central striker, with Lamine Yamal and Anthony Gordon on the flanks. Against Valencia, Fermin Lopez, Pedri and Rodri bossed the midfield behind them, with Dani Olmo and Marc Bernal coming in from the bench.

There were also substitute appearances from summer signings Karim Adeyemi and Gabriel Jesus — who arrived from Arsenal on deadline day.

Yamal opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a delicious flicked finish, with Fermin, Raphinha, Yamal again and Pedri providing the other four strikes in another collective masterclass. The movement, understanding between players and intensity in high-pressing has been just too much for every team Barca have faced this season.

Barca also won 5-0 at Elche on the season’s opening day (August 23), then beating Athletic Club 2-0 and Rayo Vallecano 5-2 at home before this weekend.

It is fair to say Valencia are in quite a state, and their players had a hard job of staying in the game. The club’s fans spent the whole game calling for their ownership to leave and for manager Carlos Corberan to resign.

They are bottom of La Liga, with one point after four games. It has not been easy at the Mestalla for some time, but Sunday felt like a new nadir. Angry fans confronted board members on their way out of the stadium. Club president Kiat Lim, son of owner Peter Lim, was there for his first league match in two years, and will likely not forget the experience.

But Valencia were not the first team to be torn to pieces by Barcelona this term, and they will surely not be the last.

Flick was appointed as Barca boss in May 2024. Two of Barca’s top seven matches under his leadership, in terms of the quality of chances created — measured by expected goals (xG) — have come since the beginning of this new season. They registered 4.38 xG in their 2-0 victory over Athletic and 4.23 in the 5-0 win at Elche.

The sample size is still too small to draw conclusions, but Barca are averaging 3.93 xG per game this term. Last season their average was 2.28 xG and in 2024-2025 it was 2.43. Raphinha is La Liga’s top scorer with six goals in four, Fermin has four goals and two assists, while Yamal has got off the mark with back-to-back braces.

“I am so satisfied with the way we play right now,” Flick said in his post-match press conference on Sunday. “We work hard and use the spaces really, really well up front — and then there is the individual talent to capitalise on that.

“For me, our plan does not change. We still want a No 9 in the team. But we have so many qualities in the offense and in midfield that right now a lot of players can score goals”.

Barcelona’s main priority this summer was always to assemble an intense and mobile frontline. This is what motivated the Alvarez chase. Flick and Deco wanted a striker who was not just a focal and physical presence. They wanted movement and unpredictability, as both believed it was the way to evolve the team.

They have exactly that with Raphinha playing as a No 9. The recently-named captain for this season has fitted into this new role seamlessly. He also has license to drop deep into midfield and become a sort of a quarterback, launching long balls to runners on the wing with Gordon and Yamal and crashing into the box as soon as a goal chance arises.

Fermin is in the form of his life, too, and the thought of Barca being open to selling him for the right price in summer 2025 seems a sort of blasphemy right now. The 23-year-old’s chemistry with Yamal on the right flank looks unstoppable. He is thriving in the sea of space this new system opens up.

There is a big difference in what Flick can bring in from the bench this term as well. Adeyemi and Jesus also contributed on Sunday, with the ex-Arsenal forward almost scoring. Olmo made two assists after coming on with around half an hour to play.

There is no denying that Alvarez would have been a great addition, but with the team in this kind of form, Barca fans won’t be wallowing in regret. You have to go back to 1950-51 (21 goals) to find a season where Barca scored more from their first four league games.

“What I could see from these players, even when the World Cup champions returned, is that they are just hungry for more,” added Flick.

“We need to know there is a long way to go for us this season and that it will be tough to reach all the targets we have set for us, but we will certainly try.

“We have a very young team and I think we made the right transfers. But this is just the start.”