Why Lamine Yamal may hold the key to Flick’s next attacking evolution at Barcelona

Why Lamine Yamal may hold the key to Flick’s next attacking evolution at Barcelona Barcelona are still searching for life after Robert Lewandowski. For four seasons, the Catalan club knew who the spearhead of their attack was. Pedri could turn away from pressure. Raphinha could arrive from the blind side. Lamine Yamal could isolate his full-back and bend the game towards his left foot. Somewhere ahead of all of them stood the legendary Robert Lewandowski, the fixed reference around which the rest of Barça’s attack could function. Now, that reference is gone. Lewandowski departed after four years and 120 goals for the club, eventually joining Chicago Fire in MLS. His final campaign had already shown signs of transition, with only 15 La Liga starts and 13 league goals. However, replacing him is not merely a question of replicating the numbers. It is about replacing the presence he brought up front. Hansi Flick knows it too. Speaking during Barcelona’s pre-season camp in England, the German admitted that Barça “have to do something” about the centre-forward position. He suggested names like Ferran Torres, Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi, who can play in that position. There was one more name he mentioned that caught everyone’s attention: Lamine Yamal. Hidden inside that suggestion may lie one of the most fascinating tactical possibilities of his third season. Because Barcelona could occasionally solve the absence of a No. 9 by removing the No. 9 altogether and putting Lamine Yamal at the centre of everything. Lamine’s journey inwards has already begun A solution for Barcelona if no striker arrives. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images) The idea is not as unnatural as it might initially sound. Barcelona may consider Lamine Yamal a right winger and his career may have begun on the touchline, but Flick has already experimented with moving him slightly inwards during games. There have been games where Lamine has almost been used like a right-sided interior attacking midfielder. However, that is not quite the same thing as playing as a false nine. A number ten searches for spaces behind a striker. A false nine creates those spaces by pretending to be the striker. Imagine Lamine beginning between two centre-backs before drifting 10 yards towards Pedri. Suddenly, the defender has a decision to make. Follow him and space opens behind him. Stay, and one of football’s most destructive creators receives between the lines facing goal. Ask a midfielder to track him instead, and another Barcelona midfielder becomes free. A false nine thrives in this hesitation. Lamine’s natural intelligence could make him an ideal fit for this role. Why Lamine could make the role work For most opponents, defending Lamine on the right has already become a case of damage limitation. At least there, the defenders know the pattern. A full-back can show him towards the touchline, protect the inside channel and wait for help. The sideline itself becomes another defender. Move him centrally and all hell could break loose. Lamine has the tools to succeed through the middle. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images) Lamine finished the 2025-26 La Liga season with 16 goals and 12 assists and was named the competition’s best player. He still destroys defenders from the outside, but he can now control matches from within them. A false-nine role would precisely emphasise that quality. Barcelona would not need him wrestling centre-backs with his back to goal. They need him to drop at the right moments and find pockets of space to turn. With runners like Raphinha, Gordon and Adeyemi on either side of him, Lamine can then find them to perfection. That could also shorten one of the most important distances on the pitch: Pedri to Lamine. With Lamine moving centrally and dropping deeper, he can combine better with the Canary Islander. This relationship could improve Barça’s attack to devastating effect. Gordon and Adeyemi change the equation A false nine who drops towards the ball is useless if everybody else does the same. Someone must attack the space he abandons, and this is where Barcelona benefit from having runners everywhere. Gordon arrived from Newcastle after scoring 17 goals in all competitions last season, including ten in the Champions League. Adeyemi followed him from Borussia Dortmund with the reputation of being a player who once clocked 36.65 kilometres per hour in the Bundesliga. Both can operate across the frontline. That flexibility creates possibilities. Gordon-Lamine-Adeyemi; Raphinha-Lamine-Adeyemi; Gordon-Lamine-Raphinha, all three forward lines have a real chance of thriving. When Lamine comes short, Gordon can attack the channel. Adeyemi can threaten to break behind the opposition line with pace. Raphinha can do what he does best: make diagonal runs with perfect timing. With players like Gordon and Raphinha around, Lamine could excel. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images) It also fits Flick’s preference for verticality. His Barcelona have never simply been a slow-possession team. Their best attacks combine control with sudden acceleration, using runners beyond the opposition once central spaces have been opened. Lamine can help the team become even more devastating in this regard. A role without a position The mistake would be confining Lamine to a position with the label “striker” on it. The most interesting thing Flick can do is keep it as fluid as possible. During one sequence, he could begin centrally and drift towards the right half-space. During another, Gordon could become the highest attacker while Lamine drops alongside Pedri, allowing Dani Olmo to run beyond both of them. The opponent’s problem would no longer be identifying Barcelona’s striker. It would be identifying who Barça’s striker is at that moment. This dynamism is important because it also protects what already makes Lamine extraordinary. His false-nine invention should not come at the cost of his right-wing prowess. The other important thing to remember is that this tactical idea should be used in selective games, as it cannot work against all opponents. Against a deep five-man defence, there may be little space behind for Gordon or Adeyemi to attack. Barça may need a more physical reference up front, like Hamza Abdelkarim or, to an extent, Ferran Torres, and in such game states, Lamine could return to the right wing. This is why the false nine should be used as a weapon, not the template. Barcelona have seen the trick before The historical parallel is inevitable. In May 2009, Pep Guardiola moved Lionel Messi into a false-nine role against Real Madrid. Fabio Cannavaro and Christoph Metzelder could not decide whether to follow him into midfield, Barcelona repeatedly attacked the resulting spaces, and the evening ended 6-2 in their favour. However, Barça should not place expectations on Lamine based on the precedents set by Lionel Messi in that position. Barcelona’s great discovery that night was not simply that their best player could play through the middle. It was that their best player could cause havoc when unshackled from the right wing and moved centrally. Of course, all this depends on what Barça do in the transfer market between now and the end of the window. If Deco eventually signs the striker Flick wants, all these tactical experiments may have to wait, and Lamine will have to stick to his right-wing role this summer. However, the prospect of playing Lamine through the middle is tantalising, and Flick should keep the option open to unleash him when the moment is right.