What Barça would gain with Neymar

When Neymar decided to leave Barcelona in the summer of 2017, the Catalan team launched a campaign to fill the gap left by the Brazilian with several top-level players.

Philippe Coutinho could not arrive in that same summer period, but Ousmane Dembele was immediately signed, and was injured at the beginning of his time with Barca, not fully managing to be back in top shape since.  

Between the two, they hardly match Neymar's numbers in his first two years as a Barcelona player, even considering that the Brazilian's first campaign in Europe was not as stellar as others, as his adaptation process under Martino took some time. 

It would not be fair to say that Coutinho and Dembele have already added two full seasons in the Spanish team, as the Brazilian arrived mid 2017-18 and the Frenchman has spent almost half of the campaign injured.

If Neymar's comeback were to happen, Barça would assure itself an almost incomparable regularity in the statistical frame. Although Neymar's injuries have hit hard in France and barely allowed him to play half as much as in Barcelona, the Brazilian scored 28 goals and 16 assists in his first year and repeated, with fewer minutes, in 2018-19, scoring 23 times and giving away ten goals to his team-mates.

In his time at Barça, aside from the 2013-14 campaign, in which he scored only 15 goals and gave eleven assists, his numbers are reliable as a Swiss clock. During 2014-15, the hat-trick campaign, he scored 39 goals and gave eight assists. In 2015-16, in which Barcelona signed a Liga-Copa double, he scored 31 goals and gave 22 assists.

To say goodbye, in 2016-17 of the end of Luis Enrique's cycle, in which Barcelona nevertheless won the Cup, the Brazilian scored another 20 goals and 20 assists. However, it should not be forgotten that that same year, the Brazilian started to cause controversy with a shameful red card and a whopping 16 yellow cards for ugly actions or protests throughout the campaign. The problem would arise if he were to bring those same issues back to Barcelona...