Barcelona is not concerned by the dry spell it enjoyed in front of goal over the final stretch of this season. There has been a lot of talk of a need for a plan B when the opposition parks the bus in front of goal and the possibility of signing a player able to shoot from distance. However, the Catalan giant is not planning to add to its attacking ranks because it believes that the best possible ‘signing’ is the return of David Villa from a six-month lay-off through injury.

‘El Guaje’ is thinking only about making a full recovery so that he can help the team again: “I would have liked to be out there on the pitch and I suffered too much from not being able to help the team to be able to judge what happened. It just wasn’t our year. That was plain to see in the semis against Chelsea, when not even they thought they would go through. It’s tough for me to analyse it from the outside, I already suffered enough from being forced to sit it out”, he explained.

There is no doubt that Villa is the solution to Barça’s goalscoring problems. Though he refuses to acknowledge it himself, he knows that the team’s attacking threat is increased when he is available. He is Barcelona’s plan B: “I know that I’m at the best club in the world and the one with the most competition for places. All I want is to stay injury-free, which wasn’t the case this year – to be 100% so that I can compete for my place in the team”.