Barcelona loses 54 goals with the departures of Lewandowski, Rashford and Ferran Torres

Let that sink in: 54 goals have gone on vacation and they're not coming back. That's what Robert Lewandowski, Ferran Torres and Marcus Rashford combined for last season, and that's exactly the hole Hansi Flick has to fill before LaLiga kicks off.

The numbers don't leave much room for improvised optimism. Barcelona scored 144 goals in 2025-26 across all competitions, the campaign in which the club won LaLiga and the Spanish Supercup. Of those 144, 37.5% came off the boots of those three forwards. In other words, more than a third of the team's scoring output left through three different doors: Lewandowski headed to Chicago Fire in MLS, Rashford returned to Manchester United after the club declined to make his loan move permanent, and Ferran Torres is now confirmed at PSG.

And Ferran certainly didn't leave quietly: he was the team's top scorer with 21 goals, 16 of them in LaLiga, and he'll also be remembered as the man who scored the goal that won Spain the 2026 World Cup in extra time. Lewandowski, who closed out the season in fine form, finished with 19 goals in all competitions (14 in LaLiga). Rashford, adding everything up, ended with 14.

And what about their replacements?

Deco has already made his move with two attacking signings: Anthony Gordon, arriving from Newcastle, and Karim Adeyemi, coming in from Borussia Dortmund. Between the two of them they scored 27 goals last season, a figure that falls well short when measured against the 54 that walked out. Adeyemi scored 10 (7 in the Bundesliga), while Gordon managed just 6 in the Premier League, though he came alive in the Champions League with 10 goals that pushed his total to 17.

Their career-best seasons don't exactly suggest they can solve Barcelona's goal-scoring problem on their own, either. Gordon's Premier League ceiling is 11 goals (with 15 assists to go with it), and Adeyemi's is 19, though that came back in 2021-22 when he was still at RB Salzburg. Neither of them is, by any stretch, a true center forward.

Flick's puzzle ahead of the opener against Elche

With LaLiga right around the corner, Flick doesn't have a natural nine on the roster and will have to improvise a solution. Gordon and Adeyemi are candidates, though Lamine Yamal and Raphinha have all but locked up the starting winger spots. Another option would be repurposing Dani Olmo or Fermín López, both accustomed to operating near the box as attacking midfielders, to play as center forwards.

There's a third, riskier alternative: Flick could push Lamine Yamal into a false nine role, using his creativity to set up runs from Raphinha, Adeyemi or Gordon. Before making up his mind, the German coach has one more test run available: the Joan Gamper Trophy, which Barcelona will play at Camp Nou against Al Ahly next Tuesday.