Lamine Yamal is evolving from a pure attacking talent into a complete winger at Barcelona. Under Hansi Flick he has hugely improved his defensive work and pressing, while still leading the league in dribbles, assists and final passes, confirming his status as one of the most decisive young players in world football.
That Lamine Yamal is one of the best players in the world is not in doubt. It is an undeniable reality, and the slight Barça winger confirms it in almost every game with his goals, assists and constant threat on the ball.
From the moment he broke into the first team he has been treated as a generational talent, someone who can tilt a match with a single action. But there was one aspect of football in which, according to Hansi Flick, he needed to improve: containing the opposition’s play. His focus was almost exclusively on verticality and attacking movements, on breaking lines and taking on defenders, and he made little sacrifice to stop the opponent’s ball circulation. That imbalance has changed in recent weeks, and it has changed in a big way.
The 18-year-old international winger used to show some shortcomings when it came to forcing his opponent, through pressing, into making mistakes. He would often wait for the ball to come back to him rather than trigger the press himself, and at times he would switch off when Barça lost possession. It was hard for him to sacrifice himself in defensive work and he naturally concentrated on attacking, vertical play, which had always been his strength in youth football and in his first months with the senior side. Hansi Flick has reproached him for this on more than one occasion, although not only him. The German coach has often lamented that the attacking players were not working hard enough to attempt and repeat quick, coordinated actions to recover the ball, Raphinha being the exception, which is why the team missed the Brazilian so much during his injury lay-off.
For Flick, the issue was never about Lamine’s talent, but about turning that talent into something that can dominate matches at the very highest level. To move up to the next level, one or two steps higher, you have to work hard; talent alone is not enough. The coach has repeated this message again and again, in press conferences and in the dressing room. It is not just about playing with the ball, but also about defending, about making the effort to close passing lanes, about sprinting back after losing possession. That is what we need from Lamine and from all the players, said Flick at the end of September in the build up to the Champions League game against PSG, a line that has become almost a motto of his time at the club.
In that same period, the former Bayern Munich coach insisted that defending starts from the front. It is not just about the four defenders. It is about the midfielders and the forwards, who are the ones that start the press. If they do not jump at the right moment, the entire structure collapses and the back line is left exposed. That is what I need from every player on the pitch: that they press, he stated a few days ago, clearly irritated, after the defeat against Chelsea. The message was aimed at the squad as a whole, but nobody in the group failed to recognise that Lamine was one of those being challenged to change.
The response has been immediate. Lamine has quickly stepped up. Against Atletico Madrid, in the match played last Tuesday and corresponding to the brought-forward Matchday 19 of LaLiga because of the Supercopa being held in January, he was the player with the most ball recoveries: nine in the 87 minutes he was on the pitch. That number would be impressive for a holding midfielder, but for a winger who until recently was criticised for doing too little in defence it is a clear sign of evolution. He even surpassed Pedri in this statistic, as the midfielder recorded eight recoveries. The other attacking players who started were far behind him: Raphinha and Lewandowski finished with three each.
Those numbers matched what was visible to the naked eye. From the first minutes at the Metropolitano, Lamine rolled up his sleeves for the good of the team. He tracked back repeatedly to help his full back, closed inside to block central passing lanes and pressed aggressively whenever Atletico tried to build from the back. On more than one occasion he stole the ball high up the pitch and immediately launched a counter, forcing Simeone’s side to abandon their usual calm in possession. He prevented Atletico from building their play and getting organised; he produced a containment-focused performance that caught the coaches’ eye and earned their applause when he left the pitch near the end.
Behind that visible transformation there is daily work. At the training ground, Flick and his staff have spent weeks refining Lamine’s positioning off the ball, correcting his angles when he presses the centre back or full back, and showing him video clips of the best pressing wingers in Europe. The goal has been to make him understand that running without the ball is not a punishment, but another way of influencing the game. Teammates have also played their part, encouraging him in matches and congratulating him when a defensive action leads to a chance or kills an opponent’s attack. The message is clear: effort is valued as much as dribbling.
Lamine, a leader in the numbers
What makes his transformation even more remarkable is that all this sacrifice to force the opposition into errors has not stopped the Barca star from continuing to shine in his attacking duties. Lamine has seven goals and nine assists in the 18 games, between LaLiga and the Champions League, in which he has featured. Those contributions do not come from set pieces or occasional flashes; they are the product of a constant threat with the ball at his feet. In fact, he is the player who has delivered the most final passes in the domestic league and across the five major European leagues, a statistic that underlines his vision and ability to pick out teammates in dangerous areas.
The international winger also leads the dribbling charts. In the Spanish competition he has completed 60 dribbles, nine of them against Atletico, and no other player has beaten that figure in these months of the 25–26 season. Many of those dribbles are not just showboating on the wing but actions that break lines, eliminate defenders and open up space for others. Combined with his improved pressing, it means that he is now influencing the game in every phase: winning the ball, carrying it forward and delivering the decisive pass or shot.
Within the squad, his evolution has shifted the internal hierarchy. Even senior players in the dressing room recognise that Lamine is no longer just the gifted teenager who can turn a match with a moment of magic, but a player who can be trusted when the team needs to defend a result or survive a difficult spell without the ball. For a coach like Flick, who builds his game model on collective effort and compactness, that change is priceless. It allows him to keep Lamine on the pitch in high-intensity matches without having to compensate for him with an extra defensive player on his flank.
For the club, this version of Lamine Yamal also changes the way they imagine their future. Barça see him as the face of the next era, a homegrown star capable of carrying the team for a decade, and the fact that he is already taking on responsibility without the ball at just 18 accelerates that process. It opens the door for tactical flexibility, for different shapes in attack, knowing that whichever system is used, Lamine will not switch off once the team loses possession.
The Rocafonda native is already a complete footballer in the statistical sense and in the tactical one. He dribbles, creates, scores, presses and recovers. The next step will be to maintain this level across an entire season, through the inevitable dips in form and physical fatigue. If he manages that, the debate about whether he is merely one of the best young players in the world or simply one of the best players, full stop, will disappear. For now, what is clear is that he has listened to Flick’s demands, embraced the less glamorous part of the game and added sacrifice to a talent that was already elite. The result is a version of Lamine Yamal that looks ready to dominate European football for years to come.
