How good would Barcelona be if they stopped hitting the woodwork?

Jordan Russell (@JordRuss96)
18 dic 2017

Lionel Messi failed to score during Barcelona’s 4-0 drubbing of Deportivo La Coruña last night, and was visibly frustrated with himself after the match.

Having hit the post three times and the crossbar once in what was an otherwise tremendous display by the Argentine, he has now hit the frame of the goal no less than 14 times this season. Jordi Alba also hit the woodwork, as did a sliced shot by Luis Suárez.

The Blaugrana have now hit the post 26 times since the start of the season – that’s an average of once per match. They are eight points better off than they were at the equivalent stage of the La Liga last campaign. They could quite conceivably have maximum points had even half of those shots found the net.

While Messi has hit the framework 14 times, there has been an otherwise even split across the rest of the squad: Suárez (4), Piqué (3), Paulinho (2), Rakitić, Deulofeu and Jordi Alba (1).