From a La Masia XI to a Barcelona side with just one Catalan player

Against Leganes, Barcelona presented a line-up comprising of 10 foreign players, a statistic would would go unnoticed if the team was playing good football and not edging away from the style which has made them the best side in history. 

It could be opportunistic, but they've gone from 'Don't touch La Masia' to an XI with 10 players from outside of Spain -- even if two of them, Lionel Messi and Rafinha were from La Masia. It led to a tweet from former president Joan Laporta: "La Masia's dismantled." 

It's true that you cannot live in the past and Barça's success will be difficult to repeat, but a change in style has been dressed up by saying that "it's impossible to find a Xavi or an Iniesta on the current market." 

BARCELONA OF THE MIDFIELDERS 

Barça, meanwhile, have been characterised for many years on a style which they seem to be losing. It's said to be an evolution of the style, but the teams are built by the players and the managers. 

The Barça of midfielders has become the Barça of the trident. That Club World Cup final against Santos (4-0) saw four midfielders start (Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Thiago) with Fabregas and Messi up front. All six players were from the club's academy, but against Leganes there were only three in total: Sergi Roberto, Messi and Rafinha.

CRUYFF TO TITO 

Even though 1995/96 signalled the end for Johan Cruyff, Barcelona fielded a side with eight La Masia graduates that season (Carlos Busquets, Ferrer, Sergi, Óscar García, Carreras, Roger, Toni Velamazán and Juan Carlos Moreno), while the other three players were Abelardo, Nadal and Figo. That day, Cruyff showd the path which was followed by Tito Villanova.

On Nov. 25, 2012, during a game against Levante (which Barça won 4-0), the Catalan side ended up having an entire XI of La Masia players. An injury to Dani Alves after 15 minutes, saw Martin Montoya replace him. 

And at that point, the team was: Valdés, Montoya, Piqué, Puyol, Jordi Alba, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc, Pedro, Messi.

TEN FOREIGN PLAYERS 

Now, little more than four years later, the game against Leganes on Sunday at Camp Nou saw a line up comprising of one German, three French players, a Croat, a Portuguese, two Brazilians, an Argentine, a Uruguayan and just one Catalan. 

It may be a one off -- there were six Spanish players on the bench (five who had played for Barça B or the youth teams at the club) -- but it's data which strengthens the theory that the Barça DNA is being lost.