Barcelona are often accused of being a one-man team and they did nothing to erase that reputation during last Friday's curtain raiser away to Athletic Bilbao.

With Lionel Messi out injured, Ernesto Valverde started with a front three of summer signing Antoine Griezmann, Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele.

And they all had an absolute shocker.

Griezmann showed a lack of understanding with his new teammates, Suarez went off injured early on and Dembele produced yet another ineffective display.

Barcelona lost the game 1-0 and their overall performance showed just how reliant they are on their main man Messi.

It's reported that the Argentine will return to face Real Betis this Sunday, which is great news, but it's concerning how poor they are without him.

Messi, who turned 32 in June, isn't getting any younger and the threat of injury is higher now than ever before.

Barca need a much better back-up plan for whenever Messi is unavailable, which is why they should bring Neymar back to the Camp Nou.

Neymar is desperate to leave Paris Saint-Germain and return to Barcelona, who held a meeting with the Ligue 1 champions last week to discuss a potential move.

PSG informed Barcelona of their demands and now it's up to the Blaugrana to make it happen before the transfer window shuts.

Bringing Neymar back would undoubtedly be expensive, but it would be money well spent judging by the video below.

Back in September of the 2015/16 season, Barcelona received the worst possible news that Messi would be out for two months with a knee injury.

Someone needed to step up in Messi's absence - and that's exactly what Neymar did. Check out his highlights from that two-month period below.

Barcelona have some serious attacking talent at the moment in Griezmann, Suarez and Dembele, but the reality is that none of them can dominate or change a game like Neymar.

The 27-year-old is comfortably one of the five best players in the world right now, maybe even top three, and the long-term heir to Messi's throne.

Make it happen, Barcelona.