It's the same situation as Thiago. I would place the blame 100% on the coach instead of the board. There were plenty of opportunities to play Bartra. Vermaelen was whiffing on the ball under no pressure while Bartra watched from the stands. We won games 3, 4, 5, to nothing with Bartra sitting on the bench.
Not exactly true. I love Bartra and have always supported him and I was against Vermaelen's transfer as I'm against any player coming from Arsenal but that theory is just not true if you look at the numbers.
There were 16 league games that we have won with 3+ goals. Bartra started 3 of those games and was subbed on in 6 other, when the game was already won. He wasn't even on the bench in 7 other games when those high wins happens so Lucho couldn't sub him on.
As for Vermaelen, he started 6 games, 2 of those in first two rounds when he was in really good form before the injury. He was subbed off in two of them, one in that Atletico game when he got injured after half an hour and then second in Malaga after very bad first half. He had 4 substitute appearances.
So if anything, Bartra was used always when possible if we were in that good position you mentioned. Lucho clearly didn't trust him enough to get him on the bench in what he expected to be closer games even if some of them later turned out into big wins for us, like away El Clasico or home games against Celta or Espanyol so of course he couldn't bring him on when we had those good results guaranteed. But it's clear that Mathieu was our 3rd CB and after January when Arda and Vidal become eligible to play Lucho prefered to have another midfielder on the bench over having 2 CBs which I think it's understandable.
Should or could Bartra play more? Yes, but he didn't do much to really convince Lucho to give him more chances as he also didn't with 3 coaches before him if we are fair. And was it really Vermaelen's fault he didn't do that? Absolutely no. Except for the start of the season when Vermaelen played really good and deserved to be ahead of Bartra, their opportunities were pretty close. And none of them was good and consistent enough to endanger Mathieu's position as 3rd CB not to even talk about starting ahead of Pique or Masche.
As I said before, I was always big Bartra supporter but it's time to admit he's just not good enough to be anymore than our 4th/5th CB. If he's willing to accept that role I'm ok with renewing his contract and staying here but I think he's more ambitious and will try to prove his quality in another club. He's a great person and great cule and I wish him nothing but the best but he just didn't develop as a player as we all hoped he would over the last seasons. And that's not Vermaelen's or Lucho's fault. If anything, we should give some blame to coaches before Lucho for not giving him more opportunities when he was still developing and at the same time when Pique was going through his bad patch of form when he started with Skahira and wasn't fully concentrated on football.
Now, at 25 Bartra is what he is, there is not much more room for improvements. He can get better with regular playing time and increased confidence but I doubt he'll ever be Barca's starting quality. Also because I don't think he can coexist very good in pair with Pique and there is no way he can replace him in Pique's current form.
lol
