Boca Juniors are sleepwalking into a brutal 2025-26 season

The Riquelme Experiment is Running Out of Steam

Juan Román Riquelme might be a god at La Bombonera, but his tenure as president is turning into a slow-motion car crash. Boca Juniors are heading into the 2025-26 Liga Profesional with expectations that completely ignore reality.

Fans are demanding a 7th Copa Libertadores title. They always do. Every single February, the conversation around the club turns to ending the drought. But look at this squad. This is not the team that dominated South America in the early 2000s under Carlos Bianchi.

The current midfield is incapable of dictating play against even mid-table opposition like Platense or Sarmiento. When you rely entirely on individual moments of brilliance from Edinson Cavani — who is pushing 38 years old — you are setting yourself up for failure.

Cavani was brilliant in flashes last season. He carried the attack on his back during the Copa de la Liga. But building a 60-game season around a striker who needs his minutes meticulously managed is gross negligence. Boca needs a cohesive attacking structure, not just a legendary number nine doing it all by himself.

Defensive Frailties Are Glaring

Let's talk about the backline. Marcos Rojo spends more time in the medical room or dealing with suspensions than he does organizing the defense.

In the last Superclásico against River Plate, the gaps between the midfield pivot and the center-backs were massive. River exploited that space effortlessly. Martín Demichelis set traps all over the pitch, and Boca walked into every single one of them. You cannot afford to repeat that tactical disaster if you want to survive the group stages of the Libertadores.

The board's failure to sign a dominant, imposing center-back in the transfer window is baffling. They spent the entire offseason chasing flashy wingers when the core problem has always been defensive stability.

Aaron Anselmino is a fantastic prospect, but throwing a teenager into the fire of a Libertadores knockout match away in Brazil is unfair to the kid. Boca needs a commanding presence, a player in the mold of Rolando Schiavi, who can actually organize a back four when the pressure is on.

Instead, they roll out the same aging veterans who have cracked under pressure time and time again. The definition of insanity is playing the same defensive line and expecting a clean sheet against Palmeiras.

A Missing Link in the Center

Cristian Medina and Ezequiel Fernández were supposed to be the answer. But the constant rotation and lack of a consistent tactical system under Diego Martínez has left them looking lost.

There is no rhythm. No sustained pressure. Just sideways passing until someone hits a desperate long ball to Miguel Merentiel.

It is genuinely painful to watch a team with this much financial power play like they just met each other in the parking lot before kickoff. A midfield engine room in modern football needs players who can win the ball back high up the pitch and instantly transition into attack. Boca simply jogs back into a low block and hopes for the best.

Kevin Zenón has been a bright spot since arriving from Unión. He actually tries to carry the ball forward. But he is entirely isolated on the left flank. If he gets double-teamed, the entire Boca attack grinds to a halt.

It’s a broken system. You can’t rely on left-back Lautaro Blanco firing blindly into the box 15 times a match and call it an attacking philosophy.

The Libertadores Dream is a Mirage

Boca fans love to point to their history in the Copa Libertadores. The mystical nights in Buenos Aires. The noise. The intimidation factor.

But intimidation doesn't win modern football matches. Brazilian clubs like Flamengo, Palmeiras, and Atlético Mineiro are operating on an entirely different financial and tactical level.

Look at the numbers. Brazilian clubs have won the last six Libertadores titles. Boca hasn't lifted the trophy since 2007.

To think this current iteration of the Xeneize can go toe-to-toe with a fully firing Flamengo squad is pure delusion. Flamengo will roll into La Bombonera with a wage bill that dwarfs the entire Argentine Primera and players who start for their national teams.

Boca might scrape through the group stage based on name recognition alone. They might even grind out a penalty shootout win in the Round of 16. But against an elite South American side, they will be exposed. Sergio Romero can't save five penalties every single round to carry them to a final.

What Needs to Change?

The obsession with older, past-their-prime stars needs to end. Bringing in names that sell shirts doesn't win league titles.

Boca needs to build a modern, high-pressing team.

• Stop relying on individual brilliance and start coaching actual patterns of play.
• Invest heavily in a young, dynamic midfield destroyer who can cover ground.
• Find a manager and actually stick with him for more than eight months, rather than hitting the panic button every time they drop points to a promoted side.

The politics of the club are suffocating the football. Riquelme's football council dictates too much, interferes with the manager, and makes baffling transfer decisions.

Until the structural rot is addressed, no manager will succeed here. Diego Martínez is trying his best, but he is working with a squad built for 2018, not 2025.

If Riquelme and the board don't wake up to the reality of modern South American football, the 2025-26 season will be another year of bitter disappointment. The Bombonera deserves better than this disorganized chaos. The fans deserve a team that actually competes, rather than a museum exhibit of aging stars pretending they can still run the continent.