Lamine Yamal is not a player who hides his emotions.He didn’t do so after being substituted, on the verge of tears, in Barcelona’s first game of the new La Liga season against Elche following a disappointing performance last Sunday. Nor did he hide his determination to score against Rayo Vallecano on Monday night.Before kick-off, the 19-year-old sat alone at the top of the steps in the Camp Nou tunnel, just down from the changing rooms. Everyone else was at the bottom of the steps, waiting to go on.Yamal stayed behind, a serious expression on his face, his hands clasped tightly together. He only stood up when his team-mates began filing onto the pitch, to the sound of Barcelona’s anthem.Seeing Yamal that serious is something different. He is usually so cheerful and visibly brimming with self-confidence, even capable of falling asleep on the coach on the way to the 2024 European Championship final, while the rest of the Spain squad were a bundle of nerves.So what caused this sense of unease?On social media and in the press, it was rumoured that he was angry about Barcelona’s treatment of Alejandro Balde, one of his best friends in the squad. It was also said that he was angry because Ferran Torres left for Paris Saint-Germain.The reality does not match either of those theories. He simply felt he should be doing better.According to sources close to the player — speaking anonymously as they did not have permission to comment — Yamal’s sulky demeanour was purely down to dissatisfaction with his recent performances.After a season in which he struggled with groin pain from November until the start of 2026, he arrived at the World Cup with a thigh muscle injury, which meant he was not at peak form for the tournament this summer.