Chronicle Barcelona and Atlético refuse to be champions
Piqué "I still see myself with options"
There was a time when Barcelona was born and died from its midfielders. It was they who led and ordered. Those who gave meaning to a possession and prevented the ball from being a pandemic beer can to be kicked without judgment or constructive encouragement. This team in which
Ter Stegen
stops and
Messi
repairs is still breathing thanks to the fact that a guy with ways of another era resists, two months after the age of 33, and who not so long ago was already finished.
Sergio Busquets
collapsed
against Atlético, and his teammates found that they are still unable to live without him. Barça opened the channel and exposed itself to its only reality: the frustration of those who see that, without football, there is no possible solution.
Write down these names:
Samuel Umtiti
,
Junior Firpo
,
Riqui Puig
,
Miralem Pjanic
,
Francisco Trincao
and
Martin Braithwaite
. Barcelona does not have any of them for next season, Trincao being the only one who could still avoid a loan. In any case, those six players, together with the second and third goalkeepers (
Neto
and
Arnau Tenas
), did not play a single minute in the 0-0 draw against Atlético. All of them were part of the bench. Nobody asks about the Brazilian
Matheus Fernandes
. For something it was never featured even though it appears in the promotional photos. None of them serve
Ronald Koeman
, who during the season has been tightening the fence between his chosen so much that any accident distorts any hint of stability. Although especially striking is the management of troops in the center of the field.
Savic's
head
hit the face of Busquets and there was no way to correct himself.
Pjanic, recruited in his day by the old regime to save the accounting exercise thanks to the barter with
Arthur
, has 11 league games without playing (the last time he did so was on February 24 against Elche). Riqui Puig, who for years was classified as La Masia's great hope, has already played six league games without participating (between February 6 and April 5 he played three minutes against Osasuna, five minutes against Huesca and Real Society, and three others against Valladolid).
Thus, Koeman ended up gambling a good part of his options in the League with a trio of midfielders with an average age of 19.6 years (
Ilaix Moriba
and
Pedri
are 18 years old,
compared to
23 for the Dutch
De Jong
). Then
Sergi Roberto
also appeared in the game
, very discreet in a season marked by injuries and who at 29 years old and with a contract until 2022 is looking for a new renewal. It is becoming entangled in irrelevance as an interior.
The match against Atlético showed the reality of this crossroads Barcelona, with the abyss behind it, but still unable to climb any slope. In the first half he reached 65% possession. He maintained order and a certain balance, being Busquets the footballer who, in addition to cutting, tried to plot some internal exit to the swarm arranged by
Simeone
in the throat of the field.
But Koeman's were only able to fire three times.
The injury of Busquets coincided with the recital of stops of Ter Stegen that saved to the Barcelona to derail definitively.
In the second half, despite the fact that Barça threatened to get closer to the rival area (he finished up to nine times), he also revealed that for this to happen he had to indulge in chaotic and absurd football with an episodic component.
The Barça possession, by the way, had already dropped to 51%.
Pedri, squeezed
Ronald Koeman, observed by a wide sector of the board with great suspicion, is clear with which footballers he will conclude his first season at Barcelona. Although the exaggerated accumulation of matches, as harmful psychically as physically, has ended up minimizing the incidence of Pedri, whose tremendous quality and spirit of sacrifice are no longer enough to condition the rival's game. Frenkie de Jong still has plenty of rope, but in the duel against Atlético he again paid to be the coach's boy for everything. This time he did not have to retreat to the Libero position. But with Busquets' injury he had to be the pivot, when he has shown that he performs like no one with enough track to reach the finishing zones. In any case, both Pedri and De Jong have played all 35 games in this league. While Ilaix Moriba,Whom the club is trying to renew because his contract ends in 2022, he has participated in the last eleven matches of the tournament. It's the ideal Koeman replacement. A responsibility has fallen on their shoulders that may not yet correspond to them.
Last summer, Busquets came to fear that someone at the club would ask for his head.
They even warned him that his role would no longer be the same.
In May, with three games to go in the season, the team fell apart without him.
A Barça without Busquets continues being a Barça without sense.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
sports
football
First division
FC Barcelona
Ronald Koeman
Leo Messi
Sergio Busquets
LaLigaThe sins of Koeman
LaLigaBarcelona and Atlético refuse to be champions
LaLigaKoeman, implacable with Mingueza: anger and change due to excess of daring
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