Alejandro Balde Misfortune and the alarming lack of wingers
1-1 at Camp Nou Narration and statistics
Classification Barça, five points from the lead
Ronald Koeman
claimed on the eve of the match that he was not afraid of the future. It couldn't be true. No one is unscathed from fear. When uncertainty lurks, fear is there to take you by the hand wherever it is. Sometimes it grabs you so hard that it drags you into a bottomless pit. Others, and in football it also happens, it makes you see that perhaps all is not lost. That there are other ways, although these can make your eyes bleed. Barcelona drew against Granada in the 90th minute after surrendering without embarrassment to the pitch. The final chapter was both grotesque and exciting. With
Gerard Piqué
acting as a striker with
Luuk de Jong
, a metaphor for the decrepitude of this time. But, above all, with
Ronald Araujo
become a superhero.
The Uruguayan's self-love and his redemptive head saved, at least for now, Koeman.
He had his what.
At halftime, with the stands on the verge of a nervous breakdown when seeing how Barcelona, unhinged, went to the dressing room from behind on the scoreboard, the
Boys don't cry
by The Cure
began to thunder on the public address system
.
They must be joking.
How not to cry?
Because Granada, who have not won a single game this season, only had to wake up at the Camp Nou scoring in the second minute of play. The defensive lack of attention was blushing.
Sergio Busquets
only worried
Sergio Escudero
with his eyes
, with a red carpet spread out before him.
Domingos Duarte
came to the center with all the parsimony in the world
. And
Frenkie de Jong
, who was his marker, was engulfed in nothingness while his rival headed for goal. Just when the Dutch midfielder is most expected to exercise the stage dominance for which he was hired, his fortunes go the other way. Although the incoherence of Koeman's Barça helps this.
This has nothing to do with the drawings.
Nor with the making of a lineup full of teenagers.
Alejandro Baldé
, 17, occupied the left back until he was injured and was replaced by
Óscar Mingueza
;
18-year-old Austrian
Yusuf Demir was a
false right winger;
and
Gavi
, a 17-year-old midfielder, played the last hour after it became clear that nothing has changed in
Philippe Coutinho's
irrelevance
.
Locked up in the area
Barcelona's big problem lies in the absence of a plan. Improvisation is the norm. Neither advantages are acquired with the ball nor are the spaces in the static attack, nor is there an imbalance no matter how much
Sergiño Dest
tried
on the band or
Memphis Depay
between a swarm of legs. Faced with that Granada of
Robert Moreno
locked in his area from the moment he took the first goal, there was no other way than to hang balls without rhyme or reason.
So, until Luuk de Jong appeared for
Sergi Roberto
in the second act, the one who had to act as a striker was a central defender.
You know, Ronald Araujo.
A formidable shot by the Uruguayan after one of the multiple centers to the Memphis area led to one of the stops in the League.
The flight to his right of the 22-year-old Portuguese
Luis Maximiamo
was one of those that remains etched in the retina for a long time.
Robert Moreno did not seem to mind raising an eternal match in front of his area.
He would already have some against, like the one that
Jorge Molina
, at 39, was about to take advantage of after an advance by
Darwin Machís
.
No control or borders
Much could not change things in the second half.
Araujo kept hunting all the balls he could in the area.
And Luuk de Jong, whom President
Joan Laporta
compares with
Julio Salinas
, could already get down to business.
Ten minutes from the end, and a couple of meters from the goal, he put his head so bad that the ball went up, and not where it should.
The center of the field never mattered.
Sergi Roberto, this time inside, came to finish off the crossbar in the first half.
But it was erased to make room for the Dutch stem.
Frenkie de Jong ran from top to bottom, but without control or borders.
While Busquets was completely alone in that place where Barcelona learned to be great.
Now it is just a stop.
Koeman pardoned
Riqui Puig
.
He put Piqué as a center forward.
But those who took Barça out of misery were Gavi, in the center, and Araujo, a blessing for a team that lives in agony.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
sports
soccer
FC Barcelona
Granada CF
Ronald Koeman
First division
SoccerThe three poisoned candies that will solve Koeman's future
LaLigaThe difficult integration of Robert Moreno in Granada: between misunderstanding and drones
LaLigaBalde's misfortune and the alarming lack of full-backs at Barça
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