Xavi’s insistence on incorporating the French defender forced Barça to pay 50 million (plus 10 in variables) to Sevilla to sign one of the most highly rated young central defenders (23 years old) in European football, but with Christensen his arrival is celebrated no transfer fee. Unlike Kessie or recent precedents of zero-cost arrivals such as Memphis (Barça want to sell him before he leaves on a free transfer), Kun (he had to withdraw due to heart problems) and Adama Traoré, the club has indeed struck a chord with the ex-Chelsea player. With Christensen, Koundé, Araujo and Eric Garcia, in addition to an already retired Gerard Piqué, the coaching staff started the course satisfied in terms of the options in the central position.
Although the team has done well in the Champions League, conceding twelve goals in six games, the defensive improvement has indeed been reflected in the League. The Blaugrana have only conceded five goals in fourteen games played, three of which in the visit to the Santiago Bernabéu. Real Madrid, for example, have conceded fourteen. The defensive work is a choral task and the pressure to recover the ball in the opposite field is initiated by the forwards and is born from the coach’s board, but the step forward that Eric Garcia has made this season and, above all, the new faces in defense, they explain the improvement.
A thoroughly worked out signing
Barça had been working on Christensen’s arrival for some time. According to ARA, the sports management had already met with the player’s father before the pandemic. At the time, the Danish center had a contract in force with Chelsea and the Russian Marina Granovskaia, former right hand of the ex-owner of the club Roman Abramovich, estimated the player’s exit price between 20 and 25 million euros. Shortly after, the pandemic would arrive and the economic reality of the Blaugrana club would experience a downturn which, added to the high contracts signed during Bartomeu’s presidency, still wreaks havoc on the treasury and the debts of the entity.
But Barça did not lose sight of the team’s defender blue who, seduced by Barcelona’s interest, did not pay much attention to renewal offers from a Chelsea that experienced a transfer of its ownership after the sanctions on Abramovich for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Despite the fact that Thomas Tuchel, the ex-Chelsea coach, tried to convince him with personal talks to continue in London, Christensen had already decided not to extend the link knowing that Barça was waiting for him with open arms.
More courage, homework to improve
Although the Blaugrana team was already following the player before the arrival of Mateu Alemany as director of football, with the arrival of the new executive they did not change their plans regarding the bet for the Dane and the contacts continued with the representative. The centre-back said goodbye to Chelsea with 161 games played and with prestigious titles under his arm such as the 2014-15 Premier League (although he only played in one game, 12 minutes) and the 2020-21 Champions League, already consolidated as usual holder.
The player, who has landed in the Barça dressing room with a discreet profile, has all the confidence of Xavi. Not surprisingly, the coaching staff emphasize that, “without making much noise”, a place in the team has been made. Among the Danish’s strengths, thestaff he particularly values his “reliability”: “He always performs, he helps us a lot in the aerial game, he is technically gifted and, above all, he has a very good ball output”. In fact, it is in this last point that Xavi sees room for improvement in the Danish. “He must be more daring in the ball exit. It is one of his main qualities and he must enhance it more”, assure ARA from Sant Joan Despí.
Recovered from an ankle injury sustained against Inter in Milan and which took a little longer than expected to recover from, Christensen played at a high level in Barça’s last game before the stopped by the World Cup, in which the Blaugrana beat Osasuna (1-2) despite playing for more than an hour with one player less due to the expulsion of Robert Lewandowski. Now, focused on Denmark, he will make his debut this Tuesday in the World Cup match against Tunisia (2 p.m., World Goal).
