Mateu Alemany’s imperfect revolution at Barça

But only three have truly settled (Lewandowski, Christensen and the irregular Koundé) in the structure of a Barça that flies in the League and crashes every time it leaves Spain, it does not matter if it is the Champions League or the Europa League (four consecutive eliminations in the last 16 months).

It was Xavi himself who, once the summer market had concluded, qualified the remodeling of the squad. “They have not made a squad for me but for Barça,” said the coach.

But even he, no matter how careful he is in his messages, knows that an unfinished revolution. Unfinished and incomplete that manacles Xavi, that does not stop asking for reinforcements to stimulate an unbalanced and dangerously lightened workforce this past winter, with the withdrawal of Pique and the march of Memphis to Atlético and Bellerín to Sporting de Portugal.

Ask and ask for more Xavi, aware that he has an unbalanced group that crashes against its own limitations. He asks a club strangled by the runaway wage bill. It was already with Messi. He continues to be without Messi.

And the coach, meanwhile, seeks to suture the wound opened by Madrid’s 0-4 loss in the Cup, which returned Barça to its worst memories, as well as frustrating the possibility of a national “triplet” after winning the Super Cup and dominating with a comfortable mattress in the League.

Injuries to old key pieces (Pedri, Frenkie de Jong and Dembéle) and new ones (Christensen) have even led to the blackout of Lewandowski, his best offensive endorsement, a symptom of those structural problems that nest in the squad because the replacements do not come close to the level desired by the technician to the holders.

Year 1 of Alemany-Cruyff

Up to eight signings (four in summer and four in winter) made by Barça. All except one (Ferran) at zero cost, with the freedom card in hand. Or on loan, as in the case of Luuk de Jong (Sevilla) or Adama Traoré (Wolverhampton).

A spectacular economic investment in January, just when the levers had not been activated, should have been the pillar of the sporting reconstruction of Xavi’s Barça. the chosen one was Ferran Torres, now transformed into a secondary piece.

But Barça, who did not have a single euro at the time, activated an operation that went up to 55 million. Now he is a substitute, after getting into a psychological hole that he did not see, as he himself confessed, any way out.

Barça’s sports management, led by Mateu Alemany and Jordi Cruyff, tried to cover those significant holes that damage the template. It didn’t work though.

The team, after six months with Alves and six others with Belleríncontinues without a right back and without a replacement in the center forward position because Luke de Young He she left. then he came Aubameyang and it turned out well, but it had to be sold to settle accounts. Xavi wanted him in the locker room, but he commanded the economy.

The essential objective of entering the Champions League as second classified was achieved. But the team collapsed in the final stretch coinciding with the injury of Pedri. Six of those eight signings are no longer at the Camp Nou. And the only two that follow (Ferran and Eric García) no longer play.

Year 2 of Alemany-Cruyff

The summer of levers. Money to revive a team and thus activate the virtuous circle in Laporta’s second term. He has reached for the League and the Super Cup, but not for the Champions League. Not even for the Europa League, Barça condemned to live far from the football elites. Nor for the Cup.

Eight signings, all in summer. Last winter, Alemany and Cruyff did not touch anything to reinforce a team that was losing three pieces of a secondary nature. The problems are still the same as a year ago. Xavi does not have an alternative nine to Lewandowski or a right back, a position through which they have paraded Araujo, Koundé, Sergi Roberto and even Balde, a tight left-back.

He also does not have a replacement for Pedri, who has been injured for more than two months. Eight signings and only three with a stable and continuous impact on the team, at least in the League.

no imbalance

The initial goals of Lewandowski have been fundamental to get away from Madrid, while the defensive consistency of Christensen endowed with fierceness, but only in Spain, trailing behind, while Koundé, who has transitioned from the axis to the right-handed side, has not found a regular line of performance.

Raphinha, the most expensive investment last summer, plays because Dembélé has been injured for almost three months. And with the Frenchman’s injury, together with Pedri’s, the more than obvious lack of offensive imbalance has been perceived, which further aggravates the ‘solitude’ of Lewandowski.

Barça governs, despite these offensive problems, with extreme authority in the League, despite being the leader who scores the least in Europe (53 goals) in the five major European championships: Bayern, with 77 goals, prevails in the Bundesliga, Arsenal (72) in the Premier, Napoli (66) in the Italian Serie A and Paris Sg (70) in France.

Xavi continues without a right back. Came Bellerín in August and left in January. Still no nine. He doesn’t even have Memphis. And the coach also continues without an alternative to Pedri. Again, injured. Xavi was happy with Aubameyang, but to lower the salary he had to be sold to Chelsea last August for 12 million euros.

Two seasons, old problems and old complex solutions because Barça cannot activate levers this summer. no longer let him Javier Tebas, the president of LaLiga, with whom Laporta is in conflict. And the club, which has publicly requested his resignation due to the intervention he has had in the Negreira case.

Related news

In this uncertain scenario, Alemany and Jordi Cruyff are working to successfully fill the gaps that remain open in a squad that is on its way to winning the League. That is what the levers of last summer were used for.