BarcelonaBarça won a Gamper in which they were clearly outplayed by their rivals, Tottenham, for at least 75 minutes. The first quarter of an hour was good enough, with Romeu and De Jong showing good chemistry. The last ten minutes were those of Lamine Yamal’s explosion. The young Barcelona talent, only 16 years old, changed the face of the game with a recital of feints and technical gestures.
Lamine deserves credit for being one more in the dynamics of the first team. Like Abde, one of the players with the best change of pace and dribbling in the squad. Barça, despite Dembélé’s farewell, also has Raphinha, Ferran and Ansu. Each with their own characteristics, but all can have the role of extreme. Ferran has signed a good pre-season and Ansu seems to be getting his spark back. Having seen all this, now what? Continue with the idea of the four midfielders or try to cultivate a 4-3-3 that is surely better suited to the current possibilities of the squad and the idea of Culer?
Barça could not sign anyone else and have the squad covered with two players per position, including Lamine and Fermín, if you draw it on a 4-3-3. If this was finally the route chosen by the technicians, it would be necessary to study Gavi’s new role. As a false extreme it does not serve to unbalance. As a midfielder he is still not good enough to dominate. Gavi is a very young footballer with some magnificent virtues: aggressiveness in pressing, intensity in everything he does, winner of duels, certain elasticity in the turns… But he is not yet that player that we often read or hear about . He won the prize for the best young player in Europe ahead of footballers who are already much more decisive than him, and perhaps this, added to the illusion that everything will go well and a certain confirmation bias, has made the col· we place on an altar that does not belong to him yet.
Maybe in a while Gavi will be a dominant midfielder, with great passing range. Perhaps in a few years he will have the maturity to alternate rhythms and extend combination sequences while generating volume of play and grouping the team in the final third. But, at the moment, it is still not this interior that Barça needs to recover the feeling of a team with the ability to subdue. Gündogan is indeed that midfielder and Pedri is on his way to being one. They would be the two interior players with the most numbers to be starters if Barça decidedly bets on this idea.
It is clear that the season is long and that teams need deep squads with alternatives. Gavi will get a lot of minutes and his contest is considered very important throughout the games, at certain moments of the campaign or depending on the opponent. It is difficult to do without his ability to jump aggressively under pressure, especially in the opposite field, but Barça, and Xavi, will have to see what they need in each situation. Perhaps Gavi can start with a bang and depending on how the season goes, the form of each player and his own growth as a footballer, end up claiming ownership and an almost indisputable role. Right now, that’s not the scenario.
2023-08-09 11:45:44
#Lamine #Yamal #Abde #threaten #Gavis #role
