29/08/2023 and las 08:00 CEST
A few hours before Barça’s meritorious and long-suffering comeback in Villarreal, Messi once again denied that offensive and unfortunate statement from Barça in which it was said, to discredit him, that Leo had chosen to “compete in a championship with fewer demands and further away from the focus and pressure to which he has been subjected in recent years”: the stratospheric pass of the best footballer in history and now in the MLS that has gone around the world does not seem to be from a footballer who has chosen to lower any bar.
And it is that The void that Messi has left in the Barça forward is a crater of enormous proportions of which we have not yet seen the bottom. That is why the debate is not who is going to fill that gap (the answer is nobody), but rather which players can minimize their absence as much as possible.
In the Estadio de la Cerámica, the one who presented the best candidacy was undoubtedly a 16-year-old teenager named Lamine Yamal, with whom Xavi acted with great courage, and who revolutionized the game. He gave Gavi a goal, carried all the weight in attack, held the team when he was on the wire and gave Lewandowsky a goal that was actually his.
Right now, this school-age boy is without a doubt the fittest striker at Barça, far above a Lewandowsky lost and totally disconnected from the game. Beyond his scoring nose, the problem with the Pole is that he conveys the feeling of not fully understanding what Barça is playing.
Right now, Ferran Torres exhibits his excellent physical condition and his great goalscoring momentbut it will be necessary to see if he is able to confirm sensations in the most demanding moments of the season.
Ansu Fati disappoints every time he goes out onto the field, and yesterday he missed an unforgivable chance with 3-4 that could have cost the team dearly: just a few days after the market closed, the feeling is growing that both Xavi and the club are coming to the conclusion that If a good offer arrives, his stage at Barça may have ended. Proof of this is that The young Fermín gave the feeling yesterday that he can contribute much more than Ansu.
Is left over Raphinha, a striker who seems to always stay halfway, whose suspension has allowed him to hide the fact that right now Lamine Yamal is much more of a starter than he is. After three days of the League, it is clear that there is a redistribution of hierarchies in the forward of Barça. Those who started as favorites (Lewa, Raphinha and Ansu) are being discussed by two youngsters like Yamal and Fermín and a worker like Ferran Torres.
The underlying question, still unresolved, is how the leadership up front will be configured in the post-Messi era. Seen what has been seen against Villarreal, it seems more likely that the replacement will be built by a couple of teenagers long before established signings who earn almost as much as the best in history. At Barça, the field always ends up weighing more than the bench.
2023-08-28 21:56:36
#debate #post #Messi
