Xavi prostrates himself every day before the kneeler and Pray for Ilkay Gündogan’s health. Presumably also for that of others. Someone listens to the demands of the Barça coach. And he attends to them, with particular zeal in the case of the German midfielder. He is the only player who has participated in every game of the season. In the 42 games.
Pray Xavi that everything continues like this. Not only does it have the simple guaranteed occupation of a place, but it is a qualitatively important occupation because it is Gündogan the piece that covered the deficit that existed in the squad: the pass, the experience, the vision, the clairvoyance… Virtues that have not been missing a single day for the team, injected in greater or lesser doses, with greater or lesser success, sufficient, at least, for the coach by the former captain of the City.
Gündogan celebrates the goal he scored in Medizorrotza during Alavés-Barça. / Adrián Ruiz Hierro / Efe
Gündogan has started in 36 of those 42 games. But in the other six, for one reason or another, Xavi pushed him onto the field.
There is no dosage for Gündogan despite his 33 years of life and the shots he has already fired in 15 of his professional career. The rotations have passed in front of the Turkish midfielder’s box office, captain of the German team, without stopping at it against all the supposed laws of prudence and prevention.
The only midfielder who has not been injured
In a Barça punished by physical mishaps, only Gündogan, Iñaki Peña, Fermín and Vitor Roque, who has not yet completed a quarter, have been spared from the epidemic. The only midfielder who supported the line along which half of the team has marched to fill gaps.
Gundogan knocked down while driving the ball during Barça-Osasuna. / Jordi Cotrina
Gündogan has started in 36 of those 42 games. But in the other six, For one reason or another, Xavi pushed him onto the field. The substitutions were perfectly measured: against Betis, which was prior to the debut in the Champions League with Antwerp; in Vallecas before the decisive European duel with Porto; in Antwerp, with everything resolved; in Barbastro and Salamanca, in the first two cup qualifiers, and in Balaídos, on the eve of the visit to Naples.
Gündogan gets angry after a referee decision by Sánchez Martínez during Atlético-Barça. / LaPresse / AP
88.6% of the time
Gündogan, thus, has participated in the 24 matches from August to Christmas and in the 18 played from January onwards. It is, therefore, the player on the squad who accumulates the most minutes: 3,376 out of 3,810 possible, considering matches lasting 90 minutes, without eternal additions. 88.6% of playing time to be precise. The next most used are Jules Koundé (3,171) and Robert Lewandowski (3,021).
The use (or abuse) of Gündogan has resulted in 5 goals in the League (the fourth scorer after Lewandowski, Ferran and João Félix, and 10 assists). The first was before the Madridwhen he learned about the League classics and reported things he saw and did not like. He is 12 goals away from equaling his scoring record of the 17 he celebrated with Manchester City in the 2020-21 campaign. The one with the decisive passes has long been surpassed by him.
Gündogan and Pedri encourage each other during Barça-Villarreal in Montjuïc. / Enric Fontcuberta / Efe
The change of the break
Xavi will call on whoever so that the national team break is safe for all the internationals, from Gündogan to the others. The coach now sees “reasons to dream” until the end of the season and hopes not to live the nightmare of a new avalanche of injuries. On Sunday he lost João Cancelo (not due to injury, but due to a personal matter) and Andreas Christensen. Two minor mishaps that were aggravated because Gavi, Pedri and Frenkie de Jong (three midfielders), Balde and Ferran were unavailable; Marcos was summoned after three months of inactivity.
Xavi’s prayers are pertinent because the commitments of the national teams interrupt the rhythm and work of training. Barça is especially sensitive due to the mishaps that its players have suffered. Ter Stegen and Gavi have been two relevant cases, as in the past were Koundé, Araujo or De Jong.
Gundogan recovers a ball from Djené during the Barça-Getafe match. / Jordi Cotrina
Back weakness
And with the German team Gündogan gave a scare in September, in a bad fall, although he did not start against Betis. The Gelsenkirchen thinker’s Achilles heel is in his back. He damaged it playing for Germany against Paraguay in August 2013. The prehistory. She was blank that season (2013-14) (only the first three games, until she was injured in the Bundesliga premiere), she missed the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and reappeared in October of that year.
Gündogan laments in a match. / La Presse / AP
“That was definitely worse than my knee injury [se rompió los cruzados poco después de llegar a Manchester en 2016]. I was out for 14 months, but the frustrating thing was that no one really knew what kind of injury it was. I saw a surgeon and he wanted to put a big screw in my back that would not allow me to play football at this level,” he explained in an interview with ‘The Guardian’.
“Of course I still have to deal with problems, but I feel good enough“, he added, qualifying. Problems that require care and prevention work. Problems that have not weakened him when his body has accumulated more than 600 games and thousands of training sessions as a professional. Xavi will not keep the kneeler.
2024-03-20 06:48:39
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