An edgy Barca get past Valladolid.

An edgy Barca get past Valladolid 

Barcelona vs. Valladolid - Laliga Match Reaction -16-2-2019

A much changed Barcelona managed to edge past the defensive Valladolid 1-0 despite an unconvincing display. Immediately questions were raised about every player including the new signee - Kevin Prince Boateng, an average Messi and the ability of the team to win in big games. Something about this question bothers me immensely.

It’s the same fans who call for effective rotation, rest for the star players and ample playing time for the Barcelona Bench, who complain most when such changes are made.

Whenever such changes are made, the team is bound to struggle. Please don’t expect beautiful football during such games. It’s during these times that the team must stick together, find a way out and scrape through to wins that could prove significant.

Yes, Barcelona struggled to create chances against the defensive Valladolid who had flooded their own half with its entire team. But they were much better in the 2nd half. This was one of the least attacking sides in La Liga and Barcelona could afford to take the risk.

In fact, Barcelona could have easily ended up with a 5-0 score if Messi had not missed the 2nd penalty and if Saurez & the rest had not fluffed all the sitters that came their way. If that had been the scenario, the same game would have been viewed in a different manner by many and the existing problems would have been sidelined.

While Messi was below par in the game, he was not bad. He created a number of great chances despite being crowded out by the opposition. I was relieved to see that he did not take the risk of being tackled by the Valladolid defenders.

Barcelona desperately needs a striker to replace Luis Suarez who is waning with time. They let go off Alcacer and are now repenting that hasty decision because they did not get anyone as replacement.

Luis Suarez, Rakitic and Lenglet were given much needed rest because they do need it, as tough weeks await them in the form of UCL, Copa del Rey & La Liga (which includes two clasicos.)

In this game, Pique and Ter Stegen were excellent and kept the team going. It was Pique who earned Barca its first penalty. Vidal was tough as usual and never gave in.

The dependence on Messi is always there with this team. Valverde is doing nothing to decrease it. Messi is human and he recently had an injury. He was unnecessarily risked in the 1st leg of the Copa del Rey semis.

Messi doesn’t seem fully fit to me. Maybe he is being careful not to risk any aggravation to his injury. He should have ideally come in during the 2nd half along with Suarez in this game.

Young Alena is a great prospect, but he too needs time in the middle which thankfully is happening to a certain extend. Dembele, despite all his skills, is totally unpredictable, inconsistent and is just coming back from an injury.

Similarly, Umtiti is also declared fit after a long layoff (thankfully he was not playing). Rather than hurrying these players into the team for crunch games, league matches like this should be used to play them for a while.

What should one expect from Kevin Prince Boateng? Realistically nothing at all because he definitely, needs time to settle into the team. Whether he is the right choice is another question. Whether he is a better fit than Malcom is totally dependent on the logic behind Valverde’s choice. But don’t blame him for not being effective in his first league game.

As for the Champions League, in this elite competition, every team is going to put in their best effort. FC Barcelona will be no different when it comes to trying and the team lineup will also be very different for that game. So, let’s not compare this game with that of the upcoming challenge against Lyon. It’s going to be tough but let’s hope the best 11 of Barca will try their best to come on top.

Whatever be the margin or result, FC Barcelona is a team in transition and it will take time to find the next gen who will fit with each other as most of the aging stars will soon be making their way out. Matches will be different as different players are tried out. That doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. Even in this scrappy game, they managed to edge past their opponent which was very important.

The expectations of the cules are pretty high under any circumstances and that’s because Messi & Barca have set themselves very high standards. Every fan of the club expects a great game , even if all the 11 players are changed for a match. If the team wins emphatically everyone tend to ignore the flaws. If the team struggles, they will look at only the flaws. Its totally unjustified.

There are a lot of things to make a big deal of, about the current FC Barcelona Team and its coach. But there are certain risks that needs to be taken and let’s hope that the team will scrape through during such tough situations, like they managed against Valladolid.

Image Credits - Google Images