Munir’s situation at Barcelona

Munir El Haddadi has already had a roller-coaster ride with Barcelona despite only being 19. Munir signed for Barça from Atlético Madrid in 2011. Since then he has played for Juvenil A, Barça B, Barcelona first team, Spain U19, Spain U21 and the Spain first team. The Moroccan, along with Adama Traoré, guided Barça’s U19 side to UEFA Youth League glory last year, Munir scoring two goals, including a ridiculous strike from the half way line.

Munir scoring in the 2013/14 UEFA Youth League final

It is understandable that after all this fame and all these achievements that Munir has gained a lot of attention in the media, and most notably, on Twitter.

At the start of the season, Munir started the opener against Elche CF, and scored. This caused a media/social media storm. Many saying Munir is the next big thing and I even saw some people calling him the next Messi, which is just stupid no matter who the player is.

A few months later, Munir has played some more games for the first team, being largely ineffective. This caused some of our fans to go crazy and call for Munir to be dropped from the first team and many calling him ‘shit’ amongst other things, saying he has no talent and isn’t good enough.

If you have watching Munir in the youth league and for the B team, you would know that Munir has bags of natural talent and has the potential to be a great player for Barça. But not yet. He is 19 years old, has been rushed through the ranks, nationally and at club level and is nowhere near the level expected of some fans. He is also being played out of position, and rightly so, as he is a striker who drops deep. That position is for Messi and only Messi.

Munir is yet to gain much experience from playing for Barça B. Barcelona’s full team is a whole different situation all together. Playing in big stadiums every game, with fans watching from all over the world, all expecting a great performance because they saw videos on YouTube titled ‘Munir El Haddadi – the next Messi’ or because someone told them that he is the best youth talent at Barcelona.

In reality, like any other player, Munir needs time to develop and gain experience. He needs to play some games with the B team and a few cup games for the first team and I’m sure by next season he will be much more ready to play a bit of a bigger role in the first team.

Another thing I don’t understand is why Luis Enrique is calling Munir up for most first team matches, for him to be sitting on the bench for the whole game. I can understand Lucho calling him up when Suárez was banned but now I don’t think there is any need, with Pedro on the bench and also Rafinha who can play in a more advanced role too. Young players need playing time, and if that’s in the Liga Adelante for Barça B, then so be it.

I’m sure Munir has also been effected by the pressure and stress of playing for one of Europe’s top clubs and that is sure to be effecting his performance’s in the first team as well.

One thing I haven’t mentioned in this article is the fact that Eusebio is the manager of Barça B, which doesn’t help Munir’s, or anyone else’s, situation in the slightest. The fact of the matter is, Eusebio needs to go as soon as possible for our B players to benefit and become what they can become. I’m not sure whether the current board will get rid of Eusebio or if we will have to wait until the new board come in at the end of the season for him to be sacked, but either way it needs to happen this season. But that is another topic for another day.

Thanks for reading and be sure to give me feedback on twitter 🙂

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Barça’s Attacking Trio – Neymar, Messi, Suárez – 2/3

I will be writing three blog posts about the positions/roles of our front three and how they can work together to benefit the whole team. This is the second post.

I will go through their roles in their respective positions and also what they like to do as a player and how this fits into the formation. These are just thoughts I have had during and after our matches and what I have taken from watching the players play in different roles and since Suárez became a Barça player.

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Formation 2
Suárez in the striker role, Messi on the RW and Neymar at his usual LW position.

Neymar, again, is shown on the left-wing.

This is the position he is used in most and is widely known to be most effective from this position. In the previous post, I talked about his ability to dribble and take on players. What I didn’t talk about was his shooting ability, which is very good for a winger. He has scored many long-range goals, the one vs Rayo last season for example, and when playing on the wing, it allows him to cut inside, maybe play a one-two with the striker, and then have a shot on goal.

Neymar’s role as a player don’t really change in this formation and he is still allowed to play the best he possibly can.

Neymar scoring from long-range vs Paris Saint-Germain in the UCL group stages

Next up is Suárez.

In this formation, Suárez is the main striker. Luis, as everyone knows, is a lethal finisher and will usually finish off any half chance he is given. Usually. Obviously this may not be the case so far this season but he is still adapting to the style of play and I’m confident that he can start banging in goals on a regular basis.

At Liverpool, Suárez was given the freedom to roam across the attack, cutting in from the wings and taking on players and also being in and around the box to be played a killer through ball for him to run onto.

At Barça, the attack consists of a slow passing build-up until a space opens up and it is penetrated rapidly. Not very often will we see a quick attack where Suárez can make a darting run through the defense to be given a one-on-one with the goalkeeper. For me, this is where I can see Suárez trying to adapt his game.

Game after game you can see him making run after run in behind the defense, but he wont get played in because there isn’t enough space on the ground for a pass, whereas at Liverpool, chipped through balls were used a lot more, to overcome the possible lack of space.

Suárez can be used as a main striker, but I think that he can’t be given the freedom that he was given at Liverpool and therefore won’t be as effective. He can score goals, but he won’t be taking on players like he was in the Premier League, unless he comes wide/deep to collect a pass, like he did vs APOEL, for his first Barça goal.

Suárez scoring a typical strikers goal vs Córdoba, assist from Pedro

For me, the worst part of this formation is Messi playing on the right-wing.

Don’t get me wrong, I adored watching Messi run at players and score incredible goals from this position a few years ago, but he has changed as a player. Leo has been isolated a few times this season when playing on the right-wing and isolation is the last thing you want from the best player in the world.

Putting Messi on the right-wing can work and of course formations can be switched during a game but in my opinion, Messi is at his best, at this time in his career, playing in the false 9 position, dropping deep, taking on the heart of the opponents defense to give an incredible assist or to score a breathtaking goal.

Of course, Messi can be effective from the right-wing. He’s the best in the world. He could be effective from anywhere. But for a team that has been built around La Pulga, he needs to be in his best position to play to his full abilities, not shifted to the another position to accommodate another player.

Messi’s wonderful assist for a Rakitić goal vs Granada

Overall, I think this is formation is okay. It is my least favourite but it can work. We saw the old days when Leo would play a one-two with Samuel Eto’o to then curl a long-range effort into the top corner. But we also saw over the last 5 years, Messi running at players through the middle to score incredible goals, a certain goal vs Real Madrid springs to mind…

Thank you for reading part 2 out of 3 of my blog posts about our attacking trio. Be sure to check out my twitter to see when the final part is published!

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Part 2 of 3

Gifs made by myself
Line-up of front three made at lineupbuilder.com

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FC Barcelona’s big signings, bad signings and youth players

For years, Barcelona have been famed for the amount of home-grown players that feature in their starting team and have gone on to become incredible players and, of course, be part of an incredible team. The picture below shows an eleven from the game vs Levante in November 2012 of only La Masia graduates. These players are no pushovers and the majority of them have played a vital role in winning La Liga titles, the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League. Fast forward to now. There is an ongoing case questioning the price of Neymar and who the money went to, 81.25 million euros spent on a soon to be 28-year-old Luis Suárez and to top it off the ridiculous 4 million euro signing of Douglas Pereira.

The reality is, whether you think these are smart signings or not, they are hindering the development of youth team players. Gerard Deulofeu, who had seemed to be part of the first team plans when he came back from a loan spell with Everton, posing in photos with Rafinha as if he was a new signing, is now spending most of his time sitting on the Sevilla bench whilst multi-million pound signings Neymar and Suárez are guaranteed starters back in Barcelona. In my opinion, most of these signings were necessary, but when you look at the way Pedro is playing, now he is over his start of the season slump, you can’t help but wonder if the signing of Luis Suárez and the sale of Alexis Sánchez was the correct choice.

Barça B stars Sandro Ramírez, Adama Traoré, Sergi Samper, Alejandro Grimaldo and Munir El Haddadi all look more than ready to be fully promoted to the first team in the 15/16 or 16/17 season, but with rumours suggesting that loans away are possible, it seems that developing youth players is no longer the number one priority in Barcelona.

I am not claiming that every signing we made last summer was wrong or that the signings or Neymar and Luis Suárez were bad, Ivan Rakitić was a great signing considering his qualities and price. Others such as Marc-André ter Stegen, who will no doubt be a major part of the Barça squad in the next 10-15 years, and Jérémy Mathieu have proven to been good buys.

Needless amounts of money thrown at big names is what annoys me most about the current transfer policy. I have no doubt in the abilities of Suárez or Neymar and like them a lot as players, but I feel that La Masia players also have a lot to offer to the first team and have the chance to follow the footsteps of Xavi, Pedro and Busquets, to name a couple, in the coming years if they’re given the right opportunities. Of course there are other factors that could hinder the development of our youth, like Eusebio, the undoubtedly questionable coach of Barça B (bare in mind the 7-0 humiliation vs Valladolid last weekend, that’s all you need to know.) and of course the players themselves could not reach their full potential for whatever reason.

These are just my opinions, sorry for any bad grammar or typos and maybe wrong transfer fees, thanks for reading 🙂

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