Over the season, a lot of people (including myself) have been wondering one thing. Why is Bartra being left out in the cold by Luis Enrique?
Recently, I have looked into Luis Enrique’s style of management in terms of team selections at Roma (11/12) and at Celta Vigo (13/14). When looking at his preferred selections, I noticed one thing; he is obsessed with left footed left centre backs.
In Lucho’s time at Roma, he used Simon Kjær and Gabriel Heinze as his centre backs. Kjær, playing on the right side, is right footed. Heinze, playing on the left side, is left footed.
At Celta Vigo, he usually used Gustavo Cabral and former Barcelona player Andreu Fontás in the two centre back positions. Cabral, playing on the right side, is right footed. Fontás, playing on the left side, is left footed. Celta also had back up in Jon Aurtenetxe (left footed) and Jonny (right footed), amongst others.
Now, I have nothing wrong with Luis Enrique wanting to use left footed players at left centre back, I can understand why he wants to do this. They can cover the left back when attacking, possibly better than a right footed player and they can open up on their left side to play out of defence.
Under this system, Bartra is in a bad situation. Piqué and Mascherano both seem above him in the pecking order, meaning that if Bartra were to play, he’d be put in at LCB. As we’ve gathered, Luis Enrique prefers his LCB to have a left foot. During the summer, Mathieu and Vermaelen were purchased and I’m quite confident that Lucho asked the board to sign some left footed centre backs.
This leaves Bartra down the bottom of the list. Lucho prefers LCBs to be left footed, so when he can have that, he will use that. Bartra has to fight for his place in the team over players that are already ahead in the pecking order their stronger foot is their left. Not because they are better, more talented, more committed, just because their preferred foot is what Lucho wants. As well as this, Mascherano is preferred at LCB over Bartra as well.
As much as I can understand why Luis Enrique wants this, I really think Bartra deserves the chance to play for us. He is such a talented player but is no longer young, he’s 24. He should be starting the big games.
I also see many people claiming that Bartra can’t be trusted to start, as he doesn’t have the experience. How do you gain experience if you aren’t given experience?
Marc Bartra should be given a chance to play in that left centre back spot next to Piqué, but I don’t know if that will happen under the stubborn Luis Enrique, especially with his obsession with those left footers.
BCNDavid 