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.
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.
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