The young Portuguese talent came to FC Barcelona at the beginning of the 2020/21 season. Having already struck up an agreement with the club in the previous January transfer window. The signing of Francisco Trincão brought along excitement and optimism to the club, at a time where matters were uncertain.
However, unfortunately for him, his first season at Barcelona was far from from perfect. As a result of this, we are now unsure about his long term future at the Camp Nou. In this article, we will be exploring how his season has went and try to figure out where we now stand with the 21 year old.
First impressions
It was clear from his time at Braga. We signed a player with a huge amount of potential and natural talent. His former coach went as far to say that “Barcelona have made a great signing, Trincão has the football talent and personality to succeed at Camp Nou.”
Trincão is a technically gifted player with fantastic dribbling abilities and an absolute wand of a left foot. And for a hefty price tag of €31 million euros, this wasn’t just a young player brought in to play for the reserves, this is a man who arrived at Barça with the expectation of playing regular minutes in the first team. However, for some reason that just hasn’t been the case. When you consider that he joined Barça alongside Pedri, who eventually finished the season with more than 50 appearances to his name, you may start to wonder why it hasn’t been the case for Trincão
Flashes of brilliance
Throughout his limited game time this season, I think it’s safe to say that the underwhelming performances have outweighed the promising ones. However that doesn’t mean he is just an average player. One of his first starts for the team came against Ferencvaros in the Home leg in the UEFA Champions League group stage and throughout that game he showed flashes of the talent he possesses. Floating past players with ease, creating chance after chance for his teammates. However despite all of that, he still couldn’t cement his place in the first team.
Come the new year, although the team’s form dramatically improved, Trincão was still nowhere near the starting lineup. Occasionally he would start games in the Copa Del Rey, but he was still not able to fully convince Koeman or take advantage of the opportunities. On the 7th of February 2021 however, things started to look up for the young man. Against Real Betis at the Estadio Benito Villamarín, with the game stuck at 2-2 and Barça desperate for a win, Trincão finally made his mark. In the 87th minute of the game, he picked the ball up on the right hand side and guided a beautiful shot into the far left hand corner of the goal to win the game for Barça.
He then followed that impressive cameo up with a start in the next league game against Deportivo Alaves, finishing the game with a brace. The frustration with Trincão is that he clearly has the talent, but he just hasn’t been able to show this on a consistent basis yet. Is it just simply a question of confidence, or is it maybe down to the lack of trust from the coach?
Trincão’s season in numbers
During the 2020/21 season, Trincão made 28 appearances for Barcelona in La Liga, 7 in the Champions League and 5 in the Copa Del Rey. At first glance, making a total of almost 40 appearances throughout his first season seems very impressive, and at face value you’d think that actually he hasn’t had a bad season. However, when you look at those numbers in more detail, you learn that out of those 28 La Liga appearances, only 3 of them were in the starting lineup with 25 coming off the bench. Meaning that he averaged 30 minutes per match in the league.
Trincão managed to score 3 goals throughout the league season and provide 2 assists which is a decent tally, especially when you consider the quality of minutes he received. What makes it more impressive is that he met his xG of 3.09 and exceeded his xA of 0.62. So, quite clearly the talent and potential is there, but the performances have to be more consistent.
Where are we now?
So after his first season for the Blaugrana, where do we currently stand with Francisco Trincão? Like mentioned previously, he clearly has the talent and has bags of potential to be a fantastic player for Barcelona. But if he isn’t going to get an more minutes next season, it might be better for the player to leave on loan. Especially with the promotion of Barça B star Alex Collado and the recent signing of Memphis Depay.
It doesn’t look likely that he will be getting any more prominence in the first team next season. In recent weeks, ever reliable journalist Fabrizio Romano claimed that Wolves emerged in favour of Trincão’s signature. And just recently, Lluis Miguel sanz from Sport claimed that Barcelona consider him an important asset and maintain confidence in. They would only consider letting him go for a good loan offer or a transfer fee over €30 million euros.
It remains to be seen whether or not Trincão will continue in the first team next season. He would possibly want to look for minutes else where as part of a loan or a permanent deal. But Francisco Trincão seems to me like a talent that Barcelona would regret letting go of. I suppose only time will tell.
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