Match Points : Alaves vs FC Barcelona (0-1)

A painful game to watch last night for FC Barcelona vs Alaves. But this time, the team went home with the 3 points, and that’s great. The win yesterday means Xavi’s team is 1 point behind the top 4 in the La Liga standings. After the break, Barça will have to play a lot better vs Atletico Madrid.

At the end of the day, this was a game to win. And we did that. But the team needs to improve a lot, and soon. February will be like going to war, so Xavi will have to prepare the team well.

Good Points

• Was very happy for Frenkie de Jong. In order for our team to play well, we need Frenkie to be at his best. Yesterday wasn’t a masterclass by the Dutch midfielder, but he was still one of our best players on the field.
• Pedri is probably our best player right now. Last night he created 6 chances vs Alaves, which is a record for FC Barcelona this season. It’s fair to say that with him around, the team can attack a lot better.

• Ferran Torres still looks off. Vs Madrid, Bilbao and Alaves, he was far from his best version. But still, a goal and an assist in the last 2 games is great. When he will be at his best form, we will enjoy him a lot.
• Ronald Araujo keeps on improving. We all know that his biggest problem is playing with the ball. Last night he completes most passes (91/96). Moreover, 6 long balls out of 8 tries. He passed the ball in 95% success rate. Most in the game.

Bad Points

• Alaves are one of the worst teams in the league. No other way to say it. So FC Barcelona unable to dominate the game vs Alaves is worrying. That’s not the way Xavi wants the team to look like. Hopefully, we Barça be a lot better soon.
• Xavi did make some changes, but they were very late. I don’t know why he waited so long, as the team looked very bad at the first half. I expected him to change things from the half time break, and it looked like that with Braithwaite warming up from around the 20th minute. But at the end, the Danish didn’t enter the game. I wonder why.
• After the game vs Bayern, Xavi spoke about players who don’t know the way Barça should play. Yesterday, Dest looked like he’s not part of this team. He had a chance and he didn’t take it, sadly. I would still keep him and try to fit him better to the team. But I understand where Xavi comes from.
• Luuk de Jong had a good run of form, and he’s not a ‘Joke’ anymore in the social media, and that’s great. But he’s still shouldn’t be a player that starts for Barça. He can be a plan B solution in the last 15 minutes, but in my opinion not more than that. Hopefully, Memphis and Braithwaite will be back soon and we’ll have more option in the attack.

Bottom line

Bad game, good result. No need to look back anymore on that game. But it’s important to have a good run of games. Now Xavi will have 2 weeks with most players (South and North American players are with their national teams). Hopefully we’ll see massive improvement, starting with the match vs Atletico.

Marco