Abde-Balde: Barça disfigured

Barça ended the Camp Nou game against Alavés with two unsuspected extremes. One, Alejandro Balde (18-10-2003), number 31, is a left back. The other, Abde Ezzalzouli (12-17-2001), number 33, arrived this summer from Hercules for two million euros and is not even indisputable at Barça B, with whom he has played 265 minutes (only one full game).

The Abde-Balde extremes of the last minutes against Alavés are the symbol of this interwar Barça, between decadence and reconstruction, which is leaving points with anyone in LaLiga. In addition to Abde and Balde, the presence of young people like Mingueza, Nico and Gavi in ​​the starting eleven was totally unexpected before the beginning of the season. Their good work, especially that of the midfielders, and the team’s casualties, combined with dubious planning, have left the club in the bones at this point in October.

Barça has an unbalanced squad, with a shameless overweight of centrals and with deserted positions, such as the wingers or the interiors, where only the fortune of the outstanding level of Nico and Gavi has saved them. Sergi also wanted to give the team a personal touch, which has gone through giving up Koeman’s outbursts of putting centrals as center forwards or Luuk de Jong, as on Granada day. That also rules out more players, like the Dutchman, from the equation. For now, Sergi will have to manage as best he can to try to recover a player in the two training sessions that remain before Kiev.