The Barça lose something else than a breath of fresh air and a youthful illusion with Ansu. Their numbers this season they already speak of their power of influence on the team. For Koeman, his loss is going to be a hole. You only need to see the weight he has had at Barça in the first official games of the season to verify it. Ansu has participated in nine of the 24 official goals of Barça this course, 37.5%. Only Messi, who has been active in 14 of the 24 team goals, has participated more. Of course, the Argentine has played almost 250 more minutes and has scored five penalties.
Let's see. In the first league match, Ansu scored the first two goals against Villarreal and caused the 3-0 penalty that Messi transformed. In Vigo, opened the can of Barça in victory (0-3). Against him Madrid he tied the Classic by taking advantage of a center in Alba, with which he has begun to create a mini-society. Y forced another penalty against Betis…, but Griezmann failed. In the Champions, Ansu scored before Ferencvaros the 2-0 and he assisted Coutinho with a beautiful high heel. In Turin came out for a little while. He had time to miss a sung goal, but also to provoke a penalty from Bernardeschi with which Messi sentenced the game (0-2). Finally, last week gave Piqué the 2-0 against him Dynamo of Kiev.
Nine participation goals, but much more. The famous intangibles. Ansu gave him versatility to attack from Barça. Play pulled to the left as a general rule, but in Turin he acted as false right winger when he replaced Dembélé and against Madrid and against Betis he did forward. Before getting injured, against the Verdiblancos he showed how much he can contribute to the front of the attack. He fell to the right to play an action that ended in Bravo's stop; to the left, with a shot that went off. Y forced Mandi penalty in which, perhaps, the action of the injury. His knee failed him after the Algerian's entry.
Koeman has alternatives to supply Ansu. Pedri plays comfortable on the left wing, where he can accompany the two midfielders and an inside or right winger (Dembélé or Trincao) so that Messi and Griezmann play up. But there he can also enter the same Dembélé u, eye, Konrad, in what would be a bet to the Cruyff of Koeman. But, for now, no one will give about this boy who, at 18, had become the second most decisive player of the team. At least in a matter of figures.