In the 19th round of La Liga, Barcelona defeated Las Palmas 2-1 away and rose to third place while continuing to catch up with Real Madrid and Girona. The "Marca" newspaper on January 5 pointed out that in terms of employment, Barcelona coach Xavi has changed: Felix and Lewandowski, two big-name players, are no longer the absolute main force.
Felix and Lewandowski were the key weapons under Xavi at the beginning of the season, but in recent times, the two have been in a slump:
Lewandowski is mired in a long athletic goal drought, scoring only one goal in his last eight games (six La Liga, two Champions League games) and scoring from the penalty spot. Felix's form is not much better, and based on the last eight games, Felix has only scored 2 goals.
In the past eight games, Lewandowski and Felix have combined to score only three goals - which obviously did not meet Xavi's expectations. The decline in Barcelona's attack power is inseparable from the slump of the two.
According to Marca, Xavi is not superstitious about big-name players, and whoever is in good form will get a chance. The 2-1 win over Las Palmas is the best illustration:
In the 72nd minute, the score was still 1-1, and Xavi removed the number one center Lewandowski and replaced him with Felix. For Lewandowski, this situation is actually rare, in the past 6 La Liga games, Lewandowski has started and played the full 90 minutes. Xavi gave Lewandowski enough patience and confidence, but the Polish superstar still did not improve. Lewandowski was replaced, which was a sign of "falling out of favor".
Someone falls out of favor, someone gets reused. Ferran Torres and Sergi Roberto, the two fringe people, played a beautiful turnaround.
After falling 1-0 down, Roberto's pass assisted Ferran Torres to equalise. In this game, Ferran Torres won the honor of official MVP. Despite not being the absolute main force of Barcelona, Ferran Torres is not bad at efficiency: 4 goals and 2 assists in 803 minutes in 18 games in La Liga, and 3 goals and 1 assist in 332 minutes in 6 games in the Champions League.
As the captain of Barcelona, Roberto started two consecutive La Liga games and delivered a stunning answer: Barcelona beat Almeria 3-2, Roberto played the whole game and scored a brace; In 357 minutes of playing time in La Liga, Roberto scored 3 goals and 1 assist, all of which were key goals and key assists.
If Lewandowski continues his goal drought, his main place could be snatched up by 18-year-old Vitor Roque, and as for Felix, such an offensive contribution rate will not convince Barcelona to buy him out at a high price.