da bwin： Barcelona have had their fair share of memorable and painful exits in their modern era, especially in the last decade or so. Of course, the departures of superstars like Ronaldinho and Neymar Junior usually first come to mind. And while the latter is once again on Barcelona’s radar, the former only lives on in their legends and myths.
da lvbet： But sure enough, both players have left a mark at the club that’s recognised around the globe. And yet, it still feels like the Catalans have, somehow, managed to get over their departures and have, more or less, moved on and survived. They’ve adapted with some other players who assumed their vacant spots.
Lionel Messi took over the torch from Ronaldinho, carrying Barcelona to even greater heights with multiple Champions League trophies after the Brazilian’s departure in 2008/09. Neymar’s transfer, on the other hand, was dealt with by instilling a new coach and by making tweaks to the system. Sure, they’ve tried replacing the Brazilian like for like but neither Philippe Coutinho, who’s now joined Bayern Munich on loan, nor Ousmane Dembele, who’s spending more and more time sidelined by injuries, seem to have worked out.
But they still survived and rarely do we talk about Barcelona missing Ronaldinho or Barcelona missing Neymar in particular. But we do talk about them missing another Brazilian – Dani Alves.
Ever since Alves left the club, in the years gone by there hasn’t been a true right-back capable of replicating his numbers or his influence even in the slightest. Sergi Roberto was thrown into the fire, turned into a make-shift defender from his natural midfield position and despite his competence, that has been Barcelona’s bane ever since.
Roberto is still targeted by fans. And yet, it’s not really his fault, is it? Things were supposed to change in the summer of 2017 when Nelson Semedo joined the club from Benfica.
He was supposed to slot into that spot almost effortlessly, taking into account the lack of any true right-backs in the team. But for some reason, Ernesto Valverde, still fresh after his appointment back then, decided to play Roberto instead. And the trend somehow continued.
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Inevitably, comparisons started mounting and both players fell victim to different shortcomings. Semedo, for all his blistering pace and technical ability, lacked in attack, and Roberto, for his intelligence and unlimited engine, lacked in defence. It started to look more and more like Barcelona had two halves instead of one whole.
With things in the market heating up with each passing day, Semedo was often a part of stories linking him to a potential exit – although he has denied the latest rumours on social media. That isn’t particularly surprising considering it’s been two years and he still hasn’t been able to dethrone Roberto, a midfielder turned right-back out of necessity. Surely that’s not a good sign.
But as we approach the culmination of the transfer window in La Liga, the thought of Semedo actually being sold makes less and less sense. Can Barcelona actually afford to lose a right-back without enough time to sign another one? Can they actually afford to have Roberto as their designated right-back through the entirety of this 2019/20 season? Not really.
It’s true that the young Moussa Wague has been officially promoted into the first team but the youngster still has a long way to go until he’s ready to become Barcelona’s regular. If neither he nor Roberto are the options, then Semedo must surely be.
After all, he is entering his prime years now and while you could call him a “late bloomer”, it still feels like he hasn’t reached his “final form”. And how could he? In the last two season at Barcelona, he has only played a total of 83 games and only started 38 games in La Liga. With such limited game time, it’s really difficult to improve despite him being at the club for an extended period of time.
Some of that has to be on Valverde as well. At times, it certainly felt that Semedo wouldn’t play no matter how good or bad his performances were.
That’s something that affects both the form and the confidence of a player, for sure. And yes, Semedo is no Alves and he is no Alba. In those 83 games he played for the Catalans, he managed one goal and five assists in the process. This does somewhat suggest that he may be more defensively oriented and not as opportunistic going forward.
But of course he tends to be more defensive if his confidence truly is low. Being more defensive usually means less risk so it could go hand in hand with that theory. What he truly needs, however, is enough game time over an extended period so he can establish himself and adapt completely.
Sporadic entrances from the bench or quick substitutions from the games he does play are certainly not helping. Barcelona will never find a suitable right-back until they finally decide to give one a proper chance.
And this means a chance without immediately comparing him to Alves or Alba or just binning him after one bad game.
Semedo has already proved that he can perform when the team need him. But the only way for him to actually start doing that on a regular basis would be to put some trust into him.
That trust starts with Valverde and not only keeping the Portuguese at the Camp Nou but also playing him regularly for an extended period. Hopefully, it ends up happening and then, who knows, maybe Semedo shows us his true self after all.
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