FC Barcelona have already played almost one-third of their league games this season. The Catalans have been rather unlucky in this first phase of La Liga, as they have missed several starting players due to injuries, but still have done a good job to keep themselves only four points behind the league leaders, Girona, and thus remain alive in the race to top the league table before the end of the year.
While injuries to players like Kounde, Pedri, Frenkie de Jong, Raphinha, and Lewandowski have kept the team from performing at its optimal level, there are some individual issues clearly visible as well, which Xavi will have to solve in the coming days.
Felix unable to score for nine games
For instance, Lewandowski’s struggles to get back to his best form have already been reported here previously. But there is another attacker who arrived in the summer with much fanfare and kicked off his Barcelona career with an explosion, but whose goals have dried up a bit since then, i.e., Joao Felix.
The game against Real Sociedad on Saturday was the ninth game in a row in which Felix had not scored a goal. In fact, after scoring his opening goal against Real Betis and then scoring another two against Royal Antwerp in the Champions League, the Portuguese forward has been unable to score any goal for Barcelona.
Felix equals his worst start to La Liga
Mundo Deportivo notes that with only one goal in these twelve La Liga games, of which he has played nine with Barcelona, he has already equaled his worst start to a league season in Spain.
It was only in his third season at Atletico Madrid, in 2021-22, that he scored such a low number of goals in the first twelve games in La Liga. However, he still had this season as his best goal-scoring one, as he scored eight goals by the end of the competition.
Felix’s best start to a La Liga season was in 2020-21 when he scored five goals in the first twelve games. That year, he scored a total of seven goals in the league and ten in all competitions and matched these numbers in 2021-22.
Seemingly, luck is also not on Felix’s side in his quest to send the ball to the back of the net. The Portuguese international has already hit the woodwork three times this season, against Mallorca, Sevilla, and Athletic Club.
