FC Barcelona fell to another defeat last night, this time in the UEFA Champions League to Royal Antwerp. The Catalans had already progressed to the Round of 16, so will not suffer too much with this loss, but Barcelona are still facing much criticism for this loss because of their overall poor performance.
A lot of blame is being placed on Xavi’s hand, and while he retains the President’s confidence for now, he does not have a lot of room for error in the coming weeks and months.
Another individual who is facing a lot of criticism for the loss last night is the midfielder, Oriol Romeu. Two of his individual errors led to the first two goals for Antwerp, and Xavi had to take him off at the hour mark for Gundogan.
Romeu started this new chapter of his Barcelona career in a good fashion, as his profile as a positional midfielder particularly suited Xavi’s demands. However, he was unable to maintain his performances when Frenkie de Jong suffered an injury that kept the Dutchman out for around a month.
As SPORT has noted, Romeu’s performances do not only point to the fall in the form of a single player, but also towards the club’s ability to properly replace Busquets in the squad.
During the last summer transfer window, Xavi’s preferred options for the pivot position were Martin Zubimendi and Joshua Kimmich.
However, Barcelona missed out on them without much concern as the club believed that the presence of Gundogan and De Jong and the signing of Romeu was enough to cover this position.
However, Romeu and Gundogan have both struggled with covering the great distance present between the defense and midfield lines. Furthermore, De Jong has also suffered when playing in this position, as this keeps him from making his offensive runs.
