Alejandro Balde came up as one of the most promising breakout players for FC Barcelona during the last season. The youngster impressed Xavi with his training and performances to such an extent that the Barcelona head coach opted to make him his first-choice left-back, ahead of other highly experienced players like Jordi Alba and Marcos Alonso.
However, the current season has not been nearly as good as the last one for the youngster, as Xavi has opted to go into some of the biggest matches up to now without him in the starting lineup.
As SPORT has noted, this was clear in Barcelona’s last clash against Atletico Madrid. In that game, the Catalan team played its best match of the season, with Cancelo on the left and Kounde on the right flank. Balde warmed up for a while but ultimately did not feature in the match.
Balde was already showing a visible downturn in form at the start of this season, and it was clear to see that the fullback was lacking in confidence. He was not as effective in attack as last season and also left the team vulnerable in defense at times.
Xavi kept Balde out of the match against Porto, which was the most important match for his team till that time in the season. In that match, Cancelo played on the left and Araujo played on the right, with Baldo featuring for only the last nine minutes.
Still, it is clear that Balde is going to be the long-term right-back for Barcelona in the future. He will see more ups and downs in the future, but the important thing is to learn from these difficult moments, and emerge in a stronger and more mature fashion.
The next match against Girona is once again a very important one for Barcelona, as the Catalans look to further cut down the gap to the top of the league table. Thus, Xavi may again opt to play Cancelo on the left, and repeat the Atletico Madrid match formula.
This will be the first time in Balde’s first-team career that he starts three games on the bench in a row, and thus will be a further blow for the youngster in an already difficult season. Hopefully, he can bounce back strongly from this time of adversity and get a fixed position in Xavi’s lineup once again in the coming weeks.
