Having arrived at Barcelona in the last winter transfer window, the Brazilian striker Vitor Roque is not having as good a start to this new chapter of his career as he and the Catalan club would have expected.
He made his debut in the Blaugrana colors on 4th January against Las Palmas, in a match that ended 2-1 in Barcelona’s favor. Since that time, the Brazilian has made 13 appearances, with only two starts, but accumulated only 310 minutes and scored only two goals. He is also yet to make his debut in the UEFA Champions League.
In recent days, there have been rumors of him departing the club, with Barcelona looking to send him on loan, while the player’s agent claiming that if Roque leaves, he will leave permanently.
In these circumstances, the decision not to give him any minutes in the last match against Real Sociedad could have made things even worse between Barcelona and Roque. However, as SPORT has reported, Xavi had a clear reason not to put the striker on the pitch.
The Barcelona head coach clarified that the striker “Suffered a strong blow to the ankle. He was nursing an injury, he didn’t go out to warm up.”
Furthermore, Xavi also explained that Roque has also not been able to get many minutes on the pitch because of the great competition in the forward line.
Since his arrival, all the other strikers in the squad have been ahead of the Brazilian and thus it has been difficult for Roque to get many minutes on the pitch even when fully fit.
But things seem to be getting increasingly complicated for the youngster, as the Real Sociedad match was the fourth game in a row in which he has spent the entire match on the bench.
