Memphis Depay has all the numbers to sit on the bench in this Wednesday’s Classic. And not only because he is returning from a muscle injury, which has taken him off the pitch for a month, but because his balance in the game against Granada was very disappointing. So much so that he was one of those indicated in the corner goal, along with the young winger Ez Abde, when he lost his marks.
During the week, the technicians had insisted on the strategy plays, as one of the weapons of Robert Moreno’s team to do damage. Each player knew in advance the marking assigned to him and the space he had to occupy, With the handicap at that time, they were outnumbered after Gavi’s expulsion, a situation that required even greater concentration to close all the spaces.
The first mistake was already made by Jordi Alba, by forcing a corner kick in his clearance, when the easiest thing would have been to send the ball out of the band with a ball.
But the action went from bad to worse: Memphis Depay and Ez Abde lost their marks, leaving two Granada players alone in the area, taking advantage of one of them, Antonio Puertas, to finish at pleasure after the ball came from a rebound.
The anger at that time of Xavi and his assistants was monumental: the mistake had ended up being tragic for the interests of the team. TAfter the game, the coaches went back to review the play of the goal, putting their hands to their heads after the serious misinterpretation of both players. In the case of Abde he is still young and has to learn, but in the case of Memphis, his concentration error begins to have more depth and significance.
These basic mistakes by Memphis, along with his limited ability to interpret positional play, open the doors wide for Luuk de Jong to be the reference center forward in the current squad.. And is that the former Sevilla, who a few weeks ago was evicted, has taken a step forward, after several games showing that he not only knows how to score goals, but is also capable of attracting centrals, attacking spaces and dividing in the associative game. With his attitude and professionalism, De Jong is making a bigger and bigger hole in Xavi’s plans.
#Call #attention #Memphis #Abde