Barcelona hosted Bayern Munich at Camp Nou on the opening day of the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League and lost 0-3, through a first-half goal from Muller and a second-half brace from Lewandowski. It was a poor performance by the Catalans, as the match clearly showed that their team was not up to the standards of the Bavarians.
The above viz shows Sergi Roberto’s stats in the game against Bayern Munich. Ronald Koeman took him after 59 minutes, as he was being whistled at by the Barca fans. It was not a great game for the right wing-back, as he only attempted 30 passes in the match and had one shot on goal. He won a couple of aerial duels and mate one recovery in the match. Even though his preferred position is in the centre of midfield, or even the right side of midfield, his performance in the game was highly criticized by many Barcelona supporters and critics.
This visual shows the stats of Luuk De Jong against Bayern Munich in the Champions League. He was also taken off by the manager after 66 minutes after a poor display upfront. He completed just 14 passes and did not take any shots in the game, thereby having a zero xG. He won three aerial duels in the match and made one loose ball recovery. A lot of people think that Luuk De Jong is not at the level required for playing for Barcelona.
The passing zones of Barcelona against Bayern Munich show that most of Barca’s passing was done in defence and on the left side of midfield. Sergi Roberto’s right side of defence and midfield had much lesser passes and intensity in the match. While attacking, Luuk De Jong played ahead of Roberto and there were very few passes between them with very few attacks from their wing. It can also be noted that Sergi Roberto did not attempt any crosses or passes into the opposition box, while Luuk De Jong only made one pass in the opponent box.
The xT creation zones of Barcelona showed that there was an almost minimal or negligible threat created by the Barcelona players on the right-wing, where both Luuk De Jong and Sergi Roberto were expected to opportunities. Roberto and De Jong had almost zero threat created from their passing in the match. Both the players were highly ineffective in the game and will hope to improve as we go ahead with the season in various competitions.
After the poor display in the UCL, Ronal Koeman decided to drop both Roberto and De Jong from his starting eleven against Granada in the Spanish La Liga on Tuesday. With all the financial problems revolving around the club, and Messi’s departure, Ronald Koeman has a lot to do as manager of the club. He will be expected to come up the rankings in the La Liga and also to go through to the knockout stages of the Champion League at least. For that to happen, he will need all his players including Luuk De Jong and Sergi Roberto, to step up and give their best performances for the club.
