Barcelona suffered a 1-0 defeat to Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.
Alvaro Garcia Rivera’s seventh minute goal proved to be decisive to hand the visitors from the capital three invaluable points.
It was a tough night for La Blaugrana amid a poor run of form.
Barcelona have now suffered three defeats out of four, losing to Eintracht Frankfurt, Cadiz and Rayo and only narrowly beating Real Sociedad. It’s put a dampener on what’s been an impressive beginning to Xavi Hernandez’s reign at Camp Nou.
And that wasn’t the only negative headline to emerge from Sunday according to Mundo Deportivo.
Frenkie de Jong started the game but was taken off by Xavi in the 60th minute. The Dutchman left the pitch angry, throwing his shin-pads away and going directly to the dressing room.
He later returned to the bench to watch the rest of the match, but throwing such a strop wasn’t looked upon kindly by many.
De Jong had started beside Sergio Busquets and Gavi in a midfield three but failed to impose himself on the contest. Nico Gonzalez was the man chosen to replace him.
Xavi is always taking him off regardless of how well he is playing that I’m surprised he has not reacted like this earlier.
Xavi better learn pretty quickly that favouritism especially towards the Spanish players will lead to failure.
I don’t understand when you’re chasing a game that you take off Aubameyang and De jong but his Spanish faves are always on the field.
As for Nico Gonzales, give me a break as all he does is commit needless fouls and holds on to a ball longer than he should.
Gavi and Pedri are phenoms he is nothing of the sort, no wonder De jong was vexed.
Since the results have dried up shouldn’t he rotate especially since he has so many good forwards.
Adama Traore, luuk de jong, Memphis and even the likes of Brathwaite and the young forwards that played before the January window deserve more minutes.
The former 3 deserve to start.
Completely agree. Rotation of the squad is very important.