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Thursday 22 January 2015

Suarez enduring predicted struggle

“I have complete confidence in my team and complete confidence in Suarez” the words of Barcelona manager Luis Enrique after yet another goalless game for the former Liverpool ace. Suarez missed a glorious chance in Barca’s 1-0 win over Atletico in the Copa Del Rey once again questioning Suarez’s form since joining the Spanish giants.

Since his £75 million pound move to the Catalan side, Suarez has managed to score 2 goals in ten league appearances a long way off the form that saw him awarded the golden boot in last seasons Premier League with a tally of 31 goals. In all competitions Suarez has featured in a total of fourteen games scoring 5 and assisting 6, not the numbers expected of the Uruguayan upon his arrival at Camp Nou.

Luckily for Barcelona they are not reliant on Suarez for goals with both Lionel Messi and Neymar in fine form. Messi has scored 25 goals in twenty five games this season with his Brazilian teammate Neymar scoring 17 goals in twenty one appearances in all competitions. It appears that Suarez may be struggling to come to terms with no longer being the main man in the team. At Liverpool Suarez was the key man, everything went through him and he thrived in the limelight, at Barcelona however he is just another of many stars and so far the 27 year old isn’t adjusting well.

Not only is the number of stars in the side a possible reason for Suarez’s poor form, his long absence because of the infamous biting incident at the World Cup saw him miss out on the start of the season, only making his debut in October. In an ideal world Suarez would have gotten time to settle in the first few games of the season but unfortunately because of his ill-discipline he didn’t get that time to settle and was instead expected to play a starring role from the start.

Unlike when playing for Liverpool, at Barcelona almost every side sets up very deep attempting to make them hard to beat and this limits the space for the forwards to operate. Suarez who was at times in the Premier League given space to destroy oppositions has not been afforded that space in La Liga and is finding it hard to open up defences as he once did.

Enrique’s comments are sure to be welcomed by a Suarez low on confidence and he will be hoping to repay the managers faith starting this Saturday when Barcelona pay a visit to Elche.


photo credit: L. F. Salas via photopin cc

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