Barcelona’s Right-back Conundrum
Since Dani Alves left Barcelona in the summer of 2016, the Catalan club have sorely missed his ubiquitous presence along their right flank. The Brazilian wingback’s overlapping runs, superb wide service and relentless recoveries combined with his telepathic understanding with Lionel Messi made him a pillar of Barça’s attack and defence.
After experimenting with Sergi Roberto, a masia-bred midfielder at the right-back position during the 2016–17 season. The club purchased Nélson Semedo from Benfica for €40 million; a pacey young fullback with heaps of athleticism.
Despite Semedo being a similar mould to Alves, current Barça manager Ernesto Valverde has continued to prefer Sergi Roberto to fill the role of right fullback in important matches for the season and a half he’s been in charge.
Valverde’s decision to retain Roberto as right back is usually vindicated by his impressive contribution to his team’s attack.
1. Sergi Roberto is better offensively
Both Sergi and Semedo have high work rates but the Spaniard’s vision, excellent ball retention and passing sets him apart from his Portuguese compatriot; especially in attack.
Here is a brief analysis of Roberto’s offensive contribution in La Liga so far this season.
Roberto’s 12 key passes and 4 assists, when contrasted with Semedo’s 4 key passes and 0 assists in the same period makes it easy to see why the coach would prefer the Spaniard. Especially considering that Barça usually comes up against a packed defence.
However, statistics don’t always tell the whole story. Since Sergi Roberto was injured against Atletico Madrid on November 25th, Barça have kept 3 consecutive clean sheets with Semedo playing the full 90 minutes, prior to that their last clean sheet came in August. This leads me to my next point.
2. Semedo is much better defensively
Barça defensive struggles earlier this season was a key talking point among media outlets, who often made Roberto the scapegoat.
There is some merit to this as Sergi Roberto has a habit of tucking infield from out wide, narrowing the formation. During defensive transitions this is particularly dangerous as teams often exploit the vacant wide space on Barça’s right side.
Usually, either Gerard Piqué or Ivan Rakitić end up having to cover for Roberto during situations like this, leaving greater space for opponents to exploit around their positional zones.
Semedo is much better defending one on one situations and stays much closer to the touchline throughout games, helping the side retain its’ shape.
Additionally, Semedo’s superior pace and stamina makes him far more efficient in recovery, reducing the amount of space on the pitch for Barca’s opponents to exploit.
In spite of that, the consensus around Camp Nou is that Sergi Roberto is too good to not start for the team, but because players like Rakitić, Arthur, Vidal and Coutinho are preferred above him in midfield. Valverde therefore plays him at right back.
This type of thinking has to change if the club are recapture the European cup from their rivals in Madrid. The dip in offensive potency suffered by having Semedo at right back is not as detrimental to the team as the drop off in defensive solidity when Roberto is there.
Although Semedo’s final ball is still lacking, his offensive contribution has improved a lot since he joined the team and will only get better.
The coaching staff of Barça must recognise that being a team who plays with such a high defensive line, they need as much pace as possible in their backline.
3. Barça will never replace Alves
Dani Alves was a phenomenon, one of if not the best right back of all time. He was a once in a generation player that effectively filled 3 positions simultaneously. Fans cannot and should not expect Sergi or Semedo to replicate what the Brazilian was able to do.
Ultimately, it’s Valverde’s decision who plays at right back for the rest of the season, fans will have to wait and see.
