One, two, three… Farmer’s flick!

Agonizing Victory for Barça Against Girona

The Barça team achieved an important victory against Girona in a match that once again raised doubts about the team’s playing style. In the first 15 minutes, the team controlled the game, pressing high, recovering the ball quickly, and creating chances, until Pedri scored the team’s first goal in the 13th minute. But from that moment on, the team relaxed, and the same defensive imbalances we saw against Sevilla and in the second half versus PSG appeared again. Poor pressing, easy build-up from the opponent, and balls played behind the defenders that cause so much damage to Flick’s team. So much so that just a few minutes later, Witsel scored the equalizer for the Girona side.

In the second half, Fermín came on to replace an unfortunate Toni Fernández, and Barça gained some intensity, but the pressing was still poor and the overall dynamic didn’t change much. In the 64th minute, Lamine Yamal —returning from injury— and Pedri left the field for Bardghji and Christensen, which pushed Eric García’s position up to defensive midfield. Far from finding a spark to change the game, the team became disorganized, and several minutes of confusion followed, with each player seemingly doing their own thing.

Then in the 81st minute came the key substitution that changed the match. Ronald Araujo replaced Marc Casadó and, to everyone’s surprise, positioned himself as a center forward alongside Marcus Rashford, with Fermín acting as a false left winger. The change should have led Barça to send cross after cross into the box, but that didn’t happen —until the 93rd minute, when a play by Bardghji and Frenkie de Jong down the right wing ended with the Dutchman crossing for Araujo, who finished like a seasoned striker (in fact, he was one until he was moved to center-back at 17). The euphoria and celebrations exploded at Montjuïc, and the celebration —worthy of a trophy— lasted until the end of the match, one minute later.

Three golden points for a team that continues to chase Real Madrid, who won their match against Getafe amid some controversy, which we’ll discuss later. But we can’t let this victory hide the team’s disastrous performance, as they were only able to dominate the league’s bottom team for 15 minutes.

Araujo, Star of the Match

Among the standout players of the game, we must start, inevitably, with Araujo. The conviction he showed to Flick may have been decisive in convincing the coach to play him as a striker in the final minutes —the same conviction he demonstrated in the header that gave Barça the winning goal.

Other notable players included Rashford, who was incisive down his flank, as is usually the case with him, although he seemed a bit lost when playing as a center forward during the second half. He had the 2–1 goal at his feet late in the second half.

It wasn’t Pedri’s best match, but he always deserves a mention —this time for being the scorer of the team’s first goal. We should also highlight the performance of Eric García, who for the first time this season played as a left center-back, thus giving up the right center-back position to Cubarsí, who returned to his preferred side of the defense. It was far from an easy match for either of the two center-backs.

On the other hand, we have to point out once again the poor performance of Kounde, who is showing signs of being the same player we saw in Xavi’s second season —making glaring mistakes, lacking concentration, and offering little in attack. It was no coincidence that Eric García started the season as a right-back, and if things continue like this, we may soon see him there again.

Gil Manzano Wanted to Be the Star Once Again

A match refereed by Gil Manzano (or Jesús Gil, as we’re supposed to call him now) usually comes wrapped in controversy —and this case was no exception. Not only for awarding the corner that led to the opponent’s first goal, when the Girona player clearly hit the ball with his arm. Not only for disallowing a completely legitimate goal by Cubarsí for an alleged foul by Eric García during the jump. Not only for failing to show a clear red card to Vitor Reis after he blatantly struck Rashford in the face as the last man. Above all, for wanting to be the center of attention, as usual. It seems as though he has it in his head to send off a Barça player —and since he didn’t find the chance, he did it with Flick after a perfectly normal protest. The same referee who didn’t send off Xabi Alonso when, on the same pitch after a match, he literally said to him: “What a shame… this is definitely going to the CTA, or I don’t want to think badly, Jesús,” implying that he was acting in bad faith. I wonder if Simeone’s protests yesterday after Baena’s disallowed goal weren’t more heated than Flick’s reaction —and yet he didn’t even get a yellow card. Simeone, a coach who spends 70% of the time inside the field’s limit without consequences, while Flick just raises his hand and gets an automatic yellow.

And let’s not even start talking about the match between Getafe and Real Madrid. Once again, an unjustified sending-off with the same protagonist: Vinicius. The same player who once faked being hit in the face by Mouriño, the Villarreal defender, when the contact was barely on his chest. Yesterday, another dive, another deception that the referee bought (I don’t want to think badly, as Xabi Alonso said), and a red card for Getafe when they had the match completely under control. Let’s not even mention the second red card that the same Vinicius provoked just minutes later.

The Uncertainty Around Raphinha and Ferran Torres

The latest news around the Barça squad focuses on recovering the injured players as soon as possible. This weekend, we already saw Fermín and Lamine Yamal back on the pitch —two very important players for the team— but we still don’t know when Ferran Torres and, above all, Raphinha will be able to return. And I say “above all” because everything suggests that the team’s lack of pressing up front could be due to Raphinha’s absence, as he is the true leader when it comes to intensity and defensive effort. What’s certain is that neither of them will be available against Olympiakos; we’ll see if they can make it in time for El Clásico against Real Madrid next Sunday.

Ronald Araujo Earns His First MVP

Regarding the website’s player ranking, we highlight the first MVP award for Ronald Araujo and his first points of the season. Pedri adds 3 more points and strengthens his lead at the top of the ranking, while Rashford keeps adding up, now sitting fifth, tied with Eric García and Lewandowski. Remember that this ranking is based on the votes you cast for the 4 selected players in our poll after each match.

Olympiakos

This week, the Champions League returns, with a rival that might seem, at first glance, to be one of the easiest for Hansi Flick’s team —especially considering the match will be played at home. Olympiakos, managed by Mendilibar, is a team that has yet to score in the Champions League and has only managed a home draw against modest Paphos. They seem like the perfect opponent to help Barça rediscover the rhythm that worked so well last season, but the team must not get overconfident —we said the same about Girona, and in the end, we suffered much more than expected.

And that’s it for the first episode of Culé DNA. We’ll be back after the Champions League match next Tuesday at Montjuïc to analyze the game and talk about the build-up to Sunday’s Clásico. Thank you for joining us, culers, and see you in the next episode.