Within the remarkable general tone of Barça in the debut of Hansi Flick, Vitor Roque was out of tune, a footballer that Barça wants to put on the market and whose poor performance against Manchester City does not help to remain in the Barça team.
To begin with, the coach did not play him in his natural position, that of ‘9’, and where the Brazilian can show his abilities and be more lethal in front of goal. The German coach prioritized Pau Víctor in his first starting eleven and the man from Sant Cugat proved him right with the first goal of the ‘Hansi Flick era’ and the MVP of the match.
Instead, he placed Vitor Roque on the left, as Xavi Hernández did on more than one occasion last season, especially due to a coincidence with Robert Lewandowski, but it should also be remembered that Marc Guiu, now at Chelsea, had even more prominence.
‘Tigrinho’ did not pull out his nails and even became desperate at a time when he needs to vindicate himself and show that whoever decided to bet on him and pay the club 30 million euros fixed (plus 31 in variables) was not wrong.
But although he fulfilled the defensive missions that Hansi Flick asked of him, The former Athletico Paranaense player was very thick with the balldisjointed and without an offensive contribution that could provide hope and redirect the situation.
Vitor Roque did not have his night against Manchester City / Valentí Enrich
Very worrying statistics
One fact that says it all is that, against Manchester City, Vitor Roque lost up to 7 of 9 total disputesthat is, he only won 2 against his rivals. And he lost the 3 passes he tried to make, as well as the 2 dribbles that didn’t work out. He touched the ball just 17 times in 45 minutes of play and left devastated, aware that he had missed another opportunity.
In addition to the fact that he doesn’t play in his position, these numbers reflect that Timóteo played very off-centre and with his head elsewhere. He is clearly on the market and at Barça, which has valued it at 40 million euroswould have liked him to accept the offer of Arab football.
But ‘Tigrinho’, only 19 years old, refused. Lazio have entered the scene and are now opening up as another possibility, although games like the one against Manchester City are a step backwards, both for the forward and for the player himself, when it comes to putting him on display.
Vitor Roque, watching the match from the bench / FCB
He put ice on his ankle after being substituted
Although the club did not issue any kind of statement, in the images of the second half it could be seen that Vitor Roque, once substituted at half-time, watched the second half from the bench with ice on his right ankle, so We will have to keep an eye on its evolution and could explain, in part, a game in which things did not go his way.
