Starts: 🚨 𝙇𝙄𝙉𝙀𝙐𝙋 !! #AthleticBarça pic.twitter.com/3KKmolrF9y— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) August 21, 2021
It's funny with Dest, the Spanish-language fans seem to be happy with what he's doing, while the ones writing in Catalá or French seem to hate the guy.
After a terrible 1st half from the entire Barca squad (Dest included)... I was quite content w/ how aggressive Dest was in the 2nd half. He is often so isolated out on the right and he was still able to take multiple players on. Nice couple of runs into the box and one perfect cross to Depay that deserved a better header IMO. That is the kind of cross I am looking for. It is an exhausting position... The backs in that system are asked to run so much. Don't have a big issue with him being subbed out in the 80th minute... but the announcers did say they were surprised because Dest had been so lively. Ends 1-1. Barca misses several golden opportunities to score despite being outplayed for a half.
The one gripe I have about him is that he ball watches on counters that originate on the other side of the field rather than sprint back into defensive position.
Sometimes I feel like the expectations are too high. He plays too defensively and people gripe that he isn't creating enough chances. He gets to the endline and serves a good cross that doesn't go in... the other team counters and he is out of position. Even the commentators said that once today. If you ask your backs to be part of the attack you have to expect that they are going to get caught up field. You can not sprint up and down the field all game. It just isn't possible. IMO, Dest has stuff to work on but saying that he is lazy on counters isn't one of them. I have seen him sprint to cover counters plenty of times. You just can't expect him to sprint back from the 18 every time the opposing team counters.
I'm just still kind of shocked he's starting for Barca. I know he's good, and thought he was good at Ajax, but he was a Jong Ajax player like... 24 months ago? He's handled the move better than I expected if I'm being honest. And, of course, he's also got lots of rough edges to work off his game.
The guy is the starting right back for Barcelona and US fans are probably happier with James Sands. It’s bizarro world.
Interesting. I'll have to think about that. They certainly have *different* rough edges. I'm not sure how I'd quantify them at this point though. They also have very different responsibilities. But either way, I'm very impressed by how Dest has responded to his Barca move. He can seem confident to the point of arrogantly jerky, but he keeps managing to stay on the field and seems to be a comfortable part of the team so he's doing something right.
I didn't say he was lazy. I said he ball watches. To me, that is two different things. It looks to me at times like he thinks before moving and it would be better if he thought while moving. And it has happened no matter how far up the field he is. Every fraction of a second matters.
He's also the starting RB for a Barcelona side that - so far- is defying predictions that it will be the worst Barca team in the last 30 years.
It also creates his failure to get back on the transition.He waits to see if Barca will win ball back quickly so he can stay up.
Which makes him a frustrated RW, rather than an RB. He has to iron that out to reach the very highest level - basically, a player they are determined to keep rather than happy to have.
Pulisic is also “arrogant”, as was Dempsey, Jermaine Jones, etc. You can even say the same for Weston McKennie, Gio Reyna, Aaronson, etc. They are all football arrogant….and that is not only a good thing, its the thing that helps these player compete at higher levels than those with more submissive attitudes. Maybe the beta males who typically come to soccer fandom in the US are threatened by their confidence? Dest is very smart and has some integrity, which is more than you can say about most people. There is a weird “I don’t like this guy” mean girl thing that is very evident among a group of US fans regarding Dest where they criticize him for things that they don’t criticize others for. Something other than his play on the field is going on there and it has nothing to do with Dest, who is easily one of the top players ever to come through the national team already and he’s only what…20 years old? I think it may be that US fans are not getting to watch “every touch” videos that show only positive plays like we see with everyone else. It may be the same thing that happened with Claudio Reyna back in the day where a highly ignorant (literally ignorant, meaning “unaware”) group of fans who didn’t see his games in Europe didn’t understand how freaking good that guy was, and still didn’t understand it during the 2002 World Cup when it was happening in front of their faces. People with microphones weren’t telling them what to like about the guy so they didn’t understand what they were watching. I say that, but I remember back when Dest played in the World Cup with the U20’s and he was plainly a cut above and one of the best players in the entire tournament, many US fans had absolutely zero understanding of what they were watching.
Or it may be, as in my case, that I like Dest so much as a player that I only see one thing to complain about so I'll probably keep focusing on that one issue until I see it resolved.