Wilmar Barrios -news and comments

https://deadspin.com/zenit-supporte...a0woH6QdLA9FNQFIrl2sCmWPFN-kfAxosz2zuNksQ_AlY

very disturbing and sad that teams/fans still have a narrow minded view in 2019. Even Roberto Carlos was the victim of racism when he played in Russia.

 

Of course Zenit is going to respond that way. They have to be politically correct. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

 

Barrios should have been starting before the World Cup and should have been starting during the World Cup, the guy was just a better player but wasn't given a chance because Pekerman loved Sanchez.

 

We can't change the past.
Pekerman trusted La Roca and he had his reasons.
Especially since he was one of our best players in the air, particularly when it came to winning 50/50 balls jumping over offensive players
He also trusted him as a backup CB.

The matches Barrios was given a chance in he looked pretty ordinary in comparison.
Until the Poland match when he started to look like a real starter in my opinion.

 

Hindsight is 20/20. I know you can appreciate that the most here but I hear what you’re saying

Barrios was getting gradual minutes in last cycle and I recall some of the feedback wasn’t the greatest when he did play and it would have been tough to throw Barrios in the fire of a tough WCQ as the primary DM playing 75+ min out of nowhere. Maybe Pekerman could have used him more often in friendlies or started Barrios in home WCQ games. I would have to look back in the depth chart folder to see what games he did feature in last cycle.

I didn’t like how Roca ended his NT career with his 2018 WC performance but there’s always a fine balance and gamble teams can take with sticking to veterans vs throwing the new breed into the fire.

Bottom line - Pekerman went through a bunch of players in the deep midfield last cycle and they mostly panned out hence the eventual Roca-Abel combo coming back full circle.

Same can be said for Duvan and Muriel too - both should have seen more minutes in the prior cycle but didn’t for a multitude of reasons.

I believe Duvan was eventually injured by the time WC came around the corner. But he did have a good presence on the pitch in that Bolivia and Peru matches and Pekerman didn’t really build off that.

But Muriel was on the bench many times and other guys like Gio Moreno and Teo were used in sub appearances over Muriel.

Also can argue that it was pointless to start Uribe in nearly every friendly prior to WC only to see him not play in first WC game and then come off the bench for an injured Abel against Poland.

 

Sanchez did the little things in games that obviously built trust with the manager.
Yes , he made mistakes but those mistakes were overlooked in many cases because of all the little things he did.
And when we got red cards or yellows in the back 4 Sanchez was the one to go back there and help out defensively.
It would have been nice to have Valencia healthy because he was the ideal player in those roles but he was never healthy.

 

In the view of Pekerman the positives for Sanchez outweighed the negatives. Especially since he earned the aforementioned trust within his system.

You are not understanding my other point.
I was referring to the strategy and formation Pekerman used when there were cards to our CBs.
Sanchez would be the player he most relied on to play CB and he would take the CB with a card out and put in an attacking player.
He also did this with Valencia in the Chile match.
There's not too many other players Pekerman trusted to play as a DFM and a CB. I am not sure Barrios was ready for those important responsibilities. He was just getting acclimated as a younger player.

 

The Chile match we won 3-1 in Chile.
Valencia was moved back as a CB as I think Yepes was pulled out for Cuadrado. If I remember correctly.

 

Whatever the case may be Pekerman saw Valencia and Sanchez as guys he could put in the back defensive line in weird emergency situations as role players.

Barrios was still getting acclimated into the system as a younger player and Pekerman had no familiarity with him and obviously did not like what he saw in practice. At least did not like what he saw to the point that he did not give him a starting chance.

 

I never said Valencia played much in the 2018 cycle so I don't know why you brought that up about him playing in the 2014 cycle.
I never said Sanchez was better than Valencia so I do not know why you brought that up either.

Sanchez has made mistakes. I have brought that up.

I do not agree it was a mistake of Pekerman. It was what most managers do when they feel like they need to grind out points, They rely on role players they trust and and are more familiar with their system.

Maybe Barrios could have been given more opportunities but when he was given opportunities he looked ordinary to me.

 

It was a shame that Valencia was not reliable enough to be a true core member of the team.

I remember going to see Brazil vs Colombia live at MetLife Stadium in November 2012 and Pekerman used a backline of Aquivaldo, Edwin, Yepes and Armero with Roca in front and that was basically the coming out party for Cuadrado who scored that night.

As for Barrios, it’s hard to say now in hindsight what should have been or could have been done. Look at Medina for example - he was thrown in the fire during the 2014 cycle in those Chile/Uruguay games and it’s basically taken him a full cycle since then to be a regularly used RB for us.

With his temper that we all know he has, a younger Barrios could have been a walking red card liability if he was given more responsibility and playing time against teams like Brazil/Chile/Uruguay whose sneaky/experienced players would have tried goading him into a headbutt or other dumb action yielding a red card - extreme example but you get the point.