...and I don't mean the result. No, there's nothing wrong with that, and I'll talk about why later. But for now, the worst news for Barca fans is surely the injury to Samuel Eto'o, who is so crucial to the team.
For those who didn't see it, he turned sharply and hurt his knee. Very worrying sight for those who know what he's like, as Eto'o would never ask to be subbed off unless he was very seriously injured. Thank god there appears to be no ligament damage, which this team has had enough of for ten years in the last 2 seasons. In the 04-05 season Barca essentially won the league with a 13 man squad due to Edmilson, Gabri and Larsson being out for almost the whole season. Last season bought similar injuries to Xavi and Motta.
Turns out that Eto'o might be out for up to 3 months. Even 2 weeks is far too long at this point, as Barca have a nightmarish run of fixtures ahead, encompassing teams such as Sevilla, Real Madrid, and Chelsea (home and away). The problem is that Barca don't have a replacement at his level. Not many clubs can replace a man who scores 68 goals in 100 games with someone of the same standard.
There just aren't many forwards in the world who are as good as he is. Thierry Henry, yeah, but he decided to remain at Arsenal, and I think rightly so. Ronaldo used to be that good - in fact, probably better - but definitely not now. I could go on, but the point is that with all respect to Gudjohnsen and Saviola, Barca cannot replace Eto'o.
His injury makes Barca less dangerous going forward. End of story. Now his backups - the aftementioned Gudjohnsen and Saviola, plus Ezquerro when he gets back to fitness - have to prove their worth.
2 comments:
Well, I certainly understand your pessimism, but I'm not ready to give into it yet. I'll wait and see how the club does over the next few weeks. But then . . . .
I'm just glad that the injury isn't a career ending one.
Yeah, you're right, it's great that the injury won't have any effects in the long term if he doesn't do anything stupid to rush back from recovery.
I supposed the way to prevent that is to do well in his absence. Starting with winning the Athletic match. I do have hope.
Visca el Barca.
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