It is often said that the year of confirmation is, at least, as hard as the year of revelation. The formula quite faithfully reflects what Alejandro Baldé is going through today. After a season marked by success, where he established himself as an indisputable starter at Barça (44 matches, 1 goal, 7 assists), to the point of sending Jordi Alba into pre-retirement on the other side of the Atlantic, the 20-year-old left side is struggling to get back on track this season. Less bleeding in his lane and more crumbly in the defensive phase, Baldé displays a quite striking contrast with Joao Cancelo on the other side. A decline in performance which also results in lower statistics.
Although he has delivered one assist since the start of the season (against Granada (2-2) in October), the Spaniard is underperforming. As reported Relevo, Baldé is in fact the full-back with the lowest percentage of expected assists in La Liga. A diminished influence compared to the previous year when it occupied 5th place in this ranking. However, Joao Félix, with his inside winger profile, offers him just as much – or even more – freedom than last season to express himself and devour spaces. In the absence of real competition (Marcos Alonso is the only professional left back), Mundo Deportivo revealed this Thursday a real intention of Barça to recall the young Alex Valle, loaned to Levante, from this winter.
Luis de la Fuente did not retain him with La Roja
Difficult to challenge in club despite everything, Baldé cannot say the same in selection. Present during the World Cup in Qatar last December with La Roja, the Catalan quickly established himself as a starter, before seeing his playing time fade away in favor of Gaya. Under the combined effect of his less convincing performances and the rise in power of the excellent Alejandro Grimaldo, in Leverkusen, the inevitable happened: Luis de la Fuente decided to do without him for this gathering in November , where Spain will close its Euro 2024 qualifying campaign against Cyprus on Thursday then Willy Sagnol’s Georgia on the 19th.
Asked to comment on this decision, the Spanish coach did not launch into a tirade: “I will only talk about injury-related absences. Baldé knows what he has to do. I encourage him to continue working harder because it is good for Spanish football.”, confided the former coach of the Spanish Espoirs at a press conference. A cordial way of making him understand that he would be well advised to put his head back together, especially eight months before a Euro where Spain will try to thwart the predictions.
