On Thursday January 4, for the first match of 2024 against Las Palmas, Xavi will be able to count on a new face: Vitor Roque. Officially from Barcelona since last summer, the young Brazilian striker had remained with Athletico Paranaense until now, just to perfect his training and continue to have regular playing time. Everything indicates that it is very likely that he will be Barcelona’s only offensive recruit this winter, since the club’s situation is still so complicated on the financial side, and Xavi wishes to use the few funds available to strengthen the environment . Gio Lo Celso (Tottenham) is Xavi’s favorite.
An offensive sector which is precisely at the bottom of the wave. Since the start of the season, Xavi has had to deal with an attack that stacks up quite irregular players. The former player of the Roja club and Barça necessarily has his share of responsibility in this rather weak offensive animation and in the lackluster performances of his attacking elements, but his main strong men are below. After a very good start, João Félix, for example, seems to be falling back into his ways and is already being criticized by the media. Robert Lewandowski’s performances are also singled out by the press, while Raphinha has still not convinced anyone. As for Ferran Torres, many seem to have already given up on the idea of seeing him perform well, while Lamine Yamal remains too young a player to hope to build an offensive sector around him.
The Savior ?
Vitor Roque is only a few years older than him – he turns 19 in February – but his arrival also raises huge expectations. Too much, even, and on the Barça side, there is a desire to protect the Brazilian nugget as best as possible. “We can’t put too much pressure on him”, explained for example Xavi during his last media outing. A bit paradoxical, since a few questions later, he explained “hope that Vitor Roque is at the level of Messi or Cristiano”. Just that. A sort of bipolarity which extends to this entire Catalan media environment, where Roque is already presented as the great savior. His every move is already being spied on, like his trip from Brazil to Barcelona which is followed by correspondents on site and which is on the front page of Mundo Deportivo at the time of writing these lines. There is also this comparison with Endrick, recruited by Real Madrid, which comes up very often. The comparisons with Ronaldo Nazario also add a little weight on the player’s still rather frail shoulders, while on social networks, many fans present him as the potential savior of this Barcelona season which has taken a worrying turn in recent weeks. .
Suffice to say that the Auriverde striker arrives in a fairly difficult sporting and extra-sporting context, where he will probably not benefit from a lot of time to perform, since his club needs players who are already operational. His adaptation period must therefore be as short as possible, for the good of his team and for his own. It would not necessarily be surprising if he was given responsibility fairly quickly by Xavi, with a significant amount of playing time from the start. It’s hard to imagine him already starting, but he could clearly be one of the first options off the Catalan coach’s bench. Especially since Barça will have a very busy month of January with this Spanish Super Cup which is added to an already crazy schedule. Let’s not forget that Vitor Roque also has arguments to make, he who still scored 21 goals and delivered 7 decisive passes in 44 matches in 2023 in a championship that is far from being so easy. But on the Barça side, we know, we must not miss out on its management.
