As Riqui Puig carved apart Dinamo Kiev like a Thanksgiving turkey with a sumptuous, outside-of-the-boot pass in the build up to Barcelona’s fourth goal on Tuesday night, it was impossible not to be remined of what Xavi Hernandez said about one of the most exciting La Masia graduates in a generation.
“[He has] that particular DNA of our game and that is so difficult to find,” the World Cup winner told Mundo Deportivo of a diminutive play-maker viewed by many as the heir apparent to perhaps Barca’s greatest ever midfielder.
“The truth is that he is a boy who breathes talent. He has self-confidence, personality, does not hide and asks for the ball.”
Quique Setien thinks Puig is ‘extraordinary’. Gennaro Gattuso, after being left awe-struck by a floppy haired teenager during a pre-season friendly clash between Barca and AC Milan in 2018, opted for a different adjective; ‘spectacular’.
Much to the confusion of the ever-demanding Barcelona fans, however, those trademark defence-splitting passes, the likes of which left Dinamo’s defenders baffled in last night’s 4-0 Champions League triumph, have been less frequent this season than a Lionel Messi goal from open play.
While Ronald Koeman deserves credit for laying the foundations for a new era during a period of transition at the Camp Nou, making teenagers Pedri and Ansu Fati central to his rebuilding project, Puig appears to be on the outside looking in.
He played just 25 minutes off the bench on Tuesday and, in La Liga, his only appearance thus far remains a three-minute cameo in a 1-0 defeat at Getafe; a game in which Barcelona were crying out for a master lock picker capable of opening up a tightly-packed backline.
Puig’s brief and brilliant appearance in Kiev not only offered a timely reminder of why he has been labelled ‘the new Iniesta‘.
It also has those critical Cules demanding more opportunities for a player who surely deserves a chance to be front and centre during a transition from one trophy-laden era to an all-new future.
Yet if Barca aren’t going to give Puig the chances he needs, then Leeds United might (90Min).
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