FC Barcelona 2-1 Athletic Club: Lamine Yamal Scores A Screamer, Prime Pedri & Raphinha Is Back

[Applause] Hello everybody welcome back to the channel so in today's video we are going to be talking about the match between Barcelona and athletic Lube Barcelona were able to defeat athletic clbe 2-1 with a goal coming from laal and a goal coming from leandi Barcelona officially do have two wins in the bag six total points and Barcelona are currently winning through style hanzi flecks football is really coming in full effect so what we are going to be doing in this video is give out a brief overview of this game talk about the highlights and then later in the video we're also going to be talking about the individual performances because I believe that a lot of players do need to be shouted out one thing is for sure hzi Fleek will get the best out of every player in this squad because we are seeing early signs of this already like I have stated multiple times in the past couple of weeks we need to be very optimistic positive about Barcelona's sporting project yes there has been a lot of financial difficulties that we had to encounter in the past few days but that should not stop us from us looking at Barcelona through a good lens hzi flecks football is creating good environments and we have to approach that and support these players yes it was unfortunate to see that Danny oral could not get registered on time we expected for Danny oral to be registered but H Fleek did what he did he cooked he said no problem ifo's not going to be there I have other players like bedri Rafia all who can perform at a great level and so they did Barcelona defeated a tough athletic Loop side that contained inaki Williams Nico Williams and several other players so moving on towards the first half Barcelona dominated in the opening 20 to 30 minutes it was a very strong attacking plan Barcelona were providing crisp sharp passing between the lines the movements of the players was very Dynamic creating multiple chances we saw pedri and Bernal in the Midfield we all thought that this was a Midfield that should be questioned because to have Bernal who's only 17 years old and bedri next to Bernal who is basically building a double pivot were like okay could this be it could this be a reliable Midfield to face against Athletic Lube but they did they were solid they were stable they dictated the play we also had Rafia as the highest midfielder in this game playing as a 10 between fedan Tes who was on the left and laminal on the right-wing position and we had leowski up top Rafia was the connector for all of these players and leowski was just enjoin himself on the pitch because the amount of chances levandowski had was immense hanzi Fleek is building a team that does compliment leowski and for him to find multiple chances and score goals now unfortunately for him levandowski was doing everything right but the one one thing that he was missing was putting the ball behind the net and it's not because avandi was playing bad or because he was out of focus in the last couple of seconds in the play it's simply because the goalkeeper of athletic Lube was having won hell of a match and that's basically it but everything else that he was doing in terms of link up play holding up the ball finding the Wingers on the flanks he was doing that phenomenally Barcelona's defense was also very solid I thought the clube did see a couple of chances but nowhere near the amount of chances Barcelona were producing a couple of minutes later we saw La Minal score an amazing goal putting it into the top left corner the exact same type of goal that he did score in the Euros against France but this time laminal did it in a Barcelona shirt and in front of Nico Williams I'm telling you guys right now I do think that laminal will reach at least 12 goals this season he has the capability one of the things that we have been talking about about yamal is okay this guy can dribble he can take on players he can provide assists he can provide key passes but he does falter in front of goal sometimes he gets too loose he's not composed enough he misses but this time y looks much stronger in front of go and that is one of the things that H fle knew that he needed to fix to turn yamal into a monster the moment you have Lal confident composed strong with the ball in front of goal you have a monster of a player and and linal for sure can Skyrocket his game to becoming one of the top goal scorers in La Liga fast forward to athletic Lube scoring their first goal unfortunately kuari made a mistake inside the box he did it overcommit on a foul that led towards athletic Lube getting the penalty Barcelona had to fight that call but in the end V said no what kuari did was not allowed the tackle was just too intense and we do have to give athletic Lube the penalty and so we saw sanket equalize the match 1 we went on to the second half and once again Barcelona continued with great possession creating chances levandowski hit the post like two or three times already at this point he was also denied another goal from Pia who was once again the goalkeeper of athletic CL we're like oh my God like leowski is doing everything right everything is going correct for him but we are just missing his goal later in the game we saw fine Lopez enter the match we needed more energy in the Midfield and we did see a Midfield of Bernard pedri and fine Lopez right a Midfield that makes us dream a Midfield that does give more energy and so we saw fan Tes come out Rafia went to the left wing position fine Lopez was acting as the number 10 so with Rafia being on the left wing position Rafia was having a monstrous game receiving the ball always on the Left Flank taking on players we saw Rafia receed the ball at one point B makes it run into the box Rafia lays off that ball into space b receives the ball he makes a cross into the box and the cross gets slightly deflected leowski receives the ball and finally finds his goal to make it 21 everything about this goal was fluid it was intentional you knew that they were practicing this over and over again bed's run into space I'm like dude this guy's IQ for the game is just too much for athletic Lube they could not stop bedri and Rafia just couldn't stop making amazing passes into the box so we saw Barcelona end up winning this game 2-1 like I have said strong performance very well organized especially in the attack one of the things that I do want to say is this we are very quick and efficient and our in is clear when it comes to making combinations of passes through the middle this is something that we did not see under chavu Hernandez chavu Hernandez game was all about okay we have to control the match make passes here and there the moment we get into the final third let's make passes onto the flanks and let's look for the crosses with hanzi Fleek it's different it's very direct but through the middle yes we still see some emphasis on the wings but through the middle our game has improved a lot the amount of times we saw Lin M pass the ball through the middle Fant Torres received the ball passes it to Rafia Rafia passes it to levandowski leandi finding finding chances we saw that so many times and with B also being into the mix it's extremely vertical and well structured very well intented these type of plays have been practiced so these type of plays that we have been seeing they're Central combinations that are very hard to defend not a lot of teams can defend plays like this and this gives Barcelona a huge plus so finally right four to five games in Hans flecks football is starting to emerge and the team is starting to understand what he does want and us as fans are really enjoying it keep in mind that this is not even Barcelona's strongest Squad like we still have aruo to add in Christensen to also add in we have not even seen Gabi we haven't seen Frankie we have not seen anati and we have not seen Dan new Oro who knows how good this team could get through time so let's go into the individual performances and at first do want to start with bedri bedri has recently been named as one of the captains for this club and did he showcase why he should be named as one of the captains bedri had a world class game the old p is back guys he is back his level has increased by a huge Mar everything that he was doing all the players followed whatever bedri did with the ball the players were like okay we have to follow this game plan because we trust him and bedri always makes the right decisions in this match bedri has played 90 minutes had 65 touches 46 out of 53 passes were completed five key passes right which was the most two out of two long balls four out of seven ground duels won one interception and two tackles and let me tell you bed's 5 key passes was the most not just for Barcelona but but for the whole game no other player was able to produce more than five key passes and he also had 24 chances created in the last 10 games for both club and Country guys I'm telling you like I hope he does not suffer from injuries anymore I really like I don't want to see him get injured like no more hopefully the next injury that he does get does happen in about 3 to 4 years because we want to see him continue have great development this guy is a luxury his Clarity his vision his fluidity everything about him is just spectacular hzi Fleek does need him a sporting project with Barcelona regardless of the coach needs B in there so the biggest new of today besides us winning this game is that bedri is growing in his position which is for sure the left Central Midfield position that is his best position he can play as a right midfielder maybe deeper in the Midfield forming a double pivot but we saw pedri mostly as a left Central midfielder and that is once again his best position he is really good on that left side whoever's on that left side whether it's Rafia Bal fan Tores all those players get a huge support from ped so what a player moving on towards the next player that is Jules kund like I said Hans Fleek did set up this battle like ever since he did state that okay we'll see what niik Williams can do because we have kund and I trust him and I do know what he can do we're like oh okay so this duel is going to be something to watch and Jules kund once again stopped Nik Williams just like he did in the Euros to me Jules kundai continues to show that he is a great defender and he is improving on his individual Duss whether it's in the attack or in defense he was not dribble passed not even once in this entire match niik Williams had no game plan nor anything against kundai and kundai also had the most tackles in this match with a total of two just just to give you guys context to understand just how silent niik Williams was in this match zero out of five crosses were completed he did not complete a single cross into the box he only had 12 passes zero long balls 50% of his dribbles were successful zero shots on Target and lost possession 19 times it was not a good night for Nico Williams and I don't mean to be Petty or anything like I know that sometimes I come off a little too rude in a sense but like I've said like you know niik Williams could have had this game much better and when I mean by much better I mean like he could have been a Barcelona player today he could have just said yes and I'll wait for my registration no worries as long as I do become a Barcelona player this season niik Williams should be a player that should join Barcelona I know that he will eventually get his goals and assists with athletic Lube I understand that but I just think that looking at Barcelona's sporting project how can you not say yes to this niik Williams deserves much more so it's a shame and I do think that in my personal opinion is a mistake on his part I understand loyalty I understand that he wants to be faithful to his Boyhood Club but it's a mistake it's a huge mistake for him to say no because I don't know if Barcelona moving forward are going to be welcoming him again moving on towards the next player and that is Rafa Rafa a player who has also been named as one of the captains for Barcelona performed against Athletic Lube I want to get one thing very clear a lot of you guys thought that I was trying to shame Rafia and I was trying to say that you know I'm surprised right that Rafia was named as one of the captains and that that is like the wrong thing to say look the reason why I was surprised is because usually Barcelona likes to name their captains with the players that that have had the most time at Barcelona it's one one of the reasons why Sergio Roberto last season was named as one of the captains we understood that was one of the requirements but this season it was strange because rafin has only been with us for 2 years I never said that Rafia did not deserve to have the captain armband I never said that I never said that Rafia doesn't deserve to get any recognition because to me Rafa is a very important player Rafa to me has the capability to be one of the top players for Barcelona yes because of his talent but mostly because of his versatility because he can play in many positions and perform I have said it in the previous video I understand why in a sense Rafia should be named as one of the captains because when push comes to shove and Barcelona is in a very intense moment where we need to win Rafia shows up it's one of the reasons why Barcelona were able to defeat PSG in the first leg last season Rafia was a key player and in this game against atic Lube a couple of months later he continues to show why he is important and why he should have a say under Hans fleck's sporting project in this match he had 73 touches which I think it was the most I think another player did have more touches but Rafia had one of the most touches because he was he was greatly involved he did play as a 10 and side note this could possibly explain the reason why gundan did leave right is one of the factors is because maybe he was told by hanzi Fleek that he was going to be seen some minutes here some minutes there maybe as a six sometimes as an eight but it's going to be greatly reduced because Rafia shows that he can play as a 10 and we saw that against Athletic CL Rafia can be a great connector between the Wingers and the striker he had three key passes three big chances created six out of six long balls completed four shots three dribbles nine dels one and three tackles he's incredible and his leadership is so underrated I don't know if you guys have noticed but when Kari was down and one of the players of athletic Lube were trying to provoke kuari getting in his face fmin Lopez was trying to get in there trying to fight and then rafin came in and he said hey look don't fight it's okay relax we don't need to fight here Barcelona already have the three points in the bag let's move forward from here let's not lose our focus and that's very important and so his level sportingly and his leadership is Elite and in every game as we go by Rafia looks more and more comfortable as a 10 it all started with him playing as a 10 under chav Hernandez but we never thought that Rafia was going to master this position in the way that he is doing it right now and he never complains about what position he's going to be given I remember in the beginning when he first joined Barcelona back in 2022 and he was playing as a left Winger against Bayern Munich he did complain to Travi Hernandez that he did not want to play as a left Winger and he believed that his best position was on the right wing position he was scared he was nervous but as time went by Rafia has been growing he was getting better as a 10 getting better as a left Winger and never complain never caused any drama that my friends is very important hanzi Fleek also praised the player by stating for us Rafia always starts the pressure the dynamism he brings to the rest of the players is invaluable I didn't expect to see him press that much he covers the entire pitch for 90 minutes he is in very good form and so lastly I do want to speak about linal linal was named as the MVP in this match and I'm not going to lie to you yes linal did well but I think that a lot of players did good like bedri and Rafia who also deserve to be the MVP in this game minad officially does have an assist against Valencia and a goal against Athletic Lu being involved in a goal in every match so far and guys let me tell you lamin is such a threat I'm going to give you guys some numbers by the 34th minute when he did score that goal this is exactly what makes Lin so special if you look at this picture here you can see that Rafa and Niko Williams had the highest expected goal threat so far in the match right 34 minutes in Lal is at the very bottom of this list but he was the only goal scorer at that time it shows that am min constantly overperforms his expected goal rate to clarify it shows us that laminal has the capability to find goals under very difficult circumstances Rafia and nikol Williams found it very easy to find goals right they were in very clear situations to put the ball behind the net but they were unable to capitalize off of those opportunities Lal on the other hand was well covered finding it very difficult to put himself on a 1V one situation with the goal keeper but then still found a goal to put Barcelona forward one0 he's a specialist and at the age of 1 years old to be named as probably the best right winger in the world it is not normal my friends it's it's just not normal how do you do this at 17 years old replicating the goal that you did in the Euros against France and to do it yet again with Barcelona and so Bravo to Barcelona this is the way this is going to be the path to Greatness we just have to be physically and mentally 100% I am also not stating that Barcelona is the best team in the world and that we're World beaters now we're not there yet but Barcelona for sure have improved by a huge margin and it's very exciting to see see how this team is going to perform once all of our players are available and getting used to the attacking plan of hanzi Fleek that is going to be wrapping up today's video thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you guys in the next one