Little by little its performance that has ended in dock. In the last game of the year, that long-suffering victory against Almeria (3-2), which unleashed the indignation of Xavi Hernández, who screamed like never before, Jules Koundé disappeared from the starting eleven. The French defender was a substitute, whose downturn has been so evident that even the coach, who has protected him to the maximum, gave him the discarded tracksuit, although then, seeing the drama (1-1 at half-time and Montjuïc whistles against Barça) he made him appear in the second half forming a pair with Araujostaying Christensen in the dressing room.
There are many Koundés in a single Koundé. Already in the previous matches (Girona and Antwerp) the most disfigured version of the French defender had been seen, for whom Barça paid 50 million to Sevilla to strengthen their rear.
There is the Koundé Right side, a position that he does not like, as he already warned in a talk to Xavi, weakened by the two consecutive defeats, before starting this season, which disappointed against Míchel’s team and there is also the central Koundé that went out in Belgium. Neither one nor the other are who they should be.
Barça bleeds defensively like never before with Xavi on the bench. Girona, with four goals in the Barça team’s rental home, and Antwerp, with three – something he had never done in Europe – delved into that wound.
And Koundé appeared in those scenes of chaos and disorder that drive the technician so mad, tired of denouncing “individual errors.” Up to 10 goals conceded in the last four games support this weakness that torments Barça.
Errors to which Xavi does not give his own name because they are so obvious, everyone knows who is responsible. Both inside the locker room and outside. And Koundé started the course well, already established in his role as a center back, while Araujo was banished to the wing as a full-back, where Sergi Roberto later paraded until Cancelo, a specialist, permanently settled there. Or so it seemed.
Granada’s mistakes and injury
In Granada, in that draw (2-2), Koundé was seen suffering against Bryan Zaragoza. He was being central, but in the open field the Andalusian demon, who had just signed Bayern Munich by executing his 15 million euro clause, subdued him. Furthermore, that same fateful night he got injured. He suffered a sprain of the internal lateral ligament in his left knee that caused him to miss three games.
On his return, the best Koundé has not returned. Just as if he came up disfigured. He returned against Real Sociedad in San Sebastián where he was seen to be imprecise in the construction of the game, making mistakes that almost cost Barça goals. In the next duel, Xavi sent him to the bench from where he watched the European defeat against Shakhtar. The Frenchman did not play a minute. Neither as a winger (Cancello was) nor as a center back (the couple was made up of Araujo and Iñigo Martínez).
The debate with Araujo
From there, the 25-year-old Frenchman returned to take over as a starter, alternating both functions, forcing the coach to intervene in a hidden conflict that festered from the locker room. With Cancelo, the specialist of the right wing, located on the left flank of the defense, Koundé and Araujo reclaimed themselves as experts of the central axis to abandon the exile of the wing.
Related news
“They play where they are told, there is no debate. The problem will be for their selectors because they both play as full-backs with them,” Xavi recalled, alluding to Marcelo Bielsa, who placed the Uruguayan as a full-back and Didier Deschamps which only uses French in that area.
Against Girona, Koundé had problems with Sávio, anchored on the left wing, in addition to losing a decisive duel with Valery at 1-3. A duel in a swampy area – he was mocked on the edge of the area – that made him appear in the final photograph of that goal, just as what happened to him in the 3-2 added time with Antwerp when Ilenikhena certified the victory and deformed even more the image of a weak and not very forceful Koundé.