Barcelona had the best defense in European football last season, as the likes of Ronald Araujo, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Alejandro Balde, Jules Kounde, and surprise star Andreas Christensen led the Blaugrana to the summit of LaLiga.
This season, unfortunately, the Barcelona defense has taken a step back. New additions Joao Cancelo and Inigo Martinez haven’t made the team better, while the loss of Sergio Busquets took the back four’s greatest shield away.
Individual performances have waned, too, with ter Stegen going back to frustrating fans. And recently, star center back Ronald Araujo has been responsible for some negative results, including a head-scratching red card in the Champions League crumbling vs. PSG.
Make no mistake, Araujo is one of the most talented players in world football at any position, having initially made a name for himself in the mainstream as the anti-Vinicius Junior plan. Araujo marked the best player in the world out of the game.
That is Araujo at his best. The young Barcelona defender is a lockdown defender who can mark any great striker or winger with his athletic traits. When he is on his game, he can read passing lanes appropriately and use his skills to his advantage.
Unfortunately, Araujo isn’t on his game consistently enough. There are disciplinary issues regarding poor tackles and poor angles, and Araujo is reaching a stage of his career where he is playing too dangerously.
See, Araujo knows he has the tools to recover and catch up to wingers or make up for his mistakes with his ability to bully attackers on the ball.
Right now, though, he is making too many of those mistakes and getting too sloppy instead of falling back on the fundamentals. Meanwhile, Andreas Christensen has been the opposite and is an example of how to know your limits as a defender.
Christensen is a good athlete with above-average strength, but he knows he can’t be as explosive as a Vinicius Junior, for example. Where Christensen wins is by not taking gambles and playing it safe every game.
It’s rare to find a bad performance from the Danish international. He is a consistent 7-8/10 player, whereas Araujo can go from a 10 to a 4 in an instant.
In defense, consistency is king. Whereas forwards can have off games and make up for it if they change enough matches, a defender’s job isn’t to take risks but to avoid them. A defender needs to avoid losing games for his team.
Christensen does that for Barcelona. He is completing a team-high 94.4 percent of his passes, which is five percentage points higher than Araujo, which has even allowed him to play as a defensive midfielder in a pinch.
Barcelona can count on Christensen to have consistently good games and not make rash mistakes that put the team behind. His near-flawless passing is a key asset out of the back.
If Araujo wants to live up to his potential as the literal best center back in the world, then he needs to remember the fundamentals and realize that wild swings in performance and gambles in defense are not what Barcelona need, especially at this stage.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He has been an editor for NFL Spin Zone, Daily DDT for pro wrestling, Autzen Zoo covering the Oregon Ducks, Musket Fire covering the New England Patriots, The Real Champs covering Real Madrid, Old Juve covering Juventus, Rush The Kop covering Liverpool, and Release The Knappen covering Schalke. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.