2023-12-18 08:41:24
BarcelonaEric Garcia is happy at Girona, but for the same reasons he left Manchester City, for now he is living his experience at the Girona side as a sweet passing stage: he is sick to the bone. Pep Guardiola wanted to renew him, but he waited and exhausted his contract to be able to sign for Barça, then still coached by Ronald Koeman. After two seasons in Barcelona, with less prominence than expected, he has found in Girona and, especially, in Míchel Sánchez a space where he can assert himself and silence the criticism he received when he defended the Barcelona shirt or when Luis Enrique was screaming to play with Spain.
Xavi Hernández, despite the fact that he did not give him all the minutes he would have liked, would have kept him in the squad. But the departure of Eric, on the last day of the market, was necessary to finish making enough salary space to close the arrivals of the two Joãos, Cancelo and Félix. Unlike Pablo Torre, also loaned to Girona, the Catalan central defender’s departure was finalized and sealed on the last day. This is why Eric was able to play against Barça: contracts had to be drawn up quickly and there was no time to negotiate a fear clause, as happened with the Cantabrian midfielder.
If it didn’t come out until the last day and for reasons of fair play it is because Xavi had convinced him to stay despite the little presence he had had the previous year. He was the seventeenth field player in minutes played. For example, Ansu Fati, Sergi Roberto – who suffered a lot of injuries – or Jordi Alba played more than him last season. He was always in the shadow of Araujo, Christensen and Kounde. With the arrival of Iñigo Martínez, he did not foresee a better horizon this year either. This led the centre-back to be interested in a transfer to a club with a similar way of playing to the one he has practiced since he was a child, brought up in the youth academy of Barça and City. Míchel’s Girona fit the bill.
After Girona’s emphatic win in Montjuïc, in which Eric was praised, Míchel revealed the conversation he had with the footballer before signing him. “When we spoke on the phone I told him to come not only because of his ball-handling. I think he is a very good defensive player. He is fast, intuitive, he anticipates and has a good reading of the game. For a center back not to make two meters doesn’t mean he’s not a good centre-back.” For his part, Xavi admitted that he would have liked to keep him despite not having played much: “If it was up to me, he would have stayed. I have a lot of confidence in Eric. He is doing very well with this transfer . And he’s playing without any kind of pressure. It’s not the same to play for Girona as for Barça. I’m happy for him.”
The keys to Eric Garcia’s success at Girona
At Girona, Eric has alternated between the position of centre-back in the defensive phase and centre-back in attack. He feels comfortable in Míchel’s system of play, which with various nuances could be synthesized into a 3-4-3, and above all he has had the coach’s trust from day one. “He didn’t take long to adapt. It also helped that the team had started the League well and had a good pre-season. He arrived at a good time and Míchel soon put him to play”, they explain to the NOW sources from the sports area of the Girona club. In the second match to which he was called up, Eric played the 90 minutes of the win (2-4) for the Girona team at Granada. “Our system suits him very well. It helps him a lot. He is very comfortable with our style. He has gone from less to more. He lacked a bit of rhythm at the beginning, but he has adapted very quickly. He is very identified with our team and the football we want to play.”
From Girona they also highlight the humility of Eric Garcia, who, despite having spent his entire career at big clubs such as Barça and City, has not lost the rings to go to a smaller entity like Girona. “Perhaps it could seem that he was taking a step back, but the feeling is that by coming here he took two steps forward”, affirm the same sources. Those who have crossed paths with Martorell’s central defender in a dressing room do not hesitate to say that he has “coach’s skills”. Already at City he liked to talk to Guardiola about tactical issues, at Barça he did so with Xavi and at Girona they have Míchel, another great football-loving coach who knows best how to play a centre-back who loves the ball.
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