2023-08-29 07:45:55
BarcelonaLamine Yamal has just turned 16, but he plays football with a maturity and calmness unbecoming of his age. It has quality and it’s obvious. Otherwise, it would be unimaginable to have already made his debut, and as a starter, with the Barça first team at the age of a cadet player. But surely what amazes us the most about this player in the matches are gestures that can rarely be seen in such young footballers.
Lamine Yamal has been a starter with the Barça first team as if it were the most normal thing in the world, as if it didn’t matter excessively and as if the shirt didn’t weigh at all. He does it all naturally, but behind that spontaneity is an understanding of the game that many wingers are unable to offer even with ten more years of career.
The young Barcelona talent doesn’t tend to rush. He is in no hurry to show everyone his virtues. He waits for the ball wide open, which makes it easier for the passers and harder for the opposing defenders, who in this way have to protect more yards in width. All this favors the emergence of interior spaces, essential for Barça to attack better. The aspiration of Xavi’s team is to end up dominating inside, with the midfielders.
With the ball at his feet, Yamal tends to make tactical drives. In other words, those who go looking for rivals and attract them (fix them) before making the pass to their partner. The Blaugrana footballer shows a remarkable level of success in decision-making. We have seen him slow down actions so as not to get into the wolf’s throat and find the safety pass or avoid playing the dribble when the rival structure has woven a defensive superiority in front of him. It also has a good amount of resources when it comes to complicating the work on markers. Left wingers who play on the right tend to almost always look for the inside cut. When Yamal sees that door closed he has no problem striking by looking for the outside exit and the end line. His technical level, which he exhibits, for example, in controls, drives or passes, is remarkable.
When it comes to centering, he is turning into his trademark the flick that seeks, from the corner of the large area, the reverse corner of the small area (as in Gavi’s goal in Vila-real). This cross is always very dangerous, because it tends to overcome all defenders, often depending on the center or the trajectory of the ball and without eyes in the back of the head to see the finisher coming in behind him.
Another gesture of maturity, in this case not related to technical or tactical aspects, we could see in the match against Cadiz. After a possible penalty, three players from the Andalusian team approached him to tickle him. Lamine Yamal didn’t even change, he didn’t lose concentration. And he didn’t stop trying in Vila-real, despite a first half in which he suffered a lot to stop Pedraza’s offensive forays (they were not his sole responsibility).
Lamine Yamal’s next challenge will be to find consistency with performances like the one we saw on Sunday. It will not be easy to always, or almost always, have this impact. Apart from that, you will have to manage the moments of deprivation, which will surely come. Expectations are exaggerated and a couple of good games with the first team, despite all the good feelings that have accompanied them, are no guarantee of a bright future.
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