Manchester City full-back Joao Cancelo has admitted he was a ‘disaster’ for Barcelona this weekend against Villarreal.
The Portugal international was making his 23rd appearance of the season for Barca, following his loan move to the Spanish giants from City on transfer deadline last summer.
Cancelo has, by and large, played well for Barca.
As a result of his performances, we have heard the likes of Joan Laporta and Deco admit publicly that the club want to sign him permanently this summer. The player’s agent Jorge Mendes has also said as much.
But Cancelo had a game to forget on Saturday, and the player owned up to a sub-par performance afterwards…
Joao Cancelo says he was a ‘disaster’ for Barcelona in defeat to Villarreal
Barcelona suffered a somewhat humiliating defeat to Barcelona on Saturday night.
The Blaugrana lost 5-3, and there was some awful defending on show from the home side.
Cancelo was making his first appearance since returning from an injury that kept him sidelined for a few weeks, coming off the bench at half-time. Seemingly, his lay-off contributed to a lack of match sharpness, with the 29-year-old being at fault for Villarreal’s second goal.
It was very reminiscent of the goal Mo Salah scored for Liverpool against City at Anfield, when the ball was forward and Cancelo was the last defender back, with the Egyptian wriggling away from him.
Here, last man Cancelo made a complete hash of his clearance, with Ilias Akhomach racing through to score.
He was then caught out of position on Villarreal’s third goal, and simply stood by and watched on the away side’s scrappy fourth.
Speaking after the game, Cancelo said (via Goal): “My performance today was a disaster. Tomorrow I will give everything in training to be at my best on Wednesday. We are a great team. The coach is not to blame. He did them well and I did not reciprocate. Has the League gone? Mathematically no, but it is very difficult.”
Following the result, under-fire Barcelona manager Xavi announced that he will be stepping down at the end of the season.
Cancelo must bounce back
Fair play to Cancelo publicly admitting he did not play well against Villarreal. Accountability is important and he clearly knows he wasn’t good enough on Saturday.
The £250,000-a-week man will go away now and work hard on the training pitch, and hopefully he will regain a bit of sharpness.
City ideally need him to maintain a good level through until the end of the season, so that a permanent transfer for the player can be sealed.
There does not appear to be a way back for him at the Etihad Stadium, and so it’s all about Cancelo shining during this loan spell with Barca.
We will see in the summer if the Spanish club have the financial capability to actually sign him. Apparently, a bid of around £26 million could tempt City.
