Totally fair read of the situation. The goal conceded against Alaves was pretty dumb, as they tried some kind of kickoff set play that resulted in Araujo getting far upfield, and it looks like he's pretty scared to open up his hammy so he couldn't track back quickly enough, and when he did he sauntered centrally because he's a CB, and then Alaves did well to take advantage and score. The other key part of that play was that Gundo had the ball with no pressure in the middle and lost it, and that's what set Alaves off on the break. I think Gundo is a good player to have on the bench, but I've been underwhelmed by him this season. He's not part of the best XI, and that's why FDJ's injury has been the silent killer for this team. Getting Pedri back hopefully means that Gundo can sit for a few matches because he's not up to the standard. I don't think Oriol is the longterm Busi answer, but he's the closest thing Barca have to a DMF metronome, and he's decently defensively stout. When he's the rock at the base of MF, it allows FDJ to play all over the place and for Pedri to find the pockets of space and be creative. That in turn allows Xavi to use Gavi in a more limited role and everyone else slots properly into place. Without FDJ and Pedri though, Gundo had to take on more responsibility and has looked worse. Same could be said for Gavi, but Gavi's highs are higher than Gundo's and his lows aren't as low. It sounds like FDJ is almost back though, and that's welcome news.Glass half full: Lewa scored twice and Barcelona have won games that title winners need to win. They’re only two points behind Real Madrid, actually closing the gap a bit, and have been dealing with an injury crisis. The kids have looked really good, and Ferran Torres has reawakened a bit and scored some important goals while Lewa sorted things out. And Gavi is a tough SOB.
Glass half empty: Barca have looked very pedestrian. Alaves scored about twenty seconds into the game this weekend, and Barca started the game with the ball. Midweek Barca lost to Shakhtar Donetsk (who don’t play at home for obvious reasons) in the Champions League. Last weekend Barcelona won but were thoroughly outplayed by Real Sociedad. Since their back-to-back manitos in mid-September they haven’t beaten an opponent by more than one goal, a run of 11 games, and they looked damn lucky several times (see Glass Half Full).
The other thing that was very noticeable about the backline was just how overmatched Kounde was against Samu. Now, Samu is a big boi but once Xavi pushed Araujo centrally and moved Kounde out wide things got a lot calmer.
While I really like Felix's game, he wasn't at his sharpest yesterday and I have to say I'm very happy with Barca's depth. Yes, they still need to figure out their best XI when everyone's healthy, but that hasn't been a problem for much of the season. More importantly, Barca have 5 attackers now that can all reasonably play in any match (Felix, Lewa, Ferran, Raph, and Lamine). Lamine looks like big boy futbol has finally caught up to him, and I expect that we'll see him start on the bench for next couple of matches now that Raph is getting healthy. Ferran is kind of like the super sub at this point, as he's the best backup to Lewa through the middle. Raph also got some run subbing for Fermin as the inside 8, but that seems like a temporary fix until FDJ gets back. Because when FDJ gets back, I don't know what the XI is, although the return to the box MF is the first thing I'd try again:
Felix-Lewa
Pedri-Gavi
FDJ-Oriol
Balde-Christensen-Araujo-Cancelo
One last comment--I can't say enough good things about Cancelo. I think he's just a brilliant player. He's everything you want in an attacking fullback, and he could really be the linchpin that puts this team over the top if they get healthy and cruising.