Everton’s transfer raid on Barcelona for Gerard Deulofeu is a mistake
Jason Pettigrove for Metro.co.ukTuesday 30 Jun 2015 10:44 am
Gerard Deulofeu has joined Everton (Picture: Getty Images)
It was finally confirmed on Thursday that Gerard Deulofeu would be leaving Barcelona on a permanent basis with Everton paying a €6 million transfer fee.
Both the player and those connected with the Toffees seemed more than happy with the deal judging by their respective posts on their official social media channels.
But there’s only one winner in this deal. Barcelona.
Here’s why…
1) He is not a team player
Gerard Deulofeu was at Barcelona since the age of nine. His precocious talents marked him out as special fairly swiftly after his introduction at La Masia.
As he made his way up through the ranks it was noticeable that his natural game hadn’t changed to any great degree.
Sure, he could beat defenders at will and he was certainly an exciting player to watch. And he could score goals that would get you off of your seat everytime.
But his penchant for beating his man, and then beating him again, and perhaps just once more for good measure before scoring or wasting a chance was clearly beginning to grate on his team mates.
Players such as Jean-Marie Dongou who would often find themselves in acres of space centrally but who would never get the chances because Deulofeu wanted the glory all for himself.
Unai Emery at Sevilla, Deulofeu’s last coach before his move, summed it up best when he said to Sid Lowe of
The Guardian via
Sport: ‘He has incredible qualities but lacks others. Put him out there, one on one and … pfff.
‘But make him play football with teammates, on a big pitch, and it’s hard. He doesn’t have the maturity or capacity for sacrifice yet.’
2) He doesn’t score enough goals
If Deulofeu can’t get his head around passing the ball as needed, then he’ll need to step up to the plate in goalscoring terms.
In the four years since he started playing for Barca’s senior side, and taking into account both moves to Sevilla and Everton, Deulofeu has appeared on 52 occasions.
During that time he has scored four goals. Four.
It’s doubtful that there is another wide player in Europe’s top five league’s with such a poor return.
3) His passing lets him down
When you sign a player from Barcelona you can be fairly sure that you’re getting someone who is adept at passing the ball well right? Wrong.
Aligned to Deulofeu’s reticence to pass in any event, when he does so, his accuracy is poor. His most recent season, 2014/15 with Sevilla, saw a pass completion stat of 72.8 percent per
WhoScored.com.
That is worse than the entire Everton squad over the same time frame bar keeper Tim Howard.
Can’t pass, can’t score. What exactly is Roberto Martinez hoping to achieve with his capture?
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