What should have been a celebratory start was looked upon with little enthusiasm par the average cule. When the match line-up came out an heure before kickoff, toi could almost hear the groans from the cacahuète, arachide gallery. "Urgh, Bojan?" With a front line consisting of Bojan, Messi, and Villa, the weak link seemed pretty obvious: the young Catalan. So what has happened to the promising striker who netted 12 goals at the age of 17? Why has he become a pariah of sorts while amassing trophies and contract renewals?
Part of it lies in who he is: a support striker in the mould of Raul rather than a burly attacker like Didier Drogba. He is, in many ways, Wayne Rooney without the physical traits. And Barcelona under Pep Guardiola don't do the burly central striker thing, even when he's not so burly. But part of it also lies in who he isn't: Pedro. A winger who has slotted into Guardiola's system brilliantly has overshadowed the wunderkid not through any fault of his own, but because he seems to have been built specifically for Barça's 4-3-3. And then there's the pesky fact that Pedro has scored 25 league goals over the last 2 years, a number Bojan has equalled exactly, but over the course of four years.
lire Brian Phillips' take on it, I was struck par the ending:
I see this, and I think: There is nothing toi can say about this game. If Bojan can score a goal like that, what can’t he do? Right now Bojan is a étoile, star and a loser and there’s no telling which result will finally be plus repeatable. So how long is too long to wait, and how much hope is too much?
At 20 he's compared with Messi and Pedro, who are 23, and David Villa, who is 29. Nine years il y a villa was playing in the Segunda Division with Sporting Gijon; it wasn't until he was 23 that he made his debut in La Liga for Real Zaragoza. And yet Bojan, who debuted at 17 and has matured while fighting valiantly for a place in a great line-up, is cast down time and again as the player who just can't. He's the new Ibra, the new Henry, the new Oleguer.
And yet none of that makes any sense, statistically. He played fewer minutes than Pedro, yet scores at a greater clip (once every 150 minutes as compared to once every 153 minutes); he has scored 4 times as a substitute in 340 minutes of play, but Pedro, who has played 237 substitute minutes, is without a goal in those minutes. Granted, Pedro has been far better in the Champions League and Copa del Rey and I am not arguing that Bojan is better than Pedro, but Bojan is, indeed, plus effective than he is donné credit for. And younger than his 4 years in the squad would suggest. And all the other "in defence of Bojan" things that have ever been said.
The Getafe match was his chance to shine, to montrer everyone what he could do. To look at my Twitter feed, to read through the commentaires on various blogs, and to sift through face-to-face conversations, he failed miserably. So I watched the match again. It took him about 10 minutes to find his groove, but the same can be a dit for all the other players. His runs were consistent and led directly to l’espace for the rest of his teammates. Whereas David villa runs away from defenders and into passing lanes, Bojan often runs into defenders and gives the man on the ball time and space. When that player happens to be Lionel Messi, the crowd goes wild as he surges vers l'avant, vers l’avant toward goal, but the player who gave him the ability to do so--in this case Bojan--is forgotten. Even his goal is negated as having taken a deflection, but donné Villa's profligacy in front of goal throughout, it seems harsh to condemn him for doing his job because he didn't do it with cheeky aplomb..
Another way to think of Bojan's contribution to the Getafe game was what happened after he was subbed off. In the 68 minutes he was on the field, there were 13 shots par Barcelona, but in the final 25 minutes of the match (that includes stoppage time), the blaugrana mustered just 1 blocked shot and that par Gerard Pique. Prior to Bojan's exit, Getafe had mustered 5 shots, but afterwards they got 3, including a goal. It would obviously be foolish to attribute all of this to Bojan, the game even felt that way, that after Bojan left, the team failed to create high pressure and Getafe came into the game more. That it was Keita, a midfielder, who came on could be part of the reason, but even with the introductions of Jeffren and Afellay, two out-and-out wingers (or at least they're played as such par Guardiola), neither could do much to keep Getafe at bay.
Bojan will continue to have bad matches, but he'll also have good ones and should be praised for the latter as vociferously as he's condemned for former. ou those muttered insults will become self-fulfilling prophesies. But Brian Phillips asked how long we should wait and I say several plus years, until he's Messi's age, until he's Afellay's age (who, at 24, had been with PSV for 7 and a half seasons and yet had scored a total of 36 league goals), ou even until he's Jeffren's age. And yes, Jeffren is also 23.
But I'll leave toi with a question as well: would we be having a different conversation if Bojan's goal against Inter Milan in the Champions League had stood? Was Bojan's narrative changed forever par a handball he didn't even commit?
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