Of all the mistakes made by Barcelona in the last few years, perhaps the biggest of them has been letting Martín Montoya go, even though he still hasn't left. We give you a breakdown of how stupid that is.
The last two years of FC Barcelona football has been full of stupid decisions, on and off the field. The consequences are clear, as the club is now entering the eighteenth month of an abnormal drought of big titles. The last one was the La Liga championship win in the 2012/13 season, while losing 7-0 to the eventual UEFA Champions League winners, Bayern Munich, in the semifinal stage, ending a glorious period of international dominance in humiliating fashion.
Since then, Barça already have changed managers twice, and none of the two were/are trustful enough. Tata Martino and Luis Enrique have never won a huge title -- Martino was hired after finishing third in the Copa Libertadores, South America's version of the UCL, managing Lionel Messi's first club, Argentina's Newell's Old Boys, while new coach Luis Enrique was just average both in Serie A (with AS Roma) and Celta Vigo --, and their performances as coaches don't come even close to what legendary bosses like Pep Guardiola and Johan Cruyff did. Sure, it's a bit unfair to compare Tata and Lucho to two of the greatest minds in the history of football, but they also were not even close to the job done by Frank Rijkaard, who wasn't a great coach, but still won a lot by just letting the team play and making simple, accurate tactical decisions.
Tata is part of the past, but he has also played a part in Barça's current situation. His insistence with the declining Dani Alves has shaped the depressing way in which Barcelona plays football. When the tiki-taka doesn't work as planned, just give the ball to Dani and watch him make 30 crosses to an imaginary Peter Crouch in the box and waste a lot of possessions that could have led to goals if they were performed in a different, better way.
We still don't know if Luis Enrique is a fan of Dani Alves or if he's just blind, but he's still insisting on starting the Brazilian. Alves will always be a Barça legend, and what he did for the team will never be forgotten. However, his untouchable starter status is simply unacceptable now, mainly because of his terrible performances, especially this season. When teams study Barcelona, they know one thing: if they attack on the left side, they'll very likely score at least once. Why? Because Alves is there, trying to defend them. He was never a good defender, but Pep Guardiola's style of play covered up his mistakes, because Barça had the ball so much that Alves spent most of the time on offense, which is clearly his greatest asset.
But this season, his offensive prowess is also in decline, which makes his presence on the pitch a questionable decision to say the least. One thing that can explain why he's untouchable is him playing the last year of his contract with the Blaugrana. Whether Barcelona wants him to leave feeling he was important until his last match, or his salary is just too big that he has to play just to justify his gigantic wages, he simply can't start anymore.
And that brings us to Martín Montoya. The 23-year-old La Masía product is, without a doubt, one of the finest products in his position in the history of Barça's youth system, which is not exactly known for producing a lot of great full-backs. But Montoya is one of those. He was promoted to the senior squad in 2011, and he has performed well ever since. He never had a prominent role in the big leagues, mainly because he never received a lot of opportunities. Even when Alves started to decline, Montoya wasn't deemed good enough to play as a starter.
As any player of his talent and age, Martín is frustrated. And finally, after three years of not getting the chances he deserves, he reportedly wants to leave. Sources told Barça Blaugranes that he indeed wants out of Barça, and given the depth on the position, he could have his wish granted in two months, when the winter transfer window opens.
Premier League's Liverpool are the biggest candidates to land Montoya, according to many reports out of Spain and England. BB has also learned that two clubs from Serie A, Inter Milan and Napoli, have officially notified Barcelona of their interest in the services of Martín, and they will join Liverpool in the race for the right-back soon.
Which brings us to the question: how much have Barcelona underestimated and underappreciated Montoya? And how much are they possibly losing if they indeed let Martin go?
I went back and took a look at most the matches played by Montoya in the senior team, both as a starter and as a substitute. The tape and the numbers are clear: Martín is the clear best option to replace Dani Alves as the future of Barcelona's full-back dominance.
First, eye-test: as we all know, Montoya is a defensive-minded full-back, which is not similar at all to Dani Alves' style. However, he's much more eficient in every single thing he tries. His passing ability copes well with Barça's passing system, and his offensive skills are good enough to offer a better option than Dani is right now. Unlike the Brazilian, the Spaniard is not unidimensional. Martín is not exactly unpredictable, but he doesn't get close to the box with crossing in his mind. He's able to find a better positioned player in the box without attempting a risky pass, and he's aware of the situation around him, always keeping his head up and looking for the best available play. In terms of talent, he's obviously less gifted than Dani, but he overcomes the lack of individual brilliance with effort, commitment and team-first mentality. He'll always make the right play, even though that doesn't look pretty.
Now, stats. Even though metrics for football aren't as appreciated as they are in other sports, like baseball and basketball, the numbers do play an important part when it comes to evaluating talent also in soccer -- that's right, I said soccer. And the numbers concur with the eye-test: Montoya is better than Alves, thus far more important for the team, right now.
The problem with the metrics to evaluate Montoya lies with the coaches' insistence with Alves, so we have a really small sample size to compare the two. In an attempt to have the most fair sample to work with, I tried to combine stats with eye-test, meaning I looked at the season in which Montoya played the most games, as well as the campaign in which Dani had the best performances at the time Martin was part of the team. That leads us to the 2012-13 season, the last one won by Barça. To clarify things, we're only looking at La Liga numbers.
On that season, Montoya (who played 15 games) was hilariously better than Alves (who played 30 games) in almost every major metric available. Obviously, in total numbers, Dani did more than Monty, but that would be unfair to Martín. So I took a look at the numbers in a 90-minute basis, which gives us a more accurate look if we're comparing players with a huge difference of minutes played. That way, the numbers of each player have a similar impact in the overall team stats, no matter what the sample is.
Let's start with offense, the area in which Alves is supposedly better. The only major available stat is shot accuracy, which is a valuable option to use when the opponent is "parking the bus" -- which happens a lot to Barça. That metric is also viewed as a strong part of Dani's game, but even in 2012/13, his last good season as a Blaugrana, Alves found the target in less than 30% of his shots. Montoya? He MISSED only a little over 30% of his attempts on goal, which gives the Spaniard a huge edge over the Brazilian.
Now, we'll talk about a general stat, which is fundamental to the Blaugrana system: passing. That is an important asset for a full-back, because it increases the width of the attack. That way, the offense forces the defense to also open up more to the sides, which is hugely important to allow the midfielders and especially the wide forwards to infiltrate, a key part of Barça's scheme. So who's the most accurate passer of the two right-backs? Montoya. He succesfully completed more than ninety percent of his attempted passes. Alves wasn't too far behind in that stat, but Martín still was more eficient in a category that has a big impact in pretty much any football team, but even more in the Blaugrana system.
Perhaps the most interesting stat that I found while researching this story was the take-on category. Why? Because of the talent narrative. As I said not a lot of words ago in this same article, Dani is a more talented player. He can find ways to get past a defender when he takes the opposition on. Montoya, the less gifted of the two, should have more trouble trying to succesfully beat an opponent in a one-on-one situation. But then, the numbers told me I was way wrong. Montoya won 1.17 take-ons per 90 minutes, DOUBLING Alves' average. In fact, all of the major stats that evaluate a player's ability to win one-on-one duels favor Martín in a gigantic way. Because of the Barça system, all backs find themselves in individual duels all the time, especially on defense. Both the numbers and the eye-test show, clearly, that Montoya compensates his lack of raw talent with effort and awareness, and that he's also better than Alves in that aspect.
Finally, defense. We all know who wins this one. You're right, Montoya. The only major defensive metric that favors Alves is blocks, which is more related to luck and desperation in trying to avoid a shot than actual positioning and defensive awareness. The ones that do relate to positioning and awareness also favor Martín, like interceptions and clearances, for instance. Those two metrics involve anticipation and perception of how dangerous the situation looks, and acting to solve the problem. And once again, the Spaniard has the edge.
So, clearly, Montoya is already an answer to the issues at his position. Let me remind you that Montoya was two years younger in the 2012/13 season, and he was already more efficient than Alves then. He's 23 now, and his experience is a factor. If given opportunities, Montoya should be able to show that he's still as good as he was then, if not better.
But maybe it's too late. If the reports are accurate, he's leaving. Which will be a shame and will complete two years of managerial stupidity by a team who, just a while ago, was known for making the best decisions, on and off the pitch. I think I'll build a time machine. Who's joining?
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