The situation of Ivan Rakitic in FC Barcelona is one of the big surprises of this start of the season. The Croatian, who had been key to Enresto Valverde in the first two campaigns of the coach at Camp Nou, has become a substitute for the 'Txingurri'. He played 45 minutes against Athletic, he played nothing against Betis and Osasuna, he played about 20 minutes against Valencia and half an hour against Borussia Dortmund.
They are very few minutes for a player who came from playing 87.73% of the games in the first two years of Valverde on the bench. In total, the Balkan had played 93 of 109 official meetings with Extremadura as a coach. Going from that untouchable status to being a substitute is something very strange that has no explanation.
Valverde has gone from speaking wonders of the Croatian in May to saying in preseason that he would have to fight for a position and that he would not know if this course would be important. "He is an important player, he has been in these two years. I do not know if he will be this season but he always struggles to be. Now new players are coming and he has to fight for his place. Obviously, time is passing and there are also new players, but it is also good to have internal competition. But that has been an important player and that it can be, of course, "were his words.
It is an inexplicable change of speech, since there has been no substantial change from May to July, which was when he said those words. The club was willing to part with him this summer and even wanted to put him in the operation Neymar, but that the 'Txingurri' has changed so much his speech is something that is not yet understood. Perhaps, something has happened between them, or maybe the former Athletic only wants to renew the midfield after the failure of Anfield and the defeat in the Cup final.
The future of Rakitic is an unknown
The future of the midfielder is now an unknown, since nobody knows whether or not it will continue in winter. If he does not start adding more minutes, he may ask himself to leave for Juventus, who was interested in him until the last day of the market. The former Sevilla player was also willing to leave, but Barça failed to reach an agreement with the Italians and the transfer fell apart. In January there could be news regarding this issue.
But in the meantime, Rakitic hopes to recover something of importance in the team. Playing in the last two games, even in the second part, is a remarkable and positive change after not playing a minute against Betis and Osasuna. It is said that in Granada this campaign could start for the first time. If this is confirmed, the situation of the Croatian could take a turn, since Valverde would confirm again that he has him again. We will have to see how everything evolves and if it ends up recovering its untouchable status or not.