Piqué has a fight with a player of Barça

I pointed out . A regular footballer in the lineups of Ernesto Valverde has been indicated after the last matches: Paulinho .

He arrived at Barça wrapped in a tangle of controversy. His signing from the Chinese Super League made him think he was not a player for Valverde's team .

However, the Txingurri was precisely one of those who blessed his hiring. He likes to have a profile like Paulinho's in his game scheme.

In addition, the Brazilian crack entered with a very good foot. Leo Messi had also asked the sports management of Barça . And it is that the Paulinho of Brazil performs at a level far superior to that which was assumed in China .

It had a flower And he showed his skills to play space. Movement without the ball, unmarking and ease of face to the auction. All this helped him to gain a place in the Barça eleven .

It has eight goals . Virtually forward numbers. Only Messi and Luis Suárez  score more than him.

Disappeared in Stamford Bridge (and in Ipurúa)

But in his last games his other side is being exposed. The one that led him to be abroncado by Piqué in Stamford Bridge . Against Chelsea he  was missing.

Paulinho failed in certain moments of the duel. He was not fine at the defensive level, recovering balls as usual. And in attack did not flow either. He had a chance and resolved it badly. Very bad.

A frank header that with just a turn of the neck could have ended in goal, but did not calibrate distances well. Neither the direction of the goal.

Piqué and Umtiti suffered horrors to contain the arreones of Chelsea , commanded by Willian : two balls to the stick and a goal. That gap had to be watched by the Busquets , Rakitic or  Paulinho , but they did not arrive.

Paulinho celebrates a Barça goal with an effusive hug to Messi and Deulofeu |  EFE

Nor was anything fine against Eibar . His performance seems to depend a lot on whether he scores a goal or not. On the other hand, in the Bernabéu classic it did give a game exhibition to the space, generating more danger than anybody even though it was left unmarked.

The vital signs of Paulinho

The great virtue of Paulinho is that: take advantage of the spaces. Appear suddenly, instinctively, to pick up a rejection and send it to the bottom of the meshes. But lately he has lost his smell.

And without that smell, Pauli  has no possible lace in the Barça . Because he is not a combinative player, he is not capable of haggling any player. Get the ball and stop, to give it to one side.

He does not launch the attack with the ball, he does not conduct conductions normally. And once he has played heeled in the right wing, he has finished at line level protecting the ball, without knowing what to do.

Paulihno does not cheat. There is no plot or cardboard . He is a player without Barça DNA , but he adds muscle and goal. Those are your vital signs. When they do not appear, he becomes a footballer who subtracts more than the sum.