Xavi Hernandez has been heavily criticized over the past season for several of his decisions at Barcelona, with one of the most controversial being his stance on young Brazilian striker Vitor Roque.<\/p>\n
Roque joined Barcelona last January as a major bet from Deco, who saw him as one of Brazil’s brightest young talents, with great goalscoring potential.
\nHowever, the surprise was that Xavi gave him almost no playing time, a decision that was met with much skepticism and, at times, criticism from fans and media outlets.<\/p>\n
After Xavi’s departure and the appointment of Hansi Flick as Barcelona’s new coach, the decision was made to loan Vitor Roque to Real Betis in order to give him more playing time and help him gain experience under the guidance of coach Manuel Pellegrini.
\nThe idea was that the young striker would have better chances to showcase his abilities in a rival team, but with less pressure than at Barcelona, thus allowing him to take advantage of playing opportunities in La Liga.<\/p>\n
At Real Betis, however, Vitor Roque has not replicated the performances he showed in Brazil. His performances have been inconsistent, with inaccurate movements and missed easy chances.
\nIn addition, his decisions in the penalty area have been disappointing, which has caused concern for Manuel Pellegrini and his coaching staff. In the limited opportunities he has had, Roque has failed to establish himself as a main striker, leading Betis to grow increasingly frustrated with him.<\/p>\n
According to information from the Spanish newspaper “El Nacional”, Hansi Flick has confirmed that he does not see the need to bring Vitor Roque back to Barcelona at this time. This reinforces the impression that Xavi was right in his assessment of the young striker.
\nAlthough Barcelona had high hopes for Roque’s potential, both Xavi and Flick believe his current level does not meet the standards required by a team the size of Barcelona.<\/p>\n
Within the Camp Nou offices, the growing sentiment is that the investment in Roque was rushed, and given the lack of progress during his loan at Real Betis, it might be better to explore a permanent departure for the Brazilian.
\nAs a result, it seems Vitor Roque’s time at Barcelona is nearing its end, a decision that confirms Xavi Hern\u00e1ndez was not wrong in his assessment of the player after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Xavi Hernandez has been heavily criticized over the past season for several of his decisions at Barcelona, with one of the most controversial being his stance on young Brazilian striker Vitor Roque. Roque joined Barcelona last January as a major bet from Deco, who saw him as one of Brazil’s brightest young talents, with great […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-h-barcelona-english"],"yoast_head":"\n