Barcelona 5-0 Las Palmas—Player Ratings
By Sean Whooley
It was all smiles at the Camp Nou as Barcelona tore the visiting Las Palmas to shreds. There were mercurial performances from the usual suspects, but there were some surprises as well. Here is how the players fared.
Goalkeeper
Ter Stegen’s grade could just as easily have been an N/A. He had so little to do, I could make a joke about him reading a book in goal or something of that nature. The German could do no wrong.. GK. Barcelona. MARC ANDRE TER STEGEN. 6
Defenders
Barcelona. ALEIX VIDAL. 7.5. Vidal did his part for much of the game. He wasn’t required to do much at the back, and offered a nice outlet on the right side going forward. It was a better performance than past ones for the man who many don’t think can make the grade at Barcelona, and it got even better when he finished off a brilliant movement for a goal. The natural right back could see more time if he keeps performing like that.. RB
CB. Barcelona. JAVIER MASCHERANO. 6.5. Much like Ter Stegen, he hardly had anything to do, but did his job well at the back. He was probably happy to get a chance to move into the midfield when Sergio Busquets was taken off, and he did just fine there for the last 15 minutes.
6. I’m not entirely sure if I heard his name mentioned once, which, for a defender, can be a good thing sometimes. Like his partner Mascherano, Umtiti wasn’t too busy, and will be satisfied with his performance.. CB. Barcelona. SAMUEL UMTITI
LB. Barcelona. JORDI ALBA. 7. Alba is so brilliant going forward, so on a day where defending is at a minimum, he relishes his opportunities in attack. He did well to link up with Arda Turan on the left, although most of Barcelona’s attacks sprung from the right. Unfairly called offside clear in on goal, but he blazed it over the bar anyway.
Midfielders
Barcelona. SERGIO BUSQUETS. 8.5. Despite Ray Hudson’s begging, I didn’t give the No. 5 Man of the Match. However, the commentator’s wishes were relatively fair—Busquets put in a great shift against Las Palmas. His usual passing and vision were stellar, but there appeared to be more bite to his game. He covered a lot of ground, and deserves plenty of praise for his performance.. CDM
This was by far the best performance the Portugal international has had for Barcelona, and it represented what fans saw in the Euros, and what they expected from him when he joined. He linked the midfield to the attack quite well, and set up the opener with a smart pass into the area. He faded a bit as the game went on, but can use this as a springboard moving forward.. CM. Barcelona. ANDRE GOMES. 8
6.5. Playing in a more reserved, central role, Rafinha was not able to provide as much of a spark as he has at times going forward this season. However, he did quite well, interchanging with Gomes to terrorize the Las Palmas midfield. Had one opportunity where perhaps indecision saw him flash a shot wide—he had a wide open Suarez in front of the goal. But still, a solid day.. CM. Barcelona. RAFINHA
Forwards
RW. Barcelona. LIONEL MESSI (MOTM). 9. I said at the top that the normal stars were mercurial—Messi included. The maestro started a bit slow, but as the game wore on he was all over the Las Palmas defense, playing brilliant passes and opening up space nobody thought existed. As Ray Hudson would say, he was “magesterial.”
8. Suarez was the beneficiary of some brilliant build-up play from the men behind him, but take nothing away. The Uruguayan was on top of his game, and scored two good goals to continue his good run of form. Again, the Barcelona stars were at their best.. ST. Barcelona. LUIS SUAREZ
As mentioned with Alba, Arda missed out a bit because most of Barcelona’s attacks began on the opposite end of the pitch. However, when called upon. Turan was incisive and intelligent, not to mention opportunistic, pouncing on the ball to get his name on the scoresheet. It wasn’t his best performance, but like many of his teammates, he had a good day too.. LW. Barcelona. ARDA TURAN. 7
Substitutes
ST. Barcelona. PACO ALCACER. 6.5. Paco had a couple of moments in front of goal where you’d expect a true center forward to score, but again, perhaps lacking confidence has something to do with the lack of goals. However, a lovely pass into the path of Vidal meant Alcacer was involved in his first league goal since April. Though he didn’t score it, he can’t be too mad.
6. The oddly-out of favor midfielder continued his run on the substitutes bench, and came on late in the match with little to do other than clean up any messes. He did that fine, but should be worried about the way Andre Gomes played—it could push Rakitic down the pecking order.. CM. Barcelona. IVAN RAKITIC
N/A. I almost want to give him a 10 just for not screwing up! Jokes aside, he came on with 15 minutes to go and hardly had a thing to do.. CB. Barcelona. JEREMY MATHIEU
Manager
9. Enrique took a gamble, with his team sputtering at times and needing to keep the pace with Real Madrid. Resting Neymar, Iniesta and Pique was a dangerous move, but it paid huge dividends, as the team won and his stars will return fresher than ever.. Manager. Barcelona. LUIS ENRIQUE