Barcelona: Luis Suárez shows that form may be temporary, but class is permanent
Luis Suárez is justifying his ‘El Pistolero’ tag with reinvigorated form
Luis Suárez has been the subject of immense criticism for the past couple of seasons. The 31-year old Urguayan centre-forward has undoubtedly deteriorated due to age, but he is silencing his critics with his performances for Barcelona this season.
After Ernesto Valverde took over from Luis Enrique last season, he employed a 4-4-2 with Luis Suárez and Lionel Messi partnering up in attack. Suárez was consistently poor throughout the season, but ended up scoring 31 goals and providing 18 assists.
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This season, he started well after a decent World Cup with Uruguay. But slowly, his form took a dip. He went on a goalless run for six consecutive matches, before returning to the scoresheet against Sevilla, taking charge after Leo Messi left the pitch with a fractured arm.
But since then, he has not looked back. Since netting Barça’s third goal against Los Nervionenses, Suárez has scored 5 goals and provided 1 assist in 3 matches, picking up two man-of-the-match awards. His best performance of the season came against Real Madrid in El Clásico.
Now, after scoring that phenomenal hat-trick in the 5-1 thrashing of Real Madrid, Suárez has sustained his form by scoring a match-winning brace against Rayo Vallecano. He opened the scoring, and closed it by netting the winner in the 90th minute.
This is the Luis Suárez Barcelona paid €82 million for, this is the player who made a name for himself in the Premier League by scoring on a regular basis for Liverpool. ‘El Pistolero’ is back.