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Nou Home Not Homely Enough: Ex- Liverpool Star’s Life In Spain So Far

Barcelona are just one point behind all conquering Real Madrid and seem to be getting their groove on by winning yet another game in the weekend, Lionel Messi scored yet again as he helped Barcelona to a 3-2 win over Villareal. Neymar seems to be clicking in his second season in a Barcelona shirt but one player seems to be missing out on all the fun of being a Barcelona player and that is Luis Suarez.

Suarez in a Barcelona Shirt
Suarez

Ever since the Uruguayan returned after his lengthy ban he has been trying real hard to fit into the team but for some reason it just does not seem to work. It is not for the want of trying though and he does get enough of the ball but he is not the star of the show as he was at Liverpool and that seems to be hurting his game more than people expected.

Nou Home not homely enough

Suarez did talk big about wanting to move to Barcelona and how great the city was, especially to win over the Barcelona faithful, while Suarez is a great player, it just seems that something is amiss for him during these 6 months at Barcelona.

Suarez was the focal point of the Liverpool attack last season when he was almost unplayable at times, he was playing with an edge and he was looking to do things with the ball, at Barcelona, it seems the ball is to be played more quicker and more chances need to be created for other players and that is something that could be affecting Suarez.

If we look at his stats from Squawka comparing his per game average from his last season at Liverpool and his current season at Barcelona, we can see a huge difference in his stats, if not his playing style.

Suarez was a beast at Liverpool and won almost 0.6 aerial duels per game while at Barcelona he struggles at just 0.17, this might be forgiven since he plays more in the wings than down the middle as he used to for Liverpool. His bite for the game also seems to have taken a hit as he now averages just 0.17 interceptions for Barcelona while he averaged 0.33 interceptions per game during his time for Liverpool, that is twice as many interceptions over a league season.

His forward passing has also taking a huge beating, he used to average 21 completed forward passes per game at Liverpool while at Barcelona it is just a meagre 13 per game. Surprisingly the chances created stat is the one stat which has stayed almost the same for his role in both the clubs with Suarez averaging 2.4 at Barcelona compared to 2.6 at Liverpool.

Of course the greatest stat teller is the number of goals he scored, at Liverpool he was averaging almost a goal a game with 0.94 goals per game while at Barcelona it is just 0.17. The goals have dried up, the bite and desire seems to be missing, if Suarez does not start performing better he could be just another high profile player who could leave the Nou Camp after just one season, remember Zlatan’s time at Barcelona? Liverpool fans would hope that they did put in a buy-back clause when they sold him to Barcelona.