Barcelona summary: Pedri, from Glassman to the King of Midfield

Sports Weekly All-Media Reporter Liang Hongye reported

If you ask who is the best midfielder in the world after this season, Pedri will definitely be the name mentioned the most. Even Iniesta said: "I hope Pedri can win the Golden Ball." Pedri, Yamal and Rafinia can be regarded as the three pillars of Flick Barcelona this season. Pedri not only continued to show Iniesta's skills in taking the ball in the midfield, but also Xavi's control of the rhythm of the game, and even Busquets's ability to counterattack against opponents. Rafinia told Brazilian media that Pedri may be his most underrated teammate and he can win the Golden Globe Award. Enzo, who is also one of the best midfielders in the world, also praised Pedri's performance this season as the best in the world. Before the start of this season, Pedri was still a player known as the Glass Man who was almost leaving the elite player class.

Pedri, from Glass Man to Iron Man, Pedri is a player who has been very successful since joining Barcelona. In the summer of 2020, he joined Barcelona from Las Palmas in the Spanish Second Division. Later, Pedri admitted that the then coach Koeman did not know who he was. Koeman stood there and watched him for a long time and told him that he had to go through training and game challenges before the Dutch could decide whether to let him stay. Koeman didn't understand why the club wanted to sign a player who was less than 18 years old from the low-level league to himself. But Pedri conquered Koeman without a few training sessions, but when the day he announced that he would stay in the first team, Pedri was still uneasy, "I walked into Koeman's office and didn't know what would happen. He might let me go home or let me stay. Fortunately, he let me stay."

Although Barcelona was still in an economic crisis at that time, Pedri developed very well and soon became Koeman's main player. He was recruited by Enrique to the Spanish team at the age of 18, and played as the starting midfielder of the Spanish team in the European Cup after the season. At that time, too many people had already called Pedri the new Iniesta of Barcelona. He got rid of the circle and the fried croquettes at the feet were very similar to Iniesta. Pedri's whole family is Barcelona fans, and his family also founded the local Barcelona fan association. Pedri has been influenced by Barcelona football since he was a child. Pedri said: "I have watched Iniesta and Xavi's games on TV since I was a child. I have watched so many videos of them, and it is impossible for me to stay at all. I have liked to imitate them and play football since I was a child, and I can always imitate like a little."

However, the smooth start also laid the root of Pedri's subsequent ups and downs, and in his first season Playing for Barcelona, ​​plus helping Enrique's Spanish team reach the European Cup semi-finals and helping Delafuente's Spanish Olympic team win the Olympic silver medal, the 18-year-old Pedri played 74 games throughout the season, making him the most played player in Europe that season, playing for more than 5,000 minutes, and being a top elite game. Many people think that playing so many games at such a young age will suffocate him, and his thin body cannot bear so many games.

From the 2021-22 season to the 2023-24 season, Pedri began to suffer frequent muscle injuries. In three seasons, Pedri suffered 8 injuries, and his recovery time reached 444 days (201 days off in the 21/22 season, 112 days off in the 22/23 season, and 131 days off in the 23/24 season), missing more than 100 games. With so many injuries, it is no surprise that Pedri is known as the Glass Man.

But the contrast given by Pedri this season is so great. As of the last round of the game, Pedri participated in 58 of Barcelona's 59 games this season. The only home league absence against Valencia was due to a gastrointestinal cold. Pedri has played for 4,565 minutes this season. How did Pedri go from Glass Man to Iron Man?

Since the second half of last season, Barcelona clubs have attached great importance to Pedri's injury issues. Pedri's injury has not only affected the development of his personal career, but also seriously affected Barcelona's performance. Barcelona has started hiring physical coach Taos, who had not yet joined the coaching staff since the second half of last season, to conduct home training for Pedri. Pedri's muscle fibers were also sent to the Baltimore laboratory in the United States for testing. The test result was: Pedri needed to increase muscle training, and Pedri's muscle type belongs to the type that requires regular training to maintain vitality. Although Pedri was injured by Cross in the quarter-finals of the European Cup last summer, Pedri's muscle training was not interrupted, and Taos arranged for his assistant to accompany Pedri to Tenerife's home for training. Pedri's home was not arranged like a professional gym, with only simple Russian dumbbells and cantilever force belts. It was in this case that Pedri conducted muscle training twice a day. Through muscle training, Pedri's weight has increased from 60 kg to 65 kg this season, but the increase in muscle training is also necessary to avoid increasing muscles and reduce the flexibility that Pedri needs as a technical midfielder. It was under such strict training that Pedri changed from a glass man to an iron man. Pedri said in the middle of this season: "I want to train hard, I want those who call me a glass man to shut up. I don't want to be injured. In addition to letting others shut up, I also want to enjoy my own football." Pedri even turned from a thin body like a minor to a body with distinct muscle lines this season and was on the cover of the Spanish fitness magazine "Male Health". However, in the most critical phase of the season that comes into March, Pedri confessed: "I'm no longer practicing dumbbells anymore. I'm mainly doing some stretching training now to keep my muscles energetic. I'm the kind of player who likes to keep playing nonstop, and if I don't play for a week, I'll feel even more tired if I don't play for a week. ”

Is Pedri's goodness difficult to interpret?

If last season, the best midfielder in La Liga and even Europe was Beringham, then this season was Pedri, and even in the season there was a debate about which Beringham and Pedri were the best midfielder in the world. At the end of the season, Barcelona defeated Real Madrid directly in the Cup of del Rey to win the championship. After defeating Real Madrid in the second leg of the Century War, no one has discussed who Beringham or Pedri is the best midfielder in the world. Before the end of the 2024-25 season, the best midfielder in the world was Pedri, and there were even calls for Pedri to be elected to the Golden Ball Award. Iniesta said: "I hope Pedri can win the Golden Ball Award, which is a recognition of himself and Spanish football. "Pedri also said after Rodri scored: "It is my dream to win the Golden Globe Award." Rodri's winning of the Golden Globes made it known that a player who controls the midfield and can determine the rhythm of the game can also win the Golden Globes. ”

People who watch Barcelona games every day cannot not know the importance of Pedri to this team. When the list of winners of the last home game of the Barcelona league was broadcast, Pedri was one of the players who were cheered the most by the Olympic Stadium. Pedri can often make clockwise or turn counterclockwise or turn clockwise to halfway into counterclockwise and turn counterclockwise to get rid of it. It is very similar to the performances of Xavi and Iniesta at Camp Nou that year, we can also see every When facing the pressing, Pedri was like Iniesta at the time when he was in a negative angle, and he easily passed the opponent after avoiding the opponent's pressing. You can also see Pedri's last pass in front of the penalty area. Whether it is a straight ball on the ground or a pass that just crosses the back line, you can also see Pedri pick the ball from his opponent and get rid of it. Pedri said that he has been imitating Iniesta and Xavi, and it seems that he has really done it.

However, although Pedri's performance is something everyone sees Yes, but it is difficult to show in the data. Pedri scored 6 goals and completed 8 assists this season. This is a good data for a midfielder who does not often insert into the penalty area, but it seems not enough. Such data cannot be compared with Bellingham's scored 23 goals and completed 13 assists last season, and even with Bellingham's data showing a significant decline in performance this season. Of course, Bellingham is a "B2B" midfielder, while Pedri is an organized midfielder , This is not comparable, but it is difficult for Pedri to use such data to convince people who do not pay attention to Barcelona's game. Some people say that Pedri is a player who is difficult to use data to illustrate, which seems to make sense.

However, if we want to not only look at the data of goals and assists, but dig deep into the data, we can find that the data can actually show Pedri's strength. Taking this season's La Liga data as an example, as of the penultimate round, Pedri has a total of 2,626 passes are the first in La Liga, 2,289 successful passes are second in La Liga, second only to teammate Ku Brazil. Pedri has an expected number of assists of 8.9, ranking fourth in La Liga, and 7.4 in the previous pass, ranking eighth in La Liga, with 326 passes in the offensive half-time, making it the first in La Liga, 79 passes into the penalty area, making it the second in La Liga, 355 offensive propulsive passes are the first in La Liga, and participating in creating shooting opportunities (two actions before the goal) is the third in La Liga. , creating a goal opportunity (two offensive moves before the goal) was 5th in La Liga. Pedri touched 2936 in the whole season, the first in La Liga, 969 in the offensive half-time touched 969 in La Liga, 1909 in the number of ball controls with his feet, the first in La Liga, 9769 meters of the dribbling distance was the first in La Liga, 5259 meters of the dribbling forward, 102 in the offensive half-time, and 2270 in the successful catch, 1. In terms of defensive data such as cutting off the opponent's pass, Pedri ranked second in La Liga with 42 times. The data above

are fully in line with everyone's impression of Pedri. This is a player who dribbles the most, controls the ball, catches the most, and can control the midfield in the entire La Liga. He is also a commander-level player in the central army who launched an attack before the final attack. At the same time, because Pedri's ball quotient is extremely high, he can often see through the opponent's passing path when Barcelona presses at a high position and block the opponent's pass counterattack. . In the first leg of the away game against Benfica in the Champions League 1/8 finals, KuBazi was sent off in the 22nd minute. Barcelona, ​​who was 10-on-11, had more than 70 minutes away from home, and finally got the lead with Rafinia's only goal. Flick was surprised by Pedri's performance in that game, "Pedri was incredible. When he had the ball under his feet, he couldn't believe it. He controlled the ball and helped us control the situation and helped us get rid of the pressure from our opponents. I'm very happy that he played the whole game. ”

We can easily find out from Rafina's 34 goals and 25 assists and Yamal's 18 goals and 25 assists, but without Pedri, Barcelona would not have been able to win the domestic double championship this season. Lewandowski, Rafinia and Yamal would not have been able to get so many offensive shells. Barcelona's fans no longer have to sigh that without Xavi and Iniesta, Barcelona can never play the football they used to be. Now with Pedri, a 22-year-old midfielder who has been called a master, the child who has been imitating Iniesta and Xavi in ​​front of TV since he was a child.