Douglas Pereira Poster Boy of Barcelona's Bizarre Brazilian Transfer Policy

Have Barcelona been swindled into signing Douglas Pereira? In due time, if the answer is yes, he would be emblematic of Barca's erratic transfer policy of signing Brazilians directly from the Brasileiro.

Nation	Position	Age	Height	Weight
Brazil	RB	24	5'7"	148 lbs

Wearing No. 16 on his La Liga debut in Barca's 0-0 draw against Malaga, Douglas lacked confidence, had negative body language and played as if he was a nervous 16-year-old. 

Every time the camera zoomed in for a close-up of his face, the impostor syndrome was at work.

You envision Douglas asking himself throughout the game: "Am I good enough?"

When Malaga central attacking midfielder Duda had his back to goal, Douglas rushed in, was off-balanced in his weak attempt to win the ball and conceded a needless free-kick. 

It was an example of low football IQ from Douglas. 

Duda is a feisty 34-year-old Portuguese veteran with no breakaway speed, and his game is dependent on crosses and set pieces. 

He was looking for the free-kick, and Douglas obliged. 

In another play, as the ball was flung into Barca's box, Douglas did not have his eyes on the ball, and instead of winning the contested header, he palmed Malaga centre-forward Nordin Amrabat in the face.

Talk about Bill Simmons-esque bravado. Douglas' recklessness was his way of telling referee Alejandro Hernandez Hernandez: "Please, call me and say I'm in trouble, I dare you."

Fortunately for Douglas, the ESPN of Spanish referees, Clos Gomez, was officiating Real Madrid's 5-1 win over Elche. 

That was from the manual of how NOT to defend and so was bringing down Malaga substitute Luis Alberto from behind.

To compound Douglas' disorderly defensive positioning, he offered nothing in attack. 

For an "attacking" right-back, he played as if he was a centre-back slotting in as a make-shift right-back.

Credit: FourFourTwo.com.

Douglas passed the ball backward 31 times, per FourFourTwo.

This tells you he was so fearful of making a mistake that he abandoned his forward-thinking style of play, which had sealed his transfer to Barca.

The red flag for Barca supporters is Douglas was hit-and-miss in Brazil, too, according to Bleacher Report featured columnist Christopher Atkins, who told me in an email interview:

"

[Douglas] wasn't even particularly highly rated by Sao Paulo supporters. There was widespread disbelief when the move [to Barca] was first rumoured.

At various points of his three years with the club he lost his place to Paulo Miranda (a converted centre-back) and later Luis Ricardo.

The feeling with Douglas, which has been the case since his impressive breakthrough at Goias, is that he is significantly better in attack than defence.

His main weakness, as you might expect, is positional and it was his inability to solve this problem that saw him fail to excel in the Brasileiro.

"

Douglas sheds further light on Barca's misfiring transfer policy of signing Brazilians straight out of the Brasileiro.

The key phrase being, "straight out of the Brasileiro." Therefore, Dani Alves (Sevilla; 2008), Ronaldinho (Paris Saint-Germain; 2003), Rivaldo (Deportivo La Coruna; 1997), Ronaldo Luis (PSV Eindhoven; 1996) and Romario (PSV Eindhoven; 1993) are not applicable.

Neymar (Santos; 2013): N/A | The oxymoron statement of "transparent, but discreet dealings," per Barca's official website, encapsulates his smokes and mirror transfer.

Clearly it was not transparent because it cost Sandro Rosell his presidency, per CNN.

According to the club, Neymar cost €57.1/£44.6 million. Promising, but still early days to judge.

Keirrison (Palmeiras; 2009): FAIL | Barca's then-director of football Txiki Begiristain "felt that an investment of €14/£11 million for this player [Keirrison] could lead to a value of €80/£62.6 million," per Paul Macdonald at Goal.com.. 

Keirrison never started a La Liga game for Barca.

Henrique (Palmeiras; 2008): FAIL | Signed a five-year €10/£7.8 million-valued contract only to be loaned out season in, season out. 

Henrique's contract was terminated a year before its expiry date, per Barca's official website.

Fabio Rochemback (Internacional; 2001) and Geovanni (Cruzeiro; 2001): FAIL and FAIL | Rochemback was a bit-part player, and Geovanni scored one La Liga goal. 

Former Barca vice-president Ferran Soriano provided a quirky anecdote behind the two big-money Brazilian acquisitions, per his book Goal: The Ball Doesn't Go In By Chance: Management Ideas from the World of Football: 

"

The club [Barca] signed two very young Brazilian players: Geovanni Deiberson and Fabio Rochemback, both virtually unknown and with no experience of European football.

I asked the then-director why he had done it and why he had paid so much for them (€18/£14.1 million and €12/£9.4 million respectively).

He answered: "I was told that Rochemback was like [Johan] Neeskens and Geovanni was the new Garrincha. I thought that after having made so many mistakes and had so much bad luck, something would have to go well for us, it would only be fair if these signings turned out to be a good decision." 

"

Is there a silver lining to Douglas? Yes.

To get a fair perspective of a footballer's performance, you need to combine the eye-test (subjective) and statistics (objective).

• World-class footballers jump off the screen and have outstanding statistics.
• Top-flight standard footballers are middle of the road and their statistics are satisfactory.
• Inconsistent footballers either pass the eye-test yet fail the statistical test, or vice versa.
• Footballers who are not top-flight quality look out of depth and have poor statistics.

Douglas' display against Malaga falls under the inconsistent category.

He was unconvincing on the field, but his statistics against Malaga were solid: completed 89 percent of his passes, accumulated three tackles, intercepted three passes and made a clearance.

Credit: FIFA.com.

At the 2009 FIFA U20 World Cup, the technical study group highlighted Douglas as an "outstanding player."

The ability is there.

But until Douglas proves his doubters wrong, the cogent point Lluis Mascaro at Sport made will apply: "Hardly anyone understands the signing of Douglas."

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Allan Jiang is the Transfers Correspondent for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand via email interview. Statistics via WhoScored.

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