Analysing Ivan Rakitic's Early-Season Form for Barcelona
Ivan Rakitic will not be happy with his season so far, for two main reasons.
Firstly, he is currently injured. The Barcelona midfielder pulled up early on in the 3-0 win over BATE Borisov on Wednesday night in the Champions League.
He was taken off after 20 minutes and it was discovered that he had injured his calf, something which puts his participation in the Clasico on November 21, at risk, according to Sport.
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That is bad news and a source of frustration for the player, his coach Luis Enrique and Barcelona supporters.
However, the other reason Rakitic won't be happy with how the season has gone thus far, is because he is playing within himself.
The Croatian was a key part of Barcelona's treble success last year, coming out of his shell as the season progressed to be a vital cog in the machine.
His season culminated with the Champions League final in Berlin against Juventus, and Rakitic broke the deadlock, scoring after just four minutes to help the club win an historic treble.
Of course, anything would be a comedown after that, but even so, there is a lot more to come from Rakitic than what he has offered this term.
In pre-season he was buzzing and the indications were that he was going to go from strength to strength, continuing to grow and impress in the team.
But so far he has seemed subdued. That could be because he is tired, with the star being required to play a lot of minutes thanks to the injury of Rafinha and Xavi leaving to play in Qatar.
It also seems to be an issue of form, with Rakitic really only shining in one game out of the 17 he has played, with a couple more good performances, a host of moderate ones and some poor showings too.
The game in which Rakitic excelled was away at BATE Borisov in the Champions League. He started off on the bench, but an injury to Sergi Roberto required him to enter the fray in the first half.
Rakitic played 72 minutes and scored both of Barcelona's goals in a 2-0 win in freezing Belarus.
Apart from that game, he was also good in Barcelona's recent victory in Getafe, the Bayer Leverkusen Champions League clash, and the home rout of Levante. Beyond these matches, he hasn't been at his best level.
That might not be too surprising, because it took him half a season to get into his stride last year, but that was put down to teething difficulties with a new team.
Rakitic's average to poor form this season has been largely unexplained, and this injury comes at a bad time for him because he just played well for two matches back-to-back.
It's not a question of effort, as the player is still putting in performances that see him leave the field with his shirt drenched in sweat from running his legs off.
But he hasn't created a single goal directly for a team-mate, and that night in Belarus is the only time he's breached the opposition goalkeeper's net.
Things just don't seem to be coming off for him at the moment, although there is plenty of time to change that in the months ahead.
Regardless of his form, Barcelona will be hoping he is back in time to compete in the Clasico at the Santiago Bernabeu.
