Munir El Haddadi Is the Barcelona Man with Most on Line After Internationals

Barcelona's Munir El Haddadi quite clearly hasn't lived up to his early promise.

There's little point skirting around the issue because the facts speak for themselves.

As a striker, whether you're being played out wide or otherwise, you need to be scoring goals—preferably, quite regularly. At a club like Barcelona, you need to be putting the ball in the onion bag most weeks.

Even taking into account Munir's age and acknowledging that there is much for him still to learn, the 20-year-old was elevated to the first-team squad for a reason.

Accelerated development through the Juvenil A (U19) and Barca B teams saw him make debut against Elche at the beginning of the 2014/15 season.

A debut goal and a pleasing all-round performance did nothing to dispel the notion that the Catalans had uncovered another gem from La Masia.

Indeed, in the space of six whirlwind weeks Munir had turned out for Barca's U19s, B team and seniors as well as receiving his first Spanish U21 cap and making an appearance for the first team. 

Like so many before him, the weight of expectation suddenly thrust upon his shoulders became a burden. His play quickly became less natural and more contrived.

The stark reality of life at the very top of the game had hit Munir hard. He huffed and puffed but was never able to reach anywhere near the heights of those first weeks in the spotlight.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

It's a status quo that remains today, some 15 months since he burst onto the scene, and the situation has been brought into sharper focus during this campaign. 

A succession of injuries in the squad has been to Munir's evident benefit in that he has been able to get a proper run in the side.

Often we hear of players suggesting that a lack of games contributes to a lack of confidence, which means a lack of goals.

Munir can't hide behind that particular comfort blanket any longer. Luis Enrique has given him ample opportunity since the start of the 2015/16 season to prove his worth.

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And the player has failed, dismally. Time and again.

Chances that he would bury for the reserves and youth sides are being snatched at and, therefore, missed. The longer it goes on, the worse Munir's finishing seems to become.

With another international break coming to an end and Lionel Messi almost back to full fitness, unless there are any further injuries to the front three between now and the opening of the January transfer window, you'd have to say that's Munir's lot.

There can be no further justification to having him as a second choice, let alone first. He has had plenty of chances to shine and, unfortunately, hasn't taken them.

It is a huge shame for both player and club that Munir will likely join the many other ex-academy stars now plying their trade elsewhere.

He may well go on to enjoy a stellar career if he gets to play at a club where, perhaps, the focus on him isn't quite so intense. Cristian Tello, for example, appears to be enjoying life much more at Porto than he ever did at Barcelona. Ditto Jonathan Dos Santos at Villarreal.

When he looks back at this part of his career, Munir will have undoubtedly learned lessons and the experience may well, in hindsight, end up serving him well elsewhere—an "elsewhere" that is likely to come as soon as January.

If rumours of a move for Alexandre Pato and Dirk Kuyt, per Lluis Miguelsanz of Sport, are true, then there is really nowhere left for Munir to go and his time at Barcelona will be at an end.