{"id":1273087,"date":"2022-08-13T22:39:25","date_gmt":"2022-08-13T21:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1273087"},"modified":"2022-08-13T22:39:25","modified_gmt":"2022-08-13T21:39:25","slug":"barcelona-0-0-rayo-vallecano-de-jong-lewandowski-ciss-laporta-xavi","status":"publish","type":"features","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/barcelona-0-0-rayo-vallecano-de-jong-lewandowski-ciss-laporta-xavi\/","title":{"rendered":"“Frenkie will be fine” – Five things learned as Rayo Vallecano hold 10-man Barcelona to a 0-0 draw"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an amusing night of football, Rayo Vallecano held 10-man Barcelona to a 0-0 draw at the Camp Nou.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was Andoni Iraola’s third straight clean sheet against the Catalan side as Rayo boss, having won both of last season’s games 1-0.<\/p>\n

What did we learn?<\/p>\n\n

1. Frenkie will be fine<\/h2>\n

For all the talk about Frenkie de Jong wanting to leave Barcelona, that has never felt like reality when he has actually stepped foot on the pitch or strolled around training. His interactions with the coaching staff and his team-mates have felt positive and only reinforced the line from the Catalan press that he wants to stay at the club, his dream club, no matter what.<\/p>\n

One of the big issues around this, besides the obvious financial issues surrounding De Jong’s deferred wages, was the fact that Frenkie had often not really played very well under Xavi. There had been moments of genius, for sure, but too often the Dutch midfielder had been lost.<\/p>\n

Not so tonight. When Frenkie de Jong stepped off the bench against Rayo Vallecano, he hit the Camp Nou pitch like a man possessed. Frenkie was picking the ball up and driving forward with relentless skill and agility. No one on the pitch completed more than his 2 take-ons and he won all 5 of the duels he engaged in. Moreover he also completed 86% of his 28 passes, creating 2 chances on the way.<\/p>\n

Frenkie will be absolutely fine.<\/p>\n\n

2. The levers lead to packed stands<\/h2>\n

With all the team’s struggles and the squad’s miserable make-up for half the season, 2021\/22 was a down year for Barcelona. The Blaugrana averaged just around 55,000 in their stadium with a capacity of over 98,000. That’s well below what it should be.<\/p>\n

There have been plenty of criticisms for the way Joan Laporta and his Barcelona board led by Mateu Alemany have gone about raising funds by “pulling economic levers” (i.e. selling 49.5% of Barca Studios and 25% of their future La Liga TV rights for 25 years) and risking future income to build a superstar squad in the present. However, even though it’s just opening day, you can already see the difference.<\/p>\n

Despite being in the middle of August on a sweltering night against a lower mid-table team, conditions that would usually have kept a large majority of fans away from the stands; the attendance at the Camp Nou was massive with 81,104 people packing the stands to see this new and exciting team. Last season only the home Cl\u00e1sico saw a greater turnout than tonight, showing just what pulling those levers have led to.<\/p>\n

An exciting team leads to packed stands leads to a genuine home advantage developing which helps the team become more dominant which leads to packed stands, etc. etc. – all of which spikes revenue. This is the start of Joan’s Laporta’s Virtuous Circle in action.<\/p>\n