This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
It’s pretty safe to say that Barcelona had a brilliant weekend.
The Blaugrana beat Eibar 3-0 away from home and even jumped ahead of Real Madrid in the current La Liga standings.
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And while their front trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Antoine Griezmann all found the target and netted themselves a goal, Ernesto Valverde has got plenty more to be happy about.
Samuel Umtiti, who joined the club from Lyon in a £21m deal in 2016, finally returned to action and made his season debut after a long-standing injury.
The 25-year-old Frenchman was absent for 42 days in the 2019/20 season due to a serious foot injury and after an even more unlucky 2018/19 campaign that was also ridden with setbacks, questions were bound to be asked about his role in the team.
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But if there was any doubt in Valverde’s mind as to whether Umtiti could still perform when fully fit, his latest display should cast them all away.
Not only did the Frenchman complete the full 90 minutes on the day but he also did so in an incredible fashion. Umtiti tallied three interceptions and a total of nine clearances to his name.
But he was also quite involved in other proceedings on the pitch, recording 92.7% passing accuracy with 55 passes in total and 71 touches.
He was also pretty brave in possession, even managing to muster one successful dribble when trying to get himself out of a sticky situation at the back.
This warranted him a 7.78 rating according to Whoscored, which was the fourth-best in the team after his partner in crime, Clement Lenglet, and two forwards – Griezmann and Messi.
Umtiti may have been absent for a long while and his luck seemed to have run out but if this performance is any indication, we still haven’t seen the last of the Frenchman.
If he can keep this up and find his continuity once again, he definitely has a future at Barcelona.