It is clear that Ousmane Dembele has overtaken Philippe Coutinho in the pecking order at Barcelona and that was confirmed by assistant Jon Aspiazu after they fell to defeat in the Copa del Rey at Levante on Thursday evening.
The Brazilian is far from the level he showed himself capable of reaching at times last season and, instead, it is the Frenchman who has corrected his mistakes and pushed on at the Camp Nou.
If Coutinho was key for Barcelona's 2017/18 title win, he is now almost an unnecessary squad member in LaLiga Santander and only starts in the Copa del Rey.
In the league, he hasn't started since facing Villarreal on December 2, while Dembele has become an undisputed name on the team sheet since his early season troubles have passed.
Dembele apologised to his teammates and, since then, everything has been smooth sailing for him as the last game he didn't start was on 24 November against Atletico Madrid, when he still scored a crucial 90th minute goal.
Starting against Villarreal, Espanyol, Levante, Celta Vigo and Getafe, as well as PSV and Tottenham, Dembele has three goals and three assists, with his goal against Spurs bringing the Camp Nou to its feet.
Coutinho, meanwhile, has suffered and, Levante aside, is without a goal since El Clasico on October 28.
In 1559 minutes this season, Coutinho has six goals and four assists.
Dembele's numbers are far superior as he has ten goals and five assists in just 1627 minutes, making his place in the team hard to argue against.
whykallar
107
This is one of the biggest mistakes our coach Valverde been making, these are two different kind of people with different styles of playing, he could even use Coutinho and Dembele to play on one team, he just don't know, the more he keep Coutinho on the bench, he will continue to decline, carry on rotation and stop damaging these great players career, by keeping them on the bench.
promise3154
30
this is football and it is so unique.... everybody screams valverede needs 2 carry on rotations yes dats true bt we should understand dat coming to Barcelona is a big challenge for any player. Barcelona has its own unique game style wich u must fight 2 adapt wit. I bliv countiho, malcom ND odas on d bench stil haven't adapt 2 dat uniqueness.. watch Arthur dat just arrived, watch d way he plays d pattern has jst gotin inside of him, vidal was worst on arrival bt now he understands d style... what d coach needs 2 achieve now is just making it work on training ground nd give dem d chance wen it's due... d rotation of a thing if d coach is bin forced 2 do dat den we will end up loosing games jst like yesterday nt bcus dey are not quality players bt dey lack dat rare Barcelona kind of play....