The Spanish press are up in arms, Barcelona can be forgiven for wondering what might be, while at Borussia Dortmund, those clad in Black and Yellow are rubbing their hands with glee. Paco Alcacer’s incredible scoring run shows no signs of abating, and everyone is taking notice.
Alcacer – who swapped Camp Nou for the Signal Iduna Park in the summer – scored twice as Spain beat Wales 4-1 in the UEFA Nations League on Thursday, bringing his goal tally to nine goals over the last five games in all competitions. Not bad for a guy returning to international football for the first time in two years.
Spain coach Luis Enrique, who brought the striker from Valencia to Barcelona in 2016, was effusive in his praise. “Alcacer is a huge influence at the moment,” he beamed at his post-match press conference. “He’s hitting a level that players rarely reach. It’s a miracle what he’s achieving right now.”
Despite arriving at Barcelona under Enrique, Alcacer struggled to bolt down regular place in his two years at the club, with “MSN” – Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar – dominating game time for most of his Blaugrana spell. Enrique’s successor Ernesto Valverde continued to overlook Alacacer – a mistake, according to the Spanish press.
"Alcacer continues his meteoric run”, was sports daily Marca’s headline. “Alcacer could prove to be a historic mistake for Barcelona and it’s inexplicable that he was loaned to Borussia Dortmund this season, when Luis Suarez should have more rest."
El Mundo Deportivo agreed. “Pacogol forces his way through, Alcacer proving that scorers keep coming back. He has scored a spectacular number of goals ever since he escaped from Luis Suarez's shadow by moving to Dortmund, and finally found his peace in Germany, where they believed him,” wrote Barcelona’s sports daily.
Watch: Paco Alcacer changed the game when he came on for Dortmund against Augsburg on Matchday 7!
Barcelona are currently winless in their last four La Liga games, looking unusually toothless in attack. Alcacer is completely the opposite. The Dortmund loanee has scored seven goals in just 171 minutes of football. Restored to the Spain squad alongside former BVB favourite Marc Bartra, Alcacer struck the first two goals against Gareth Bale’s well-fancied Wales, taking his Rioja tally to eight in 14 games.
Alcacer, who comes from Valencia and is playing outside of his motherland for the first time, appears to have found happiness under Lucien Favre in the Ruhr valley. “It’s a little bit of everything: luck, self-confidence, the trust of the coach, games and above all putting work in every day,” explained the 25-year-old goal-getter.
shray_srivastava
86
To be honest, it's a little bit too early, a good start doesn't necessarily mean a good finish, but yeah, this situation just explains the incompetence of Valverde. He cannot bring out the best from young talents, I don't blame him, but the board because, it's them who need to make a decision, it's been more than one year now since Valverde joined, & the club is well aware of how he functions, I'm sure the board when they watch the matches, even they are a little confused as to why does he not give others chances? Why does it take 82 mins for him to make his first sub? In an era, where the game is evolving, Fifa increasing the no of subs allowed, while here we have a coach, whose defying logic, while others would prefer to be able to make 5 subs in a match, to keep the intensity high, this man does not even use all 3 of the available subs? Whyn a single match, without the first 11? Why can't Barca influence & win a game without Messi? I don't know, what the board sees in this man, that the fans cannot see, or probably, how can the board not see, what the fans can see? He won a double last year? But at the expense of Champions league, if the BEST PLAYER IN SOCCER HISTORY has to play all the league & cup games for the club, to be honest, we don't require Valverde, Messi can win it alone, I don't see, what he's been credited for.
Ze786
68
Valverde has no idea how to use player
Haydenen
52
Paco was an excellent goal scorer before joining Barca and being stunted behind Suarez. Glad to see him back on the pitch. Too bad it's at Dortmund 😜