Being compared to Riqui Puig as a teenage midfielder at FC Barcelona wasn’t the worst thing three years ago. It might have been a compliment – a young player with plenty of attacking ideas ready for first team minutes. Today, a comparison to Puig means questions about a future at the club.
Between Puig and Pablo Torre, the comparisons are both positive and negative. Both spent time as 18-year-olds in the third division being the engines of their teams – Puig for Barcelona B and Torre for Racing Santander. Both are attacking midfielders at heart who likely receive inquisitive eyes from their managers as they look to figure out their defensive positioning. Both started out farther up the field before being asked to play a bit deeper as a more traditional interior when making the move to Barça’s first team.
For Riqui Puig, there was always a belief that he would make it at his favorite club. He refused loans and waited through multiple managers for the chances that never came. Now, it seems like Pablo Torre could be looking to do the same. Puig finally conceded last summer and moved to the Los Angeles Galaxy of MLS to be a star in a team built for him to once again be the free and roaming engine of the attack.
Meanwhile, at least so far this season, Torre has played 213 minutes in six matches. His last appearance was against Ceuta in the Copa del Rey. He started, but was pulled after the first half with Barcelona in control of the match. He does have the goal against Viktoria Plzen and the assist against Intercity to hang his hat on; but his development is certainly in danger of stalling if he doesn’t get first team football.
It’s also difficult to know fact from fiction with the player’s choices. What we do know that he’s only played two matches for Barça Atlètic, one in September (2-0 win over Real Murcia) and one at the start of February (4-3 loss to Cornellà). He was also unavailable for much of the World Cup break while Barça Atlètic was playing due to an untimely ankle injury.
The worst-case scenario is that the player is choosing not to play for the second team and refused a loan. That’s also assuming that Xavi has been honest with the young player about his playing time. It’s understandably frustrating for Culers to see both Gavi and Pedri out against Manchester United, and know that Torre isn’t an option. In theory, playing an attacking midfielder like him in Xavi’s preferred midfield four as the inside forward on the left would make a ton of sense.
But Xavi does deserve some benefit of the doubt. Clearly there are reasons why he isn’t featuring yet; so let’s try a best-case scenario with what we know. There is a world where Xavi wants him to play deeper than he did at Racing Santander and take on more defensive responsibility. Even for Franck Kessié and Frenkie de Jong, those lessons took time to learn and next season he may have figured some things out in training and turns into a useful weapon from the bench.
Xavi is likely concerned about the lack of control (look at the Intercity game) that he must forgo in the midfield with Torre, and without Pedri or Gavi to calm things down alongside him, it’s understandable that Xavi is only willing to play one of Kessié, Sergi Roberto, and Torre. Xavi has said that Kessié is earning minutes now and he’s admitted to trusting in Roberto, which leaves Torre as the odd man out.
After warming up at half-time and throughout the second half against Cádiz, it’s fair for the youngster to be frustrated that he didn’t feature. As Barcelona was losing control of the game after de Jong was subbed out, it did make sense for Xavi to instead replace a forward with Ángel Alarcón to put out fresh young legs for late-game pressing. But if Torre isn’t going to feature up 2-0 at home against Cádiz, it appears that this season will be a lost one for him, at least in professional matches. If he’s making the most of training, next season could be different – but if Xavi says it’s not happening, Torre should learn the lesson of Puig and not spend pivotal developmental years of his career riding the bench.
