If anything, you should be surprised Manzano hasn't refereed more El Clasicos till now.
He is like the only Spanish ref that UEFA regularly call to referee Champions League games. Almost all the other Liga refs have not directed a single Champions League game. That is to say, he's the only ref...
https://barcauniversal.com/la-masia-talents-fermin-lopez-episode-11/
This is him at 16! No wonder he wasn't very highly rated for a while.
He also mentioned in a recent interview that he wasn't good at shooting until recently, and that he didn't have enough power to be able to shoot from range...
It looks like Fermin was very small up till about 17 and then ended up spurting up and became fairly robust physically.
It makes me wonder if there was any medical intervention there because his body completely changed in the space of a year or two.
Apparently the reason he didn't play is that...
Not just this game, he has been good for a while, and he has clear skills that you can recognise not just fluke performances.
He's extremely athletic, quite technical, great shot, good presser, decent passing, ball control etc.
This system we use doesn't really display individual quality much. We plug in a lot of insanely talented players and all of them end up being cogs. Its not that kind of system where a player can shine with the exception of the right winger.
Conservative ball with few risks.
I keep forgetting we are on Montjuic this season lol.
Well, to be fair, we do have a lot of important players out, if we can get a draw in El Clasico and keep winning games, he can get a pass for shit play for now.