I still believe in him too.
He used to be clutch when he kept it simple but since getting the #10 he seems to complicate things. Tonight for example he had a chance to hit it first time but checked back to improve the angle and ended up losing the ball.
Yeah, sometimes he looks like he wants to do too much instead of keeping things simple. Not sure if this has anything do with added pressure of getting #10 but overall he looks like a strong character to me and not really being bothered by this.
Personally I think he's just rusty after a longterm injury which is fully expected. It's one thing to be healthy enough to play in consecutive games (which he seemingly is now as there were no reports about him feeling any discomforts for weeks which is a good thing and let's hope it will stay like this), another one to get into match fitness so you can compete against top teams and trust his body enough he can push it further every day (this is a phase he's in now, had few good cameo appeareances in La Liga but ofc still struggling against good CL teams). And then last step is to get into a good form and become consistent which is something most young players struggle with even without injury problems.
He has clearly lost a step physically but his game was never really based on quickness/explosivness like Dembele's for example so I think he should be fine. Don't think we'll see the best of him before the end of this season or probably next one but as long as he stays healthy I'll just take it slow with him. We should keep faith, it's not like we have other great options.
That said I believe most people here have unrealistic expectations for our youngsters. We should never be in a position where we are so dependant on three (well, mostly two now) teenagers regardless of how good they are right now or how good they can/will become in future. When Messi was their age he was surrounded with class players (and probably more important strong characters like Puyol, Xavi, R10, Henry, Eto'o,...). He would make it big regardless because of his talent but healthy environment for his development also helped him a lot to become what he is today.
What do Ansu, Pedri and Gavi have today? Lewa is our only genuine world class player and he's 34. And team "leaders" are a bunch of over the hill, overpaid, entitled and mental midgets golden Catalan boys. Unlike in Madrid where you have Benz and Luka still playing on a consistently high level (despite being older than our beloved captains) so Vini and their other youngsters get enough time to develop. Vinicius needed 3 years before his breakthrough season. Most Madrid fans probably already gave up on him but club still believed in his potential and that's what's important. He would probably be gone here after two seasons of struggles. But OTOH we've kept Dembele for all these years so at least we could do is give Ansu a full season to recover and see on what level he'll be next April. I think most people giving up on him now will be surprised at that time.
