Nelson Semedo

[Riordon]

He is not performing at the level he did at the start of the season which is worrying. He came in at Bernabeu and was really good and playing at the same high level for the next two month. Especially his offensive contributes is nonexistent. Valverde needs to manage him better. Will probably be better with Dembele back and a better midfielder than Rakitic, lets just hope he doesn't have completely lost his confidence by then.

 

[ASordidGod]

He's obviously extremely quick, defensively sound(ish) so far, and his ball recovery is excellent. Yesterday the formation did him no favours so I don't want to be too harsh re his offensive capabilities, but his touch doesn't look great, nor his ability in tight spaces. I'm still relatively hopeful he'll come good (and so long as Valverde stops subbing him for Vidal?!) but I think his technique needs to improve. Maybe it's a confidence thing, we'll see. Also it'll help when his team mates trust him more, which I'm sensing they don't, not fully. Of course it doesn't help that he's linking with Rakitic, whereas Alba has Iniesta...

 

[jairzinho]

It wasn't one of his better games. It's possible he could have picked up a knock cuz he seemed to be struggling a bit and he was also isolated on that side. That's why Valverde pulled him. But i've seen enough of him to know he has what it takes to contribute to this team, so no major worries for now. I can't wait for Ousmane to come back because they were developing some chemistry before the injury.

 

[Jombi]

He definitely needs a good run of games. His performance screams confidence issues.

 

[xXKonan]

Confidence does play a big role. I remember last season Roberto started off strong but I felt that one bad mistake vs The City away game where he gave the ball away which led to City scoring the equalizer ended up doing a number on his confidence and he was stuck in a rut for awhile and to make it worse he was also being targeted so much and which led to a lot of problems on the right hand side. Thankfully he eventually got that confidence back.

Semedo started off great but Valverde got way overzealous with rotating both him and Bob it's affecting him and to make things worse I don't think Valverde realizes this and I can't see this ending any time soon once Roberto comes back.

 

[behindbrowneyes]

We lack quality wingers which is difficult for attacking fullbacks. Bob is a midfielder and plays the RB-role differently which in our situation often is necessary.

 

[Horatio]

I still believe in that Sembele connection.

 

[Aryagorn]

It can be seen why the coach prefers Roberto to him, quite unfortunate considering he is much better defensively!

 

[Barcaman]

He gets isolated going forward but he still created few half-chances.
Wouldn't call him great defensively though. Costa skinned him easily once and had Juve played bolder I reckon there would have been more troubles.

 

[JamDav1982]

Thought he was poor. He got beat a few times and positioning was poor in first half and looks terrified on ball unless has no time to think and making bombing run forward.

Needs to improve a lot but still early days and hopefully confidence.

 

[Horatio]

I think he is one of the players that suffers the most of a lack of efficiency within the team. With a team that moves forward faster he would be able to make a mark more easily.

 

[FCBfan22]

I think he is slowly regaining confindence. He was better today than against leganes. Great attacking run at the begining. He tried to run into attack more and even started to develop somewhat of a connnection with Deulofeu. But when Deu was subbed, his attacking half of the game dropped drastically. He was in good position in the 2nd half sometimes, but Messi decided to try to dribble trough the middle of the defence or try to find Suarez, as if he wasn't aware of Semedo's positioning.

That said, I hope he starts on Sunday and continues to improve his form.

 

[Total-Football]

Fantastic performance by the lad. Needs to play every game ahead of anyone we have.

 

[Androutsos]

I don't understand how anyone is saying he had a bad game.

 

[serghei]

I thought he played well. Yea, he got dribbled once, but Douglas Costa was kept pretty quiet most of the game. Played some good passes when he had the chance to do so. I trust him on the ball and for a newcomer, that's a lot. I don't have as much trust on Roberto at RB, and think he is more error prone and not as good at physical duels. Semedo is pretty physical as well, hard to get past. Even wins headers on a regular basis. Plus, he is one of the fastest fullbacks out there.

As a minus, he has a bad habit of going into dead ends when he goes up.