What will USMNT star Sergino Dest bring to FC Barcelona?
Dest, a USA international, is one of those young players whose reputation has burgeoned over the past season, despite him making relatively few professional appearances over the same period. Last season, he featured 38 times for the Dutch giant, having made his debut in the Dutch equivalent of the Community Shield at the start of the year. Even from this early stage, it was clear that Dest was something special, and his form in that game foreshadowed what was to come in the rest of the season.
Despite the mess that they are in at the moment, you have to be a pretty special player for Barcelona to splash that amount of cash on a 19-year-old right-back, but, having seen a lot of Dest last season, it is pretty clear to me that it should be money well spent. In recent days, British media publications have been describing him at the ‘heir apparent’ to Dani Alves, and, for once, I believe that they have done their research, as this is a comparison that works.
The best, and most simple way to describe Dest is as a quick, small, attacking full-back, whose defensive qualities are perhaps on the weak side. His effectiveness last year was in his surging runs down the right wing, using skill and trickery that you would not usually expect of a right-back to find his way past players. Once in the attacking third of the pitch, his brilliance is in his unpredictability, as he is equally capable of cutting inside and taking a shot or driving to the by-line and cutting it back for a teammate in the middle.
Teams that kept their wingers high and wide were often able to find space in behind Dest last season
Being an Ajax youth product, his skill on the ball is exemplary. Dest is as happy to cut the ball back to a centre back as he is to take on his man down the wing. However, what perhaps should make Barcelona fans slightly worried is that still has a lot of work to do defensively.
Teams that kept their wingers high and wide were often able to find space in behind Dest last season. As such, the USMNT fullback was often forced to mount a roadrunner-like sprint towards his own goal to cover. This is a fallibility in his positioning that will surely improve with time, but the question is, do Barcelona, in their current state of crisis, really have that time?
The reason that Dani Alves was such a success at Barcelona was that, in the Guardiola years, the team had the ball so much that any defending was extremely rare, and, when it was required, he had a Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique to cover in behind him. In the years after that, he had Messi, Neymar and Suarez in front of him, and, as their famous game against Paris Saint-Germain showed, you can very easily lose 4-0 when you can score six in the next game.
Apart from buying Dest, they have not done anything to solve that problem
Unfortunately, Barcelona are no longer that team. Anyone who watched, or even heard about their 8-2 defeat to Bayern Munich could probably guess that their weakness was in their defence, and, apart from buying Dest, they have not done anything to solve that problem. You could even say that, out of the four truly terrible performances by each of the defenders that night, Nelson Semedo’s was probably the best. And yet, he was the one shipped off, to Wolves. Yes, Dest may provide them with a bit more attacking invention, but more work is needed to shore up a defence that desperately needs reinforcement.
Dest is undoubtedly an outstanding player already and will become even better in the future. Ajax youth players are usually allowed to leave after a few years for development in the first team, as was the case with Matthijs De Ligt and Frenkie De Jong. Allowing Dest to move on so early in his career is a sign of Ajax’s confidence in his abilities.
Is he the right player for Barcelona at this point in time? Without serious defensive improvements, I’m afraid to say I feel as if Barcelona fans will need to temper their expectations for the moment.
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