The Barcelona right-back was criticized for his performance against Real Madrid. Marco van Basten and Ronald de Boer made strong comments.
Joao Cancelo had an unfortunate performance in the 3-2 loss to Real Madrid on Sunday, and from the Netherlands came criticisms from two former Dutch national team players.
“It’s crazy that Cancelo repeats the same mistakes at his age,” stated Marco van Basten, former Ajax and Milan striker and three-time Ballon d’Or winner.
“Now I understand why Guardiola doesn’t like Cancelo. He plays his own football and thinks football is only about the moments when you have the ball. He’s a defender, for heaven’s sake,” pointed out Ronald de Boer, former midfielder (who played for Barcelona between 1998 and 2000), in statements on the Dutch TV channel Ziggo Sport.
The 29-year-old Portuguese international had also been criticized following the game against PSG on Tuesday in the Champions League.
Barcelona wants to keep him
Despite the massive criticism he has faced recently, Barcelona has no intention of letting him go. Instead, club president Joan Laporta has made it clear several times that they will try to keep both Cancelo and Joao Felix.
Both players were brought to the club on a loan for this season. They have both had impressive moments with the Catalan club, but generally, they have both been criticized for having too low a baseline performance.
At the moment, however, it does not seem to have consequences for their future at Camp Nou. Barcelona cannot afford to acquire other players, so they hope to be able to keep them at the club after this season.
