You gotta feel for Southampton! Their progress over the last few years is remarkable. Now, they are a stable Premier League side and have also impressed on European stage, having beaten Inter Milan recently in the Europa League. It was never an easy job for the Saints. Their best players had always been poached by the bigger sides. Still, the progress of the South Coast club has never stalled.
Considering the brilliant Euro 2016 campaign Cedric Soares had with Portugal, the interest in him from bigger clubs was always on the cards. Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal are usually the clubs to poach players from the Saints but now Barcelona have also entered the fray. The Mirror claims the Blaugrana have identified the Southampton right-back as the player who can solve their woes at right-back.
The Catalan club have been looking to add a new right-sided defender to the squad, especially after the departure of Dani Alves and given their pedigree, have been linked with a number of high-profile names in the recent past. Aleix Vidal has tried and failed to make the position of his own and now, a midfielder by trade, Sergi Roberto plays as the right-back.
Roberto has not done much wrong at right-back but as he is not a defender by trade, Barcelona often have been exploited from the right-hand side. In Barcelona’s narrow 4-3-3 system, the full-backs are the players who provide the width on either end of the pitch. Dani Alves and Jordi Alba used to play key roles for the Catalan side from the full-back positions with their attacking forays and Barcelona need a natural right-back in order to make their team more compact and click in attack as well.
Cedric Soares looks like a player who can put an end to the Luis Enrique’s side’s woes in the right-back position. The Portuguese international possesses the lungs of a horse to run up and down the right flank and is solid at either end of the pitch.
He is a brilliant crosser of the ball and has made 1.3 accurate crosses every game this season. Deadly crosses from the right-hand side, that’s something Barcelona miss since the departure of Dani Alves last summer.
Soares is one of the fastest players in the Premier League and that is why he has brilliant recovery pace. The 25-year-old was defensively excellent in the Euros where he made an average of 3.8 tackles, 3 interceptions and 3.3 clearances every game. He looks like a complete full-back and will be able to sharpen up the Blaugrana attack as well as toughening up their defence.
