66.7% duels lost: Liverpool star draws mixed reviews with ‘provocative’ national team display

Liverpool forward Bradley Barcola elicited mixed reviews from French media for his performance in his country’s 4-1 win over Belgium in the UEFA Nations League on Monday night.

The 24-year-old was restored to the starting XI by Zinedine Zidane for the game at the Stade de France, in which the hosts were 1-0 down in the 77th minute before a late flurry of goals changed the result drastically.

The Reds’ number 29 had been substituted by the time his side drew level, and the equaliser came from the player who replaced him five minutes previously (Désiré Doué).

What did French media say about Barcola?

There were mixed reviews of the Liverpool star’s performance among French media outlets, with RMC Sport awarding him 6 out of 10.

They observed: ‘The Liverpool winger started with two good runs down the wing and some crosses that didn’t find their target. He was one of the few players making runs in behind the defence.

‘Very generous in his defensive efforts, he missed a one-on-one opportunity from a tight angle after 15 minutes. He was very provocative and had a deflected shot that went just wide before going out of play.’

However, FootMercato were rather more unforgiving of Barcola with their score of 3.5 as they opined: ‘On his left wing, the Liverpool player, like his attacking partners, had very little space to make an impact.

‘Not helped by his left-back, he was nevertheless able to be played through on a few occasions, but as is often the case with the former PSG and Lyon player, his lightning-fast bursts of speed were followed by inaccuracies in the final pass. As a result, Les Bleus almost always attacked down the right flank.’

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Valuable minutes for Barcola ahead of Liverpool return

While Barcola will obviously be thrilled that France finished the game in style, on a personal level he may have been disappointed that the full four-goal blitz came after he’d been substituted.

The figures below from Sofascore would suggest that there were indeed some good and some less-so-good moments from the Liverpool winger, who showed plenty of attacking endeavour but was ousted in the majority of his duels.

From the Reds’ perspective, the international window went perfectly as far as the 24-year-old is concerned. He played 175 minutes across Les Bleus’ four matches, earning some valuable game-time to build upon the momentum he’d been gaining at Anfield and coming back to Merseyside unscathed.

Perhaps the one big disappointment for Barcola at the moment is that, in nine games for club and country since the start of September, he hasn’t scored or supplied an assist. Having cost Liverpool an initial £106m to sign (The Athletic), the scrutiny will increase with each appearance in which he doesn’t find the net.

However, if the goal drought were to end with the winner against Manchester City on Sunday, it’d be the perfect way to begin repaying that transfer fee.