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LaLiga: Reports of Luis Suarez’s decline at Barcelona have been greatly exaggerated

Luis Suarez has worked his way back into form in recent weeks
Luis Suarez has worked his way back into form in recent weeks

Having scored a meagre three goals for Barcelona in his first 14 appearances of the season, Luis Suarez was widely dismissed as a footballer on a downwards trajectory. Criticised for everything from his concentration and sharpness to his work rate, fitness and ostensibly swollen waistline, Suarez’s decline became an incontrovertible truth for many. Despite the fact that he had scored 37 times the season previous – this a relatively modest return compared to a mind-boggling 59 goals in 53 appearances across 2015/16 – the 30-year-old was written off as a spent force with only the crippling effects of the ageing process to look forward to. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but then so too were the reports of Suarez’s premature demise.

With two goals against Deportivo La Coruna this weekend, Suarez now has four strikes in his last four appearances. It was a scoring ratio not too dissimilar to that which saw Barcelona sign him in the first place, and which has made him one of the most feared and coveted strikers in Europe over the last three and a half years. Clearly keen to address concerns about Suarez’s fitness earlier in the season, Barcelona publicised footage of Suarez working on his physical conditioning back at the start of November. Those extra fitness sessions seem to have done the trick, with the Uruguayan scoring six goals in seven games since.


Far from looking like a striker who has lost his knack for scoring, Suarez seems like a man who perhaps needed a few tweaks to his training regime to get him firing again. His goals against Deportivo belied his status as a man in supposedly terminal decline, the first a simple tap-in but the second coming courtesy of a defence-busting run and an improvised rabona finish. He may have lost a sliver of pace in recent times and will no doubt continue to slow down as he delves deeper into his thirties, but that doesn’t mean he can’t adapt his game to the realities of getting older. Suarez still has the insatiable hunger which makes him such a lethal goalscorer – no Giorgio Chiellini or Branislav Ivanovic jokes, please.

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In a sport which is increasingly governed by quick reaction and instant analysis, a temporary downturn in form can often seem like permanent deterioration. That appears to be what has happened with Suarez, who showed at the weekend that he is still capable of excellence. With Barca currently six points clear at the top of La Liga and thriving under the vigour and enterprise of Ernesto Valverde, Suarez will have plenty more opportunities to prove his worth before the end of the season. Then we can judge whether he is still up to the high standards of the Nou Camp, as opposed to after a frustrating goalless run which was destined to come to an emphatic end.