The Trivela Effect page comments on Ronald Araujo’s performance this season.

Barcelona had the best defense in European football last season with stars like Ronald Araujo, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Alejandro Balde, Jules Kounde and even Andreas Christensen. 

However, unfortunately, Barcelona’s defense has taken a step backward this season. New additions like Joao Cancelo and Inigo Martinez haven’t made the team any better, while the absence of Sergio Busquets has taken away the biggest shield up front from the back four.

Meanwhile, individual performances also dropped when Ter Stegen returned, disappointing fans. And recently, star midfielder Ronald Araujo was responsible for a number of negаtive results, including a painful red card in the loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.In addition, in the most recent match against Valencia, Araujo made a mistake that led to a penalty kιck for the away team. He also ranked first among La Liga defenders this season in terms of red cards and errors leading to goals.

Ronald Araujo made too many personal mistakes this season.

In fact, Araujo is one of the most talented players in world football in every position and he made a nаme for himself by blocking Real Madrid’s best player Vinicius Junior during the season last year.

But that’s Araujo at his best, able to stalk any number of strikers or wingers with his excellent ability to read opponents’ passes.

However, Araujo was no longer able to maintain his original form when he made many personal mistakes and became too careless. Meanwhile,  Andreas Christensen is the opposite and is an example of how to know your limits as a defender.

Christensen is a good player with above-average strength, but he knows where he is in the game by playing safely and keeping mistakes to a minimum.

It’s rare to see a Danish player have a bad performance. Christensen is a player with a stable score after each match of 7/10 or 8/10, while Araujo can go from 10 points to 4 points depending on each match.

In defense, consistency is most important. The defender’s job is not to take risks but to limit them to avoid losses for his team.

Christensen became Barcelona’s safe stopper.

Christensen did that for Barcelona with a 94.4% pass completion rate, much higher than Araujo. This even allows the former Chelsea defender to play as a defensive midfielder in difficult situations.

Barcelona can count on Christensen to have consistently good matches and not make hasty mistakes that put the team in unfavorable situations thanks to his almost perfect passing ability.

If Araujo wants to fulfill his potential as quite literally the best centre-back in the world, he needs to focus on the fundamentals and avoid erratic fluctuations in form. Gambles in defense are not what Barcelona needs, especially at this stage.