A Fan’s Perspective: Is it time for Barcelona to drop Luis Suarez?

Let’s face it, we are all thinking it—Luis Suarez needs some time on the bench.

Sounds almost blasphemous, doesn’t it? Who is good enough to replace the Uruguayan? Paco Alcacer? Gerard Deulofeu? Denis Suarez? Certainly not Arda Turan! Thing is, it doesn’t matter who replaces him.

Luisito has been instrumental to Barcelona for the past three years and has contributed a ridiculous number of goals during his time here.

However, with his dip in form refusing to end, a question mark now looms over his status as an automatic starter.

Lionel Messi is in extra-terrestrial form right now and Suarez has been the sacrificial lamb. Ernesto Valverde seems to have locked the Argentine into a central role which means we need pacy winger-forward hybrids capable of scoring and creating on the flanks. El Pistolero is great, but does he have the legs to inject pace on the wings?

While Alcacer and Deulofeu are not the finished products we expect them to be, they do perfectly fit the system, both have pace and can score. Deulofeu would do well to complement new arrival Ousmane Dembele with his speed and dribbling ability while using Paco would add some extra firepower.

Photo by Manuel Queimadelos Alonso/Getty Images

There are no doubts that Luis Suarez is a special player. A year or two ago, he was arguably the second best player on the planet.

Maybe he is exhausted or maybe his meniscus surgery is finally starting to take its toll? Maybe he is just ageing? Maybe it is just a temporary dip in form?

The truth is that the reasons do not matter. Luis Suarez is a special player but he is just not doing his job at the moment.

It’s time to give the rest a chance to grab his spot.