Why Ronald Araújo could still leave Barcelona

If I promise to only do it once, then perhaps you'll pardon me stealing a song line from the Sound of Music to ask: "How Do You Solve A Problem Like Ronald Araújo?" Because anyone who thought Barcelona put their difficulties with the Uruguay international to bed after the announcement that the defender had renewed his contract until 2031 needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

Araújo wasn't dropped for the weekend's 7-1 thrashing of Valencia to rest or protect him for the tough test against Atalanta on Wednesday: he was dropped for two key reasons.

Firstly, even ahead of some comical decisions by Wojciech Szczesny while Barça were winning 5-4 at Benfica in the Champions League last week, Araújo was by far the No. 1 reason for his team looking ludicrously easy to breach. He broke the offside line (badly and repeatedly), his passing out of defence was either risk-averse or easily pressed, his positional choices were often downright wrong, and he scored a silly own goal. Benfica were looking at him like wolves regard sheep: voraciously.

The second reason needs to be understood in light of how fast Barcelona acted in order to renew the 25-year-old's contract, specifically because his decision to join Juventus in this transfer market was the second time in two seasons he's flirted very openly with a big European rival. (Bayern Munich was last year.) But with Iñigo Martínez injured and a run of crucial games ahead, the strength of Juve's intention to move for him galvanised Barça into ensuring he didn't insist on an exit.

They were probably right in that logic: fine. But once the club business was done, team manager Hansi Flick immediately reminded Araújo not to imagine that a renewed contract automatically meant he was occupying what business negotiators call the "power seat." It was a shot across the bow to say: "We want to keep you, you've parlayed up Juve's interest into a better contract and the club's board moved with electric speed to retain you, but don't imagine that means you're the boss around here. Don't think you're my only option ... don't imagine you can coast!"

It was a sound idea from the German coach, a reminder that Flick isn't satisfied with the centre-back's playing level, decision-making or concentration level.

Araújo comes from a football-obsessed family where both grandmothers and his mum dedicatedly played organized soccer in Brazil and Uruguay. He's lived and breathed competitive sport from the moment he could walk until today, with Barcelona, Bayern and Juventus spending much of the past 12 months squabbling over him.

The trouble with Araújo is that although he is a genuine "strength" in his club's arsenal, it's one of those "pound for pound" strengths -- the kind of adjective that comes with an asterisk attached. He's a terrific athlete; he's extremely competitive; his aerial ability is more a product of his leap than his height; he's a ferocious tackler, quick and, given that he was a striker as a kid, he's even a useful threat up at the attacking end of the pitch.

But technique has never quite been his thing. Neither his first touch nor his ability to pass under pressure, in the Barcelona "playing out from the back" ideology have been positive elements in his scouting report.

In the fly-on-the-wall documentary I executive-produced during Luis Enrique's first season in charge of Paris Saint-Germain, the Spanish coach shared his tactical preparation for what would become his side's 4-1 demolition of Barcelona at Montjuic in last season's Champions League quarterfinal. Luis Enrique told us: "There's no doubt. 'If we press them [Barça], they'll kick it long. Down the right, we let Araújo come out with the ball. Whenever he does that we isolate him, and we press him."

Then, in the prematch tactical video session, he told the PSG players: "This gentleman is Araújo. A top-level footballer, no question, but the Barça player with the most problems. Every time the ball goes towards him, we must already be closing off his passing line and then pressing him."

Inevitably, as you've by now guessed, Paris follow their coach's instructions, Bradley Barcola presses Araújo, the defender kicks possession away and as PSG erupt into an immediate counter-attack Barcola is fed the ball only for the Uruguayan to commit a "last-man" foul and get sent off. From leading 4-2 on aggregate, that was game over for Barcelona, and they're duly knocked out of the competition, 4-1 on the night and 6-4 on aggregate.

What last week in Lisbon showed is that things have got even tougher for Araújo now that Flick is in charge. Their high-risk, occasionally high-reward, very advanced defensive line (on average their back four are 50 metres from their own goal-line) needs to be applied impeccably. None of the defenders nor the keeper can make a mistake, and split-second drop-offs in concentration can cost you a goal, a penalty, a red card or, indeed, calamitous defeat.

Some sympathy is owed to the big, wholehearted 25-year-old because the demands placed by Flick also scared the living daylights out of Araújo's teammates (while he was injured) when the new German coach first announced them on the club's U.S. tour last summer. But they all had time to learn, practice and assimilate the huge new challenges. Meanwhile, Araújo was undergoing a long rehab process and fighting back to fitness.

It turns out Araújo isn't a guy who can watch, understand and then apply the hugely complicated system without lots of practical, "in-game" trial-and-error. His errors came against Benfica when the poor kid looked bewildered, overwhelmed and struggling to make sense of the mayhem around him.

The last time I interviewed Araújo, long before this offside-trap system was Barcelona's modus operandi, he explained his general outlook.

"Barcelona has a very different philosophy from everyone else," he said. "Even when I managed to understand, it was like the ball was coming at me at almost 200 km/h! "I tried to control it ... I'd fail and I'd go home feeling frustrated and thinking 'I don't deserve to be here if I'm not able to control the ball!' But I'd tell myself 'What I need to do is learn!'"

Araújo did learn, the balance of his importance and worth tilted in his favour, and temporarily he even became a special weapon in El Clásico, man-marking Vinícius Júnior before, in due course, becoming part of Barcelona's five-man captaincy group.

Right now, while Araújo is being drilled on the basics by the coaching staff and studies video tapes long into the night, he will have to accept that Flick will often choose the Pau Cubarsí-Martínez partnership ahead of him, he'll occasionally have to accept deputising for Jules Koundé at right-back, and he's got to get used to feeling like a novice again -- something that might well be tested by Atalanta's terrifically clever, non-stop pass-and-move style in the Champions League on Wednesday.

And with Barcelona strongly committed to signing Bayer Leverkusen's towering, soon-to-be-out-of-contract, right-footed centre-half Jonathan Tah, I don't think anyone can be sure that Araújo might not still be moved to Juventus or Bayern for a big fee at the end of this season. In the meantime, it's back to the classroom for Araújo: high stakes, high concentration, high defensive line. Watch out for the stressed expression on his face every time he looks at the linesman, with his arm stuck hopefully up in the air yelling "offside," from now until May.