Thierry Henry has warned that Bradley Barcola will need time to settle at Liverpool following his £123m move from Paris Saint-Germain. The France international arrived at Anfield at the end of the transfer window after a summer-long pursuit, but has made an understated start, starting three of his first five appearances without a goal contribution.
Pressure mounts after injuries
With Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo both suffering injuries during the international break, the pressure will be on Barcola to make more of an impact when club football resumes. Henry, reflecting on his own move to England, cautioned that adapting to Merseyside will not be easy.
“People forget that the tactic, the team and how you play matters,” Henry told Betway. “You can see that everyone who comes into Luis Enrique’s system shines – Kvaratskhelia, Dembele, Doue, Barcola. It’s not always easy when you’re used to a certain system and a way of playing, where everybody knows what’s happening at any time.”
Adapting to a new league
Henry highlighted the challenges Barcola faces beyond the pitch. “He just arrived in Liverpool, he doesn’t speak English, and it’s a different style of play with different intensity in the league. I had to deal with it the same way, and then that little switch happened and I was more comfortable. You start to speak English, you can joke around in the dressing room, you’re a bit less shy and people start to know what you’re about.”
“It’s not an easy place to start, and he didn’t ask for his price tag, but it’s on his back. We all know that one-v-one, he is deadly, and he has pace. The only thing he needs to work on is his finishing, but that’s normal.”
Jacquet’s impressive start
While Henry called for patience with Barcola, he said he was not surprised by Jeremy Jacquet’s strong start at Liverpool. Henry had wanted to call the defender up during his time as France Under-21s head coach. “It’s (his reputation) always been very high,” he said. “When I was the coach of the Under-21s I wanted to call him up, he was only 16 or 17, but he didn’t come because he had to take his exams.”
“As much as he concentrated on football, he was also concentrating on getting his degrees. He’s very on-point in his head, and his family knows what he needs to do and how he can be successful. People told me that he has always been seen as ‘the guy’, but it doesn’t always work that way. Many times I’ve seen players who were ‘the guy’ at that age turn out not to be the guy, while sometimes it does go the other way.”
“You can see that he already understands what he needs to do, especially in the physical part of the game. It also helps if you play alongside Virgil. But am I surprised with him dealing with the level of expectation? No, not really, because he was always in that situation in the youth system in France.”
