Malcom continues to take advantage of every opportunity

Malcom has been used sparingly since arriving from Roma but is delivering when called upon.

Perhaps lost in Barcelona’s thrilling comeback against Villarreal was the fact that Malcom had his best game since joining Barcelona. The Brazilian was a surprise starter as Ernesto Valverde opted to rotate and Malcom played on up top on the right in place of Lionel Messi. He provided an assist for Coutinho’s first goal and then scored a wonderful header off a cross from Arturo Vidal to put Barcelona ahead by two.

Unfortunately, Villarreal came back to turn the game on its head but thanks to Messi and Luis Suarez, Barcelona were able to draw the game in the dying seconds. Again, in all that late drama, it would be easy to overlook Malcom’s performance and that’s kind of been his Barcelona career up to this point.

He’s played often in the Copa del Rey but with a “B side” and while he wouldn’t play terribly, Barcelona either lost or drew the game. But when playing with the usual squad, he’s taken advantage of those scarce minutes and done all he can to give the manager a tough decision. The clearest example is the cup game against Real Madrid where he was, arguably, their best player that day and scored the equalizing goal. Even after that game, he still did not feature in Barcelona’s line-up and would often not even make it off the bench.

With Philippe Coutinho continuing to struggle and Ousmane Dembele out injured, many were wondering why Malcom was not getting more of an opportunity. Especially because he was offering more in the times he’d come on as a sub. He provided the assist for Messi’s second goal against Espanyol in the Catalan Derby and the team looked better once he came on. Given his performance against Villarreal, there’s no justification in playing Coutinho ahead of him.

Fans and media alike have taken notice of Malcom’s performances and are calling for him to play more. Barcelona are in the middle of a hectic schedule with Champions League restarting in a week and will need to keep players like Messi and Suarez fresh. Having a player like Malcom and playing like he is, gives Ernesto Valverde another option up front and one that he finally needs to start utilizing.