Maxwell Recovers, Practices With Small Group of Players

You'll know it's a slow news day when I start reporting about players I'm not too fond of.

But it is with joy in my heart to report that Maxwell, who recently transfered to Barcelona from Inter Milan along with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, has recovered from the minor injury he suffered during Monday's game against Sporting Gijon. He practiced with four other players, Iniesta, Marquez, Pinto, and Pedro. Valdes was also present at the tranining but was doing goalie-specific exercises.

I'll shed a little insight into why I'm not too keen on Maxwell. I've never been too trustworthy of new players because usually I don't know too much about them. I've been watching soccer since 2007, so I'm fairly new to who these little-known players are. I knew nothing about Maxwell until I heard an announcer say that he had played with Ajax and Inter alongside Ibrahimovic. But I digress.

So I watched Maxwell during the game, allowing him to get settled with the new team, and I have to say, I was not impressed at all. The suicidal backpass to Valdes in the 1st half is something that would not even be attempted by someone in a youth league! To me, his defending was sloppy and I could not wait until he was subbed out (note: I am not heartless, I did not hope he was subbed out via injury, as he was).

Transfers have always made me uneasy because of some of the clearly bad judgements made by Barcelona. Case in point: Alexander Hleb, who came from Arsenal for the '08-09 season. Hleb was, in plain terms, a coward. As a striker he never shot, never attempted to shoot, and I hardly ever saw him involved in the plays, when he did get in. So Hleb made me a bit uneasy about transfers, and Maxwell is sort of confirming my fear.

Now, that's not to say I've hated all of the transfers Barcelona has purchased. Dani Alves is an AMAZING fullback/striker. He's one of my favorite players. Gerard Pique from Manchester United has also helped out tremendously in the backfield and works wonderfully with Puyol. So I can't really say that I don't like when Barcelona purchases a new player, I have to say that I'm weary of them until they prove themselves to me and to the team. Maxwell lost brownie points against Sporting, and I sincerely hope, for the sake of Barcelona's backfield, that he makes them up quickly.