The joy of having a Macedonian in La Liga recently turned into disappointment among fans as Enis Bardhi lost his first team status at Levante. We tried to find out the reasons for him being bench and we’ve got a very reasonable answer.

photo by El Desmarque: Bardhi takes a corner kick

The answer to this question comes from two Radio Marca journalists who contacted us, David Fernández and Víctor Barea, the later a Valencia local. According to them, Bardhi recently offered only free kick and nothing else, so he lost his starting line-up place to his midfield teammates. Manager Juan Muñiz is under huge pressure to save the Frogs from relegation and had to make changes and drop those not in form.

“Enis fell after the beginning of the season because he turned into just a good free kick shooter (and only that) during the autumn. He is not as involved as he could in the game, not only in defensive labors but also in offensive ones.”

Bardhi this season scored 4 goals, but the last was in October in Round 10 match against Eibar. Two of them were direct free kick goals.

“Levante needs more than free kicks due to the results crisis and their serious involvement in the relegation battle. Cheick Doukouré and/or Saša Lukić, strong defensive midfielders, have left Bardhi on the bench.”

Bardhi’s problem did not start with the muscle injury when he missed Round 16 match against Sevilla, as many think, but before that. Hot even the 5 winter signings affected his status. His absence at that match proved to be just a seizable occasion for José Campaña who stepped in at Bardhi’s attacking midfielder position with Serbian U21 national team player Saša Lukić behind him. Since that game Bardhi never started again, 3 times entered in the second half, 3 games watched from the bench, while missed one due to a yellow card suspension. Manager Juan Muñiz on each game is rotating Campaña, Lukić, Doukouré and Lerma who seem have cemented their places leaving bardhi a reserve. Enis got a chance from the start in the Copa del Rey clashes against Espanyol in which Levante was eliminated.

His Levante is currently 17th with only two points away from the relegation zone.