10 - Ansu Fati

J

JamDav1982

Senior Member
serghei said:
Probably saw how Koeman forced Pedri and almost took him out for the season as a result. Caution is better.
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This another one of the issues moan about Koeman then dont stick to it with Xavi?

FDJ, Dembele, Alba all playing with injuries and back early lately.

But much like the 'Puig agenda' or 'playing Gavi evry game at 17' this moan gets chosen when applies.

No one 'forced' Pedri to do anything.
 
Nazario1985

Nazario1985

Senior Member
Said it almost a year ago this kid is over if he is in the hands of our medical staff.

Now will he have the cojones of an R9 or will end up like Umtiti enjoying his long term contract by a stupid board, is the question
 
Messigician

Messigician

Senior Member
A part of me feels Torres was signed because the club feel they can't reliably coint on Fati

I hope I'm proven wrong and Fati fully recovers and becomes a superstar for us.
 
Horatio

Horatio

You're welcome
Maybe there is hope in our new medical team(or head, or whoever got replaced).

Nobody noticed we haven't had a new injury since a few games? Until a few games ago it was a new injury every game.
Maybe I am seeing things...
 
Messi983

Messi983

Senior Member
Horatio said:
Maybe there is hope in our new medical team(or head, or whoever got replaced).

Nobody noticed we haven't had a new injury since a few games? Until a few games ago it was a new injury every game.
Maybe I am seeing things...
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Memphis got injured for a month with Xavi in charge after most likely being way overplayed at the start of the season. It was probably just a question of time when he'll eventually break.

Overall I think it's too soon to have a clear opinion if anything has really changed with Xavi and his new medical team arrival. Sometimes you can have a run of 5 games when no player gets injured and then 3 or 4 players are injured in the same game. Coming during the season Xavi also can't do much to improve overall fitness level of the team which we can probably agree was/is bad for years. That's what's mostly worked on in the preseason.

What Xavi could do (and I'm sure he did as every coach has his own training sessions) is change training and warm up routines to potentially lower risk of injuries. Another important thing is how a new medical team will deal with players returning from longterm injuries like Pedri, Ansu, Braithwaite, Memphis and even Ferran (he's recovering from a fractured bone - and has apparently almost fully recovered at City anyway - which is less likely to have longterm issues than muscle or knee injuries though).

So far looks like they are cautious which is good, especially with youngsters. I'd be ok pushing veterans like MB or MD who won't be here for long but Ansu and Pedri are amongst our biggest longterm assets so they should be given all the time they need to fully recover. I'd prefer to have them injury free when we'll hopefully have a competitive team again in a year or two than rush them back to play in "meaningless" games in a season in which we probably won't even be close to win anything (well, maybe Copa with a lucky draw until semis or so).

But when these players will be given a green light from club doctors is on Xavi to manage their minutes. They should be smartly integrated back into the team not playing full 90 minutes in three games per week. We should also be smart with a player like Gavi to not overplay him like Pedri. We shouldn't really do that with 17 yo kid whose body is still developing, has never played at this level before and is giving his maximum in every game. He's energetic and combative, running like 12 km per game, going strong into tackles which in itself can lead to an unfortunate injury but ofc I don't want or expect him to change the way he plays as it makes him the player he is. If he sprains his ankle when making a tackle or something then shit happens but we should do everything we can to prevent him tearing his muscles because he's overworked for example.

I know we don't have exactly a great squad depth but if all injured players (except Roberto) who are supposed to be back in January will really return, alongside signings of Ferran, Alves and potentially another new player and also with emergence of Barca B players (Abde and Jutgla) Xavi should have enough options to rotate and go through this season not running anyone into ground. Then hopefully we can offload more dead wood in the summer and bring 4-5 more quality players in.
 
Windhook

Windhook

Well-known member
All these injuries I attribute to the extremely poor physical preparation at Barca for years. Players don't get injured from being overplayed, you think other clubs don't play 70+ games a season?
 
Messi983

Messi983

Senior Member
Barcaman said:
It's a folly to believe he'll be back to normal, isn't it.
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Depends on what you think with back to normal.

Will Ansu have some injury problems during his career? Yeah, very likely. But I don't think he's "done" or that he'll turn into next Dembele if we'll treat him carefully when he'll return.

Now how missing a full year of trainings and games at his age will impact his longterm development is almost impossible to say at this moment. Messi also had injuries at similar age (multiple but not as serious or longterm) and still turned into the best player ever so everything is possible.

But first thing first, let Ansu fully recover, slowly integrate him back into the team and then see where he is as a footballer at this point and how he can progress in next few years.
 
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