Just another point on Yamal.
As we have learned over the years following Barca, we know that in Barca's offices and among fans we value the most flair, technique and nice-football.
While in Real they value mental traits.
In Germany or England, they value physical traits etc.
So, here, among Barca fans, players like Yamal will get a lot of hype.
But if we do look back in the last 20-30 years and analyze personality traits, psychology and physique of players, we learn that:
1. physique is more and more important. Yamal is kinda weak for now
2. but more important, psychology wise, winger-attacker position is a unique football position.
For example, if you are a midfielder, like Xavi or Iniesta, the most important traits which you need to have are high IQ, good decisions, patience, passing, press resistance, some stamina, reading of the game etc.
You don't need to be THAT strong or fast to be a top controller.
Also, you don't need to be THAT brave or mentally strong to be a good CM.
On the other hand, wingers in 433 are the absolute leaders in modern football, players who are the most important in your attacking actions and counters.
And if we do look back in the past, majority of best wingers were either:
1) aliens talent wise, like Messi
2) or extremely brave/cocky/leader/assholes type personas like Ronaldinho, Etoo, Robben, Ribery.
Ronaldinho: cocky, leader, party animal.
Etoo: cocky, fighting with everyone, somewhat an asshole.
Giggs: fucked his brother's wife.
Bale: an asshole, said fuck you to everyone.
Figo: leader, an ultimate asshole, moved from Barca to Real.
Neymar: Ballon d'Or among assholes.
Etc...
We have learned in the last 10-20 years that for some reason, Barca's kids are the most choir-boys personas in top football (except maybe in China, but that is another story).
I am not from Spain, so I can only make a wild guess, but I guess it is a cultural thing.
I guess that people in Catalonia are probably chill, laid back, friendly, love culture and art, not too aggressive in general, people are not too poor, they don't live bad lives in general, right?
So, it has probably some roots in culture, surroundings, the way how families behave in Catalonia + paired with La Masia ideas from 90s and 00s when La Masia worked as a school and tried to develop young boys into (imo) too well behaved and too nice boys with no swearing, no tattoos, no fighting = just respect and TikiTaka. (You can watch some videos on Youtube about La Masia, where coaches say how they teach kids to be exetremely well behaved, and "nicer" than players in other teams, because "that's who we are"). Oh well, that can backfire on the field, right?
Well, as we have learned in the last 2 decades, our approach with too nice guys usually works only when we are MILES better than everyone else.
In 90% of other occassions, we are usually eaten alive and crumble under pressure against "dirtier" and less well-behaved boys/men.
We can never win when we are 50:50 in Europe or turn the losing ties around.
When you sum it all, this choir-boy-overly-nice behavior MIGHT work for midfielders like Busi, Xavi, Iniesta, who's main duty is to recycle possession, pass, move and use their brains.
But when you come to wingers and attackers, their football position is NOT AS FRIENDLY as Xavi's or Busi's position/role.
Wingers need to act proactive on the field and they need to have some level of "bully persona" traits because they need to provoke defenders, get kicked all the time, try to dribble the opponents and make fools out of them and in the end they need to stay composed and score goals under pressure.
When 80 000 people boo at them, they need to turn to the crowd and say: f you, I'll score against you again, assholes
When you sum it all, wingers and attackers need to have the highest amount of that attitude: fuck you all, I am the best, I'll make the fool out of you, you can't scare me.
And then, this needed persona is somewhat against everything what La Masia is teaching and how our local boys usually behave, isn't it?
Have you ever wondered why Barca was always short with local wingers/attackers since Cruijff and La Masia in 1990?
And why we always create mostly high IQ-good decisions-technical-physically weak-not too cocky midfielders?
Maybe personality traits of Catalan players/culture/La Masia are the best fit for midfield role in football?
While on positions where you need more cockiness and killer instincts = we usually fail, isn't it?
(Except when we got alien Messi, but he is an outlier example)
So, let's go back to Yamal, history says that La Masia attackers usually aren't good.
History says that La Masia attackers usually aren't mentally strong, cocky enough, brave enough and crumble under pressure (Bojan Krkic, even the alien Messi was famous for touching his beard and looking down whenever we were 0:1 down in the 2nd leg of CL KO matches on away stadiums).
In that sense, no personal hate for Yamal, but he reminds of a good-humble guy Joao Felix.
A good talent, but lacks asshole traits and mental strength to turn into an elite leader/winner winger.
I mean, football is a jungle, football is arena. In tough moments, technique is not enough. You need killer instincts and me versus you instincts.
Some of you may think that Real winning all the time in the 90th minute is a pure luck, and us almost never (except 6:1 vs Psg, but even then the not-so-choir-boy Neymar was the one who turned the game around while others crumbled and gave up) turning the match around is a bad luck.
But maybe there is more to this story?
Maybe the other clubs have figured out the importance of physical skills and personality traits in footballers (especially for certain positions)?
Yet we are stuck in the 1994 or 2009.
We train and teach players the same way as back then.
If technique and flair worked 20 years ago, why changing anything?
Add some emotions and "Barca DNA" into the mix and how this is who we are = and we are in deep problems.
For example, Fermin kid has a killer instinct and "fuck you all" attitude.
If we could do some DNA work and combine Fermin's personality and bravery with Yamal's skills = we would probably have the new Ronaldinho in our ranks.
But sadly, with Yamal's too nice choir-humble-boy personality, my bet is that we will get a level of talent somewhere at the level of Joao Felix.
With his type of personality, you can reach top levels only if you have Messi-like level of talent.
If you are not Messi's level of talent, then weak physique or too nice personality will get you only up to a certain level during your career.
Let's hope that I am wrong...
** Guys who asked how am I?
Thanks, I am ok.
I was just burned out from Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Palestine, left vs right, East vs West, religion vs non-religion, tribes vs tribes human behavior so I haven't visited forums for a few Months (and I felt healthier, tbh
