24 - Eric García

[malvolio]

Pique, Umtiti, Lenglet, Arajuo, Mingueza, Todibo, and potentially Garcia. Almost all of them are the same when it comes to their performance/ profiles. Then we have got a bunch more (also almost the same) such as Comas, Igor, Mingo, Marmol (my favourite), and Marsa (like him more as a LB).

I would love to see us going after Koulibaly.

We need a CB signing that transforms our defense. Leadership, athleticism and awarnes should be key attributes. Enough of these bums.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Low risk yes but also low yield. If he wasn’t a La Masia kid, I doubt we would have gone after him. We need one possible two top CBS, not just someone who could be somewhat useful.

 

[FC433]

^
Just one. We got plenty of promising CBs.

 

[Bobo32]

Pique, Umtiti, Lenglet, Arajuo, Mingueza, Todibo, and potentially Garcia. Almost all of them are the same when it comes to their performance/ profiles. Then we have got a bunch more (also almost the same) such as Comas, Igor, Mingo, Marmol (my favourite), and Marsa (like him more as a LB).

I would love to see us going after Koulibaly.

Araujo is a physical south american defender who is poor on the ball and there was much talk about him being a leader on the pitch some months back (Sid Lowe went on about him being the only one whose voice was heard on the pitch)
Mingueza is good on the ball but very aggressive and loose in his play
Pique is a bit lazy, but great on the ball and has his length and a lot of other qualities still.
Umtiti and Lenglet I don't want to talk about or see play any more, but I think they both were quite different to the other three...

I don't really see the similarities, but I do think all Barcelona defenders should non-negotiably be very competent with the ball.

 

[Luftstalag14]

^
Just one. We got plenty of promising CBs.

I am not sure about that.

 

[FC433]

^ [MENTION=29755]Bobo32[/MENTION]
some in style others in performance as in not good enough to be a starter just yet. You could also add experience there as well. 4 of them (including EG) are just starting their career. What I meant is that you swap between any of them and will get the same result, most likely.

 

[FC433]

I am not sure about that.

About what? (their potential, cannot tell without giving them opportunities) either way, it would not be wise to add another young CB, and we definitely should not spend $$$$$ on two good CBs when we have other positions to reinforce.

 

[DonAK]

Todibo is likely getting signed by Nice who have a buy option.

Umtiti is a crock.

Lenglet is way too error prone.

Araujo is a great talent.

Mingueza is likely going to be the new Sergi Roberto. A player that is decent in multiple positions(CB and RB), but not really good enough to start.

Eric Garcia is a 3rd, 4th option CB IMO. His greatest strength is his passing, but defensively he has looked very suspect from what I've seen.

I cannot speak for the La Masia guys, but we absolutely need a World Class or close to World Class CB, someone that got leadership qualities and is a great defender.

 

[Bobo32]

^ [MENTION=29755]Bobo32[/MENTION]
some in style others in performance as in not good enough to be a starter just yet. You could also add experience there as well. 4 of them (including EG) are just starting their career. What I meant is that you swap between any of them and will get the same result, most likely.

Ok, sure. Since Puyol or at least since Mascherano, Barcelona have been in need of one good central defender.
Pique is soon out of it as well if not already, so yes I agree they are in need, there are four or five decent alternatives and no obviously great ones right now.

I was impressed by Comas the little I saw, maybe Comas and Garcia can be a great pair in the future? I also like Frenkie as a CB for Barcelona...

 

[FC433]

Todibo is likely getting signed by Nice who have a buy option.

Umtiti is a crock.

Lenglet is way too error prone.

Araujo is a great talent.

Mingueza is likely going to be the new Sergi Roberto. A player that is decent in multiple positions(CB and RB), but not really good enough to start.

Eric Garcia is a 3rd, 4th option CB IMO. His greatest strength is his passing, but defensively he has looked very suspect from what I've seen.

I cannot speak for the La Masia guys, but we absolutely need a World Class or close to World Class CB, someone that got leadership qualities and is a great defender.

Totally. Imagine Koulibaly leading our defense.

Ok, sure. Since Puyol or at least since Mascherano, Barcelona have been in need of one good central defender.
Pique is soon out of it as well if not already, so yes I agree they are in need, there are four or five decent alternatives and no obviously great ones right now.

I was impressed by Comas the little I saw, maybe Comas and Garcia can be a great pair in the future? I also like Frenkie as a CB for Barcelona...

Time will tell, but until then, we need to stop getting young CBs.

 

[Luftstalag14]

About what? (their potential, cannot tell without giving them opportunities) either way, it would not be wise to add another young CB, and we definitely should not spend $$$$$ on two good CBs when we have other positions to reinforce.

Not sure about your claim of us having plenty of promising CBs. Araujo might be one, I am not 100% sold. Mingueza? Big question marks. Who else?

 

[FC433]

Not sure about your claim of us having plenty of promising CBs. Araujo might be one, I am not 100% sold. Mingueza? Big question marks. Who else?

I understand. I think we have a different understanding of what promising means, and that is okay.

 

[xxxxxx]

We've been crying out for a world-class CB for years, but we've been signing players like Dembele, Griezmann and Coutinho for 100m plus.

 

[FCBarca]

So it's just your usual blind faith in La Masia coaches and Pep who were absolutely never wrong about any player.

That kind of hyperbole is exactly your lane, by all means continue with that stream of 'logic' that no one claimed

Sorry that I'm not totally convinced by what I've seen so far from Eric in senior football to believe he could become a longterm starting CB (which we need) for a competitive Barca team (which was my point about him if you've missed that as I've said I think he could be a good squad player) and your response did nothing to get my doubts about him go away either.

Only thing lamentable is how poor your attempt at reasoning is. Sure, you are not convinced (When the greatest coaches in our club's history do) - that either makes you a genius ahead of them or precisely how I depicted your type of fan


Posters claiming to be fans less than a decade ago were binning Pep, touting the virtues of Rosell & eventually Bartomeu - every club has a portion of fans without the faintest idea of what the club is about much less how to improve it. Barca is no different

 

[Messi983]

I don't think we can ask for more from a free signing really. Premier League experience, International experience with Spain, Captain through the youth categories and still just 20 years old.

Take for example the B team has a similar style talent in Arnau Comas. I just looked it up and Comas is almost a full year older than Eric Garcia. It can't be emphasised how much of a potential asset Eric Garcia's experience at his age is.

I read before if he was called Ericinho or something and if he was Brazilian that we would not consider him. Well maybe not, because he would hold a non-eu spot. But if he was called Ericotextia and was 4th option at City and starting for Spain in defence we would probably want to sign him. I can't believe we are holding it against him that he is ex La Masia and not starting for City, ignoring he is a current international and was playing for City when his long term status was not in dispute.

Last year I posted that we should go for Rudiger but was met with replies that he doesn't start for Chelsea and is poor. Now he is starting for Chelsea and had a good season, I wonder if more would be interested. We fans can be fickle sometimes.

He started 10 league games for them, most of them at the end of last season (post corona) when City have already given up on the league.

I don't hold it against him he's ex La Masia player but I don't think we'd be after a player with similar career path than him so far if not for his past Barca experience either.

Araujo is a physical south american defender who is poor on the ball and there was much talk about him being a leader on the pitch some months back (Sid Lowe went on about him being the only one whose voice was heard on the pitch)
Mingueza is good on the ball but very aggressive and loose in his play
Pique is a bit lazy, but great on the ball and has his length and a lot of other qualities still.
Umtiti and Lenglet I don't want to talk about or see play any more, but I think they both were quite different to the other three...

I don't really see the similarities, but I do think all Barcelona defenders should non-negotiably be very competent with the ball.

Well, here is where we disagree again. Being competent with the ball is needed, but being actually good at defending should be even more important criteria when deciding which player we should sign. When Araujo first came to Barca B I've watched him a few times. He was poor on the ball back then so I've never expected him to make it here. But the club believed in him as a defender enough to let him work on his weakness and he's improved his passing skills a lot under Pimienta while he already had good defending skills (which have obviously also improved in time) and this paired with his athleticism (which is one thing you can't teach) makes him our best defender at this point eventhough he's still worse on the ball than our other CBs. It's just a shame he seems to be injury prone so we can't pencil him in as one of our potential future starting CBs until he proves he can stay fit.

Remember when back in the days Pep fall in love with Chygrinskiy's passing skills so much he totally overlooked the guy had no clue how to defend? So obviously his stay at the club was short-term. Now if he would be an above average defender with average ball skills I'm sure Pep would improve that aspect of his game enough for him to have better chances to succeed.

Also, don't know what exactly do you mean by Umtiti and Lenglet were different to the other three. They're both good passers and Umtiti was a very good defender before his injuries. We'll never know for sure but I think if he'd be fit over the last three seasons a lot of things would be different. He's still only 27 and should be in his prime years now but he has ruined his career by playing WC 2018 with painkillers. Luckily for him at least they've won but still very questionable if it was really worth it. For Barca obviously things couldn't have turned out worse.