6 - Carles Alena

[God Serena]

As easy as it is to blame the management for the La Masia prospects not appearing in the first team; at the end of the day it takes to tango; it's not like the youngsters who went out are performing at a good level! Including the golden boy Thiago Alcantara, the La Masia graduates in the recent past have been disappointing on a whole!

And then we have the likes of Alena now emerging who are actually tapping the first team opportunities purely based on their skill!!

How exactly was Thiago disappointing? You and I should all hope for a La Masia graduate to feature for us as much as he did...

 

[Aryagorn]

How exactly was Thiago disappointing? You and I should all hope for a La Masia graduate to feature for us as much as he did...

He is not exactly setting the world on fire with Bayern! We won our own treble after he left for the treble winners!! tbh we have not exactly missed him, and with him in the team we might have or not done better! Or who knows, we might even have done worse considering the possibility that we might have won the league in 2014 had he stayed and got stuck with Tata Martino

 

[FCBarca]

Don't want to see him come off late again for a midfielder who isn't performing, irrespective of their transfer fee or experience

 

[Andresito]

Deserves to start tomorrow. Would've loved to see him against Madrid's midfield.

 

[George_Costanza]

The management had ton to blame for sure, but I was talking in the sense that it is difficult to grow 4 young players in same time. Each of them will need playing time while there would still be a need to have a veteran presence beside them.
In 4 years, I doubt all 4 will be in the team, but it should be a question of who should we make our bets onto and who should leave at some point. We will need to make smart decision too if all were developing well
Remember, there is other younger talents than Puig that at some point will need to have the room to grow too

I disagree, given that we don't have dominant world class midfielders like Xavi and Iniesta and/or the midfielders we have right now are declining/past their peak. I would say the manager should give those youngsters more chances and rely on them more often since he doesn't have an alternative but to do so! The next 2-3 season is the best time for any youngster to join Barcelona.

In this very specific case I don't blame the board tbh, Montoya was just slow, unlike Carvajal. For Montoya he looked great when the game was in slow motion but once the game was too quick for him he was lost. I fell for the hype but in a hindsight he never had what it takes to succeed unlike Carvajal.
RM has been doing some good decisions in this decade in developing their players for sure. I've been pointing out to this since 2015 or 2016.

Carvajal wasn't that good and made many mistakes just like Montoya. His first Clasico (2014) was a horror show and Iniesta almost ended Carvajal career that night. His stats for that game: 72 % passing, 2/5 crosses, 1 interception, 0/7 tackles. His positioning was a big issue in his first season, but he did mature very well after his first season playing as many games as any starter. Circumstances helped him such as Arbeloa's injury, and Montoya's non playing time is what made Del Bosque call him for the NT, and the rest is history.

Both were great talents but Carvajal excelled and progressed faster because he was given playing time to develop, a philosophy of recent to Real Madrid so Carvajal was allowed to make mistakes/have growing pains without severe punishment that we see from Barcelona's recent managers. He's one of those youngsters that has raised his level of play each time, and he's moved up a level. Do you think Lucho or Valverde has the patience for this?

 

[khaled_a_d]

I disagree, given that we don't have dominant world class midfielders like Xavi and Iniesta and/or the midfielders we have right now are declining/past their peak. I would say the manager should give those youngsters more chances and rely on them more often since he doesn't have an alternative but to do so! The next 2-3 season is the best time for any youngster to join Barcelona.

They can have all playing time, I just don't see 4 players at same line developing at same time, only time I've seen something comparable was in BVB under Klopp but Bundesliga was shit anyway at that time and way less pressure.
Xavi was 4 year older than Iniesta who was 4 years older than Busquets, this change in timeline helped all 3 to develop with less pressure. It will be tough for 4 young midfielders to develop into world class at same time at same team regardless the coach.
May be they prove me wrong, that will be good for Barca and would make me happy, but I don't see it.

Carvajal wasn't that good and made many mistakes just like Montoya. His first Clasico (2014) was a horror show and Iniesta almost ended Carvajal career that night. His stats for that game: 72 % passing, 2/5 crosses, 1 interception, 0/7 tackles. His positioning was a big issue in his first season, but he did mature very well after his first season playing as many games as any starter. Circumstances helped him such as Arbeloa's injury, and Montoya's non playing time is what made Del Bosque call him for the NT, and the rest is history.

Both were great talents but Carvajal excelled and progressed faster because he was given playing time to develop, a philosophy of recent to Real Madrid so Carvajal was allowed to make mistakes/have growing pains without severe punishment that we see from Barcelona's recent managers. He's one of those youngsters that has raised his level of play each time, and he's moved up a level. Do you think Lucho or Valverde has the patience for this?

RM did a good job with Carvajal for sure, but Montoya was destined for failure even with non-stop playing time. He was Bojan of RBs sadly.
He wasn't good enough for any Barca coach to think high of him including Pep btw. He lacked speed which is the most important factor for a full back, he lacked quick decision making and never was explosive. raw tools was always in favor of Carvajal.
You put them both in 2nd division team today and Montoya might still look better because lower level suits him greatly, but in top level he is just pathetic and his career has failed even after Barca.
Think of him of a good college basketball player who lacked physical tools vs highly rated athletic freshman. Like a Jimmer Fredette vs Jaren Jackson Jr

 

[DonAK]

Miranda is in a lot of ways similar to Montoya.

 

[tacticvarium]

I also think only one or two of Arthur, FDJ, Aleñá, Riqui, etc. will manage to survive as a long-term first team player. There could be an exception but history says such a thing doesn't occur often.

 

[DonAK]

Arthur is already a lock for me. Unless he eventually want to leave and join some other team, but I doubt it.

I think three of them will be in Barcelona in 4 years. One might be gone then.

 

[xXKonan]

I have a feeling he will start tomorrow with Messi on the Bench.

 

[serghei]

Miranda is in a lot of ways similar to Montoya.

He's worse and that's coming from someone who thinks Montoya is the definition of average.

 

[Zidane82]

A future midfield of FDJ-Arthur-Alena would be LIT

Agreed ... not happening whilst Valverde is here though

 

[BBZ8800]

Agreed ... not happening whilst Valverde is here though

That midfield vs a stronger opponent will be really "fun" to watch.
With or without EV.

Frenkie plays with 1-2 workhorses at Ajax.
Frenkie plays with 2 workhorses at NT team.
Arthur plays with 2 workhorses at Barca.

And people suddenly have an idea: let's pair three silky midfielders together.
Even better, Riki Puig as the first sub for these 3, lol.
What could possibly go wrong...?
Let's hope that CL opponents will field 3-4 teen girls in midfield against these guys so that we won't need to tackle and defend too much.

You'll realize that in 2-3 years.

 

[messi2140]

Because a midfield of Iniesta-Raki-Busi-Roberto worked great against Roma last year.

 

[Alik]

That midfield vs a stronger opponent will be really "fun" to watch.
With or without EV.

Frenkie plays with 1-2 workhorses at Ajax.
Frenkie plays with 2 workhorses at NT team.
Arthur plays with 2 workhorses at Barca.

And people suddenly have an idea: let's pair three silky midfielders together.
Even better, Riki Puig as the first sub for these 3, lol.
What could possibly go wrong...?
Let's hope that CL opponents will field 3-4 teen girls in midfield against these guys so that we won't need to tackle and defend too much.

You'll realize that in 2-3 years.

Arthur plays with 2 workhorses at Barça? Are you including Busquets in that?