7 - Ferran Torres

[serghei]

Galactico transfers are reliable and needed for a club like Barca, as long as they are real galactico players and not wannabes like Coutinho and Dembele.

For Haaland and Mbappe, the juice is worth the squeeze. For anyone else, no.

 

[Windhook]

Partly in [MENTION=22947]mc_lovin[/MENTION] defence, I think you are all jumping on the Haaland hypetrain based on Dortmund games. Haaland is definitely a box office, but in a mediocre team without decent teammates, which Norway NT is you see he's no messiah. One of the reasons he will never choose Barca unless we transfer some world class playmaker.

 

[serghei]

Partly in [MENTION=22947]mc_lovin[/MENTION] defence, I think you are all jumping on the Haaland hypetrain based on Dortmund games. Haaland is definitely a box office, but in a mediocre team without decent teammates, which Norway NT is you see he's no messiah. One of the reasons he will never choose Barca unless we transfer some world class playmaker.

Well, this makes Mbappe the better player, but Haaland is still the 2nd best for me by a distance when looking at offensive firepower upgrades.

 

[DonAK]

Partly in @mc_lovin defence, I think you are all jumping on the Haaland hypetrain based on Dortmund games. Haaland is definitely a box office, but in a mediocre team without decent teammates, which Norway NT is you see he's no messiah. One of the reasons he will never choose Barca unless we transfer some world class playmaker.

He's been great for the Norwegian NT. He was a bit iffy his first 2-3 games, but been our best player by far since then.

We would have beaten Turkey in Istanbul and been playing in the playoffs, if not going directly through to the WC if he didn't get injured for our last three games.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Galactico transfers are reliable and needed for a club like Barca, as long as they are real galactico players and not wannabes like Coutinho and Dembele.

For Haaland and Mbappe, the juice is worth the squeeze. For anyone else, no.

Well, even Hazard failed who was supposed to be a sure thing. You never know with these massive signings.

 

[serghei]

Well, even Hazard failed who was supposed to be a sure thing. You never know with these massive signings.

Nah, Hazard wasn't a sure thing. The impression I got was of a player that already spent too much of his prime years in the physical EPL.

 

[DonAK]

If anything it's Odegaard who has been the massive disappointment for us.

 

[Windhook]

He's been great for the Norwegian NT. He was a bit iffy his first 2-3 games, but been our best player by far since then.

We would have beaten Turkey in Istanbul and been playing in the playoffs, if not going directly through to the WC if he didn't get injured for our last three games.

Well what ifs don't count in history, Turkey dominated the first game against Norway in front of no crowd game somewhere in Spain as far as I remember. Haaland was the sole reason I followed the game as he was on Barca shortlist.

 

[serghei]

Imo it's clear his performances will decline compared to the attacker's heaven which is Bundesliga. But still, his qualities will prevail, quite comfortably.

Would be perfect for the style of Xavi Barca, which is really much closer to the Rijkaard team than Pep's side.

 

[khaled_a_d]

He's been great for the Norwegian NT. He was a bit iffy his first 2-3 games, but been our best player by far since then.

We would have beaten Turkey in Istanbul and been playing in the playoffs, if not going directly through to the WC if he didn't get injured for our last three games.

tbf, injuries are unspoken worry about Haaland.
Guy that huge and in a player friendly league like Bundesliga and missed 10 games with club last year, 10 already this season.
Normally it shouldn't be a worry, but for his hype, price tag and our Dembele history, it should be

 

[gregorrin10]

You keep bringing this up without looking deeper. In his first season at Valencia (18/19) he was mostly coming off the bench as a 18 yo kid in a solid side that finished top 4 in the league. Marcelino played likes of Rodrigo, Santi Mina and Gameiro as strikers while Ferran was more of a RM in his standard 4-4-2 double 6 formation so not that close to the goal.

Next year Marcelino was fired early in the season due to disagreements with Valencia board and was replaced with Albert Celades who is not a good manager. So unsurprisingly they've struggled for most of the season. Their top scorers Parejo (mostly from penalties) and Maxi Gomez have scored 10 goals so hard to stand out in a team that has problems to score. More so, after corona break Ferran's role was diminished when he rejected to renew and Valencia already decided to sell with a year left on his contract.

In his first season at City he scored 13 goals in all competitions, including 4 in the CL. Pretty good stats considering it was his first season in a new league and Pep playing without a clear #9 rotating his midfielders and forwards around a lot so they ended up with 7 players in double digit goals and Gundogan leading the team with 17 total goals. And we clearly can't say much about current season when he has been out injured for the last two months.

I think his numbers will improve if playing regularly. Xavi wants to play similar system to Pep so he should fit in fast, he also knows players like Pedri, Gavi and Eric. OTOH of course there will be bigger pressure on him to score more as we won't have another 5-6 players capable to score 10+ goals like City does.

Don't see him becoming a 30-40 goals scorer but he should get around 20 goals (and depending if we get a top striker alongside him he could also add around 10 assists) every season imo. Also not sure if he should be a false 9 longterm and considering we're linked to likes of Haaland and Vlahović that's probably also not our plan but for second part of this season with lack of better options he is the best fit for that role alongside Ansu if/when he'll return. Ferran's ability to play as a false 9 clearly adds to the team's versatility and unpredictability though and he could also play there if whichever striker we'll bring wouldn't be available.

This is probably one of the reasons why Xavi prefered him over more pure wingers like Raphinha or Antony. Another reason which was already mentioned is his adaptation should be much easier which is even more important when signed in January so he won't have a luxury to have a month of preseason to gel with the team. When fully fit to play I think he can make immediate positive impact but hopefully people won't expect too much from him too soon (who I'm kidding people will have patience though, lol).

��️[ @DiMarzio��] | Haaland's first priority is Real Madrid

Still no reply to this? Onto the next topic, when you've got no counter, eh? TROLL!

 

[Windhook]

Imo it's clear his performances will decline compared to the attacker's heaven which is Bundesliga. But still, his qualities will prevail, quite comfortably.

Would be perfect for the style of Xavi Barca, which is really much closer to the Rijkaard team than Pep's side.

No doubt Haaland will leave his mark in La Liga. What worries me is we hadn't such physical player since Ronaldo/Kluivert and the times these players played for the club weren't particularly followed by Cruyff's philosophy.

 

[mc_lovin]

The marketing aspect of Haaland is overrated, no? He's certainly a statement signing, but that's it. He's not exactly an idol, but maybe I am out of touch with the youth :S

Anyway, I am not fanatically opposed to him, after all we still need a CF. We will see how the rest of the season evolves... after that we should have more of a clue about what should happen.

 

[fergus90]

Nah, whoever gets Mbappe/Haaland will be selling ridiculous numbers of shirts. Just like when Ronaldo/Messi were at Madrid & Barca, youngsters were always wearing their shirts in the UK even.

Yet to see a 21/22 Barca shirt being worn in the UK yet though.

 

[SmilerBam]

Nah, whoever gets Mbappe/Haaland will be selling ridiculous numbers of shirts. Just like when Ronaldo/Messi were at Madrid & Barca, youngsters were always wearing their shirts in the UK even.

Yet to see a 21/22 Barca shirt being worn in the UK yet though.

Messi and Ronaldo in their prime were 10 times better than Haaland and Mbappe. Thy are no slouch either, but nowhere near the demigods of football, ability wise.