8 - Pedri

[raskolnikov]

If Koeman properly used Puig then Pedri would not be so drained in these crucial games.
He looks like he needs a month off to recover.

 

[Bobo32]

He still looks tired to me. He must be overwhelmed to play so many senior matches at that age.

Yeah, he does look tired still.
I was looking at my first posts on this forum, written three months ago, and this is what I wrote about Pedri then:

This player is technically gifted, ambitious, and sometimes does come up with brilliant solutions.

I think he is often in the wrong place positionally, get's caught in tight situations, forced to play backwards, turns the wrong way and play alibi passes etc.

I have a hard time judging his potential, but think he should be played as one of the wingers in a 4-3-3 rather than as a midfielder.

The one I would compare him to is maybe Di Maria. A bit more composed and a bit less of a typical winger, but I still feel that he is a winger playing in the center.
He is tricky, good 1v1, works hard, combines well. But I don't see him having the vision of a midfielder, more of a winger (he sees the tactics better than the strategics, to put it in chess terms)

That's great, a good game, although he looked pretty tired there for a while.
Let's see how he develops, and what his status will be if he plays like now but is 24 rather than 18. If he gets to play more in the middle of the pitch he will surely change some habits and his vision, but I don't think he will ever play like Iniesta.

My comparison with Di Maria has made many forum members laugh. Di Maria was regarded as top 3 in the world for a while, just like Iniesta. I always prefered Iniesta obviously. He oozed of talent, painted with a large brush and an easy hand and his vision and timing was close to perfect. He had the "matador" aspect in him in that he invited the press in order to beat it with a dribble or a pass - this is something that Messi, Xavi, Busquets, Thiago and also Puig has, but I don't yet see in Pedri. Like Di Maria, I see him wanting to force the play more by attacking a defender, and he either succeeds or is forced to pass backwards or sideways. He is more direct, and more of a complementary player - a spark - than a player to build a team around, based on his style, I say.

I like Pedris long passes, and he has a tendency to find nice one-touch passes (don't know the english word). I also liked his pass to Messi in the end of last game, perfect timing. I don't see him being aware of three, four passing options at the same time however, and I often want him five meters differently positionally. He is young and might change my mind. I still like him already.

I still agree with most of what I wrote then.
It has been almost farce-like the way he has kept playing and looking more and more tired, so my comparison to Di Maria look even stranger now, as Pedri looks to be about three times slower than Angel right now whereas he was only half as fast him in the beginning of the season. But I still think his decision-making, or rather his vision, is similar to Di Marias, as I described earlier. But he has also started to play a lot more safely since then, I think it might be partly because of fatigue.

Koeman has kept saying that Pedri will dominate in a few years - I don't think him being given the auto-spot in the team does him any favours though, I think some of his flaws are being accentuated and maybe more and more permanent with these minutes.

 

[khaled_a_d]

one of our best players today, was everywhere and very involved, lacked finishing touch but we knew that about him already.

 

[JohnN]

He still is 18 though. A kid in the full sense of the word. So, how he turns out is a mystery really. That's why I said we are gonna se Pedri v.2 after the summer, not implying we are gonna see a better or worse player, but I firmly believe we are gonna see a different player.

 

[Raketa10]

He is a world class talent but he definitely needs to work on his finishing and final pass.

 

[behindbrowneyes]

On an individual level his performances undoubtedly have dropped. Messi and especially FDJ have way more freedom when Pedri is on the pitch though. The difference was immediately visible when Pedri got subbed.

 

[fergus90]

Ultimately Koeman must bring another midfielder of quality if he has no intention of using Pjanic, Puig etc to allow Pedri to be used and developed responsibly.

Moriba isn't ready to be first sub every game just yet or starting when Pedri is out. Pedri is off form but like behindbrowneyes said above, the difference in their positioning, distribution and calmness on the ball was night and day.

 

[Windhook]

Needs to clear his head, his confidence seems diminished in recent games. Actually ever his Spain NT debut he's not the same level.

 

[Bobo32]

Ultimately Koeman must bring another midfielder of quality if he has no intention of using Pjanic, Puig etc to allow Pedri to be used and developed responsibly.

Moriba isn't ready to be first sub every game just yet or starting when Pedri is out. Pedri is off form but like behindbrowneyes said above, the difference in their positioning, distribution and calmness on the ball was night and day.

I am sure that Orellana, Nico, maybe even someone like Gavi, could be brought on without embarrassing themselves. 20, 30 or 45 minutes, to rest Pedri now and then.

 

[hardyboy]

Overhyped and overrated by this forum. I cannot see him succeed here. He is average.

 

[DonAK]

Foden is the superior talent, but let's calm down a bit.

Pedri turned 18 years old this season. This is his first season at this level and he was outstanding in the first half of the season.

Foden will turn 21 in a few weeks and took his time for Pep to trust him to start games like this. A couple of year ago you had people claiming Foden had to leave City since he wasn't getting many chances to play.

Step-by-step.

Let's not be silly.

 

[te amo barca]

I don't think you can even compare the two. Pedri sets the tempo, keeps the ball moving. Foden is a direct player of the attacking third. His g+a numbers will always be higher than those of Pedri

 

[Luftstalag14]

Fans are so fickle. When a player does well for a good period of time he is lauded with all sorts of praises and exaggerations ; and suddenly he is down to nothing because he hits a rough patch. Flavor of the week, flavor of the month, take a pick.

Why limited to Foden? Why don’t people compare Pedri to all the great midfielders and especially attacking midfielders that ever played the game and say Pedri is bad, bad and bad? Perhaps even Foden himself is not that great compared to them.

 

[hardyboy]

Foden is the superior talent, but let's calm down a bit.

Pedri turned 18 years old this season. This is his first season at this level and he was outstanding in the first half of the season.

Foden will turn 21 in a few weeks and took his time for Pep to trust him to start games like this. A couple of year ago you had people claiming Foden had to leave City since he wasn't getting many chances to play.

Step-by-step.

Let's not be silly.

You need to be special to become an absolute starter at the age of 18 for a club like Barca. Pedri is nothing special. He only does the basics right which is not enough. The state of out club is like this because of players like Pedri who have become absolute starters at such young age without proving shit. Players like Frankie De Jong should be absolute starters if u want to build a world class team and compete with the likes of City.

 

[DonAK]

You need to be special to become an absolute starter at the age of 18 for a club like Barca. Pedri is nothing special. He only does the basics right which is not enough. The state of out club is like this because of players like Pedri who have become absolute starters at such young age without proving shit. Players like Frankie De Jong should be absolute starters if u want to build a world class team and compete with the likes of City.

Sure, but Pedri wasn't brought to be a starter right away. Circumstances made it such that he had to start and until January/February he played really well and a lot of times did play like a special talent.

Foden was barely playing for City at the same age. Now a player's development isn't necessarily linear, but you get my point.