wisconsincule
Senior Member
He does not need to start tomorrow.... just let the kid rest
I have argued in another thread that Xavi "never" played hard passes.
Leave it to Koeman to not observe this guy is way slower than he was in the first part of the season. Wonder why...
He should be rested because he's tired and slow out there, everybody can see it.
He is kinda "slow" anyway, but he has that incredible "know how" to deal with any situation he is in. Xavi/Ineasts like intelligence, that allows him to be dominant even without getting into direct scuffles. The football IQ of this kid is certainly over 9000. Koeman knows it and thus exploits him to make his team look better. Partly a joke.
His slowness wasn't as evident in the first part of the season. Now he definitely looks and moves slow.
You think you are smart enough to catch on to something that the coach hasn't, but not smart enough to realize coach doesn't need to observe anything since all football kits carry a device that measures players individual speed.
This isn't me defending Koeman in particular, I have seen the same stuff happen over and over with Valverde.
You are on an agenda to convince others of your belief that Koeman is stubborn, I know. Maybe it's to save face once Koeman is successful and you have his "stubborness" to hold on to once you have to explain why you weren't on board with him from the go.
Don't let this bias blindside you and come up with poor arguments. Flavia banned you for this I believe.
You act as if I have to pick a side. It's perfectly normal to like some things about Koeman and dislike others. You need to accept this mate.
He doesnt look all that much slower or all that tired if anything the way he covers ground defensively has improved for example.
More likely opposition are more aware of him and what he can do and better idea of how to approach stopping him on the ball. Also as Barca fans probably been a bit guilty of over stating his current level and putting any time he is caught on ball, out muscled etc as being down to tiredness.
Barca and coaching staff will have far more data on his physical abilities during games than any of us.
Don't worry [MENTION=20218]Horatio[/MENTION], when Xavi will be manager, I'll pick up this role you have now in Der Koelt. Every excuse that can be made for him, I will call it into service.
He is a "player from the street", good at solving situations 1v1, 2v2 and so on. He is far, far from Xavi or Iniesta both in style and in football intelligence.
I have argued in another thread that Xavi "never" played hard passes. I think it is true that Xavi used to play >100 passes per game, making none of his actions look really hard. Pedri averages under 50 passes per game I think, and maybe half of his actions look pretty difficult, while the other half looks like he wanted to do something more but found out he couldn't so he shuffled the ball over to someone else.
Xavi was always with his head up, scanning, deciding, choosing the best option to safely progress every time. Pedri looks for a fancy one touch, tries to dribble an opponent or tries to find a forcing pass. Most often he doesn't find something great but he is good enough technically to usually find some team mate at least.
A difference is with Xavi you could not only see in advance which player he would pass to, but you also saw which player he intended the next pass to go to, by the tempo and direction of his pass and which foot he played into. Pedri sometimes shows this when he goes for a one-two, but rarely otherwise.
Just checked some stats from this year - Pedri averages 42 passes per game with a 86,7% success rate. Xavi would have at least double the amount of passes and never ever under 90%, mostly around 95%
The main difference is not in statistics though, but in the situations they get themselves into. Pedri often recieves the ball in tight spaces with few apparent options, Xavi always looked as if he had two or three options ready if the opponents took one step wrong.