9 - Luis Suárez - v1

[BerkeleyBernie]

I have no problem with Suarez, he is doing exactly what he was brought to Barça to do. His assist passes are excellent. What he isn't very good at are short passes in tight spaces (i.e. typical rondo passes). He does attempt such passes, and I suspect, given the daily rondo training, he will improve his touch over time, making him even more dangerous.

 

[barcanuck]

I have no problem with Suarez, he is doing exactly what he was brought to Barça to do. His assist passes are excellent. What he isn't very good at are short passes in tight spaces (i.e. typical rondo passes). He does attempt such passes, and I suspect, given the daily rondo training, he will improve his touch over time, making him even more dangerous.

It doesn't matter he is a different type of Passer. He always looks for the killer pass not just the safe one. He is high turnover or high reward. Hence his assist stat.

 

[lessthanjake]

It doesn't matter he is a different type of Passer. He always looks for the killer pass not just the safe one. He is high turnover or high reward. Hence his assist stat.

Not sure if you mean that as a criticism (I think you don't), but it reminds me of something that I am addressing to people in general:

We need our players to take some risks. If every player is supposed to make the safe pass all the time, we inevitably end up with enormous Messi dependency. Messi takes risks when he gets the ball. And obviously virtually everyone is okay with that. But if we are not okay with other players taking risks, then what you are asking for is for the team to rely on Messi to make anything happen, because you are saying other players should not try anything. We need more than just Messi to be willing to take such risks. Suarez is willing to do it, and I think that is a good thing. As long as the plays/passes he is attempting are not abnormally low percentage plays, then we are fine. And, so far, he has NOT been trying stupidly low percentage stuff. He just hasn't always succeeded at what he tries. But that is to be expected. In my mind, I'd rather a player try a through ball on a break and miss it a lot of the time than have that player make a safe pass every time there is a break. The former will kill the break sometimes and create goals other times, whereas the latter will do nothing of worth ever.

 

[BerkeleyBernie]

It doesn't matter he is a different type of Passer. He always looks for the killer pass not just the safe one. He is high turnover or high reward. Hence his assist stat.

You miss my meaning. And you're wrong- he *also* tries to play 1-2 passes in tight spaces, he just isn't very good at them- yet. My point is that if he can improve that aspect of his game, it will be yet another threat in his arsenal, making him even more unpredictable and harder to defend. But that's just icing on the cake.

 

[Gasgas]

Not sure if you mean that as a criticism (I think you don't), but it reminds me of something that I am addressing to people in general:

We need our players to take some risks. If every player is supposed to make the safe pass all the time, we inevitably end up with enormous Messi dependency. Messi takes risks when he gets the ball. And obviously virtually everyone is okay with that. But if we are not okay with other players taking risks, then what you are asking for is for the team to rely on Messi to make anything happen, because you are saying other players should not try anything. We need more than just Messi to be willing to take such risks. Suarez is willing to do it, and I think that is a good thing. As long as the plays/passes he is attempting are not abnormally low percentage plays, then we are fine. And, so far, he has NOT been trying stupidly low percentage stuff. He just hasn't always succeeded at what he tries. But that is to be expected. In my mind, I'd rather a player try a through ball on a break and miss it a lot of the time than have that player make a safe pass every time there is a break. The former will kill the break sometimes and create goals other times, whereas the latter will do nothing of worth ever.

suarez is amazing just the way he is. You want passes? We had cesc who played upfront with the two forwards, we all saw how that went.
We need a risk taker bulldog who can score and we have that, but sadly cules are never satisfied even if you score in el classico or a crucial away double in UCL knockouts

 

[Tiny Kim]

Pass percentages are a rather unfair stats measure a CF. Because they have to make lesser number of passes with a majority of them being risky or decisive ones. Thus, there is more chance of having a low % especially if you're new to the team and the league. Anyway, Suarez's passing is normally a lot better than he is currently showing. He is no maestro in the passing department but they are usually creative and sometimes downright genius.

I've always had the belief that Suarez's footballing mentality is second to none. Its just that his physical and technical abilities are not as overly "amazing" in comparison, and that has often limited his performances on-field to a certain degree.

 

[barcanuck]

Not sure if you mean that as a criticism (I think you don't), but it reminds me of something that I am addressing to people in general:

We need our players to take some risks. If every player is supposed to make the safe pass all the time, we inevitably end up with enormous Messi dependency. Messi takes risks when he gets the ball. And obviously virtually everyone is okay with that. But if we are not okay with other players taking risks, then what you are asking for is for the team to rely on Messi to make anything happen, because you are saying other players should not try anything. We need more than just Messi to be willing to take such risks. Suarez is willing to do it, and I think that is a good thing. As long as the plays/passes he is attempting are not abnormally low percentage plays, then we are fine. And, so far, he has NOT been trying stupidly low percentage stuff. He just hasn't always succeeded at what he tries. But that is to be expected. In my mind, I'd rather a player try a through ball on a break and miss it a lot of the time than have that player make a safe pass every time there is a break. The former will kill the break sometimes and create goals other times, whereas the latter will do nothing of worth ever.

Yep exactly, we need that risky pass not the safe predictable pass.

You miss my meaning. And you're wrong- he *also* tries to play 1-2 passes in tight spaces, he just isn't very good at them- yet. My point is that if he can improve that aspect of his game, it will be yet another threat in his arsenal, making him even more unpredictable and harder to defend. But that's just icing on the cake.

I don't see him needing to improve at anything mate, he scores and assists equally what more do we want?

 

[Kohe321]

I don't see him needing to improve at anything mate, he scores and assists equally what more do we want?

I want him to become better at one-twos in tight spaces

He's great right now, but he mucks these passes up quite often, and with the daily rondo exercises that Bernie mentions, he probably will improve this aspect of his game more and more as time goes on, making him even better for us. Which is awesome

It really speaks volumes to how great he can become for Barca when he's already playing this well for us, and he has only been playing matches with the first team since the 25'th of October last year... :barca scarf:

 

[BBZ8800]

Yep exactly, we need that risky pass not the safe predictable pass.

Well, we can't go into the extremes.

If we make zero risky passes, we will pass the ball from left to right and then from right to left for 90 Minutes with zero created chances.
On the other hand, if every pass is a risky pass, then we will either create a chance after 2-3 passes or we will lose the ball after 15 seconds, like against Real, when Neymar went into extremes and his every move had to be a risky move, risky pass or a risky dribble.

So, yes, we need some risks, but we don't need to go full retard, so that every single action from a single player needs to be either a killer pass or a counterattack for the opponents.

We need some balance.
Players need to have "a feeling" when it is the moment to try a risky thing, and when it is the moment to wait for 20-30-60 seconds longer and try to make a risky move after 10-20 passes, when you have less opponents around you.

My reply is not about Suarez, but about players in general.
Riquelme in Barca was extremely dumb player.
We used to pass and pass the ball and waited for the right moment to make a risky dribble/through pass.
And Riquelme would just try a deadly through ball whenever he would get the ball, and he would ruin every single action.

So, no. That is not brave, smart or "taking risks". That is just stupid.

So, again, we need some balance between safe passes and risky dribbles/passes.

 

[linetty]

Well, we can't go into the extremes.

If we make zero risky passes, we will pass the ball from left to right and then from right to left for 90 Minutes with zero created chances.
On the other hand, if every pass is a risky pass, then we will either create a chance after 2-3 passes or we will lose the ball after 15 seconds, like against Real, when Neymar went into extremes and his every move had to be a risky move, risky pass or a risky dribble.

So, yes, we need some risks, but we don't need to go full retard, so that every single action from a single player needs to be either a killer pass or a counterattack for the opponents.

We need some balance.
Players need to have "a feeling" when it is the moment to try a risky thing, and when it is the moment to wait for 20-30-60 seconds longer and try to make a risky move after 10-20 passes, when you have less opponents around you.

My reply is not about Suarez, but about players in general.
Riquelme in Barca was extremely dumb player.
We used to pass and pass the ball and waited for the right moment to make a risky dribble/through pass.
And Riquelme would just try a deadly through ball whenever he would get the ball, and he would ruin every single action.

So, no. That is not brave, smart or "taking risks". That is just stupid.

So, again, we need some balance between safe passes and risky dribbles/passes.

I get a feeling you're talking about the overall game, I agree with you if you do, but in the final third we need lots of risky passes to open up well organized defences.

 

[lessthanjake]

Well, we can't go into the extremes.

If we make zero risky passes, we will pass the ball from left to right and then from right to left for 90 Minutes with zero created chances.
On the other hand, if every pass is a risky pass, then we will either create a chance after 2-3 passes or we will lose the ball after 15 seconds, like against Real, when Neymar went into extremes and his every move had to be a risky move, risky pass or a risky dribble.

So, yes, we need some risks, but we don't need to go full retard, so that every single action from a single player needs to be either a killer pass or a counterattack for the opponents.

We need some balance.
Players need to have "a feeling" when it is the moment to try a risky thing, and when it is the moment to wait for 20-30-60 seconds longer and try to make a risky move after 10-20 passes, when you have less opponents around you.

My reply is not about Suarez, but about players in general.
Riquelme in Barca was extremely dumb player.
We used to pass and pass the ball and waited for the right moment to make a risky dribble/through pass.
And Riquelme would just try a deadly through ball whenever he would get the ball, and he would ruin every single action.

So, no. That is not brave, smart or "taking risks". That is just stupid.

So, again, we need some balance between safe passes and risky dribbles/passes.

That is why, in my earlier post, I said we want players to take risks as long as they are not abnormally low percentage plays. So yeah, we don't want players attempting virtually impossible killer passes through areas filled with opponents. And even if a risk is not super low-percentage, we might not want a player to do it if failure would yield a dangerous counterattack against us.

But Suarez is not really doing either of those things. What he is attempting are not stupidly risky passes. And they are in the final third, so they are not particularly likely to give the opponent a good counterattack.


Ultimately, it is a all a balance. I tend to think that we maximize our goals per possession by taking some risks instead of always waiting for the perfect opportunity. Often times that perfect opportunity never comes and we eventually just end up losing the ball while having tried nothing. It is better to take a reasonable risk earlier while in the final third.

 

[BBZ8800]

That is why, in my earlier post, I said we want players to take risks as long as they are not abnormally low percentage plays. So yeah, we don't want players attempting virtually impossible killer passes through areas filled with opponents. And even if a risk is not super low-percentage, we might not want a player to do it if failure would yield a dangerous counterattack against us.

But Suarez is not really doing either of those things. What he is attempting are not stupidly risky passes. And they are in the final third, so they are not particularly likely to give the opponent a good counterattack.


Ultimately, it is a all a balance. I tend to think that we maximize our goals per possession by taking some risks instead of always waiting for the perfect opportunity. Often times that perfect opportunity never comes and we eventually just end up losing the ball while having tried nothing. It is better to take a reasonable risk earlier while in the final third.

I was talking about Neymar.
In the last few matches, he was doing exactly that: attempting stupid and not needed killer balls/dribbles in virtually every move.
Some will say: but he is brave, he is willing to take risks.

If you are taking risks in virtually every action, and you never pass back, then it is not brave, but stupid.
(Before someone replies that Pedro's passing back is not the answer, of course it is not.
There are 50 shades of something in between passing the ball back in every attack and trying a risky move in every single attack.
Those shades are called balance.)

 

[BenRobbins]

He just dived in a CHARITY match

 

[xavi_the_Boss]

Injury or dive?
What is it?

 

[Siberia]

what the hell are u guys saying? is he injured or not?