Alejandro Grimaldo

[khaled_a_d]

Could always sign him back for 40m I guess considering he's in Benfica now.

Way to go Lucho.

Barca transfers last five years = Shambolic

Missed out on players like Modric, Kroos, heck even Spanish talents like Isco. Let Thiago leave. Grimaldo too who's got injury issues, but got everything to become a dominant player.

We didn't miss on either Kroos or Modric in last 5 years,Kroos was gonna be bad fit for the team we were building and Rakitic was far better for us (that won 5 major trophies in 2 years) and no way we would have got both players at same summer.
Modric was costly player during the prime Iniesta and Xavi 6 summers ago. Cesc was at least less costly and Pep wanted him and Pep had too much power to force the transfer he wanted and he wanted Cesc. we should have just trusted Thiago and signed no one back then.

Grimaldo had injury history, and tbh he would never have been dominant at Barca, he lacks that speed,strength & stamina combination you need for a FB in Barca, still has a lot to do in the defensive side. he would have played behind Alba, would have only played when Alba got injured. You could argue that Alba gets injured a lot but then again Grimaldo himself is injury prone . Would have preferred to keep him specially with how bad Adriano was but let's not over react here.

Our transfers could have been way better for sure, we have signed many bums out there like Gomes,Vermaelen,Song,Arda & Paco (although I believe he can have few productive years here). letting Thiago go was a mistake,not signing extra players, like RB last summer or CB in 2012 & 2013 summers were all mistakes.

I know that this is time of crisis and everyone want to remember every mistake we had,board is shit,Lucho is shit,Roberto & Zubi are shit. I get that. But in past 5 summer we got Umtiti,Alba,Rakitic,Neymar,Suarez,Bravo & MATS. All great signings,all helped us to get 3 Liga titles,2 (hopefully 3 by end of the season) CDR, and 1 CL. not bad at all.

 

[FlaFCB]

We didn't miss on either Kroos or Modric in last 5 years,Kroos was gonna be bad fit for the team we were building and Rakitic was far better for us (that won 5 major trophies in 2 years) and no way we would have got both players at same summer.

Why not? Just don't sign vermaelen, and there's money.

 

[gasgas]

We didn't miss on either Kroos or Modric in last 5 years,Kroos was gonna be bad fit for the team we were building and Rakitic was far better for us (that won 5 major trophies in 2 years) and no way we would have got both players at same summer.
Modric was costly player during the prime Iniesta and Xavi 6 summers ago. Cesc was at least less costly and Pep wanted him and Pep had too much power to force the transfer he wanted and he wanted Cesc. we should have just trusted Thiago and signed no one back then.

Grimaldo had injury history, and tbh he would never have been dominant at Barca, he lacks that speed,strength & stamina combination you need for a FB in Barca, still has a lot to do in the defensive side. he would have played behind Alba, would have only played when Alba got injured. You could argue that Alba gets injured a lot but then again Grimaldo himself is injury prone . Would have preferred to keep him specially with how bad Adriano was but let's not over react here.

Our transfers could have been way better for sure, we have signed many bums out there like Gomes,Vermaelen,Song,Arda & Paco (although I believe he can have few productive years here). letting Thiago go was a mistake,not signing extra players, like RB last summer or CB in 2012 & 2013 summers were all mistakes.

I know that this is time of crisis and everyone want to remember every mistake we had,board is shit,Lucho is shit,Roberto & Zubi are shit. I get that. But in past 5 summer we got Umtiti,Alba,Rakitic,Neymar,Suarez,Bravo & MATS. All great signings,all helped us to get 3 Liga titles,2 (hopefully 3 by end of the season) CDR, and 1 CL. not bad at all.

How was Kroos a bad fit for us?

Rakitic was better for us?

But the way Rakitic was playing for Sevilla is different from how he played for us


If we needed a workhorse we could have gone for Arturo Vidal and the likes

Rakitic was the attacking midfielder for Sevilla, weturned him to a workhorse

 

[jamrock]

Kroos can never and I do mean ever be a bad fit for not 1 midfield that exist on the face of the earth.

Especially compared to rakitic, that's just...., Seriously come.

Re grimaldo I agree with DA he always had the ability to be like a Alves, Alabama type, since I saw him at the U17, he was just like a extra midfielder for them.

He would fit a pep team & what he tries to do with him FB perfectly.

 

[serghei]

How was Kroos a bad fit for us?

Rakitic was better for us?

But the way Rakitic was playing for Sevilla is different from how he played for us


If we needed a workhorse we could have gone for Arturo Vidal and the likes

Rakitic was the attacking midfielder for Sevilla, weturned him to a workhorse

I think what he is referring is that Lucho seemed to want to form a team of hard working players behind the MSN. Players who would get the ball back, give it to MSN, and from there, it would be their job to create plays. Most of the goals we scored in Lucho's first seasons were down to our MSN trio. Highest number of goals and assists were almost all down to them combining with each other and, in this way, creating combinations which resulted in goals.

That is because we had a functional midfield who was able to put in hard effort and give them the ball constantly. Rakitic was very good at getting the ball back, and giving it to MSN without doing anything fancy with it. It was MSN and Alves, occasionaly Iniesta, who actually had playmaking roles. Now with Iniesta past it, and Alves at Juventus, we have diffuculties in coping with pressure being put by the opponent.

However, now the circumstances have changed. We have:

1. A team that is two years older. That's self explanatory.
2. No playmaker on the right after we lost Alves

This is a major fuck-up. MAJOR. I consider Alves the 2nd most influential player after the MSN trio during Lucho's first two seasons. We coped better from losing Xavi because Alves had an amazing 2014-15 season, and a very good 2015-16 season, managing to do link-up with a RW Messi like in the old days. Some of the stuff Messi and Alves did in Lucho's first seasons were reminiscent of the 08-09 Pep's first season.

This also allowed Messi to be more dinamic, and also allowed Neymar to attack more balls, and scoring more goals as a result. Neymar had a more balanced game, with almost equal time on the ball and off it, making runs. Now, Neymar is almost everytime given ball to feet. He rarely appears in the box with an off the ball run. Because Messi is found less and less now. Who's to find him? We basically have lost Messi's no1 companion in Alves, and the guy he had the biggest connection with. No surprise Messi is not entering combinations anymore. There's no one he speaks the same language with on his side.

3. Bad transfers. Pretty clear as well. Paco is a good signing on the long run. He can be of use as a 4th striker. Gomes doesn't fit, Denis Suarez is not good enough, Arda is an older player who just hasn't helped according to his transfer fee.


We need two great players on RB and midfield. Actually we need kind of 3 players, because I don't think we'll find a RB great enough to compensate for Rakitic's poor on the ball output. Rakitic would be OK if we could find a RB with Alves' qualities. Since we won't, we might need a player with better passing and better ball control than Rakitic as well.

 

[gasgas]

I think what he is referring is that Lucho seemed to want to form a team of hard working players behind the MSN. Players who would get the ball back, give it to MSN, and from there, it would be their job to create plays. Most of the goals we scored in Lucho's first seasons were down to our MSN trio. Highest number of goals and assists were almost all down to them combining with each other and, in this way, creating combinations which resulted in goals.

That is because we had a functional midfield who was able to put in hard effort and give them ball constantly.

However, now the circumstances have changed. We have:

1. A team that is two years older. That's self explanatory.
2. No playmaker on the right after we lost Alves

This is a major fuck-up. MAJOR. I consider Alves the 2nd most influential player after the MSN trio during Lucho's first two seasons. We coped better from losing Xavi because Alves had an amazing 2014-15 season, and a very good 2015-16 season, managing to do link-up with a RW Messi like in the old days. Some of the stuff Messi and Alves did in Lucho's first seasons were reminiscent of the 08-09 Pep's first season.

This also allowed Messi to be more dinamic, and also allowed Neymar to attack more balls, and scoring more goals as a result. Neymar had a more balanced game, with almost equal time on the ball and off it, making runs. Now, Neymar is almost everytime given ball to feet. He rarely appears in the box with an off the ball run. Because Messi is found less and less now. Who's to find him? We basically have lost Messi's no1 companion in Alves, and the guy he had the biggest connection with. No surprise Messi is not entering combinations anymore. There's no one he speaks the same language with on his side.

3. Bad transfers. Pretty clear as well. Paco is a good signing on the long run. He can be of use as a 4th striker. Gomes doesn't fit, Denis Suarez is not good enough, Arda is an older player who just hasn't helped according to his transfer fee.


We need two great players on RB and midfield.

My question is, if Lucho needed a workhorse why did he go for Rakitic who was not even a workhorse for Sevilla?

If Lucho was faced with the task of getting a workhorse for Barca, Rakitic wasn't to be considered at all

So to me, Lucho bought Rakitic for other reasons e.g His supposed creativity and long passes but ended up using him as a workhorse for MSN

 

[gasgas]

Kroos can never and I do mean ever be a bad fit for not 1 midfield that exist on the face of the earth.

Especially compared to rakitic, that's just...., Seriously come.

Re grimaldo I agree with DA he always had the ability to be like a Alves, Alabama type, since I saw him at the U17, he was just like a extra midfielder for them.

He would fit a pep team & what he tries to do with him FB perfectly.

Who is that?

 

[KingMessi]

Who is that?

Obvious autocorrect is obvious. Alaba btw.

 

[JamDav1982]

Lucho never really had MSN playing on the break until the second half of that season. It was then that he more or less gave up playing through midfield and just made it about getting ball to MSN as soon as possible.

It only really started to click after he began bypassing the midfield as it wasnt good enough to support the front three properly.

Barca won with MSN despite a below standard midfield not because of them.

Kroos all day would have been perfect for the midfield.

 

[FlaFCB]

Lucho never really had MSN playing on the break until the second half of that season. It was then that he more or less gave up playing through midfield and just made it about getting ball to MSN as soon as possible.

It only really started to click after he began bypassing the midfield as it wasnt good enough to support the front three properly.

Barca won with MSN despite a below standard midfield not because of them.

Kroos all day would have been perfect for the midfield.

I agree. Lucho has shown many times he doesn't know the kind of players he needs. Or he wouldn't have gotten Arda for the rcm position. Or Paco, when he ended up needing a rw... Kroos would had been perfect for us.

 

[serghei]

My question is, if Lucho needed a workhorse why did he go for Rakitic who was not even a workhorse for Sevilla?

If Lucho was faced with the task of getting a workhorse for Barca, Rakitic wasn't to be considered at all

So to me, Lucho bought Rakitic for other reasons e.g His supposed creativity and long passes but ended up using him as a workhorse for MSN

Rakitic was and is still defensively better than Kroos. I don't believe we bought Rakitic to be a playmaker. Forget it. We bough him because he is/was a player who put in hard effort, and used him to allow Alves more freedom to attack. Hence why Rakitic occasionaly defended deep in Alves' side. Kroos wouldn't have been able to do that.

Let's not forget that Messi doesn't come to defend. Having older Alves, Kroos, and Messi to defend our whole right side is kind of dangerous.

But we still should have gotten Kroos because Iniesta's performances were starting to be average since Tata's season.

 

[khaled_a_d]

Why not? Just don't sign vermaelen, and there's money.

Because he would never accepted that, If we signed Rakitic he would know he will be competing with Iniesta,Rakitic and even Xavi will get minutes.
I think that summer with Cesc seling and Xavi declining we were in position to sign midfielder we want since he knows he will be starter from day 1, you get one of them and the other will prefer to go for the bigger chance of being a starter,which was RM for Kroos.
And Vermaelen costed us 10M (with unrealistic add-ons) while Kroos 30M ,then again I don't think it was ever a financial thing.

 

[serghei]

Lucho never really had MSN playing on the break until the second half of that season. It was then that he more or less gave up playing through midfield and just made it about getting ball to MSN as soon as possible.

It only really started to click after he began bypassing the midfield as it wasnt good enough to support the front three properly.

Barca won with MSN despite a below standard midfield not because of them.

Kroos all day would have been perfect for the midfield.

When you say below standard what are you refering to? I seem to remember some excelent defensive performances in Lucho's first season. It was a trade off for me. We traded less creativity from midfield because we had MSN. We won more defensive ability to defend counters. Now, with the team older, we have lost that defensive plus (also with Lucho being just bad for a year almost), and remained whith the lack of creativity.

It was a trade-off that worked for about 18 months. Now we need to forget about it, and build a dominant midfield again.

 

[JamDav1982]

When you say below standard what are you refering to? I seem to remember some excelent defensive performances in Lucho's first season. It was a trade off for me. We traded less creativity from midfield because we had MSN. We won more defensive ability to defend counters. Now, with the team older, we have lost that defensive plus (also with Lucho being just bad for a year almost), and remained whith the lack of creativity.

It was a trade-off that worked for about 18 months. Now we need to forget about it, and build a dominant midfield again.

He had to trade off and give more focus to MSN as midfield was not good enough to support them and be strong defensively.

Dont agree that he chose a player like Rakitic to be a minder for MSN and Alves I think he misjudged Rakitic ability and had to go that way.

Lucho made massive changes in second half of season so it seems unlikely that is what he planned to do from start.

 

[JamDav1982]

Rakitic was and is still defensively better than Kroos. I don't believe we bought Rakitic to be a playmaker. Forget it. We bough him because he is/was a player who put in hard effort, and used him to allow Alves more freedom to attack. Hence why Rakitic occasionaly defended deep in Alves' side. Kroos wouldn't have been able to do that.

Let's not forget that Messi doesn't come to defend. Having older Alves, Kroos, and Messi to defend our whole right side is kind of dangerous.

But we still should have gotten Kroos because Iniesta's performances were starting to be average since Tata's season.

Rakitic is better defensively than Xavi was probably even if Raki is not as strong defensively as people make out.

With players like Kroos or Xavi you keep the ball away from opposition as form of defence anyway so dont need them being 'work horses' when defending.