Note: I haven't watched games of Halilovic, just highlights and I had some queries.
[MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] I'm curious about Halilovic, if his best position is RW (as you said, he's a pure winger), what are his major strenghts there and how will it translate to his performances when he's not the best player in the team?
Yes, he can take his man on and beat him. But he doesn't have a great crossing ability. He isn't a pure goalscorer either. From what I've seen, he can thread some throughballs and that can definitely be improved to reach a much higher level. So what can he do on the wing in a bigger team, when he's not free to roam around the pitch? The best thing he could possibly do is cut inside from the right and send a cross-field ball with his left foot, but that would be too one dimensional. The reason why Messi can do that effectively, is because he can easily cut inside and go to score as well, hence the defense is always in two minds. He eventually has to learn to play as CAM/CM (as his strenghts seem ideal for the same), if he continues to develop this way doesn't he?
I have said long ago that I don't think that Halilovic can make it here.
He is an awesome player, with insane technical abilities.
But, regarding his IQ, I don't think that he will ever be good enough to be Barca's attacker. (He is not Adama's type, but he is miles from Barca's smart attacker like Ronnie, Etoo, Messi, Neymar, Villa, Henry etc).
And we are on top because we have a perfect combination of insanely technically gifted, tacticaly smart players and players who understand the system and think extremely fast in that system and fit in extremely well.
About him as a winger, imo, he can be a key player in some "weaker" teams like Sevilla, Liverpool, some German or English teams etc...
He can be a midfielder, but he is forced to play there in weak teams who lack in creativity. But him as a midfielder is like Busi at Cm or Cb and similar.
I am from Croatia and I am watching him since first steps.
Some people in Croatia truly believe that he is the best young player in the world or that he is a real gem (like some of Croatian posters here), while the other part think that he is just meh and a "cheater" (something like: people are easily delusioned by his moves, dribbles and some awesome tricks, while when you watch him longer, you realize that he is just "flashy" and not actually that good... I can't explain it better, sorry :/)
My friends with whom I talk about football, more or less nobody rates him highly (we are all from Croatia) and we don't believe that he has too much chances to make it in Barca.
On the other hand, I adore Rakitic, and I had huge faith in Kovacic, so it is not as if I (or my friends) hate Croatian players.
So, I won't enter into too much debates how he would fit in Barca.
But in any other stronger team, he should play as a winger in 433, 4231 or 442.
Or he can be an Amc-Amr in some teams where the whole team will be built around him (like Chile around Alexis, for example).
I don't want to write in this topic too often, because people will get pissed if we write something like this.
I can "survive" with posts when people write that he will be good enough to be a Rw here. There are some slim chances for that...
But when people say: we don't need new midfielders, we have Denis, Halil, Samper and similar. Well, those players are totally unproven, plus Samper and Halil are not Cms at all...
(So, there are some slim chances for him to be a Rw here.
But since we have Messi...)
But seriously, beside his goals against Asspanyol Munir has been totally clueless.