Alexander Hleb

[Cule Angles]

Well I might expect him to play like Seydou Keita or Sergio Busquets. Competently, with conviction and well enough to justify more minutes at a later stage. Hleb didn't get a lot of game time because he didn't impress in the minutes he did get.

 

[gazza]

Well I might expect him to play like Seydou Keita or Sergio Busquets. Competently, with conviction and well enough to justify more minutes at a later stage. Hleb didn't get a lot of game time because he didn't impress in the minutes he did get.

Minutes exactly ! he needed a decent run in games you can't get confidence sat on your butt for 85 mins.
Hleb was much more of a creative player than Keita or Busquets just didn't get enough opportunities to show it.

 

[steaua86]

Minutes exactly ! he needed a decent run in games you can't get confidence sat on your butt for 85 mins.
Hleb was much more of a creative player than Keita or Busquets just didn't get enough opportunities to show it.

and who exactly is he taking the minutes from: xavi or iniesta ?

 

[Cule Angles]

Minutes exactly ! he needed a decent run in games you can't get confidence sat on your butt for 85 mins.
Hleb was much more of a creative player than Keita or Busquets just didn't get enough opportunities to show it.

But he got minutes, I was in Soria when we were 1-0 down against Numancia. Hleb came on for 30 minutes and did bugger all, he got minutes against Racing too and nothing. Two other guys came into the side as new players and were only getting limited minutes but they played well enough to justify more minutes. Hleb wasn't good enough so had to be benched.

 

[gazza]

and who exactly is he taking the minutes from: xavi or iniesta ?

Thats what i posted earlier we were very lucky with injuries last season the amount of games Xavi played was unbelievable.
Don't get me wrong i believe Xavi and Iniesta are brilliant, but they should have been rested more, then Hleb would have got some decent game time.

 

[Cule Angles]

But we couldn't afford to rest them because then we would have had to play Hleb.

 

[Barcaman]

I do agree that we do need a backup for Xavi and Iniesta. Should Hleb leave we should look for some solid creative midfielder.

 

[gazza]

But we couldn't afford to rest them because then we would have had to play Hleb.

Come on you cannot expect Xavi and Iniesta to play all those games again ! we need someone to take the weight off there shoulders.
A good creative midfielder won't be cheap, we need the backup in case of injuries.

 

[Mythical Revolution]

I hope that we're forking something behind the scenes. We only bought Hleb because we couldn't agree a fee for Hernanes. Now that we realize our mistake I don't see why we shouldn't amend it, just as we did with Pique; especially given the fact that it's very unlikely we'll land Fabregas. Not only will he provide us with adequate backup for Xavi, Iniesta & Toure. Many of the qualities that he brings (Height, long range shooting, physical presence...) are sorely lacked in our midfield and he could prove to be a genial tactical play: as a sub for Toure when we need more attacking creativity without jeopardizing our defensive stability in games were we're behind in the scoreline, or as a sub for either Xavi/Iniesta or one of our attackers when we need to add more steel to our side without loosing much of our attacking edge.

 

[Necro Spaaw]

http://www.fcbarcelonanews.com/hleb-regrets-his-barca-move/

 

[putogusiluz8]

Seems like lately all he has are criticisms for Pep, and Barcelona. How does he expect to start when he didn't do anything all year long? He talks about our big budget as if that was the reason we were so successful. The core of our team are players from our youth system. Whatever.

 

[VivaBarca]

Hleb is a boil on Barcelona's arse.

 

[el tren]

I guess he was actually plannend in as a true CM, but prolly Pep sees a lack of physical strength, awareness and marking to play that role defensively. You also cant really say that he got the passing in barcelona quite right already - bad timing not rarely leading to offsides. Maybe its b/c the passing in arsenal was quite different, much more straight forward and less diagonal and back passes.

Just dunno if it makes real sense to keep him for another season. I actually quite like Hleb as a player, but its a risk. If he still wont catch up he gets frustrated in his 2nd year which might lead to some conflicts hurting the teams atmosphere. If you want to avoid risks you let him go ... there should be players available of similar quality, but w/out his negative backround of the last, depressing season.

 

[Quash]

Quite simply, he needs to step up his game if he wants to achieve anything. He showed great glimpses of quality while dribbling but the passing and finishing (lol) were not enough to earn him any sort of involved role in the team. Being a good passer is absolutely crucial in Barca, it's what creates our game. Too many times he tried to go for the adventurous long through ball, or simply wasn't accurate enough.

 

[ryuken]

Sell him and get Hernanes, that all i would say. I was really excited when we signed him but after that it turned out to be a tremendous disaster.