André Gomes

[JasonVon]

Just registered in this forum because of this thread. I'm portuguese and been following Andre's carreer since he is 17 or smth. He's known for being something we in Portugal call a " falso lento" or a " fake slow", because indeed he's not fast without the ball but seems faster with it with it's ball control. When you compare him with Denis, you are comparing two very different players. Andre Gomes came into the spotlight playing as a sub to Enzo Perez in Jorge Jesus Benfica. The thing is, Jorge Jesus playing style is something like a 4-1-1-4 with Andre Gomes/Enzo Perez being the midfielder that carries the ball and delivers the passes, not exactly playing a possession game. Although his short passing skill is quite good, he's still not confortable playing in a style in which you move more without the ball than with it ( even in Valencia, he played with Dani Parejo in front of Fuego and had the job to carry the ball as parejo is more "stationary " than him). I'm not what you call a fan, it's one of those players that puzzles fans and commentators alike because he can seem like crap and a talent at the same time. As an ending note, the popularized opinion of Andre Gomes before the transfer to Barça was that he fitted Barça/Munich even tho no one predicted the transfer so soon.

Man, it's as if Gomes is better than any La Masia failure we've ever had, the way you see serghei defending him. I don't even think he's much better here than JDS was, honestly.

Also he's different from JDS, JDS is more like a deep seated playmaker, he runs more with the ball. I understand the comparison because he's playing in CDM position but it's not his position so it's normal that he doesn't make threading passes and assists from there. Even Busquets is known for his short passing, off-ball movement and position. You can clearly see that Andre has better technique, one from a more advanced midfielder.

 

[André]

His haters are unbelievable

 

[Barcaman]

His haters are unbelievable

Thank you for that inspiring post.

 

[Barcaman]

He was good today. Playing with confidence and doing things we want to see from our central midfielders. Hope to see more of that from him.

He was ok but just like with Arda it's much easier to look good when opposition sits deep and you have plenty of space and time on the ball.
There's nothing to get excited about imo. And Rakitic looked better than him as well.

 

[JasonVon]

I don't know what Mendes do, but he manages to get his players a better reputation than what they are in reality. His influence is hardly overstated, it's real.

What players are those? All the players that are his, and are being linked to Barça is Cancelo and Bernardo Silva. Although I can agree on you on Cancelo, Bernardo Silva is a great player ( as you soon will see).

 

[Horatio]

What players are those? All the players that are his, and are being linked to Barça is Cancelo and Bernardo Silva. Although I can agree on you on Cancelo, Bernardo Silva is a great player ( as you soon will see).

CR7

 

[JasonVon]

He was ok but just like with Arda it's much easier to look good when opposition sits deep and you have plenty of space and time on the ball.
There's nothing to get excited about imo. And Rakitic looked better than him as well.

I understand what you are saying but he's playing for Barcelona in the Spanish League. Being Barcelona one of the best teams in the world, almost every team will sit deep against you and give you possession. If you use that filter to evaluate a player , you got to wait until those 7-8 games in which Barcelona plays against a team on equal terms, and if u consider AM to be that, he made a pretty good game even by Barcelona CDM position standards.

 

[DonAK]

What players are those? All the players that are his, and are being linked to Barça is Cancelo and Bernardo Silva. Although I can agree on you on Cancelo, Bernardo Silva is a great player ( as you soon will see).

How do you rate Ricardo Pereira and Nelson Semedo?

 

[JasonVon]

CR7

Considering arguably the second best player in the world as the best player in the world isn't a big scandal on my eyes.

 

[serghei]

I understand what you are saying but he's playing for Barcelona in the Spanish League. Being Barcelona one of the best teams in the world, almost every team will sit deep against you and give you possession. If you use that filter to evaluate a player , you got to wait until those 7-8 games in which Barcelona plays against a team on equal terms, and if u consider AM to be that, he made a pretty good game even by Barcelona CDM position standards.

Very true. You should stick around, because those are some really good insights.

 

[JasonVon]

How do you rate Ricardo Pereira and Nelson Semedo?

Ricardo Pereira doesn't seems to be on Barça's standards, although his rise at Nice in DD position surprised almost everyone, but his agent isn't Mendes and if he's being talked, it isn't because of him.

Nelson Semedo, well, altough his meteorical rise has been linked to Mendes ( from the B team in Benfica to the A team, 4-5 games after he's in the nacional team, gets injured, returns, gets linked to Inter/Munich/ManU), I think he may have potential, he replaced Maxi Pereira who went to rivals Porto and nobody in the Benfica supporting stands rembembers Maxi now. He's a strong and quick player, similar to Miguel who played DD in Valencia 10 or so years ago.

 

[FlaFCB]

I understand what you are saying but he's playing for Barcelona in the Spanish League. Being Barcelona one of the best teams in the world, almost every team will sit deep against you and give you possession. If you use that filter to evaluate a player , you got to wait until those 7-8 games in which Barcelona plays against a team on equal terms, and if u consider AM to be that, he made a pretty good game even by Barcelona CDM position standards.

Most teams aren't sitting deep this season, but using high pressure. The ones that do it are the exception.

Considering arguably the second best player in the world as the best player in the world isn't a big scandal on my eyes.

It is, when he wasn't even the 2nd best last year.

 

[JasonVon]

If you want to, I can tell you why I consider Ronaldo the mvp of the year, but I don't think that has anything to do with it.

Most teams don't sit deep EVERYTIME against Barcelona, but are you seriously suggesting a team playing against Neymar-Suarez-Messi won't play deep and wait for the counter to reduce your spaces on the final third? It's the Spanish League. Almost nobody has the squads to play on the full field against Barcelona- even on away games you see that.

 

[serghei]

If you want to, I can tell you why I consider Ronaldo the mvp of the year, but I don't think that has anything to do with it.

Most teams don't sit deep EVERYTIME against Barcelona, but are you seriously suggesting a team playing against Neymar-Suarez-Messi won't play deep and wait for the counter to reduce your spaces on the final third? It's the Spanish League. Almost nobody has the squads to play on the full field against Barcelona- even on away games you see that.

True. We lost points important points against teams that sit deep as well. All points that we lost at home in La Liga, except maybe Madrid were against teams that sat deep. Malaga, Alaves and Atletico. Only some teams apply pressure, like Sociedad, Sevilla, Celta and Bilbao. The smaller teams sit deeper.

 

[FlaFCB]

If you want to, I can tell you why I consider Ronaldo the mvp of the year, but I don't think that has anything to do with it.

Most teams don't sit deep EVERYTIME against Barcelona, but are you seriously suggesting a team playing against Neymar-Suarez-Messi won't play deep and wait for the counter to reduce your spaces on the final third? It's the Spanish League. Almost nobody has the squads to play on the full field against Barcelona- even on away games you see that.

Yes, most teams aren't sitting deep. They're using high pressure, which is this current Barça biggest weakness. The best games Barça had this season were against the teams that sat deep and waited. In the games that were a loss or a draw, or even a narrow win, the other team applied pressure in the midfield, that is this Barça's biggest weakness. This also make few balls get to MSN.

True. We lost points important points against teams that sit deep as well. All points that we lost at home in La Liga, except maybe Madrid were against teams that sat deep. Malaga, Alaves and Atletico. Only some teams apply pressure, like Sociedad, Sevilla, Celta and Bilbao. The smaller teams sit deeper.

No, we didn't. The points lost were vs teams that pressured the hell out of Barça. The last tie vs atletico is the best example of that. While they sat deep, the score was 2-0. After they changed tactics and started to attack and press, they almost turned the tie around.

Barça's most confortable matches were vs teams that only defended, like Alaves today, Espanyol, Eibar.