Lomar1o
Active member
i hope he finds motivation or courage to step aside
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
No player step aside by his own decision ,if the coach want you play you play .if the club wants you to stay then you do it .
I
instinct
Guest
What does ''step aside'' even mean?
Lomar1o
Active member
it means that if you know you are shit and thus you hurt the team, you should man up and tell the coach to bench you even if he wants to play you. and that takes courage. you don't have to butt in just because the coach picks you for the starting line up. i'd step aside if i were him. he's hurting his own legacy by playing like that
I
instinct
Guest
Lomar1o
Active member
im not saying he should move to another club, but he should be benched and find his motivation if he can. i hope he proves me wrong but so far he's been really bad and i dont see the point in playing out of form player. had it been any other player we'd have crucified him
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
That is on the coach ,not him .I am not against giving him smaller role but you can't say he is the one who should make the decision .
Iniesta has been declining for sometime .I highly doubt he will regain his form in consistent way tbh but he could step up in big games .that is something I am hoping for ,like he did in the 4-3 win against RM last year
barca1899
New member
Nope, but hopefully he finds his form soon.
What Pep did when he left. He openly admitted he wasn't good enough anymore and left Barca by his own accord in 2001.
Lomar1o
Active member
but i dont want iniesta to leave. however, i do want him to tell the coach to bench him and it's not like he can't do that, it isn't going against the coach, it's a reasonable act, because he is bringing the team down. he can ask lucho to play him less frequently until he clears his mind and gets his mojo back.
Lomar1o
Active member
im not saying that he will do it, i've no idea what iniesta is going to do, i just expressed what i wanted him to do since seeing him play like that is heartbreaking and is becoming annoying.
BerkeleyBernie
Senior Member
Yep, as always, taking things out of context. Clearly, the tactical focus this year has been to get the ball up front to the forwards, which, by default, is going to lessen the impact of the midfielders (who, with Pep's Barça, were infrequent finishers, but more creators). If you are really going to evaluate Iniesta, one should ask: 1) is the team scoring less goals with him on the pitch (offensive), 2) is the opposition scoring more goals with him on the pitch (defensive)? Last I checked, Barça was on pace to match their goalscoring from previous years. If one was to examine only the games in which Iniesta has played (and also consider the quality of the opponents/tactics), I'm not sure you would see any significant difference in team scoring or goal differential from previous years. Which would mean the tactical system operating this year is more or less as effective as previously, but the offensive focus has shifted. Even with the limitations on the midfielders from the new tactics, I still see Iniesta create multiple key passes every game he plays (even if he has no assists to show for it).
In previous years, Barça forwards have scored about 70% of the goals. This season to date, they have scored 85%, a significant shift. During Barça's best scoring season, 2012-2013, 115 goals were scored in La Liga, averaging 3.03 per game. This season to date, Barça is averaging 2.79 goals, better than last year, and *better than any seasons other than the two between 2011-2013 since 2001* (as far back as the records I found went). Barça is on pace to score 106 goals for the season and 22 goals against, a whopping goal difference of 84, only ever bettered by Real Madrid and Barcelona in 2011-2012 (89 and 85 GD, respectively).
So whatever his diminished direct role in the offense, Iniesta has contributed to one of Barça's best offensive/defensive seasons ever. I don't know what people expect: that we'd manita every game and have a 150 goal season? With the number of teams parking the bus, it's quite an achievement.
One might argue that swapping Iniesta for a top quality box-to-box midfielder might improve Lucho's system. But that player isn't on Barça's bench.
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