Out of all people you chose EV and Rakitic to support...do you actually believe the stuff you write here or do you just like to argue and get other users riled up? I know you simply like to disagree with the forum and that's cool but sometimes it get's really bizarre.
Each player is different.
And if we could write 100s of skills used by every player, then even Paulinho would have some skills which Frenkie or Arthur don't have.
I am not saying that Paulinho is better than Frenkie or Arthur.
I AM saying that out of 100 tiny details, there will be 20 areas where a team will play better with Paulinho instead of those 2 guys, and there will be 80 skills in which Frenkie is better.
In the case of Arthur, you do have to realize that 90% of Barca's fans are fans of Barca due to our beautiful play and attacking.
So, Arthur is more pleasing on the eye test than Rakitic, so surely that he will win in hearts of fans.
But then, another question to consider: Serghei and some users are downplaying our foorball knowledge because we "don't understand Barca's movement and attacking patterns".
Fine.
But have you ever read a post by Serghei or any of our fans about DEFENDING by midfielders?
I mean, people often talk here about Barca 2011, Pep's City today.
And people are posting videos and pics of Pep's movement, passes and triangles.
Regarding defending, the furthest those users go is=we aren't pressing anymore.
As if football is only=keeping possession and pressing.
Ok, those are very important things.
And with a better pressing system we would need to defend less.
But still, what about actual defending when the opponent has a ball around our box?
For a year and a half, I haven't seen anything in defending from Arthur except pressing.
So, two things: each player brings a lot of improvements and a lot of weaknesses.
So, my simplified theory about Frenkie-Arthur weak defensive duo also makes sense.
Second: when you read these posts, always remember that people here are biased towards technique and attacking.
And that physique and defending is neglected by the board, a coach and in buying players.
Regarding your question whether I am just trying to argue for no reason, no.
For you guys, EV is 90% guilty for everything.
For me, it is 50% for EV and 50% to horrible players.
I have told a few times, I have never seen (bar Messi) the worst Barca since 2000-2003 and Gaspart's era.
You guys say that it is impossible that both Dembele, Cou and Griezz suck, lol.
Yet in 2000s, we lost Figo and then spent 100s of Millions in current terms for:
Washed out winger Overmars=sucked
100m for a Brazilian kid winger Geovani Deiberson=sucked
Bought best midfielder in the World=Mendieta, a horrible fit
Bought a hottest Spanish kid Gerard Lopez from Valencia for 100+m=a horrible fit
Bought a new Maradona Riquelme=a bad fit
So, in the span of 2 years in early 2000s, we bought MORE bad fits than today, we bought 4 extremely expensive failures in Mendieta, Gerard, Overmars and Geovani.
And over time, it showed that our coaches weren't guilty.
Mendieta was a system player.
Who played awesome at Valencia and sucked in other clubs and systems (like Griezz).
Deiberson was an unproven kid like Dembele.
Gerard was another kid who had 2 good seasons at Valencia and ended as a total failure in the rest of his career.
Overmars from Arsenal was past his prime, washed out superstar, like Griezz.
So, for you guys, it has to be EV.
But Dembele will be a failure in all clubs.
Has Griezz ever played well in a possession team, plus he is on a huge decline.
Coutinho, a disaster at Bayern and they won't buy him.
Malcom, a Crystal Palace level.
So, the difference is how we rate the blame.
For me, a current team is full of drained players past their prime: Messi, Suarez, Busi, Raki, Vidal, Pique, soon to be Alba.
Horrible fits: Cou, Griezz.
Overrated players: Dembele, Malcom etc.
We have 4-5 decent players in Mats, Lenglet, Umtiti, Frenkie, Arthur.
Yet you guys brag about the best team in the world.
Our team looks as if someone is playing a roulette and is randomly buying players whom the ball/roulette picks.
Yeah, EV sucks and some things will improve without him.
But this is one very bad, and very badly balanced team.
We are starting to look as bad as Real's Galacticos after 2003.
A washed out team filled with lazy, complacent superstars where there is no balance and only the most shinier names have to play.
In Galacticos, David Beckham was a pivot so that all superstars could play in the same time. Zidane, Figo, Beckham, R9, Raul.