wisconsincule
Senior Member
I’m truely getting excited for this guy. Looks like he wants to be the midfield general that we haven’t had since Xavi left.
Arthur
- Thread starter Jair Ventura
- Start date
He didn't have many assists in Brazil, don't know why people expect something different.
I've seen the highlights and think he did well. He moved well, made some interceptions and haven't seen him lose the ball.
We don't have to worry about last passes. Messi, Coutinho will be providing those more often.
I've seen the highlights and think he did well. He moved well, made some interceptions and haven't seen him lose the ball.
We don't have to worry about last passes. Messi, Coutinho will be providing those more often.
Ya just like xavi. Xavi also didn't have many assists. Keeping the ball for longer periods and keeping the other team pressed in their own half is what we have been missing since xavi left. More chances should come this way if the full backs are also on it also
mesiesta
Senior Member
We don't worry about last passes, we worry about key/forward passes. There are a lot of midfielders who can keep the ball and play safe, we will need a little bit more from him. Hope he will be good here.
xXKonan
Senior Member
With all this talk about him maybe being conservative at times with his creative passing, you have to remember These are his first games he's played in a 4-3-3.
He's used to playing in a 4-2-3-1 in Brazil for Gremio which is a totally different beast compared to a Barca 4-3-3. Considering how much he has shown so far in these two games and if he keeps playing like this he will become more looser with the ball and will show more creativity while he gets used to the 4-3-3.
He's used to playing in a 4-2-3-1 in Brazil for Gremio which is a totally different beast compared to a Barca 4-3-3. Considering how much he has shown so far in these two games and if he keeps playing like this he will become more looser with the ball and will show more creativity while he gets used to the 4-3-3.
serghei
Senior Member
Totally. It's about the tolerable risk margin which is different for any player, meaning the amount of risk a player is willing to take with his passing. The idea is that in 90% of the cases a better pass than the one being made exists on the field. The issue is that even for a good player, the ratio of making that pass consistently is slim. And if you play in a strategically important position, like CM, where losing the ball is very bad for your team, you can't go around trying passes with low chances of success. Could be costly.
Arthur's job is not, as many say, to get creative, meaning to force passes, try to be clever and show 'creativity'. Arthur's job is to keep trusting his reading of the game and his intuition, as well as his own evaluation of what is a safe risk to take on a pass, and what is not. He does that, hence why you see him turning away from some better (riskier) passes preferring to recycle possession often. You can get more and better passes out of him by way of him developing his craft, and by way of superior off the ball movement and more clever ways of generating a free man (and sorry to say, in comparison with Guardiola, Valverde is way behind at this, like night and day).
What he needs to do is play the same way, exactly like he did in these two games, get involved in the team, so that he learns, month by month, to widen his risk tolerance. That can only be done by playing, and by knowing his teammates. He will soon know that if he passes the ball to Gomes for example, or even to Rakitic, he needs to take into account yet another factor that influences the success rate of his pass (the technical level of the receiving player, especially his first touch). If he does that, if he processes all of those variables very fast, and if he is used with this specific role in this team, he will slowly integrate a bit more risk in his passing while still allowing him to remain in the 94-95% passing percentage, with an average of 90 passes per game. Then we can talk about a world class Xavi like player, the first since Xavi himself.
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vlad
New member
If he become 70% player what xavi was, or modric, that will be great
But even in that case, counting on him for a long period is hard, when other rich clubs can offer him more money, and he isnt la masia product so its not that he owe something to barca, same with that guy malcolm or dembele
But even in that case, counting on him for a long period is hard, when other rich clubs can offer him more money, and he isnt la masia product so its not that he owe something to barca, same with that guy malcolm or dembele
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Ursegor
World Champion
Come again? Xavi in his prime created more chances than Messi from a deep position. In 2010 he created more chances than any player in World Cup history except Cruyff.
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/2302/History/Xavi
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/11119/History/Lionel-Messi
Click on "offensive" and then sort it by "key passes", Xavi played a whole La Liga season averaging 3.2. Messi's highest is 2.5.
Xavi assisted 4 goals in a single Clasico. lol. How can anyone even claim Xavi didn't assist too much?
Shame WhoScored only starts from 09/10 onwards, in 08/09 Xavi's numbers were 100 % even higher.
te amo barca
Blaugrana al vent
Xavi became a more "sterile" player in possession only starting from 12/13 and onwards. Posters here forgot how ridiculous his through balls were before that.
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