Arthur

DonAndres

Wild Man of Borneo
Xavi to this day holds the record for assists in a Liga season with 20. Assists in 2 UCL finals and 2 Euro finals, crucial assist in the WC semifinal, endless Clasico assists, etc. He is the greatest passer/playmaker ever.

But even if Arthur has none of Xavi's assist/key pass game, if he's like him in every other way he'll still be world class and possibly the best midfielder in the world. Xavi was that good that even without his chance creation he was the best.
 

xXKonan

Senior Member
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For all the talk of Florentino/Madrid missing out on Neymar and going to great lengths to try and outmuscle us for Brazilian talents these days, It will hilarious if Arthur ends up being another big one that slips through.

Considering Modric is 33 and none of the other options they have are remotely the same in terms of profile like he was, Arthur could have also been a potential Modric replacement.
 

eaman

Active member
[tw]1024663899499577350[/tw]

For all the talk of Florentino/Madrid missing out on Neymar and going to great lengths to try and outmuscle us for Brazilian talents these days, It will hilarious if Arthur ends up being another big one that slips through.

Considering Modric is 33 and none of the other options they have are remotely the same in terms of profile like he was, Arthur could have also been a potential Modric replacement.

Ya but Modric looks like a guy who could play at the top into his late 30s. He's as fit as they come
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
Ya but Modric looks like a guy who could play at the top into his late 30s. He's as fit as they come

Dont agree with that.

Modric looked laboured and slower last season. Was like declining Xavi/Iniesta when looked struggled to get back to defend at times.

Can see his legs are not what they were already.
 

Joan

Well-known member
Not only last season, but also this WC where he showed what he's got. You can see he's slowly declining, but with proper rest/rotations he'll do wonders. Still the best midfielder in the world, not even close.
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
Not only last season, but also this WC where he showed what he's got. You can see he's slowly declining, but with proper rest/rotations he'll do wonders. Still the best midfielder in the world, not even close.

Not for me.

He was not one of top midfielders in world across last season.

For Real alone Kroos was probably better.
 

Andrew M

New member
Dont agree with that.

Modric looked laboured and slower last season. Was like declining Xavi/Iniesta when looked struggled to get back to defend at times.

Can see his legs are not what they were already.

How can you compare Iniesta with Modric in the last 2/3 years? Modric has aged way better than him
 

DonAndres

Wild Man of Borneo
He mostly coasted in La Liga if anything, saved most of his best work for the CL and WC where he was excellent. On his day he is still easily the best and still works hard on the defensive end in those games too. He was clearly better than Kroos in the CL. IMO he's aged more kindly than Xavi or Iniesta have (comparing all of them at ages 32-33). Xavi won a Euro aged 32 but Iniesta hadn't won anything major (CL, Euro, WC) after 31.

Modric in comparison has won a CL and gone to the WC final winning the golden ball. He's also a legit top 3 Balon D'or candidate, arguably should be the winner. He isn't all that much better at 32 than 32 year old Iniesta/Xavi but he's certainly much closer to his prime level than they were to theirs.
 

Neeraj

Senior Member
Not for me.

He was not one of top midfielders in world across last season.

For Real alone Kroos was probably better.

Absolutely no way was Kroos better than Modric, in ANY season that the two have been at Madrid. Modric is a cut above Kroos. Thing is, Kroos doesn't even get around the pitch a lot to say that he does that better than Modric, cause a normally rested Modric is all over the pitch.
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
Absolutely no way was Kroos better than Modric, in ANY season that the two have been at Madrid. Modric is a cut above Kroos. Thing is, Kroos doesn't even get around the pitch a lot to say that he does that better than Modric, cause a normally rested Modric is all over the pitch.

Kroos better of two last season even Raki was better across season than Modric.

Dont go along with this idea he was cruising either. He was poor in defeat to Barcelona and looked off the pace.
 

serghei

Senior Member
Not for me.

He was not one of top midfielders in world across last season.

For Real alone Kroos was probably better.

I'd say neither were quintessential for the CL as it is being made out. Actually, I think I'd rather go with Marcelo, Ronaldo and Ramos as the key payers for Madrid in CL. Madrid are not midfield centric imo. They go wide as soon as they can and cross because they have lethal box predators in the team. Or had.

Hard to give Modric credit for this year's CL win, considering Madrid basically had a huge amount of luck and referee errors going their way. When Juventus beats you 3-0 and at home and you need a questionable pen, or when Bayern dominates you big time as well, you can't say their midfield did its job.

Modric is not better than Iniesta was at his age. He was just part of a better team that is perfectly built for CL.
 
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BBZ8800

Senior Member
A few cons again:
I haven't watched Arthur before Barca, except on youtube highlights, but when you watch highlights, the "feeling" is different than when you watch a full match like at Barca.
For example, if someone will take a look ONLY at his highlights against Roma, it will look: like a very good match.
But a few guys who watched the match live, already mentioned in match thread's that he looked more cautious than the rest of the team. So, majority of other players were "flying", looking forward in every pass, while 19 out of 20 of his passes are: calm down, slow down, pass the ball back to a Cb or a Gk.

I have now watched some of his clips on youtube from Brasil to see whether he is scared at Barca, but to me it seems that he played the same, so it is his "thing" for now.
He is a: keep the ball, slow down, keep the possession, play it safe type of a player, it seems.
Who has those little runs when he dribble past a player.

So, for now, to me, it seems that he is good:
1. at taking the ball from around his box into an opponent's half. He is good in that.
But once when a ball gets close to an opponent's third, he turns on: safe mode.
2. further, you know when Busi has the ball: he will have Rakitic on the right, Iniesta on the left, RB Roberto on the far right, LB Alba on the far left, Messi and Suarez FAR in attack. Plus CBs behind him.
So, if Busi plays to: Pique, Umtiti, Rakitic or Iniesta=he is passing the ball to a CLOSEST player, let's call it "a +1 distance pass".
But, if Busi passes to RB Roberto and NOT to Rakitic who is closer, that is a +2 pass, to a 2nd closest player.
Messi is +2 far away from him (Busquets-Rakitic-then Messi).
Suarez is +3 far away from his: Busquets, then Rakitic, then Messi, then Suarez the further away from him.
Now, the thing is with Arthur, it seems that 19 out of 20 of his passes are: +1 distance passes.
He is almost always passing to A CLOSEST PLAYER (the safest and the slowest option), and extremely rarely to a player who is not closest to him (+2 pass or a +3 pass).
3. further, I understand now his graphs from a few weeks ago when someone asked: has he ever played a longball in his life?
Probably once in 100 passes, since all his passes are +1 distance passes to the closest guy.

People were whining for years about Rakitic's safepasses, while Arthur seems even worse in that "risk" part. (I know, he is young and new etc. But remember that Rakitic was a risky playmaker guy BEFORE Barca at Schalke, Basel and Sevilla, and Barca turned him into a safepass guy. While Arthur seems to be a safe guy even before Barca).

Now, watch some of his videos (random highlights videos from certain matches) from Brasil.
Please, take a look at 3 things:
1. no long balls
2. not too many forward passes, majority are short backpasses and sidepasses to the closest fullback. Here and there he plays a shortpass through the middle to the closest guy (+1 pass).
3. also, try to look at that part with +1 and +2 distance passes, he passes to a +1 (closest guy near him) in probably 9 out of 10 or 19 out of 20 actions.

It is early to say, but he looks to me like a guy born for playing in a team with 80% possession and against a team who WANTS to force an opponent into: parking a bus.
He would fit well into a football from 2010' when we played that extreme possession style.
If we'll want to play a more modern, faster, more direct football, Arthur will need to speed it up and take way more risks in his play.
About a remark how Real should have bought him, he seems like the total opposite of their faster, direct football.

Also, that thing when he said something to Denis in the first match. It was probably: calm down, slow down, pass it back, don't rush.
For now: he looks like a Xavi, but older, slower Xavi who wasn't taking risks.

Now look at the video from Brasil:

He is young, he can change, but he will have to work on that part of his game.
 
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