Arthur

[serghei]

In fairness, FDJ seems better in that aspect. But Arthur is improving as playmaker and proving to be better goal scorer too.
My main concern about him is he seem to lose focus on the defensive end tbh. But he has the potential to improve it with time

FDJ at Ajax, yes, better at splitting passes, but so far this season, Arthur has outperformed him in this area.

 

[serghei]

Our movement up front must be the worst among all the top 10 teams in Europe.

Not only up front, but also in the midfield itself, the movement is not smart. For example, when one midfielder has the ball, you will often see both the other midfielders moving up and not providing a pass option near the midfielder that has the ball. That's like crazy. At least one of the other midfielders has to provide a pass option near the player with the ball. Often there is an overcrowding in the further sectors, while the nearest sectors to the ball carrier is empty with no one appearing to give the player on the ball a pass option. This is a big problem.

Also, I noticed the midfielders would not drop when CBs have the ball, so there is a huge huge amount of attacks carried through fullbacks. Only the DM drops, and when the DM is blocked, neither of the other CMs drop as well to help out progression from the back.

Back in the top Barcelona days, when Busi would be well tracked and covered by an opponent, you wouldn't see Pique outlaying every ball to Abidal or Alves. And them progressing the ball upfield to Villa or Pedro like we often do with Ernie. That was a big no-no in terms of pattern of play. When Busi would be blocked, Xavi would drop too, Iniesta as well, occupying more of a Xavi role, and Messi following through and keeping the shape. Sometimes even fullbacks would cut more inside asking for the ball in the central half-spaces.

 

[aceshigh]

Credit to Valverde for developing Arthur? You must have some serious nerve to say this after the Liverpool episode. Only thing EV does is limit both Arthur and De Jong. At least he plays them though so that's a plus that has been noted by most users.

if anything, Arthur devolved at Barça, thanks to Valverde. His main evolution in the past season was at the Seleção with Tite, where he was trying to do more of the through passes and assists like he did at Grêmio and had stopped doing at Barça.

It seems Copa America gave him confidence to his second season at Barça, despite EV.

 

[Riordon]

if anything, Arthur devolved at Barça, thanks to Valverde. His main evolution in the past season was at the Seleção with Tite, where he was trying to do more of the through passes and assists like he did at Grêmio and had stopped doing at Barça.

It seems Copa America gave him confidence to his second season at Barça, despite EV.

The numbers say otherwise. He has never played the number of keypasses as he does now. Arthur’s number of through balls for Gremio and Brazil has always been very low for a CM and he is actually improving now even though it’s still not enough. But keep blame Valverde for everything.’it’s ridiculous at this point really

 

[Andresito]

Racking up a boat load of goals and assists. Beast

 

[Danic]

A bit under the radar today but nice assist once again.

 

[Messigician]

Slowly turning into Xavi

 

[serghei]

I liked him in the controller position more. Now instead of building cohesive attacks we ram everything up field as quick as possible and try to make the most out of the chaos up front. He gets more assist and more key passes, and more goals, but that doesn't mean he is playing better.

He is playing in a different role now. Almost as an AM. And it is not his position. He is moving away from Xavi role and more into the Iniesta role imo because his role in build-up is not as consistent as it should be.

If him and De Jong would play in the position they are the best at, and the tactics would be right, Sevilla wouldn't have been able to dominate us in the start of the game.

 

[xXKonan]

I liked him in the controller position more. Now instead of building cohesive attacks we ram everything up field as quick as possible and try to make the most out of the chaos up front. He gets more assist and more key passes, and more goals, but that doesn't mean he is playing better.

He is playing in a different role now. Almost as an AM. And it is not his position. He is moving away from Xavi role and more into the Iniesta role imo because his role in build-up is not as consistent as it should be.

If him and De Jong would play in the position they are the best at, and the tactics would be right, Sevilla wouldn't have been able to dominate us in the start of the game.

Valverde wants both the CMs to be pushed higher on the pitch to get more involved in the attack.

it appears we are getting more attacking out of Arthur but at the same time, we lose a bit of what he's excellent at and help to control the games.

 

[DonAndres]

Makes extremely good decisions, looks pretty much fearless on the ball in any situation now days, always on the lookout for a killer pass if available. The last part is something he has gained so much confidence in recently. It's not even just the assists today, he's consistently been playing passes that punish opponents for leaving any space or positioning poorly.

Add to that he's very solid defensively and has been for a while, him and FDJ are gonna develop into an incredible midfield especially if we are freed of Valverde's garbage "dump it to the fullbacks" tactics and can properly penetrate through the middle.

 

[serghei]

Valverde wants both the CMs to be pushed higher on the pitch to get more involved in the attack.

it appears we are getting more attacking out of Arthur but at the same time, we lose a bit of what he's excellent at and help to control the games.

Yes, but the extra frailties in defense are a result of this also. By pushing both the midfielders up and using them as semi-forwards, we are so light in key areas when the ball is lost, that almost every attack is played directly on our back line. So the way Ernie uses both our CMs so high up and all over the field is causing even more defensive issues.

This type of match where the ball goes from goal to goal quickly doesn't favor us. We should look to control the game more. We play this way against a top side like Juve, Bayern, City or Liverpool, we're 0-3 in the first half.

 

[serghei]

For example Arthur was often the one pressing in the most advanced way. Who replaces Arthur's CM role in that instance, if Sevilla pass around his press? Messi? Suarez? please... their defensive output is limited.

 

[serghei]

All I'm saying is that this end to end game works when you have the much better players, because end to end means errors on both sides, and the better players always punish errors more than weaker players.

But in CL this way of playing will bite us in the ass like it happened before. Nothing will change.

 

[EdmondDantes]

7.9 Sofascore rating.

2 assists.


This little cunt is becoming a monster in attack as well.


Having said that I can't believe Lahoz gives that non entity of a foul for Araujo and yet let the Sevilla players bulldoze through people with impunity. He was fouled out of possession twice and yet Lahoz cynically let the play continue. Utterly ridiculous.

 

[serghei]

Having said that I can't believe Lahoz gives that non entity of a foul for Araujo and yet let the Sevilla players bulldoze through people with impunity. He was fouled out of possession twice and yet Lahoz cynically let the play continue. Utterly ridiculous.

A total disgrace. You either give all 3 as fouls by the letter of the law, or you give neither. You don't just apply totally different standards of refereeing only to catch some headlines again.

Man has a pathology of wanting to be the main subject of discussion in a football game.