Arthur

[serghei]

Arthur should man up a little. It's not like he's moving to Lecce. It's Juventus, a similar club in stature with Barcelona. Just go there, and prove everyone he is a top player. Make a mockery of these fools.

These things happen. He should take example from the Salah, De Bruyne situations. Sometimes the club you're at decides you're not worth more chances and they trade you. Whether they were right or wrong depends on what you do next.

Setien's comments were mean and unnecessary. I'd like him to show these balls when speaking about the bad things Suarez brings as well, but he'll probably shut up and play him all the time like a schoolboy.

 

[i_bleed_blaugrana]

Why are we comparing Arthur to the goat midfielder of that generation? No one should be expecting Arthur to hit xavi levels... Feel sorry for the guy that's needs to try replace Messi in the future...
Other than similar characteristics he should be judged on what he offer to the club currently or may potentially offer us in the not too distant future.

This. We really need to stop thinking just because a player has a similar skill set to past successful players that they need to be at the same level as them to succeed. You could honestly make an argument that the game lacks real quality at the moment compared to the level of quality players like Xavi, Iniesta etc. played in. Sure, the tactics were a bit looser but Id argue they were going against players who were more difficult and tricker to play against. A lot more teams had world class talent back then rather than how concentrated it is now and I think thats what made the era Xavi emerged from so special and why him, Messi and Iniesta are so special.

With this in mind, I think we need to evaluate our players moving forward (especially post-Messi) in terms of possessing key skill sets that these players have without hyping them to the extent of thinking they are the next Messi, Busi, Xavi etc. Its a recipe for failure, especially with my boy Fati: let him be the best version of himself, not the next Messi. That?s the sort of approach we need. So overall, I think Arthur was good enough right now to be our B2B interior like Xavi was and get us results. Id be frustrated with his lack of penetration and precision with his final balls at times, too. But he did a lot of things and possessed a core skill set that isnt easy to find, especially at his age. This feels like an accelerated version of how Cesc played out if you think about it, too.

Also, Im sorry but its wide of the mark to think Arthur is average. Its plain and simply the fact that we are a circus right now, our board is robbing this club blind and selling off any asset they can just so they can cover their asses with their cooked books. Its repulsive. Equally astounding that they continue to get away with it despite doing it with the elegance of a baboon.

Who knows? Maybe both parties will be better off from this, as at least it looks like Puig will get a lot his game time. And if Im being completely honest, the kid already might be better in that role but that doesnt mean that Arthur didnt have a future here or wouldnt have made it.

 

[Tackle]

I am told on here we're apparently the next Milan for selling Arthur, meanwhile Juve supporters feel like they're becoming the next Milan for chasing such a player.

 

[raskolnikov]

Maybe we can also swap Frenkie for Rabiott or Fati + money for Willian?

 

[mc_lovin]

Maybe we can also swap Frenkie for Rabiott or Fati + money for Willian?

Brilliant, you should apply for a job.

In other news: media says the transfer was completed this morning and will be announced today. Sucks.

 

[BBZ8800]

It seems that people easily forget that Xavi was regarded as 'inadequate' at the age of 23 that Arthur is today, that 'he will never make the first team', he 'will never become the new Guardiola' etc, just as comments like the one above say for Arthur now.
But, apparently, Xavi after a while made the XI, and after some while more, when under a world-class manager like Pep Guardiola, with clear plan and ideas about how they game should be played and how Xavi's strengthd should be utilized, then people labelled Xavi as world-class.

Lol.
No offense, but this is total bs.

Xavi was aged 28 when Pep came, lol.
Xavi was aged 23 when Rijkaard came and Xavi-Deco were usually a starting midfield pair for 4 years (Deco came in the 2nd Rijkaard's season, out of 5).

Till the age of 24, Xavi already had 245 appearances for Barca.

Also, about his creative play, Xavi had more forward passes over 30 minutes than Arthur had in 5 years.
Btw, Arthur will be 24 in 40 days.
This is how Xavi played aged 24.
Look at the amount of forward passes, and how he is capable to play a long ball. Arthur's every pass is a 4 meter slow granny pass to a closest teammate.

Please, no one should ever compare Xavi to a sideway passer and jogger Arthur.

 

[vegitot]

Lol.
No offense, but this is total bs.

Xavi was aged 28 when Pep came, lol.
Xavi was aged 23 when Rijkaard came and Xavi-Deco were usually a starting midfield pair for 4 years (Deco came in the 2nd Rijkaard's season, out of 5).

Till the age of 24, Xavi already had 245 appearances for Barca.

Also, about his creative play, Xavi had more forward passes over 30 minutes than Arthur had in 5 years.
Btw, Arthur will be 24 in 40 days.
This is how Xavi played aged 24.
Look at the amount of forward passes, and how he is capable to play a long ball. Arthur's every pass is a 4 meter slow granny pass to a closest teammate.

Please, no one should ever compare Xavi to a sideway passer and jogger Arthur.

Not to disrespect Arthur but Xavi at 23 years old had 5 goals and 13 assits in 2003/2004 season. Quite different

 

[Riordon]

When I see these Xavi comps I miss him so much man. Truly special. Will be a long long time before someone even close to him emerges.

He had something like 3.4 key passes on average in 08/09, I just can't explain how insane that actually is. And fucking 30 assist....

The king

 

[mc_lovin]

Not to disrespect Arthur but Xavi at 23 years old had 5 goals and 13 assits in 2003/2004 season. Quite different

Xavi is a ridiculous benchmark, for me the greatest CM of all time. Right now its Arthur vs Rakitic, Vidal and hes close enough: he lacks consistency, but his peak performances were pretty great (or are we going to ignore that he was our most influantial CM at the start of the season and coming of a very good debut season?).

I will judge at the end of the transfer window, but if we go into the season with Vidal (whos abysmal and easily our worst CM, but a decent role player), Rakitic, Busquets, De Jong and Pjanic (+Puig) we will be worse off. If the Arthur moves enables other transfers it can be a decent decision.

One more thing: the board handled this whole saga disastrous again. The Valverde saga has been shit... and they havent learned a damn.

 

[serghei]

Xavi is a ridiculous benchmark, for me the greatest CM of all time. Right now its Arthur vs Rakitic, Vidal and hes close enough: he lacks consistency, but his peak performances were pretty great (or are we going to ignore that he was our most influantial CM at the start of the season and coming of a very good debut season?).

I will judge at the end of the transfer window, but if we go into the season with Vidal (whos abysmal and easily our worst CM, but a decent role player), Rakitic, Busquets, De Jong and Pjanic (+Puig) we will be worse off. If the Arthur moves enables other transfers it can be a decent decision.

One more thing: the board handled this whole saga disastrous again. The Valverde saga has been shit... and they havent learned a damn.

The whole comparison with Xavi was purely stylistical, in terms of how he looks on the ball. It was never a direct quality comparison to begin with. It's like when you look at a tiger and you can see some movements and behaviors which are similar to a domestic cat.

 

[mc_lovin]

The whole comparison with Xavi was purely stylistical, in terms of how he looks on the ball. It was never a direct quality comparison to begin with. It's like when you look at a tiger and you can see some movements and behaviors which are similar to a domestic cat.

Not for the usual suspects though - read above.

 

[Rory]

Yeah the whole strawman arguments about Arthur have been boring since day one. Turned the discussion about his abilities into having to either attack the player or defend him to death.

 

[Vilarrubi]

The whole comparison with Xavi was purely stylistical, in terms of how he looks on the ball. It was never a direct quality comparison to begin with. It's like when you look at a tiger and you can see some movements and behaviors which are similar to a domestic cat.

Yeah agree 100%. He looks similar to Xavi when he turns on the ball and passes but realistically that’s as far as it gets with Xavi comparisons.

Saw this comment on Juve forum:

“The Only thing i can say, he is the best option we could get to replace Pjanic. A healthy Arthur is a fantastic player and nearest thing to Xavi.”

They’re gonna have a big shock when they realise Arthur and Xavi are light years apart. Like I said previously I don’t see the need for a player like Arthur for Juve, I know Sarri likes that Jorginho type but whenever I’ve watched them they have no problems in possession at all, from what I’ve seen they have problems in midfield making that killer pass. Juve fans seem to complain about lack of service from midfield a lot and we know that’s something Arthur can’t do.

I had high hopes for Arthur, after some great games like against Spurs. But he’s definitely stagnated. Feel the system isn’t helping at all either, more or less no players have improved in the last couple of years. FDJ for example, unreal at Ajax, hasn’t shown anything near that here. On the topic of FDJ, midfields with him and Arthur in didn’t seem to work out.

Seems this deal is mostly financially motivated, to balance the books in the short term. Arthur’s mum originally said Arthur was happy in Barcelona and yesterday said “Now they are blaming the player” so it looks like he’s been forced out more than anything. We’re also getting a player who’ll probably see out his big wages as he won’t have much resale value in 2/3 years. I’m hoping (let’s hope) that Pjanic performs at a high level for a couple of seasons, seen Juve fans saying the system was hurting him as Sarri was playing him so deep. Whenever I’ve watched him over last few years I’ve been impressed.

 

[Barcilliant]

Arthur is basically Sarris second choice after Jorginho.
It would have been interesting to see Arthur go to City. I think Pep would develop him well.
People say we have had lousy signings but a big reason why alot of our signings look like trash is due to Shitverde and now Setien.
A managers job is to develop young players, give them confidence and know when and how to play them.
We bought a ton of players and Shitverde basically just fell back on the seniors every single time.

 

[BBZ8800]

Xavi is a ridiculous benchmark, for me the greatest CM of all time. Right now its Arthur vs Rakitic, Vidal and hes close enough: he lacks consistency, but his peak performances were pretty great (or are we going to ignore that he was our most influantial CM at the start of the season and coming of a very good debut season?).

I will judge at the end of the transfer window, but if we go into the season with Vidal (whos abysmal and easily our worst CM, but a decent role player), Rakitic, Busquets, De Jong and Pjanic (+Puig) we will be worse off. If the Arthur moves enables other transfers it can be a decent decision.

One more thing: the board handled this whole saga disastrous again. The Valverde saga has been shit... and they havent learned a damn.

You don't even have to compare him with Xavi.
Out of our CMs or even pivots since 2000s, I have never seen a player who was as bad in forward passes.

Who was awesome in creation:
Xavi
Iniesta
Deco
Fabregas
Busquets

Ok:
Van Bommel
Rakitic
Vidal
Paulinho
Arda
Denis
Keita
Motta
Gerard
Edmilson
Cocu
Mendieta
Riquelme

The only players who were truly horrible in attacking terms were:
Marquez when he played as a pivot
Mascherano when he played as a pivot
Andre Gomes, but even he had more vision than Arthur. But he was scared.
And Arthur.

You guys make it sound as if: poor Arthur, people are comparing him with a GOAT Xavi and this is why a poor Arthur didn't reach expectations.
Seriously, apart from a horrible Andre Gomes, name 1 Barca's midfielder who was as horrible in attacking terms as Arthur.

You were blinded by his press resistance and by that move when he shields the ball like Xavi.
Everything else is bad to average.

The same as how people were blinded in early days by Halilovic because SOME of his moves while running and dribbling resembled on Messi.
People used to write: will Halil play as our starting Cam or a RW in a CL final, lol?

About Arthur being our best player this season, I have wrote about that: he can play good ONLY after 2-3 Months of rest.
Then he has energy for 5-6 good matches and after that he is dead.
He played at Copa and returned in September.
Played 6 good matches and then both his rating on Whoscored, number of assists and goals, and his displays on the eye test dropped a lot.
He started to play meh, he was tired all the time and then he started to party.

In his 2 seasons at Barca, you never had more than 2 Months of him being in form.
He always has a short period of good form, then he starts to be tired, injured, partying and drops to a 5th place in a pecking order both under EV and Setien.

He couldn't convince neither of our coaches.
Yet, he is on top of a pecking order forever for some usual suspects on this forum.

And he won't explode at Juve.
He will either be meh all the time.
Or he'll again play 2 good Months and 10 MIA months.

His skillset is not good enough to turn him into a world class player.
His stamina is not good enough to turn him into a consistent world class player.
His professionalism is not good enough to turn him into a consistent player.