That mandzukic post is a joke right? Anyway why all the hate for willian from people. He is a top player and is better than dembele at the moment. Let the two of them fight for the right forward position. Anyway 80 million is the new 30 million so it's not that much these days
People can shit on Willian, but even a current Willian is a way better player than A CURRENT Dembele, and a way better fit for Barca.
Willian can actually play simple shortpasses around the box (which Dembele is struggling) and doesn't rely ONLY on counters to be useful.
Short term, Willian is a way better player than Dembele in the next 2 years.
Long term, I don't like those "ifs" and "he has potential" stories.
There is also a high probability that Dembele will never improve from the current level and that level is nowhere near good enough for Barca.
We should stay away from 4-4-2. Not enough presence in the box, stale attacks, wasteful possession which leads to nothing good in the big games. Ultimate chicken formation. This system is used by teams who play defensive, and on the wings, with frequent crosses in the box. Very direct team who sit back a lot. With 2 strikers, either a big target man with a fast and skilled 2nd striker to play off him, or two classic strikers like Milan with Shevchenko and Crespo or Shevchenko and Inzaghi. Or United with Andy Cole and Yorke.
Imo, 442 with Coutinho-Busquets-Rakitic-Willian would be a totally different story that 442 with Iniesta-Busquets-Rakitic-Paulinho/Gomes/Vidal from the last season.
Willian is better than any of Paulinho/Gomes/Vidal/Roberto.
Coutinho is good on the left.
This version of 442 could keep the defensive stability and balance from the last season and offer more attacking threat (Messi, Suarez, Coutinho, Willian), plus all players are experienced.
We subbed Iniesta with Coutinho who can run more.
And we subbed Pualinho/Gomes with Willian who is Ronaldinho compared to them.
Majority of our fans will ask: but what about Dembele?
I personally don't care about Dembele.
Barca wise, this 442 will be stronger than last season's 442 who won the double and almost ended a season without a defeat.
About transfers, Sport says that we will buy 2 "big" players, one of them will be a midfielder who can score goals (to lower the Messipendencia):
Signing two midfielders, one who scores goals, is the objective. Willian, De Jong, Rabiot... and another couple of players whose names have not come out yet. The idea is to finalise the squad as soon as possible, although Valverde is not in a rush.
