Barça's Transfers and Rumors

[SeloBarca]

Neymar----Suarez----Messi
-----Iniesta---Gundogan
---------Busquets
-Alba-Pique-Benatia-Alves

A fit Gundogan without back injury would be ideal for Barcelona.

I would be happy with that lineup

 

[i_bleed_blaugrana]

The players who would be OK with that sort of reduced role are just not going to be good enough, or way past their prime. Maybe both.

Nonsense.

Could probably sign him for like 15-20 million, which would be a steal. Reminds me A LOT of a younger Henry as far as playing style goes. Has the dribbling skills, speed and technique to play on any of our front 3 positions. So to say we can't find a 9 who can suit our style doesn't make sense to me.

Either a true, direct scoring wing-forward like Muller or Reus, or a dynamic mobile CF like Aguero, or Suarez, or Cavani.

Alexis + 20 million for Cavani would be a perfect and mutually beneficial trade. We should only break the bank for a new striker if we get rid of a winger, namely Alexis, or try and scout a young talent like Ibarbo.

 

[Sumlit]

Nonsense.

Could probably sign him for like 15-20 million, which would be a steal. Reminds me A LOT of a younger Henry as far as playing style goes. Has the dribbling skills, speed and technique to play on any of our front 3 positions. So to say we can't find a 9 who can suit our style doesn't make sense to me.

I did not say that. If you read carefully, I specified a plan B striker that would come to play limited minutes and be an emergency option for games that become complicated. That's what people speak about and what I was referring to not being a fan of. A player who would accept such a role will either be a youngster coming up the pipe, or a past their prime player looking for limited contribution in a good team to finish their career.

No up and coming potentially good striker will accept a reduced role of such magnitude. Not even for Barca. The player that the team buys must be good enough to play every day, and in any formation. If he's good enough to play every day, the he can compete for a regular spot, and not just sit on the bench as a plan B and wait for the right game for your skills to be needed.

 

[BarçAjax8]

Alexis is not ideal in that spot either. He struggles in constrained spaces and has balance, first touch and finishing issues.

Neymar really messed up the situation. Last summer before he joined, Alexis still had hope of fulfilling the support forward role. Barca just need to go buy a scoring forward to replace the hole Villa left. Then, Alexis could have supported Messi and the other forward efficiently, not being required to be a scorer.
Instead, they bought Neymar and he instantly became the support forward extraordinaire. That screwed up Alexis.

If people don't believe me, watch the efficiency of different fronts. There's a reason Messi with Alexis and Neymar is not an efficient front 3. There's also a reason, any front 3 with Pedro is more efficient than without.

Pedro/Messi/Alexis - Messi is Messi, Alexis support role, Pedro direct scorer role. Efficient.
Neymar/Messi/Pedro - Messi is Messi, Neymar support role, Pedro direct scorer role. Efficient.
Pedro/Neymar/Alexis - Neymar is Messi, Alexis support role, Pedro direct scorer role. Efficient.

Neymar/Messi/Alexis - Messi is Messi, Neymar support role, Alexis??? direct scorer role? He is not that. He is a support forward. That means 2 support players. Not Efficient.


If the marquee players in the forward line from now on will be Neymar and Messi, the best complement for them is a direct scorer.

Excellent analysis and what my thoughts have been for sometime.
Just as we need balance in defense we need balance in our attack. After Villa's injury at the CWC we lost that balance in our attack. When Villa returned Tito refused to use him so he left and now the imbalance continues. With Villa - Messi - Pedro we had 3 different style forwards who together combined as a complete attack.

We don't need to replace Dani (if we are to sell him) because we already have Jordi Alba. What we still need to do is replace ABIDAL but now for the right side. The other player who still needs a replacement is David Villa (Striker) to allow more freedom for Messi and give the opposition defense something to worry about even when Messi drops deep.

 

[ryuken]

Alba is a LB, not a RB

 

[BarçAjax8]

Alba is a LB, not a RB

We don't need to replace Dani (if we are to sell him) because we already have Jordi Alba. What we still need to do is replace ABIDAL but now for the right side.

What I mean't is we don't need to be looking for an offensive back since we already have a Dani Alves @ LB in Jordi Alba. We need a right sided Abidal @ RB to bring back balance to our defense to allow Jordi to get forward without leaving massive holes.

 

[i_bleed_blaugrana]

I personally think we should switch to a formation with 3 CBs personally, especially since it will be near impossible to find a replacement for the kind of tactical role Alves does. Not every RB can bomb forward and get back defensively as quickly as he can and out of all of the older players on the squad, he will be the most difficult to replace, even more so than Xavi. With a world class CB, a 3 man back line would work well since we play so high and would make the trap much easier to run successfully.

If anything, Bartra played at RB when he was younger, so he could feature as a defensive full back a la Abidal as well.

 

[Zincubus]

Graham Hunter says 2:1 to Barca over Madrid at the weekend !!!

 

[Xavinho]

Graham Hunter says 2:1 to Barca over Madrid at the weekend !!!

And that's a transfer rumour how exactly?

 

[Djab]

And that's a transfer rumour how exactly?

It's day bright apparent that it's a transfer rumour.

 

[linetty]

Wish list Tata Martino handed to Barcelona in October: Subotic, Vergini, Doria, Filipe Luis, Gundogan, Arda Turan, Aguero, Klose [espnbr]

Good progress has been made last few days in the talks between Valdes and Man City. Valdes could cancel his pre-deal with Monaco. [l'equipe]

 

[ThwiX]

Some weird names on that "wish list". Glad Gündogan has caught his attention, though.

 

[linetty]

Klose & Vergini shouldn't be there IMO... One is past it and the other one is just not the material for a starter here...

 

[beautifulgame]

Vergini is fine. The list is good.

 

[FCBblaug]

Vergini is fine. The list is good.

Vergini is horribe there is a reason to wh he plays for sunderland and not a big team

I personally think we should switch to a formation with 3 CBs personally, especially since it will be near impossible to find a replacement for the kind of tactical role Alves does. Not every RB can bomb forward and get back defensively as quickly as he can and out of all of the older players on the squad, he will be the most difficult to replace, even more so than Xavi. With a world class CB, a 3 man back line would work well since we play so high and would make the trap much easier to run successfully.

If anything, Bartra played at RB when he was younger, so he could feature as a defensive full back a la Abidal as well.

Get danilo and you have no problems