Barça's Transfers and Rumors

[ZenI]

According to Sky Italia, Juventus have reached an agreement with Alexis Sanchez on his contract and have started the negotiations with FC Barcelona.

Makes sense, keep Pedro and sell Alexis...

 

[KingMessi]

Makes sense, keep Pedro and sell Alexis...

Sarcasm? Sarcasm.

 

[hardyboy]

I think Roberto, with some coaching and an injection of confidence, could play that mobile central midfielder role that Xavi plays, albeit nowhere close to the level that prime Xavi did it. Rafinha could do this as well, with some added physicality that Xavi lacked.

Sergi Roberto is not Barca quality..He will either be a squad player or will be sold..

 

[Learo]

It's a tactical example. I'm not blaming Busquets for a poor individual performance in a single game which leads to a loss, that's too small a sample size. I'm just giving an example as to how he's very immobile as a player, even when he played CM. His immobility tactically screwed us. You don't need more than 1 game to see that. It's not like if he were to play another game there he'd somehow start running 16km and be involved everywhere. I'm not even blaming him for LOSING as the goals were caused by other factors. It's the fact that we were tactically dominated as a result of a limited and incapable midfield which was completely static.

The 'Xavi role' is all about movement, something Busquets does not have and has NEVER been shown to have. You're making it too simplistic by saying that Busquets is an intelligent passer therefore he should play in the Xavi role. He positions himself, he doesn't move around much. His passing is often in a few touches to provide a foundation presence in our buildup. There's nothing that suggests he's capable of playing in the Xavi role, it's completely unnatural.

And how do you know what he was instructed to do? Song played in that midfield, and he frequently moved around taking the Xavi position. Busquets was not the reason we didnt win that game. Its silly talk.

Whenever Xavi played DM early on in his career, he wasnt any more mobile than Busquets.

If we want to replace Xavi, we have to look at our own players. There are no one even close to fill Xavi's boots on the market. It takes years of preparation to fill that role. And it is also a natural progression for a DM to move up to CM in our team. I believe Busquets is ready for that, just like Xavi was.

 

[linetty]

Makes sense, keep Pedro and sell Alexis...

Makes a lot of sense actually.

 

[BarçAjax8]

I think Roberto, with some coaching and an injection of confidence, could play that mobile central midfielder role that Xavi plays, albeit nowhere close to the level that prime Xavi did it. Rafinha could do this as well, with some added physicality that Xavi lacked.

Given the right guidance I think Roberto has the potential to do it as well. His passing and movements are good, it's the other specifics that he'll need to work on. Those things are more defined by the teams tactics and playing style which will be a lot clearer with Lucho.

 

[DonAK]

I like this song, from Muse.



I agree. I can't see zubi getting Marcos and Benatia

Listened to it for the first time now and it's quite good.

 

[KingMessi]

And how do you know what he was instructed to do? Song played in that midfield, and he frequently moved around taking the Xavi position. Whenever Xavi played DM early on in his career, he wasnt any more mobile than Busquets.

If we want to replace Xavi, we have to look at our own players. There are no one even close to fill Xavi's boots on the market. It takes years of preparation to fill that role. And it is also a natural progression for a DM to move up to CM in our team. I believe Busquets is ready for that, just like Xavi was.

Busquets simply doesn't have the mobility to do that. His frame and way of playing doesn't allow for it. It's easier to just let Samper take that cm role instead of moving the world's best central defensive midfielder to cm and then having Samper take the dm spot.

 

[Learo]

Exactly, playing Busi in CM will just cause us problems. Why would we take the best DM and play him out of position?

Puyol was the best RB and we moved him to CB. Messi was the best RW and we moved him to the middle. Xavi would still have been a DM.

The thing is, the loss of Xavi can never be fully replaced. It would be disastrous if we try to sign someone like Koke, Herrera or some other guy who has never had years of preparation to fill that role. We have to look in our own house to fill that void.

 

[KingMessi]

Puyol was the best RB and we moved him to CB. Messi was the best RW and we moved him to the middle.

The thing is, the loss of Xavi can never be fully replaced. It would be disastrous if we try to sign someone like Koke, Herrera or some other guy who has never had years of preparation to fill that role. We have to look in our own house to fill that void.

So how about that Sergi Samper or Rafa Alcantara to take that cm spot instead of moving Busquets from cdm?

 

[darthvader7888]

So how about that Sergi Samper or Rafa Alcantara to take that cm spot instead of moving Busquets from cdm?

Neither of them are ready.

 

[KingMessi]

Neither of them are ready.

It's better than moving Busquets to cm though.

 

[Learo]

So how about that Sergi Samper or Rafa Alcantara to take that cm spot instead of moving Busquets from cdm?

Samper yes, Rafa has to play more attacking.

The most important thing is not mobility in that role, but being able to dictate the play and for that, supreme intelligence is required. Only Busquets has it, but Samper might in the future (too early, but if he really impresses for Barca B during the season, he can be counted on this season already). He is quite tall for a Barca midfielder as well.

 

[Sumlit]

Puyol was the best RB and we moved him to CB. Messi was the best RW and we moved him to the middle. Xavi would still have been a DM.

The thing is, the loss of Xavi can never be fully replaced. It would be disastrous if we try to sign someone like Koke, Herrera or some other guy who has never had years of preparation to fill that role. We have to look in our own house to fill that void.

Both those were mobile players moved from a position of high mobility to a position that required less. With Busquets, you want the opposite. A player that lacks natural mobility, being played in a position of low mobility, to be moved to a position that requires more. In other words, like apples and oranges comparison.

The most important thing is not mobility in that role.....

Well now we know you don't know what you're talking about. Xavi has not lost intelligence and control, he has lost mobility and his decline is very evident. Mobility is of paramount importance for that role.

 

[KingMessi]

Samper yes, Rafa has to play more attacking.

The most important thing is not mobility in that role, but being able to dictate the play and for that, supreme intelligence is required. Only Busquets has it, but Samper might in the future (too early, but if he really impresses for Barca B during the season, he can be counted on this season already). He is quite tall for a Barca midfielder as well.

He was quite good in that Xavi role last year in preseason, but then again that was against low caliber opposition.