ebieymjunior
Senior Member
One thing I've noticed. Barca fans are so quick to look at younger players from other teams and are very quick to neglect their own youngsters, same goes for the older players and all the coaches since Guardiola.
We had Montoya, Bartra, Thiago, Tello and dos Santos last season, and the only one who got good minutes was Tello.
Most of the fans thought none of them was good enough (because they didn't play much) and they were the best at the U21 championships, and then we sold Thiago.
This season we had Montoya, Bartra, Roberto, dos Santos and Tello, and only Bartra played close to enough minutes, and that's because of injuries!
And Bartra performed marvellously, but once the older ones were back, he was back to the bench without reason. Injuries happened again, and Bartra played, and if it weren't for him, Barca would probably have lost the league long before.
Fair enough with dos Santos, injuries have not been too good with him, but what's the excuse with the rest? People thought Bartra was not good enough, he showed that he just needs to be given trust and learn from his mistakes (like all other players ever, cf. Thiago in the beginning of this season - you didn't see Pep benching him), same with Montoya who was great toward the end of the season.
Every time Roberto played he did enough to warrant more playing time, and look here, almost every time he played the full 90 minutes, Barca won with a lot of goals (only once less than 4 goals and they still won), and that includes the 6-1 against Celtic in the Champions League! (for those whose excuse is "he doesn't have experience in the CL", and how would he have experience if he's not played?). Tello was so overlooked that he even had to say his thoughts during the match (don't think he was right, but just shows how he should have felt).
As much as I want us to buy a very good defender, IF we don't buy Benatia, Marquinhos, Laporte, Hummels, it's not the end of the world. We have Bartra and Pique that could be a very good starting defensive partnership. If we get one of them, the better. Same with RB and CM. I can't believe people are going as far as say we should buy 19-21 year olds in Aurier/Torres, when we have Montoya and Roberto, and Godswill and Kaptoum in Barca B next year.
I thought the Thiago saga would have served as a lesson to all fans, but it seems we don't want to learn. Trust in young players and give them enough playing time and they'll repay you with good performances. You don't learn to drive in one day, same goes with playing football at the level Barca plays (otherwise players like Alexis would have taken no time to get used to it). But these youngsters have learned to play the Barca way since they were young. Wouldn't they be more capable of playing better with playing time? Did everyone forget that Xavi was once called the pest (or something like that) of Barca when he was replacing Pep? I agree not all the young players will succeed in Barcelona, but MOST of those aren't fully promoted. The ones who are have a good reason for that, and should get the support of us fans.
For this year, we have a great core of experienced and young players, so whoever comes, we should support all the players, even the younger ones. I think Adama will be better than Tello, but I heard that if no attacker can be bought, Lucho prefers to keep Tello, and if he can play as well as he did last season, I'd keep him until Adama is ready. Roberto has the potential to be as good as Xavi and I'm not exaggerating (and that's apparently exactly what Lucho wants to achieve. A lot will disagree, but that's just what opinions are), I also think Bartra/Montoya can become as good as Puyol/Abidal (again, my opinion).
Sorry for the long post, but I just think we're overlooking potential world class players while looking at other teams who don't play as well as Barca does.
We had Montoya, Bartra, Thiago, Tello and dos Santos last season, and the only one who got good minutes was Tello.
Most of the fans thought none of them was good enough (because they didn't play much) and they were the best at the U21 championships, and then we sold Thiago.
This season we had Montoya, Bartra, Roberto, dos Santos and Tello, and only Bartra played close to enough minutes, and that's because of injuries!
And Bartra performed marvellously, but once the older ones were back, he was back to the bench without reason. Injuries happened again, and Bartra played, and if it weren't for him, Barca would probably have lost the league long before.
Fair enough with dos Santos, injuries have not been too good with him, but what's the excuse with the rest? People thought Bartra was not good enough, he showed that he just needs to be given trust and learn from his mistakes (like all other players ever, cf. Thiago in the beginning of this season - you didn't see Pep benching him), same with Montoya who was great toward the end of the season.
Every time Roberto played he did enough to warrant more playing time, and look here, almost every time he played the full 90 minutes, Barca won with a lot of goals (only once less than 4 goals and they still won), and that includes the 6-1 against Celtic in the Champions League! (for those whose excuse is "he doesn't have experience in the CL", and how would he have experience if he's not played?). Tello was so overlooked that he even had to say his thoughts during the match (don't think he was right, but just shows how he should have felt).
As much as I want us to buy a very good defender, IF we don't buy Benatia, Marquinhos, Laporte, Hummels, it's not the end of the world. We have Bartra and Pique that could be a very good starting defensive partnership. If we get one of them, the better. Same with RB and CM. I can't believe people are going as far as say we should buy 19-21 year olds in Aurier/Torres, when we have Montoya and Roberto, and Godswill and Kaptoum in Barca B next year.
I thought the Thiago saga would have served as a lesson to all fans, but it seems we don't want to learn. Trust in young players and give them enough playing time and they'll repay you with good performances. You don't learn to drive in one day, same goes with playing football at the level Barca plays (otherwise players like Alexis would have taken no time to get used to it). But these youngsters have learned to play the Barca way since they were young. Wouldn't they be more capable of playing better with playing time? Did everyone forget that Xavi was once called the pest (or something like that) of Barca when he was replacing Pep? I agree not all the young players will succeed in Barcelona, but MOST of those aren't fully promoted. The ones who are have a good reason for that, and should get the support of us fans.
For this year, we have a great core of experienced and young players, so whoever comes, we should support all the players, even the younger ones. I think Adama will be better than Tello, but I heard that if no attacker can be bought, Lucho prefers to keep Tello, and if he can play as well as he did last season, I'd keep him until Adama is ready. Roberto has the potential to be as good as Xavi and I'm not exaggerating (and that's apparently exactly what Lucho wants to achieve. A lot will disagree, but that's just what opinions are), I also think Bartra/Montoya can become as good as Puyol/Abidal (again, my opinion).
Sorry for the long post, but I just think we're overlooking potential world class players while looking at other teams who don't play as well as Barca does.
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