Cesc Fàbregas

[Stric]

11 goals, 12 assists. There's a stats thread here on the forum

I should probably subscribe to that one.

 

[Alik]

Dat penaldo.

Yeah

 

[Dan1983]

Was our best player overall last night.

 

[CatalinR10]

 

[CatalinR10]

Will start as a false 9.

 

[Catorce]

Has shown his great strengths this season, but this game perfectly showed his weakness. He just can't seem to cope with tight spaces and little room to work with. In that respect, Xavi Iniesta and Busquets still are miles ahead of him. For large portions of the game he was invisible, due to good marking and pressing by Atletico.

 

[Flavia]

Has shown his great strengths this season, but this game perfectly showed his weakness. He just can't seem to cope with tight spaces and little room to work with. In that respect, Xavi Iniesta and Busquets still are miles ahead of him. For large portions of the game he was invisible, due to good marking and pressing by Atletico.

Playing false 9 without space really brings out the worse in him. Improved after being relocated to the middle.

 

[linetty]

He should never, ever play as a false #9 again.

 

[The Observer]

He played the entire second half in midfield and we played worse as a team than we did in the first half, despite Messi and Neymar coming on.

 

[BarcaGirl]

He had a bad match, both as false 9 and in midfield, when Iniesta came off.

 

[Alarcón]

His positioning is suspect to say the least. Not only as a false 9, also in midfield. He was often in places where he was useless, like the one time he stood directly beside Pedro for several seconds or another time when Xavi received the ball in the middle of the pitch and he decided to run forward like a CF and leave the offensive midfield empty.

We were essentially playing with a "U" formation for long periods of the game where the only passes forward we made were to our full backs and he did little to disrupt that scheme as he is only good with a lot of space.

 

[Cule4life]

He isnt Xavi's heir. We need someone like Gundogan or Vidal

 

[Galning]

Today's game has once again shown, sadly, that Fàbregas doesn't have what it takes to play in our midfield. The only place he thrives is the space between attack & midfield.

 

[DonAndres]

Still being the outsider in our midfield, I feel Cesc is too often a scapegoat and has flaws that are easily noticed. Iniesta had some sloppy plays early on today, Xavi made little to no noticeable impact either. Cesc suffered from Atletico's compact defense as much as every other player did (Messi, Neymar, Xavi, Alexis, etc.) yet people are acting like his poor performance stands out just because the spotlight is on him.

Xavi-Iniesta is the midfield that is best at working in tight spaces and controlling possession, but is that really what we needed today? They didn't impose any danger on Atletico who just sat back and absorbed whatever they couldn't dish out. Playing the way we did with all the "control" and whatnot may seem the way to go in a match with a strong pressing and compact team, but to be honest we did exactly what they wanted us to do and we played right into their hand. Not saying a Cesc-Iniesta midfield would've been gloriously effective, but it would at least turn the tides so that our attacks would be quick, direct, and deadly where we don't need to work in tight spaces covered by 10 men and can utilize our attack's dynamic ability. We would've sacrificed some control and possession (which was useless most of the time today anyway) and instead played on the counter to get the job done.

Xavi and Iniesta is the best midfield against teams that we can't afford to let them have the ball and where dominating them is the best way to breaking them down (like Chelsea, Bayern, and perhaps RM). Cesc-Iniesta is the best midfield against counterattacking teams who take advantage of our possession, and against teams that we just need to apply quick kills (Atletico, Dortmund, City).

 

[evilhita666]

He had a bad match, both as false 9 and in midfield, when Iniesta came off.

Yup, pretty much... His passing was quite bad to be honest and lost too many balls...