They might be far worse than shit, mate.
They can't escape pressure to save their life, they can't control tempo. Their previous teams are doing better now without them.
Renato and Ruiz are b2b midfielders, at best you need one of those in big games but elite one, Soler is a midfielder/winger. Except he isn't good enough which makes him a tweener rather than a versatile, an Arda/Denis type of player. Vitinha looked decent but he is a more of an Arthur with potential rather than a Xavi or Iniesta.
It was simply a wasted resources for this club.
Their midfield niether got their attackers the ball, niether protected the defense.
It is more like blaming Messi and ignore Busquets role in humiliations.
You are wrong in some of the things you write
1) The PSG midfield yesterday defended well, as their backline did. They defended very deep and did as much as they could.
Problem was the reason why their coach opted for such conservative tactics to begin with,
tactics reminiscent of EV in his glory European nights at Barca, but with much better defending than Busi-Raki in front of Pique-Lenglet
I have a hint for you: the fact that he has to accommodate for 2 deadweights upfront who don't press, don't run, and wait close to the halfway line to receive, while the other 8 have to do everything for them. In modern football you can't press even with 9, let alone with 8 players. The only solution is parking a deep bus, and hoping that some long balls will find those 2 close to the halfway line and they will make sth happen on the counter
2) Veratti is an elite md in controlling tempo of games. Most decent teams in Europe have only 1 such md, which is accommodated by other md profiles doing other things.
Renato is b2b, you are right, but far more competent on escaping pressure than what you imply here:
He is a beast box2box, dynamic, good on any kind of running with the ball and off the ball, powerful shot outside the box, and wonderful in winning all duels
If he has a problem it's his injury proness
Ruiz is technically gifted, and a md could work wonders with him if he is used correctly. He is not a deep-lying DM, he is more of CAM who needs ball to feet to find wonderful passes through angles, and strike the ball wonderfully outside of the box
Like Napoli used him last year
It's even more interesting that these 3 (Verrati Renato Ruiz) combined have a perfect blend of different qualities a md needs, control, pressure evasion, dynamism, physicality, short passing, long passing, shooting from outside the box
It's so depressing that so many of you choose to go down this line of finding someone to blame just to whitewash Messi...
It's actually scandalous that so many wonderful players are wasted in a setup that doesn't suit them, and everything in this sick club is geared towards serving their sacred cows.
Their mentality from top down, from the Emir and Doha hierarchy to the team on the field is rotten.
