You might regret reniewing his contract, despite his form for 3 or so month last season. He is not as good as he was.
The overreactions One game, where everyone was just as bad.
No. Alves just had a great season. Montoya wasn't going to be any better, and there's a ban. He was bad as everyone was, even Messi. Can't single him out for tonight's game.
Not saying you had much better options going forward, Messi and Alves seems to have a great understanding. But defensively he isnt was he once was, Pique had to bail him out more than a few times already.
He isn't as consistent. However, he rises to the big occasions. His performance against Bayern on Camp Nou for example, was the best performance I've seen from any RB last year, and I'm talking about CL semifinal level here, not some average league match. Amazing game in both offence and defence. So, he has off games more often than in his prime (see tonight, or Malaga, or Celta away for instence), but there will also be times in which he'll show "best RB in the world" football.
From what i have seen of him over the years, i would rate him as one of the best rbs i have seen. In his prime, he was a driving force both forward and defensively, but he isnt in his prime anymore. Age has taken its toll, numerous times last season he looked exposed, and it wont get much better in the years to come.
He does some things for us that are worth the risk of him having the occasional stinker. Plus, tonight he didn't have the back-up provided by Rakitic and Pique, so, naturally, he looked worse.
Just looked dead tired out there. We just had nobody else to play due to paper-thin squad depth until January.