David Villa

[Semi-Neutral]

All right, let's look at that list again. Villa can play as a central striker, but over Messi? Good one, good one. Valdes, Xavi, Mascherano all play a different position, so putting them here is useless. Pedro, yes, but, honestly, I would take Pedro of the old on the wing over Villa. Obviously, he's no longer that Pedro, so Tito is trying to make him rediscover his form, and if he doesn't, Villa will be rested for the 2nd half of the season. Busquets, Alba, Fabregas do not play Villa's position. Iniesta is a complete monster on the left wing this season, I would take him over Villa as well. Pique, Alves, Song, and Adriano all play different positions from Villa. Now your reply?

 

[ammarfcb]

the winger position is where we have most players. simple as that. sanchez,tello,pedro,villa,iniesta (lately) and cuenca coming in soon

nevertheless villa deserves more play time in important games. start him today please tito.

 

[CatalinR10]

All right, let's look at that list again. Villa can play as a central striker, but over Messi? Good one, good one. Valdes, Xavi, Mascherano all play a different position, so putting them here is useless. Pedro, yes, but, honestly, I would take Pedro of the old on the wing over Villa. Obviously, he's no longer that Pedro, so Tito is trying to make him rediscover his form, and if he doesn't, Villa will be rested for the 2nd half of the season. Busquets, Alba, Fabregas do not play Villa's position. Iniesta is a complete monster on the left wing this season, I would take him over Villa as well. Pique, Alves, Song, and Adriano all play different positions from Villa. Now your reply?

So,you think that a world class player like Villa should have played only little over 700 minutes? If you would take Pedro , a player who didn't score in the past 22 games for Barcelona , over Villa who has more goals than Pedro , Alexis , Tello combined this season with less minutes than all 3 ... it's your choice , I wouldn't , at least not in all games. I was thinking the past weeks that Tito only cared for Villa's health when he didn't gave him much playing time, and I'm ok with the rotation but the second I saw Alexis beeing prepared to enter the field after an injury that kept him 1 month out and Villa , as always , staying on the bench , I knew it was pure bullshit.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

Well a) he was coming back from injury and is 30 years old
and b) Imagine if we played him, and he scored all the time. Due to his age, he'd tire out, and then in the second half of the season (i.e. knockout rounds of CL and etc.) he wouldn't be able to play well. Then, we'd have to put in Pedro, Alexis, and Tello, who, as you said, have less goals combined than Villa does. I'd rather play Pedro and Sanchez now, and have Villa rested for the important part of the season, especially seeing how we're in the lead for La Liga as it is.

 

[Stric]

You are forgetting that Sanchez was in fact injured for a significant amount of this period. His first match from injury he played 90 minutes
We should compare minutes of Villa to Iniesta too cause he's tito's favourite on the left wing (Ah 1232 minutes :icon_neutral. Tello had contract negotiations which seem to be the reason he wasn't played a lot. But Villa was "benched" in the proper sense of the word

Villa was also injured.

Again, incomparable. Iniesta can play LW and midfield so it's again obvious that a player of his caliber would have more minutes than a winger coming back from injury. Yes, Villa is also a CF, but not next to Messi, so it doesn't matter.

OK :

Alexis - 969
Tello - 761
VIlla - 731

For a player who comes from the B team ,like Deulofeu for example , 731 minutes would be decent enough. But we are talking about David Villa who is the best scorer Spain has ever had , who scored more goals this season than Tello+Alexis+Pedro combined even though he played less than all of them.

That's a fair list. And I agree, Villa probably should have gotten some more minutes so far, but this list shows that the difference in minutes played between our left wingers is nowhere as extreme as that first list would have us believe.

 

[Stric]

Also, comparing Sanchez's recent injury with Villa's is ridiculous. Stahp.

 

[CatalinR10]

Well a) he was coming back from injury and is 30 years old
and b) Imagine if we played him, and he scored all the time. Due to his age, he'd tire out, and then in the second half of the season (i.e. knockout rounds of CL and etc.) he wouldn't be able to play well. Then, we'd have to put in Pedro, Alexis, and Tello, who, as you said, have less goals combined than Villa does. I'd rather play Pedro and Sanchez now, and have Villa rested for the important part of the season, especially seeing how we're in the lead for La Liga as it is.

Are you 100 % sure that he would tire out ? Xavi is older than Villa and he has no problem playing all the time. The same goes for Puyol , except when he is out because of injuries. I'm not saying that he should play all games , all the minutes. But he shouldn't either be playing only this small amount of minutes for what he is capable of. It seems that nowadays he needs to settle with Copa del Rey games against 2'nd divison teams

 

[Stric]

Xavi's and Puyol's roles are incomparable to Villa's in terms of work rate.

Hey, I'm all for Villa playing more and everything, but let's not take this to extremes.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

Well, I'm obviously not 100% sure, but Xavi and Puyol both play different roles from Villa. I can see the duty of a winger being more taxing than that of a centerback (especially given how much possession we have), and Xavi does not have to make runs up and down the wing constantly, which is quite physically demanding. As someone who plays soccer (not professionally or anything) it sucks when you run all the way down the wing only to have the ball go out for a goal kick, and then you have to go all the way back. Besides, we're in the lead for La Liga, qualified in the CL, all without (for the most part) Villa. We didn't risk anything by resting him, and I'm positive he'll get more playing time come next year.

 

[Stric]

Well, I'm obviously not 100% sure, but Xavi and Puyol both play different roles from Villa. I can see the duty of a winger being more taxing than that of a centerback (especially given how much possession we have), and Xavi does not have to make runs up and down the wing constantly, which is quite physically demanding. As someone who plays soccer (not professionally or anything) it sucks when you run all the way down the wing only to have the ball go out for a goal kick, and then you have to go all the way back. Besides, we're in the lead for La Liga, qualified in the CL, all without (for the most part) Villa. We didn't risk anything by resting him, and I'm positive he'll get more playing time come next year.

 

[GiantKiller]

kinda want

Kinda want? DEFO want.

 

[GiantKiller]

As someone who plays soccer (not professionally or anything) it sucks when you run all the way down the wing only to have the ball go out for a goal kick, and then you have to go all the way back.

It sucks even more when there's a counter.

 

[CatalinR10]

Well, I'm obviously not 100% sure, but Xavi and Puyol both play different roles from Villa. I can see the duty of a winger being more taxing than that of a centerback (especially given how much possession we have), and Xavi does not have to make runs up and down the wing constantly, which is quite physically demanding. As someone who plays soccer (not professionally or anything) it sucks when you run all the way down the wing only to have the ball go out for a goal kick, and then you have to go all the way back. Besides, we're in the lead for La Liga, qualified in the CL, all without (for the most part) Villa. We didn't risk anything by resting him, and I'm positive he'll get more playing time come next year.

True , but it's not like Barca plays really often with long balls or something like that , so the wings would be exhausted after every game. We play with small lenght passing , especially against parked busses, which we play against really often these days. It seems that no one is making through runs , at least not like 2-3 years ago. The time Villa played would have been ok if Alexis , Tello , Pedro would have had an epic performance so far and outshined Villa but they didn't. Pedro didn't score in the last 22 games , Alexis, I wouldn't say that he is shit because it would be disrespectfull but he is a failed transfer, Tello was ok but he still has to learn. So , based on all the performances of the other 3 players and the fact that Villa scored more than them I think it's fair enough that Villa should have had more playing time than only 760 minutes.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

It sucks even more when there's a counter.

Yup, especially considering I'm a right back, so I have to get back...

 

[barcanuck]

A healthy Villa is better than a rundown beat up Villa. We can't tax him after having a 7 month broken leg at the age of 31. You guys remember a doctor from Barca saying Tito's way of easing Villa has been scientific?

Maybe just maybe Tito's way of doing that is by starting him in less pressure situations such as Alaves (both games), Benifica (already qualified 2nd leg), Cordoba, etc. Now in high pressure games only playing against Sevilla as a sub comes to mind. He didn't play a single minute (correct me if I'm wrong) in the 3 games vs Real so far.

Its all about keeping this guy fit, healthy and yeah it will cost him minutes for now. But a broken leg is not like Sanchez's daily muscle injuries. Look at Vidic, broke his leg, re aggrevated it out for months. We don't want that.