Ceballos came on and took over the game in midfield.
Looks class.
Never noticed him look on that level before.
Great talent, but arguably the biggest cunt in Spanish Football
The passing should be way better for a midfielder and a barca product, I'm just dissapointed by him, hurts to see someone like Asensio being younger and already miles better than him.
Denis is way to passive at times, the kind of player who's effective when you're already winning 3-0 and the opposition has opened up. He'll never be more than a squad player here I don't think. He's being overtaken in development by players younger than him in the U21s.
This is not really meant to be directed at you, but I'm tired of people saying such and such player will never be this or that. The truth is you never know.
We complain when we only buy big stars and don't get cheap talent, then we complain when we go for the cheaper prospects.
Truth is, if you're serious about developing any player, especially around the age of Denis, he has a big chance of becoming really good.
Xavi and Iniesta didn't become superstars at once, as a matter of fact, at a time people booed them and didn't think they'd make it, and it took believing in them, and training them properly while letting them grow in confidence!
We missed out on Thiago because we didn't show confidence in him, same thing with so many of our players in recent memory, while salivating at other team's players,
but guess how they became so good...
If we continue with the same mentality, we might as well never promote any player ever again, cause most, if not all, will need time and a lot of reassurance to succeed.
And if someone says, 'this is Barca, we don't have time for that', then there lies the problem.
[mini rant over]
I agree with what you're saying, the problem is I think he has bags of talent but isn't showing any real signs of evolving as a player where he can be influential when the games tight, his only real performance like that i can remember was Sevilla away. Sometimes I think players like him are better off at top 6 clubs for a few years where they can be one of the main men to develop further where he only really had two full seasons and we resigned him. I know he has talent and you can't discard players in football, and lets face it fans are fickle, you can be player of the year one season and passed it the next.
The problem is other players his age are bypassing him due to playing time and performances, but he has to show something to warrant the playing time. I know Enrique had a fetish with Gomes to try to justify his price tag but I do think next season he has to improve.
I do remember Xavi playing against England in 2004 when he was 24 years of age, was MOTM and already had about 25 Spain caps. So he may of been booed by some, and yes he hadn't received the acclaim he went on to get, but his 2004 performance was not dissimilar to 2009 Xavi. There's a video on youtube of the performance somewhere I think.
He is another product of our recent tendency to dub wingers and want them to play as CMs
He is also not a proper winger, I would say he is more RM/LM in 4-4-2 system or CAM in 4-2-3-1 than winger...