xXKonan
Senior Member
I don't know if Tata had a better squad than this current version of Barcelona.
The only ones I would take from that squad are.
Alves
Mascherano
Younger Messi
Younger Iniesta
Younger Pique
Younger Busi
And probably that Neymar as well. There's Xavi but like Puyol, his career as a starter was winding down and he didn't have the legs to play in and out like he did but he wouldn't have been a bad option off the bench.
But that's about it. Guys like Roberto and Alba have massively improved since that time and that Roberto was basically your standard B team player who was promoted just to fill out the squad like JDS was. I'd take both Semedo and Roberto over the likes of a Montoya who was bascially a vanilla RB who was completely unremarkable that failed to live up to the massive hype he had.
The likes of Umtiti and I'd argue even Lenglet were superior talents to the likes of Bartra. There's also Adriano but he was pretty close to declining around that time as well. Rakitic even at this age was the much better player than Song ever was. Wasn't really a fan of Cesc but that one would be more useful than Denis would and Rafinha had more use than guys like JDS and that version for Roberto ever did. And Arthur alone is a really good talent as well.
Forward options While Sanchez was good in his final season he was a pretty frustrating player for a good amount of time he was with us. The likes of Dembele, Coutinho, Malcom and even this current Suarez were still better options than Cuenca who was ruined by Injuries, Tello who was basically a one trick pony.
But I forgot about that version of Pedro, he would have definately been really useful for Valverde. Both squads had some pluses and Minuses but overall I wouldn't say Valverde had that much worse of a squad than Tata tbh.
The only ones I would take from that squad are.
Alves
Mascherano
Younger Messi
Younger Iniesta
Younger Pique
Younger Busi
And probably that Neymar as well. There's Xavi but like Puyol, his career as a starter was winding down and he didn't have the legs to play in and out like he did but he wouldn't have been a bad option off the bench.
But that's about it. Guys like Roberto and Alba have massively improved since that time and that Roberto was basically your standard B team player who was promoted just to fill out the squad like JDS was. I'd take both Semedo and Roberto over the likes of a Montoya who was bascially a vanilla RB who was completely unremarkable that failed to live up to the massive hype he had.
The likes of Umtiti and I'd argue even Lenglet were superior talents to the likes of Bartra. There's also Adriano but he was pretty close to declining around that time as well. Rakitic even at this age was the much better player than Song ever was. Wasn't really a fan of Cesc but that one would be more useful than Denis would and Rafinha had more use than guys like JDS and that version for Roberto ever did. And Arthur alone is a really good talent as well.
Forward options While Sanchez was good in his final season he was a pretty frustrating player for a good amount of time he was with us. The likes of Dembele, Coutinho, Malcom and even this current Suarez were still better options than Cuenca who was ruined by Injuries, Tello who was basically a one trick pony.
But I forgot about that version of Pedro, he would have definately been really useful for Valverde. Both squads had some pluses and Minuses but overall I wouldn't say Valverde had that much worse of a squad than Tata tbh.