FC Barcelona B (Barça Atlètic)

[Messi983]

Pimienta's work is beginning to take fruition as a few of the Barcelona B players are showing good improvement under him.

Cuenca is looking much better than ever before this season, as is Dani Morer who always felt like a weak link before.

Reis is not looking impressive in midfield but lets see how he improves as the season continues. Definite chance of playoffs this year.

Do you think Cuenca has a first team future as a 4th CB? Valverde seems to prefer Araujo but if we'll want to keep 2 left-footed CBs (which I don't totally agree with but it seems to be the club's/coaches philosophy in recent years starting with Lucho and now continuing with EV; I would prefer to just look for the best CBs we can get and if that means we would have 3 or 4 right footed ones then so be it, it worked for us in the past with Puyi, Marquez, Pique, Masche,...) then maybe Cuenca could get a chance as Lenglet's backup if we sell Umtiti. Lenglet is rarely injured (knocking on wood) and there are not much rotations at CB positions so I don't think we should spend a lot of money (if at all) on a 4th CB.

I believe we'll buy a CB next year but it will probably be a competition/possibly longterm replacement for Pique. I don't think Lenglet is world class but he's very solid and he would also look better if he'd have a younger, more athletic/faster CB playing alongside him IMO. I would still like to see what we have in Todibo first before we spend big money on a CB though. Sevilla will be a good test for him.

I've said about Reis when we've signed him he looks to me a much better player off the ball but should improve his passing if he'll want to succeed here. Right now he's still in adaptation period to our system so struggles are understandable but as you've said we'll see if/how he'll progress during the season. I don't know if he'll ever be a first team material but if he will then I see him in Vidal's role. He's not as energetic as Arturo (not many players are though) but I think we could use a young Vidal in the future and we should look for that type of players.

Also, what is your opinion about Hiroki and Akieme?

 

[Messi983]

Another thing: I believe we really should look for a new striker with a first team potential. Abel Ruiz will never make it here. Personally from a limited time I've seen him I like Marques more but he's a longshot too and I don't think we have any great striker talent in Juvenil sides as well. I'm rooting for Louie Barry because of his cool name but he'll probably be back playing for a midtable EPL team in a few years.

 

[Porque]

Do you think Cuenca has a first team future as a 4th CB? Valverde seems to prefer Araujo but if we'll want to keep 2 left-footed CBs (which I don't totally agree with but it seems to be the club's/coaches philosophy in recent years starting with Lucho and now continuing with EV; I would prefer to just look for the best CBs we can get and if that means we would have 3 or 4 right footed ones then so be it, it worked for us in the past with Puyi, Marquez, Pique, Masche,...) then maybe Cuenca could get a chance as Lenglet's backup if we sell Umtiti. Lenglet is rarely injured (knocking on wood) and there are not much rotations at CB positions so I don't think we should spend a lot of money (if at all) on a 4th CB.

Also, what is your opinion about Hiroki and Akieme?

Cuenca
To be honest, I got no idea on Cuenca's ceiling. He has really good physical attributes but never impressed me much because he never put it together on the pitch. Poor positioning, bad on the ball, mistake prone, never utilised his strength in one-on-ones.

But this season so far he is looking a different player and way better than the best level Chumi ever a showed, who I always preferred in previous years. So fair play to Cuenca himself and Pimienta of bringing this out of him.

I still rate Araujo higher although as you pointed out, being left footed could work into Cuenca's favour. The same way Malcom being left footed worked against him, and Ansu being right footed gave him a route into our first team.

Akieme to me looks much better than the SegundaB level but not someone we can expect to challenge a first team squad position (unless he is happy being a third LB option kind of guy). Will be really good to have in the squad if we reach Segunda though.

Hiroki is really good and smart. Been really impressed with him so far, but it doesn't look like he can offer much on the right side. I would love us to sign and develop some more direct attacking players (like Ansu, Dembele, Adama) though for the B team in the 5-10 million range and try developing them as we are lacking those type of attackers compared to technical slower guys who we create a dime a dozen.

For most of the B team I am approaching with a wait and see approach this season as there is no elite talents, but a lot of players who are developing really nicely and are looking better than what we had before. Another example is Monchu at pivot compared to Oriol.

Agreed on the new striker. Abel should be sold with a buyback and try to grow somewhere else. Again this is why with the way football is moving I see that it is really important we promote to Segunda. Then we can try and sign highscoring high potential players in Ligue2, Eredivisie, Belgian League etc.

 

[Messi983]

Cuenca
To be honest, I got no idea on Cuenca's ceiling. He has really good physical attributes but never impressed me much because he never put it together on the pitch. Poor positioning, bad on the ball, mistake prone, never utilised his strength in one-on-ones.

But this season so far he is looking a different player and way better than the best level Chumi ever a showed, who I always preferred in previous years. So fair play to Cuenca himself and Pimienta of bringing this out of him.

I still rate Araujo higher although as you pointed out, being left footed could work into Cuenca's favour. The same way Malcom being left footed worked against him, and Ansu being right footed gave him a route into our first team.

Akieme to me looks much better than the SegundaB level but not someone we can expect to challenge a first team squad position (unless he is happy being a third LB option kind of guy). Will be really good to have in the squad if we reach Segunda though.

Hiroki is really good and smart. Been really impressed with him so far, but it doesn't look like he can offer much on the right side. I would love us to sign and develop some more direct attacking players (like Ansu, Dembele, Adama) though for the B team in the 5-10 million range and try developing them as we are lacking those type of attackers compared to technical slower guys who we create a dime a dozen.

For most of the B team I am approaching with a wait and see approach this season as there is no elite talents, but a lot of players who are developing really nicely and are looking better than what we had before. Another example is Monchu at pivot compared to Oriol.

Agreed on the new striker. Abel should be sold with a buyback and try to grow somewhere else. Again this is why with the way football is moving I see that it is really important we promote to Segunda. Then we can try and sign highscoring high potential players in Ligue2, Eredivisie, Belgian League etc.

Yeah, we'll see what will happen. I think Araujo and/or Cuenca will be called up for early Copa games but wouldn't be surprised to see one of them "promoted" next summer or maybe even in second half of this season if we sell Umtiti in January. It wouldn't be smart to only have unproven Todbo and even less proven Araujo/Cuenca as the only backups to Pique/Lenglet but it looks like we can't really count on Umtiti to stay healthy so I could see the club moving on and get what we can for him.

I've only watched Akieme twice and I like him. I'm still disappointed we didn't get Diego Palacios though as I believe he has first team potential in 2-3 years. He's only played one game (the last one) in almost two months for LAFC (by far the best team in the league) so don't know if moving to the MLS was really the right choice for him. It's possible there was some paperwork that prevented him to play before. There is only one regular season game left and then I don't think he'll play in the playoffs but LAFC starter at LB is 35 so it's possible Palacios will replace him next season once he's fully adapted to the team. I'll definitely keep an eye on him as I think he'll come to Europe sooner or later.

Agreed about Hiroki. It's true with both Fati and Perez being with the first team (if they stay there we should consider signing another winger for Barça B in January) Saverio and Hiroki are our only wingers so we don't have many options but it would probably be better to play Hiroki on the left.

 

[raki]

3.0 win. Great game by midfield duo Puig and Monchu and Pena saved another penalty.

2 amazing keepers in Pena and Tenas. A pity for them that Ter Stegen is only 27.

 

[Messi983]

Great goal by Saverio...

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We're currently 6th on the table 3 points behind Pique's Andorra.

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[raki]

Another win. 1-0

Monchu scored. 4th place. Play off spot.

 

[Messi983]

3-3 draw with a last minute penalty against Cornella. Carles Perez, Hiroki and Monchu have scored. We were 2-0 up after a great first 25 minutes but then let Cornella to overturn the game.

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[Messi983]

Ferran Martinez says we are looking for a striker in January as both Abel Ruiz and Alejandro Marques's future are uncertain. Abel already wanted to leave on loan in summer to play in a better league (while I understand his desire to do so he's not even looking all that great in Segunda B so don't know if he's ready to play at a higher level) but Barça didn't let him go. He hopes to leave now. On the other hand Marques's contract expires next June. He was offered a renewal which he hasn't accepted yet. If he won't do that soon (and I assume if Barça will think he has signed a pre-contract with another team) it's possible he'll be separated from the team like it happened with Morey.

I really hope we'll find a young striker with a potential first team future as I don't believe either of those two is good enough to be a first team backup. Hope to be wrong and wish them the best but they'll probably never even reach Munir's current level.

 

[Messi983]

Barça B won a derby against Espanyol B 2-0.

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Idiots.

https://www.marca.com/futbol/barcelona/2020/01/06/5e139969e2704e88568b4596.html

 

[Messi983]

Nice comeback win against Badalona, we are now 3rd on the table just 3 points behind a leader Sabadell. Great goal by Monchu.

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[Messi983]

I know it's way too early but I was already thinking about the next season and with some names heavily linked to us I think Barça B lineup could look something like this.

Pena/Puig
Yan Couto-Araujo-Cuenca-Akieme
Ilaix-Matheus F.-Monchu/Nishikawa
Hiroki-Marcos Paulo-Collado

new signings

Assuming Riqui will get promoted and Pedri will stay at Las Palmas/be loaned to another higher division team but this lineup looks very talented. Probably too inexperienced if we'd get promoted to Segunda A though.

Now it's very likely we won't get all of those mentioned players (though Couto and Matheus are looking like done deals and Nishikawa seems close as well so the only big question is Marcos Paulo and we are apparently very interested in him as well but his rumoured 15M price tag seems to high for a Barça B signing imo; it's still possible we'd sign and loan him though) and someone like Araujo could also get promoted as a 4th CB but I think we'd need at least another winger and more overall depth in defense/attack with players like Morer, Jaime, Ruiz and Marques all likely leaving (especially the last two).

Surely a few Juvenil A players will get promoted as a squad/rotation players. We'd have a very good depth in midfield with Reis, Nico Gonzalez, Alvaro Sanz, maybe Sarsanedas will stay as well. He'll be 23 soon and we'd need someone with more experience (especially if we are promoted) but while he's still under contract for next season it's possible he'll want to build his career outside of Barça at this point. He's sadly also pretty injury prone so I could see him leaving. We also have some interesting CB talents but we really lack in a wingers department. De La Fuente wants to leave and Mortimer's contract is also expiring so we'd probably have to bring someone there as well. Don't know how much money we'd be prepared to invest in that position if we'd really get most of the players mentioned above though.

 

[FC433]

It is time for Araujo to go to the next step. Collado and Monchu too, they are a bit too old to play in the third or even second division. They should be sold with a buyback option, while Arajuo should be loaned to a La Liga team (to get Spanish citizenship).

Arnau Tenas, Xavier Mbuyamba, and Nico González should be promoted, I think.

 

[Messi983]

Collado and Monchu will only be 21 next season. We need someone more experienced especially if we'll be promoted to Segunda A.

BTW, we've lost 1-0 away at Nastic. Pretty unlucky and undeserved loss from what I've seen and read.

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[Messi983]

Ilaix making his first start for Barça B.

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[youtube]ANLlh8UNzEc[/youtube]