Frenkie de Jong

[serghei]

Laporte doesn't get praised solely for being good on the ball. He's by far City's best defender and they struggle when he's not on the pitch as Kompany cannot stay healthy and Otamendi and Stones are unstable.

Firmly on his way to become an established World Class CB.

Looks suspect to me on the defensive phase.

 

[Riordon]

Hopefully Gomes keep playing well so we can flog him off for 40m too.

We are about to sell Paco for 25 which is also something

 

[Hamzah]

I can’t even criticise bartomeu these days. He has been able to get the players he wants and has got some under the radar guys too. Anyone not playing well has been down to valverde not integrating them into the team.

 

[serghei]

Don't think we need to be that desperate about the new 9. Not good enough quality on the market to justify a big investment now. Messi in the false 9 role still works well against most teams.

 

[GOAT_SUAREZ]

We are about to sell Paco for 25 which is also something

we already did for 23+5

 

[Nothanks]

He essentially costs paco + paulinho.. i'm fine with that

if we sell denis, gomes, rafinha, and rakitic/vidal i'm sure we'll be able make ourselves feel better about this transfer.

 

[DonAK]

No wonder he unfollowed Real Madrid on Instagram yesterday

 

[serghei]

I can’t even criticise bartomeu these days. He has been able to get the players he wants and has got some under the radar guys too. Anyone not playing well has been down to valverde not integrating them into the team.

We're even seeing some progress on that end too. Starting to be pleased with Alena's increased game time. And the boy delivered vs Leganes, crowd was pretty happy too based on the reaction to his sub.

[MENTION=11668]khaled_a_d[/MENTION] was right about Alena getting decent game time this season.

 

[DonAK]

Wouldn't it just be perfect if Xavi came in as an assistant coach to Valverde or whoever takes over from Valverde so Arthur, de Jong, Alena and Riqui hopefully can all learn from the master himself.

Not gonna happen though.

 

[Nothanks]

Sometimes great players can be terrible coaches, especially when those players seem so one dimensional.

 

[serghei]

Sometimes great players can be terrible coaches, especially when those players seem so one dimensional.

Great players can be great coaches too.

 

[DonAK]

Great players can be great coaches too.

I get his point and it's a fair one as many great players turn out to be shit coaches, but I was thinking more in line of Xavi teaching them up as midfielders. Xavi was great at making through passes, and key passes at his best. Something Arthur and de Jong obviously can get better at.

And also something Xavi developed in his game later. Didn't do so much of it early in his career.

 

[Luftstalag14]

FdJ to Barca was a no brainer all along. Don't know why the hell they winked at PSG in the first place. Maybe it was to force Barca into a move faster as we tend to react more when we feel under pressure than just do it proactively.

Or they did it to get us to shell out more money.

 

[serghei]

I get his point and it's a fair one as many great players turn out to be shit coaches, but I was thinking more in line of Xavi teaching them up as midfielders. Xavi was great at making through passes, and key passes at his best. Something Arthur and de Jong obviously can get better at.

And also something Xavi developed in his game later. Didn't do so much of it early in his career.

I think Xavi has all the tools to be a great manager. Even his flaws are flaws that are present in the best managers, like the belief they know best and their tactics are the best, and there's no other way to play. Simeone, Pep, Mourinho all are like that. A type of arrogance that comes from extremely high self belief in ones abilities and football mind.

 

[soul24rage]

I get his point and it's a fair one as many great players turn out to be shit coaches, but I was thinking more in line of Xavi teaching them up as midfielders. Xavi was great at making through passes, and key passes at his best. Something Arthur and de Jong obviously can get better at.

And also something Xavi developed in his game later. Didn't do so much of it early in his career.

I would love to see Xavi as one of EV's coaches (or one the new manager's coaches). The experience and knowledge Xavi can provide to the likes of Arthur, De Jong, Alena and Puig is priceless.