Frenkie de Jong

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DonAndres

Wild Man of Borneo
He was great, really really needs to be given the full reigns of the midfield playing in the pivot role though. Right now he is resigned to being a participant because Busi or Rakitic get the first crack at constructing each possession. If it was FDJ who dictates everything from the start of buildup, the quality of the possession overall improves like 2 or 3 orders of magnitude.

The slick passing moves he did create started with him getting a few early touches on the ball and keeping the passing/movement going until termination. That's how he is most effective, always.
 

Rory

Senior Member
He was playing for 3 midfielders today, we simply must invest in some decent midfielders in the next couple of transfer markets.
 

Messigician

Senior Member
People really hyping up that meh performance?

Standards for Barca have clearly slipped quite severely since the Xaviesta days, much more than I thought
 

pregra

Active member
Would be great if he all of a sudden thought «feck this» and just played with the freedom he had at Ajax. Those bursts of speed and body feints are very, very special.
 

khaled_a_d

Senior Member
People really hyping up that meh performance?

Standards for Barca have clearly slipped quite severely since the Xaviesta days, much more than I thought

He wasn't great, but tbf we were always out numbered by them. Their midfield had support while we didn't. Both Raki and FDJ suffered a lot
 

serghei

Senior Member
He wasn't great, but tbf we were always out numbered by them. Their midfield had support while we didn't. Both Raki and FDJ suffered a lot

Seriously, khaled, you're only seeing this problem now? It's a constant of EV Barcelona that has been a lot of time masked by elite individual skill. This is the ugly face of this team when neither of Messi or Suarez comes up with some world class goal out of their arse.

Literally 90% of the goals we score have Messi and Suarez creating something on their own and making the difference. Especially Messi, either as creator or goalscorer. An elite team can't be this unstructured, to depend so much on star players.
 
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khaled_a_d

Senior Member
Seriously, khaled, you're only seeing this problem now? It's a constant of EV Barcelona that has been a lot of time masked by elite individual skill. This is the ugly face of this team when neither of Messi or Suarez comes up with some world class goal out of their arse.

Literally 90% of the goals we score have Messi and Suarez creating something on their own and making the difference. Especially Messi, either as creator or goalscorer. An elite team can't be this unstructured, to depend so much on star players.

Not sure what you are talking about, I've been pointing to the laziness of Suarez/Messi partnership since 2016-2017 season.
It isn't just on EV, the team as constructed is build to be outnumbered with 2 lazy attackers that expose midfield (and will eventually lead to defense being exposed).
Till last year Suarez being played was warranted for his goal scoring ability, this season it can't continue with Griezmann even if Suarez is better goal scorer (and again, I said that way before the game)
As I said on Raki thread,RM has played on our weakness and didn't give a shit about our slow attack and pressed with 5-6 players on our midfield.
We responded with defending and just protecting defense, which isn't what any of us hoped for.
 

serghei

Senior Member
Not sure what you are talking about, I've been pointing to the laziness of Suarez/Messi partnership since 2016-2017 season.
It isn't just on EV, the team as constructed is build to be outnumbered with 2 lazy attackers that expose midfield (and will eventually lead to defense being exposed).
Till last year Suarez being played was warranted for his goal scoring ability, this season it can't continue with Griezmann even if Suarez is better goal scorer (and again, I said that way before the game)
As I said on Raki thread,RM has played on our weakness and didn't give a shit about our slow attack and pressed with 5-6 players on our midfield.
We responded with defending and just protecting defense, which isn't what any of us hoped for.

It's totally on Valverde. Teams can pay the price of not paying enough respect for our strikers, if we field a mobile midfield who can sustain pressure. But we didn't do that. Roberto and Rakitic :lol:. Why did Alena not get a single minute after the good showing vs Sociedad away?

It's all fine and dandy when Messi scores buckets of goals and saves his ass time and time again, but when the manager has to do something, basically bring his contribution, and fix the bad things Messi brings, he can't do shit.
 
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khaled_a_d

Senior Member
It's totally on Valverde. Teams can pay the price of not paying enough respect for our strikers, if we field a mobile midfield who can sustain pressure. But we didn't do that.

No midfield can be out numbered with 2-3 players can do that, you can ask Pep's favorite student Xavi and he say exactly the opposite of what you are saying.
Midfield dominance is dependant on the two other lines and vice versa. You don't dominate midfield with just your midfielder, you need the whole team being capable of doing it.
We don't have attackers to support midfield, not since 2016. We look for the easy excuse and blame our midfielders.
 
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