If you look at Thiago and Frenkie you see why he isn?t the top midfielder yet. Off course Thiago had more movement in front of him but he creates those opportunities with quick play and out of the box vision. Frenkie takes way to much time to decide. He puts the ball under his feet, turns without turning away from his opponent and then plays a pass what could be done 10 seconds before that. He has to feel the rhythm of attacks instead of killing them with too much waiting. Thiago is a master in keeping the pace in those attacks fluent. Although there were not many players in front of Frenkie too send away he could have create more diagonal passes to the other side. 1 moment when Semedo was on the rise and he saw it but decided to keep the ball under his feet and gave that high pass 5 seconds too late. Semedo was already standing still and the options for danger were gone. These things he had a lot this season. I?m Dutch and followed him for a long time already before Ajax. This is still a weak point of him. He has great potential but could be better to become a great one.
Agree. But you mention yourself that Thiago had more movement in front. Do you realise how much of a difference this does for a midfielder? Not just giving them option to play those amazing through balls but when there are no movement upfront you can play a high line without worrying about if you are going to get attacked. The high line make the area to play in very very small for the opposite team and the midfielder has no time and get pressed easily. Bayern made the area we played in very very small and even the most technical players would not have been able to keep the ball. Liverpool did it the year before. We get so easily pressed and anyone knows it.
Had we had someone to threaten Bayern in behind yesterday they wouldn't have played such a high line and De Jong and co. would have had more time. Had Bayern sticked with their highline - a long ball in behind and you are basically alone with the keeper. Its all about making the area you play in bigger by stretching the pitch with runners. Such a easy issue to see AND fix yet our board constantly buy more of these associative, creative player who run towards the ball (Trincao, Dembele, Coutinho, Griezmann, Lautaro)
But ofc Thiago is top three midfielder in the world in his prime.
Frenkie: "This game showed that we have a lot of problems in our team. This can't be accepted, a lot will have to change. I hereby want to say sorry to the fans. The way we played is a a disgrace for a club like Barcelona."
https://twitter.com/TheEuropeanLad/status/1294549580575641600
Only one in the team I feel sorry for.
Give him the armband.
He seems to be the only real leader of that team. In a few years we will have a captain like Puyol again.
I think I have been watching a different guy from the one some on here are talking about. The guy has been piss poor since he signed and goes missing every time I watch him , including the Bayern game. Sure he might get better with better players around him but right now hes way over rated by some. The benchmark at Barca is Xavi / Iniesta , and this guy is nowhere near that level.
If that is the benchmark we might not see another successful CM signing in our lifetimes