Gerard Deulofeu

[FCBarca]

These are the sort of decisions he will have to improve upon but I also believe having a player who will look for goal nevermind get into those positions in the first place is needed in this squad...He could've/should've had a more memorable night but you could see how much respect he was getting from the Nice defense, often double marked

 

[Richard.H]

I really hope Lucho gives more minutes to Deu than to Pedro. Pleeeeeeeassee Lucho PLeeeeeeeeeeeassee!

 

[Toecrusher]

Yes he was selfish and frustrating and is far from the finished product, but is much more a threat to opponents than Tello ever will be.

He is essentially Tello's replacement in the squad, and when viewed from that perspective, he is a good upgrade to have.

 

[Zangash]

He was almost exactly like Adama in that he was pretty eager to dribble every defender he possibly could. Nothing much to read into, imo. It's easy not to pass to Munir or Halilovic. It's not going to be so easy to ignore Messi, Neymar, or Suarez. Those three returning is what will be the biggest benefit for his playing style, imo.

 

[Trickykid]

So, what's your expectations for Deu this season?

Personally I'm very much on the fence about him. I honestly don't believe he'll ever become a starter for us - i just don't feel he's got what it takes, and with our super star trident (bar any sudden loss of quality or debilitating injuries) locked down for at least 2-3 years, I could see him leaving for more minutes elsewhere. Anyhow, that's all down the line, and the future luckily isn't that easily predicted, so hopefully I'll stand corrected sooner or later.

So, what matters now, is the upcoming season. With Suarez out for the forseeable future, he should feature regularly early on, and I suppose that's his real chance to make a serious case for a rotation spot. Lucho will probably trust him, which should help him loads, but then there's also Pedro who will most likely start the season on the same basis as Gerard, i.e. being standin for either of Messi, Nerman and Suarez. Luckily they both can play on either wing, meaning they shouldn't be stepping too much on eachother's feet, but it still means they will compete heavily for that important 1st sub spot.

Pedro obviously has silverware and seniority on his side, but Lucho knows Deulofeu vey well, and he doesn't strike me as a coach who'd pick his players on account of merits over form.

In the end, I believe the two will share minutes equally behind the three starters. He will get a fair share of starts in easier and low profile matches, and will do reasonably well, but only in isolated incidents make us believe he can make it big here. Again, I hope I'm wrong on this, and I could very well be underestimating him grossly here, and I'm in any case very much looking forward to seeing him play for us again.

So, after this load of Cpt. obviousness, what's your folks' expectations for him?

 

[NeyMesSis]

I think he will become a very great weapon.. and He'll get enough playing time.. we have so many games and he is the IMO 4th best forward..

 

[BerkeleyBernie]

So, after this load of Cpt. obviousness, what's your folks' expectations for him?

Can't say until we see how selfish/aware he is on the pitch with the big boys. If he can't link up with Messi and Suarez, we'll only see him late when games are in the bag, or in the early stages of Copa, etc. Pedro is a far more secure choice when you want to control a game or want a player who has good vision of what his fellow attackers are doing.

 

[DonAndres]

Early stages for him. He has to improve his overall game further on the ball and linking up with teammates. From the 2 friendlies I'd say he improved his movement and runs by a lot because he looks a lot smarter and more consistent with it. The only recent sample we have of Deulofeu playing an actual game with senior players was his debut with the Spanish NT in which he looked more than willing to link up and work in a unit.

For me, the biggest step forward for Deulofeu will be breaking the goal/assist barrier. He's a very direct player and what his style of play would provide for us is theoretically significant since all of our best forwards have been direct and attack minded. That being said, he needs to grab his first goal and/or assist to build up confidence and get that momentum which ultimately improves his performances as much as his statistical tally. In the end, that's what Deulo's game brings the most and that is what he needs to nurture to jump to the next level.

And for the projection for 2-3 years down the line, I don't think he's in a bad position at all. Neymar, as talented as he is, isn't infallible or indispensable. He showed a lot of promise and ability in 13/14 but he still has improvements to make and if he's caught at a standstill then he is at a risk of being overtaken. He needs to show more consistency than he has but more importantly, stop getting injured so often. He's had 3 moderately large injuries this year already and the amount of frailty he's shown indicates that there will be more.

 

[Sumlit]

As with all youngsters, I want to see the head catch up with the skill. Deulofeu gets too carried away with his skill and forgets to use his head. Too many purposeless and inefficient runs and dribbles that end up putting him in bad positions; Too many poor final decisions; Too many selfish plays where he has windows to make the collective play but opts for the individual one.

I do like the fact that he has the confidence to go for it on his own, that is something that has been lacking on the team as of late, but knowing when to go for it on your own and when to combine and look for a team mate is the maturity he needs to achieve to be effective.

 

[KingMessi]

I think he adapts his game to his view of his teammates. For example, if it were Suarez, not Munir, to his right on that breakaway, I think he'd have passed. Nevertheless that attitude has to improve because soon enough he will be playing alongside the likes of Munir and Halilovic again. And he should still pass if somebody else is in a better position to score than he is.

 

[Halilovic_enfadado]

Samper can easily make the move up to CM if he's ready for promotion before Busquets has to take a lesser role, which is really looking quite imminent. Another season like the last and it'll be hard to justify not promoting him.



So is Angel Di Maria, but he showed he is capable of playing the midfield role quite excellently. Deulofeu has a lot in common with AdM, so it's not too far-fetched to think he could do it as well. Adama wouldn't be able to work in the midfield because his playstyle of wanting to run at the last line of defenders and power his way through before cutting the ball to a striker wouldn't fit if played in a deeper role.

Di María has always had a great workrate though and is willing to track back also when he plays on the wing while Deulofeu doesn't really like to track back from what I've seen.

 

[Adversus]

I said it at the end of last season but he should have stayed another season with us where he would have got a lot more game time.

For me he still tries to win the game every chance he gets. It's as if he is almost trying too hard and ironically the more it doesn't work the worrying thing is the more he tries which just makes it worse. So I'm not surprised he's doing the same thing in the pre-season games however once he's playing for Barca proper I do think he'll play with a bit more fear and be more conservative so it could go either way. He will get minutes this season but probably not enough although the Suarez ban has helped him.

I just hope he has enough time on the pitch to develop a relationship with his team mates.

This on a simply technical level, there's too many times he just tries to beat a defender with pace so he needs to cut inside more and use his team mates to play one-twos off. One of my favourite goals he scored was against Stoke (probably his best performance) when he did just that so he definitely has the ability.

Honestly it could go either way but I do think he's got what it takes to make it at Barca. I just hope it's not a season too soon.

 

[Gooch]

He doesn't make many really obvious passes when dribbling. It's as if he's been told to practice his dribbling under pressure for now and that he can learn to pass the ball later on!!!

But his passing was awful last match. Timing and weight was way off. It's not so easy to learn to pass later on. I think he better start now.

 

[Adversus]

He doesn't make many really obvious passes when dribbling. It's as if he's been told to practice his dribbling under pressure for now and that he can learn to pass the ball later on!!!

But his passing was awful last match. Timing and weight was way off. It's not so easy to learn to pass later on. I think he better start now.

Good observation. That was a big weakness of his last season too. Things he has to develop and I'm not too sure the Nou Camp is a place you would choose for that.

 

[DinhoR10]

Probably the most talented forward since Messi to come out of La Masia, one thing I love about him is even though he hasnt scored hes not lacking in confidence at all, he always know if he can get his shot off and thats going to take him far.