Gerard Piqué

[adil_909]

again:
healthy midfield + defensive injury problems = Lliga + CL won
midfield injury problems + healthy defence = Lliga won

how about healthy midfield (cesc will help) + healthy defense (if we buy a proper CB) = la liga + cl + cwc + cdr + everything else?

why are we selling ourselves short?? if we have 40m for cesc, then surely we can afford less than half that for a proper cb.

and actually i don't agree with your statement about injured defense, if it's april and we are in CL semis and going to old trafford or stamford bridge or san siro without proper CBs we are going to be in trouble. we're fixing our midfield by adding cesc, just seems careless and risky to not fix our defense by adding a CB. for me it's got to be both, because both positions are in the realm of luxury, but if we're spending on cesc, we might as well spend on a cb and really challenge for everything this season.

 

[adil_909]

and again, let's say (God forbid) pique gets injured and puyol's out too. this is not that unrealistic. i'm sorry but busquets/abidal or masch/abidal or fontas/abidal just don't fill me with a ton of confidence, regardless of how world class our midfield might be

 

[barcetia]

Piqué didn't play that well last season (he didn't play BADLY), whoever his partner was, until Pep made the comments about how he'd only stay on if the players continued to show him the same hunger and drive they have shown in season's past. and that happened in Jan/Feb, and Piqué's form picked up, to the point where he was downright flawless in April and May, again, regardless of opponent.

the most important players to our system are Xavi, Messi, Iniesta and Busquets. and we've taken steps this summer (signing Cesc) to ensure we'll be in a good position to transition away from Xavi's reign. Dani is very important too, but he's supremely fit so there's no worry about him, not for a while yet.

Abidal isn't crucial beyond being a very good defender. we can and will replace him.

Puyol isn't crucial to the system, but he is fundamentally crucial to our strength of performance. I don't know that we'll be able to replace him at all. Coates could give us the heroic defending, but could he be a unifying force? we have some excellent young defenders coming through La Masia, but will they have the balls that Puyi does? it's very hard to say. we'll definitely lose some bite, some edge, when Puyol retires. I think that is inescapable. we just have to hope that we can sign/promote defenders which enable us to keep Puyi on a limited schedule, thus extending his career and his influence at the club.



which is why we've reinforced the midfield so that doesn't happen!

Xavi + Iniesta + Cesc + Thiago means, barring a horrific injury crisis, we should always have a fit and fresh midfield.

there is only one player who could possibly replace Puyol and that is...



...




...



...


wait for it...


wait for it...


Carles Puyol.

Jokes on me bitchez. It's Marc Bartra.

 

[estranged]

and again, let's say (God forbid) pique gets injured and puyol's out too. this is not that unrealistic. i'm sorry but busquets/abidal or masch/abidal or fontas/abidal just don't fill me with a ton of confidence, regardless of how world class our midfield might be

What if Messi and Pedro both get injured? it's not that unrealistic...or what if both Valdes and Pinto get injured? Let Cesc be the keeper then?

 

[adil_909]

What if Messi and Pedro both get injured? it's not that unrealistic...or what if both Valdes and Pinto get injured? Let Cesc be the keeper then?

you're absolutely right if those players get injured then we are pretty screwed. i have made this point in the past for why we don't need cesc. honestly if xavi and iniesta are out for a long peroid of time then it doesn't matter how boss the rest of the team is, we ain't winning squat. you don't want to go into the season pessimistic, but cesc is being bought for this kind of emergency situation (even though he's more injury prone than xavi and iniesta combined but i digress).

this whole situation reminds me of that paranoid buyer who, upon buying a new $800 tv, gets the super duper insurance package for $400 that covers damages in the case of a fire, a flood, an earthquake, an elephant trampling on it, a space ship falling from the sky and smashing it up. all very unlikely things. however, he fails to pay $20 more and buy coverage in case of theft. i mean if you are spending that much money anyway covering yourself, wouldn't you just sped a little more and cover EVERYTHING? we're spending 40m on cesc, but can't shell out a little more for CB cover??

 

[jogabonito]

Sign a CB dammit!!

Who should we sign then? I can't possibly come up with a name of a defender who I honestly think will be able to adapt to the Barca tici-taca football. I've always wondered though who the possible prospects could be..

 

[jogabonito]

After reading the discussions about if Barca needs a new defender or not, I start wondering which defender Barca could possibly sign because I can't come up with any defender in the world that I honestly think would be able to adapt quickly to the Barca tiki-taka-style. Who should Barca sign as a defender/defenders?

 

[LaMessiah]

you're absolutely right if those players get injured then we are pretty screwed. i have made this point in the past for why we don't need cesc. honestly if xavi and iniesta are out for a long peroid of time then it doesn't matter how boss the rest of the team is, we ain't winning squat. you don't want to go into the season pessimistic, but cesc is being bought for this kind of emergency situation (even though he's more injury prone than xavi and iniesta combined but i digress).

this whole situation reminds me of that paranoid buyer who, upon buying a new $800 tv, gets the super duper insurance package for $400 that covers damages in the case of a fire, a flood, an earthquake, an elephant trampling on it, a space ship falling from the sky and smashing it up. all very unlikely things. however, he fails to pay $20 more and buy coverage in case of theft. i mean if you are spending that much money anyway covering yourself, wouldn't you just sped a little more and cover EVERYTHING? we're spending 40m on cesc, but can't shell out a little more for CB cover??

we promoted fontas and have mascherano and abidal for CB cover, don't know how many times it has to be said... and your analogies are horrible

 

[Aryagorn]

we promoted fontas and have mascherano and abidal for CB cover, don't know how many times it has to be said... and your analogies are horrible

If you don't see the logic, you don't that's all. No need to attack the posters and the quality of their posts

And you are one of those who claims that Thiago, Busi, Keita and Afellay cannot cover up Xaviesta. I don't even want to know how you can think an inexperienced slow CB, a 32 year old veteran who seems to have lost a bit of his pace and a defensive fucking midfielder, who has played that position for not more than 2 months and been barely adequate, would cover up Pique and Puyi. Of them, one is a 33 year old veteran who has not yet recovered from a surgery and missed most of the last season for injury and the other one needs to start every match at national level(there's going to be qualifiers) and almost every match at club level too because there's no other young defender who's able to cover up for him... If any thing your logic is totally that, horrible!!

 

[Metaphysical]

If you don't see the logic, you don't that's all. No need to attack the posters and the quality of their posts

And you are one of those who claims that Thiago, Busi, Keita and Afellay cannot cover up Xaviesta. I don't even want to know how you can think an inexperienced slow CB, a 32 year old veteran who seems to have lost a bit of his pace and a defensive fucking midfielder, who has played that position for not more than 2 months and been barely adequate, would cover up Pique and Puyi. Of them, one is a 33 year old veteran who has not yet recovered from a surgery and missed most of the last season for injury and the other one needs to start every match at national level(there's going to be qualifiers) and almost every match at club level too because there's no other young defender who's able to cover up for him... If any thing your logic is totally that, horrible!!

 

[ryuken]

That i think is the excessive power of optimism. Many ppl are clinging onto the argument that we have enough cover at CB. Busi and Masch are plan B, and Busi is a horrible CB cover. Just like how Yaya was used in case of emergency against Chelsea. One inexperienced Fontas, one old Abidal. And talk bout LB, we have Maxwell - injury prone and honestly not that good, Adriano - also thin like paper and is a lil better than Maxwell. Let just say that Puyol, Pique are injured prior to El Classico, Abidal loses his CB form, what fuking defence are we going to play with. Adriano - Busi - Mas - Alves? or Adriano - Mas - Fontas - Alves?

 

[Metaphysical]

That i think is the excessive power of optimism. Many ppl are clinging onto the argument that we have enough cover at CB. Busi and Masch are plan B, and Busi is a horrible CB cover. Just like how Yaya was used in case of emergency against Chelsea. One inexperienced Fontas, one old Abidal. And talk bout LB, we have Maxwell - injury prone and honestly not that good, Adriano - also thin like paper and is a lil better than Maxwell. Let just say that Puyol, Pique are injured prior to El Classico, Abidal loses his CB form, what fuking defence are we going to play with. Adriano - Busi - Mas - Alves? or Adriano - Mas - Fontas - Alves?

1st choice CB's: Piqué and Puyol
2nd choice CB's: Mascherano and Abidal
3rd choice CB's: Busquets and Fontas

now, I ask you, go and find me a club anywhere in the World that has 3rd choice CB's who are anything more than average.

I don't care what Mascherano and Abidal's positional demarcations are, they have both proven themselves to be more than capable of playing CB at a high level for us in any number of games. that they are versatile and able to play other positions helps keep our squad leaner.

we'll need to sign a CB in a year, but right now we're in good shape, squad-wise.

as for our left-back situation: Maxwell, I'll agree, is weak defensively. but he's very good going forward, so he's useful in certain games. and Adriano is a great LB. very rounded and balanced.

 

[adil_909]

1st choice CB's: Piqué and Puyol
2nd choice CB's: Mascherano and Abidal
3rd choice CB's: Busquets and Fontas

now, I ask you, go and find me a club anywhere in the World that has 3rd choice CB's who are anything more than average.

I don't care what Mascherano and Abidal's positional demarcations are, they have both proven themselves to be more than capable of playing CB at a high level for us in any number of games. that they are versatile and able to play other positions helps keep our squad leaner.

we'll need to sign a CB in a year, but right now we're in good shape, squad-wise.

as for our left-back situation: Maxwell, I'll agree, is weak defensively. but he's very good going forward, so he's useful in certain games. and Adriano is a great LB. very rounded and balanced.

Let's be realistic, puyol being 1st choice CB hinges on him actually being fit for most of the season, and since he's not even back in full training and has played like 5 games since january, that's a bit of a stretch at this point. i'm puyol's biggest fan (xbox gamer id = puyolthebeast ), but if we're making this kind of analysis, putting him as 1st choice CB makes our defense seem stronger than it is. so i'm just going to remove puyol for now because everyone knows when he's fit he's the first name on the team sheet, but nobody knows how many games the beast has in him this season.

1st choice: pique and abidal
2nd choice: fontas and mascherano
3rd choice: busquets

you are seriously okay with this meta? so let's say puyol is out, and then pique picks up a knock. we're going to wage a war on 6 fronts with abidal (lb), fontas (youth team), masch (cdm) and busquets (cdm) playing in front of valdes?

 

[yusuf]

totally agree....we need a defender that can play on all fronts along the back line..............................................its obvious who we should get and its.............CACARES

 

[La Furia]

totally agree....we need a defender that can play on all fronts along the back line..............................................its obvious who we should get and its.............CACARES

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