Gerardo "Tata" Martino

[instinct]

Puyol is 36? Wow we need to find a replacement ASAP. Signing Puyol is not a good headline when you realize that he's 36 years old and unreliable in terms of being 100% or even the same.

He turned 35 in April.

 

[Barcaman]

I thought our major problems as regards our defence last season were more tactical than an issue with personnel. If we maintain this template, the only gains we would get from from adding Silva, Luiz or whoever would be an improvement on our aerial presence.
Our transition defending is bad. We hardly ever win the ball in midfield. Once our opponents win the ball, they are instantly in our box almost without any hindrance.
When you leave a CB with 10 defensive options at a time, any decision made will be wrong. If midfield and attack fail to show intensity in defence and you don't cover fullbacks, signing the best centre-halves won't help.
Not signing a centre-back may not be such a disaster if Tata fixes our tactics.

Agreed. Buying player X won't solve our tactical problems. Even the players acknowledged the drop of intensity last season.

 

[Corb]

My question is: why is not our scout staff able to find a young and promising CB (e.g. Varäne)? I mean if the job is to sign well known and world class extremely expansive players I can do the job myself. Even my grandma could actually. What the hell are doing our scouts? I can not believe there is no good and young CB in Europe.

 

[Robert]

My question is: why is not our scout staff able to find a young and promising CB (e.g. Varäne)? I mean if the job is to sign well known and world class extremely expansive players I can do the job myself. Even my grandma could actually. What the hell are doing our scouts? I can not believe there is no good and young CB in Europe.

Sakho?

 

[coura]

My question is: why is not our scout staff able to find a young and promising CB (e.g. Varäne)? I mean if the job is to sign well known and world class extremely expansive players I can do the job myself. Even my grandma could actually. What the hell are doing our scouts? I can not believe there is no good and young CB in Europe.

Incompetence. Fc Porto is buying young and talented south american players for years and selling them for tons of money for 2 decades.
Just this year we bought Quintero, one of the most gifted plamakers in the world. 5M for 50%. In 1-2 years we will sell him for 25-30. Easily. If not more.
Mangala is just another example: bought for 6M (100) from Standard Liége. Together with Varane he´s the french CB for the next 10 years.

Sakho is a good and young CB and his contract ends in June. But there´s a problem: PSG has so much money that they will renew him, give him a raise and loan him so that he gets matchplay for the WC. PSG owner is very possessive and he offers crazy amounts to both players and staff. Just look at Silva: barça interest, contract renewed. eheh.

Dragovic from Basel was one of the hot prospects in Europe for CB position: just went to Ukraine. But there are many others.

Conclusion: August 15th and no CB is embarassing. I love Puyol but he´s getting old and he his injured all the time.
Bartra does not have quality to be a starter and he´s not of the hot prospects in CB position.
Not every kid from La Masia is pure gold. Muniesa was, for years, the real deal...look at him now. Fontás: same thing.

Barça staff must improve, by far, their scouting.

One final example: Diego Reyes: 20 years. Mexican CB that fc porto bought this summer. 9M.
Just give him 1-2 years. Of course he´s not ready to be a starter but with a little time he will be pure gold like many others.
Just look at Varane. Or Kurt Zouma. Or Pogba. Or many others.

 

[coura]

I think it would've been a completely different story with a fit Messi. Our main problem was not being able to score.

When you suffer 7 goals atack is not your main problem. Lack of intensity and pressing was the main problem. And messi of course.

Barça roster is getting weaker and the other 7-8 big teams in europe are getting stronger.

 

[beautifulgame]

Incompetence. Fc Porto is buying young and talented south american players for years and selling them for tons of money for 2 decades.
Just this year we bought Quintero, one of the most gifted plamakers in the world. 5M for 50%. In 1-2 years we will sell him for 25-30. Easily. If not more.
Mangala is just another example: bought for 6M (100) from Standard Liége. Together with Varane he´s the french CB for the next 10 years.

Sakho is a good and young CB and his contract ends in June. But there´s a problem: PSG has so much money that they will renew him, give him a raise and loan him so that he gets matchplay for the WC. PSG owner is very possessive and he offers crazy amounts to both players and staff. Just look at Silva: barça interest, contract renewed. eheh.

Dragovic from Basel was one of the hot prospects in Europe for CB position: just went to Ukraine. But there are many others.

Conclusion: August 15th and no CB is embarassing. I love Puyol but he´s getting old and he his injured all the time.
Bartra does not have quality to be a starter and he´s not of the hot prospects in CB position.
Not every kid from La Masia is pure gold. Muniesa was, for years, the real deal...look at him now. Fontás: same thing.

Barça staff must improve, by far, their scouting.

One final example: Diego Reyes: 20 years. Mexican CB that fc porto bought this summer. 9M.
Just give him 1-2 years. Of course he´s not ready to be a starter but with a little time he will be pure gold like many others.
Just look at Varane. Or Kurt Zouma. Or Pogba. Or many others.

Post of the year on this forum.

Thanks!

 

[JackaL]

Incompetence. Fc Porto is buying young and talented south american players for years and selling them for tons of money for 2 decades.
Just this year we bought Quintero, one of the most gifted plamakers in the world. 5M for 50%. In 1-2 years we will sell him for 25-30. Easily. If not more.
Mangala is just another example: bought for 6M (100) from Standard Liége. Together with Varane he´s the french CB for the next 10 years.

Sakho is a good and young CB and his contract ends in June. But there´s a problem: PSG has so much money that they will renew him, give him a raise and loan him so that he gets matchplay for the WC. PSG owner is very possessive and he offers crazy amounts to both players and staff. Just look at Silva: barça interest, contract renewed. eheh.

Dragovic from Basel was one of the hot prospects in Europe for CB position: just went to Ukraine. But there are many others.

Conclusion: August 15th and no CB is embarassing. I love Puyol but he´s getting old and he his injured all the time.
Bartra does not have quality to be a starter and he´s not of the hot prospects in CB position.
Not every kid from La Masia is pure gold. Muniesa was, for years, the real deal...look at him now. Fontás: same thing.

Barça staff must improve, by far, their scouting.

One final example: Diego Reyes: 20 years. Mexican CB that fc porto bought this summer. 9M.
Just give him 1-2 years. Of course he´s not ready to be a starter but with a little time he will be pure gold like many others.
Just look at Varane. Or Kurt Zouma. Or Pogba. Or many others.

Hmm while not every player from La Masia can be pure gold, every scouted and bought youngster at Porto can't be pure gold either, am I right? Porto has a different business model and they seem to market it pretty well. While they surely have a great track record in selling unknown players (in the layman's eyes) for a fortune, they too don't use alchemy or something else to come up with such. The talent business is very complicated and hard to forecast. Look at Bojan, Cuenca, Fontas, Dos Santos (even Gio Dos Santos) and then look at Pedro or Alexis. I think it's not as easy as described in hindsight and put into a great chain of "wouldbe" logical actions and decisions, management and scouting is assessing and much more about taking risk when there is not enough data and information on the table, so luck has always a great role, even if everybody loves the myth about signing Messi with a pencil and a napkin!

 

[coura]

Luck as a role but not as big as you say. This is not the roulette in the casino Porto discovered Hulk in the Japanese League. Jackson Martinez was a nobody in the Mexican league. Falcao was a average player in River Plate. Pepe was a nobody in a Portuguese small club. I could go on.
Porto is not the only example of course. Look at Dortmund.
I think barça scouting is very good with younsters between 13 and 18 but not as good from those ages forward. They are in developing players in La Masia but the team has other needs that need to be attended.

 

[JackaL]

Luck as a role but not as big as you say. This is not the roulette in the casino Porto discovered Hulk in the Japanese League. Jackson Martinez was a nobody in the Mexican league. Falcao was a average player in River Plate. Pepe was a nobody in a Portuguese small club. I could go on.
Porto is not the only example of course. Look at Dortmund.
I think barça scouting is very good with younsters between 13 and 18 but not as good from those ages forward. They are in developing players in La Masia but the team has other needs that need to be attended.

I didn't say luck is everything, if you do something with a plan and a structure over and over again and succeed in it more than one time, luck's role shrinks of course. However, you compare clubs with different strategies, mind sets and finances. For years, Barca's La Masia has been praised all over the world, as a super generation came together in the first team, winning us all the trophies and most importantly the label "best team of history". Remembering the UCL final against Manu, I think 8 of our players on the pitch were from La Masia, which is incredible. But again, it's resources you put in a certain strategy and try to succeed in it. There are probably not many clubs that are able to be outstanding in everything from building youth players to scouting to etc. Porto is great in scouting and getting a fortune for the players they ought for relatively cheap, that's a strategy they pursue. Dortmund seems to have great scouting within the last years as well, while Bayern still believes in its "big boss I can buy whomever I want from Bundesliga" stategy. So Dortmund needs to find a solution to compete against Bayern, and obviously the last couple of years prove they have found an adequate one. What I want to emphasize is that our scouting is probably not an individual problem but rather a structural one. Sure, we could find a better sporting director than Zubizarreta or a more risk taking president in terms of scouting and investing. Zidane brought in Varane, who seems to be a great defender, is there anyone else he brought to Madrid, so that we could say that he's done a better job than Zubizarreta? Don't say Isco, as noody needed a scout for him.

 

[Tomchin]

Luck as a role but not as big as you say. This is not the roulette in the casino Porto discovered Hulk in the Japanese League. Jackson Martinez was a nobody in the Mexican league. Falcao was a average player in River Plate. Pepe was a nobody in a Portuguese small club. I could go on.
Porto is not the only example of course. Look at Dortmund.
I think barça scouting is very good with younsters between 13 and 18 but not as good from those ages forward. They are in developing players in La Masia but the team has other needs that need to be attended.

Can't compare a club like Porto with Barca, the pressure at Barca is "100 times" bigger than at Porto imho. Guys like Henrique or Caceres etc. probably would have been a success at Porto, at Barca, not so much

 

[coura]

Maybe barça does not give enough opportunities to some players. Henrique was crap but Cáceres and Grinsky could have developed into very good players. Cáceres plays a lot in Juventus.
I agreed with pressure factor but not "100 times"

The German market should be better exploited. Madrid got Ozil and Khedira for good prices. There´s a lot of good players in Bundesliga waiting to be "discovered". Reus was one of them before he joined Dortmund.

 

[pepi]

barcastuff ‏@barcastuff 20m
Two Argentinean scouts who use to work with Martino have joined the first team staff. They'll analyze Barcelona and the opponents. [md]

OH GOD. We have scouts now!

 

[ryuken]

Does Tata have any1 who could replace the imcopetent Zubi

 

[Barcilliant]

Luck as a role but not as big as you say. This is not the roulette in the casino Porto discovered Hulk in the Japanese League. Jackson Martinez was a nobody in the Mexican league. Falcao was a average player in River Plate. Pepe was a nobody in a Portuguese small club. I could go on.
Porto is not the only example of course. Look at Dortmund.
I think barça scouting is very good with younsters between 13 and 18 but not as good from those ages forward. They are in developing players in La Masia but the team has other needs that need to be attended.

FACT: Porto have a great scouting system. FACT: Barca DO NOT!

Please don't rub it in mate!