Kohe321
New member
This!
(By the way, Roberto to be a future DM rotation player for Barca. He's awesome in this position. I'm calling it now!)
İlkay Gündoğan
- Thread starter Barcaman
- Start date
This!
(By the way, Roberto to be a future DM rotation player for Barca. He's awesome in this position. I'm calling it now!)
DrPepper
New member
A distributor? Busquets says ¡hola!Rakitic (look at his Sevilla days where he was the key midfielder and distributor) nor Pogba are poor on this front.
Anyway you could play with Busquets, Pogba and Don Andrés from the start instead depending on the opponent.
A midfield trio of Busquets, Rakitic and Koke or Busquets, Koke and Don Andrés would not be too bad either.
Good to see that you have joined me on the Óliver Torres bandwagon.
Busquets is great with the ball but isn't really someone to dictate the tempo a la Xavi or Koke/Gündogan. Rakitic was and is great at playing the final pass, but that's not what I mean. I'm more looking for someone for pre-assists.
Busquets, Pogba, Iniesta isn't that much different than Busquets, Rakitic and Iniesta. For me, Pogba is a very similar player to Rakitic, maybe with less work rate and better dribbling ability. Players who are most effective playing in a vertical role. There's a reason Iniesta tries to play the "Xavi role" whenever he is paired with Rakitic.
Was my initial suggestion as well. But considering we're willing to spend close to 100M for a midfielder, Pogba/Koke + Gündogan seems the best choice.
Mythical Revolution
New member
Up until now I was of the opinion that Gundogan was worth the gamble (at the right price), but now I think our best bet would be Óliver Torres.
He may not have the same immediate impact, that a more established player would. But were to sign someone like Pogba, it is almost certain that he will be cup tied; which means, no impact at all on next season's CL.
In fact, there's actually no reason why he can't have a big impact as early as next season. After all Neymar was the same age (21) when we signed him, and Götze was 22 when BVB reached the CL final, the same age that Torres will be by the end of next season; and I don't see why Torres can't emulate them.
He may not have the same immediate impact, that a more established player would. But were to sign someone like Pogba, it is almost certain that he will be cup tied; which means, no impact at all on next season's CL.
In fact, there's actually no reason why he can't have a big impact as early as next season. After all Neymar was the same age (21) when we signed him, and Götze was 22 when BVB reached the CL final, the same age that Torres will be by the end of next season; and I don't see why Torres can't emulate them.
Co0ter
Senior Member
Abidal and Aves attacked equally? Because Alba attacks a hell of a lot more than Abidal or any LB under Pep. Pep kept the LB more contained and gave Dani more freedom. Definitely.
Kohe321
New member
Thing is, Torres would be bought as a "talent" to be developed and groomed, so if he then ends up taking many minutes from Rafinha who is two years the elder and also a talent that is currently being "grown", that would probably not sit very well with the latter. Pogba is around the same age as Rafinha, but when a player comes at such a fee and already has star-status, it's much more like the Neymar situation where it's understandable that he starts.
Just a little thing to keep in mind. Rafinha is held in high regard by Lucho and is a player from our own ranks. I don't think there is room for both Torres and Rafinha to grow in Barca at the same time. Or am I wrong? I'm at least not ready to write off Rafinha yet, he has started to show his potential recently.
With regards to Gundogan, he is still young and will likely regain his former top level again. I'm almost sure of it. At 25m the whole Gundogan thing looks like a bargain in the making, much like Rakitic.
Sumlit
San Claudio Bravo
That they didn't attack equally doesn't mean they didn't both attack. Abidal didn't attack more because he was more defensive by nature. When Maxwell played LB, he attacked plenty along with Alves.
Ghostmaster
Danger Ahead
Oliver Torres is still raw, and we have Rafinha, Samper, Sergi Roberto, and Denis Suarez who will need playing time to develope, I am actually thinking that Pogba wouldn't be bad choice if Lucho would rotate him with Rakitic (since he needs a lot of rest) and he had creative CM next to him (Iniesta, Rafinha, Denis(?)), that way midfield would be way more balanced and we had amazing squad depth.
G
Gasgas
Guest
Pretty meh IMO not even better than rafinha
Sumlit
San Claudio Bravo
That's a lot better CM play than Rafinha's ever shown at Barca. Gundogan is a better CM than Rafinha, that's indisputable.
Leo_Messi
New member
I disagree. Busquets is very much capable of doing just that. The thing is that he has not been required to do that. If you want to retain possession, which is not such a crucial element anymore under Lucho, a midfield trio of Busquets, Pogba and Don Andrés would be better than the likes of Busquets, Pogba and Rakitic.
We can't recreate another Xavi. The player that resembles Xavi the most out there is IMO Óliver Torres or a pre-injury Gündogan. I do believe that Óliver Torres could play the role of Don Andrés as well.
It seems that most of us more or less agree that the option of buying Gündogan for 25-30 million euros and Koke would be a better and more secure option than going all in on Pogba.
The thing is though that Koke is unlikely to move at all while I doubt that we are truly interested in Gündogan. I can only see us going for him if we miss Pogba and by then he could very well have moved to Man Utd or another club that will be willing to take the risk of buying him.
In a perfect world we would buy Verratti AND Pogba. That's never going to happen though.
Since Pogba is the most likely choice (IMO) and since I personally believe that we need another midfielder I would go for the option of Pogba and Óliver Torres.
Now people will rightly say that Atlético has no reason to sell Óliver Torres to us but they forget that we likely obtained a first option on him when we sold El Guaje to them for almost nothing in the summer of 2013.
Another thing, Óliver Torres is a culé and both Xavi and Iniesta are his idols.
DrPepper
New member
I've seen this post before. What happened?
Anyway, I fully believe that Gündogan will return to his pre injury form once he starts playing for a better team and not with the likes of Immobilol, Misstaryan and Kamplol. People are way too critical on him, it's not his fault he plays with shit players nowadays. Back then he had Mario "German Messi" Götze, Robert "best striker in the world and scoring 4 past Real" Lewandowski and Marco "not yet injury prone" Reus playing with him, and in general a team that was not injury ridden all the time.
I wouldn't mind O. Torres (or Kovacic / Tielemans), but can't see how they should be preferred to Ilkay. None of those players have true Champions League experience and are still pretty much talents that have not established themselves in world football while possibly being more expensive. Actually this applies to Pogba as well, whose greatest accomplishment in Europe until this season was getting knocked out by Galatasaray. Gündogan on the other hand, has dominated a Champions League final.
Wait for Gündogan to move to another club only for us to chase him in a year, when his asking price has tripled. Seriously.
[youtube]MXTh5IKHRFg[/youtube]
Anyway, I fully believe that Gündogan will return to his pre injury form once he starts playing for a better team and not with the likes of Immobilol, Misstaryan and Kamplol. People are way too critical on him, it's not his fault he plays with shit players nowadays. Back then he had Mario "German Messi" Götze, Robert "best striker in the world and scoring 4 past Real" Lewandowski and Marco "not yet injury prone" Reus playing with him, and in general a team that was not injury ridden all the time.
I wouldn't mind O. Torres (or Kovacic / Tielemans), but can't see how they should be preferred to Ilkay. None of those players have true Champions League experience and are still pretty much talents that have not established themselves in world football while possibly being more expensive. Actually this applies to Pogba as well, whose greatest accomplishment in Europe until this season was getting knocked out by Galatasaray. Gündogan on the other hand, has dominated a Champions League final.
Wait for Gündogan to move to another club only for us to chase him in a year, when his asking price has tripled. Seriously.
[youtube]MXTh5IKHRFg[/youtube]
Mythical Revolution
New member
I also would prefer Gundogan to Pogba, mainly because he is equally capable of both dictating the pace of the game or playing in a more fast-paced opportunistic style that we've currently adopted (by necessity, rather than choice, I would add). Another thing to bear in mind is that Pogba (if we sign him) won't be available for the CL, and will be missing half the league. So relative to Pogba, Torres' lack of experience won't really count until the 2016-17 season, by then he will be the same age as Koke/Verratti were at the start of this season, and probably an XI CM for us, if we sign him. I also don't see why Torres and Rafinha have to be competing for the same spot. If Xavi leaves next season, Torres can take his spot and rotate with Raki for the CM position and Rafinha can rotate with Iniesta for the AM.
As for Gundogan, he may eventually regain his pre-injury form. But so far he has not, and there's a decent chance he will never will. That's why I prefer Torres.
Rakitic cost us 25m (we pay D.Suarez' wages as part of the deal) because he had only a year left on his contract.
Kohe321
New member
Good points, unsurprisingly I completely agree with you
Still a fantastic value signing
F
Flavia
Guest
Gundogan for 25 or pogba for 100?
Bartomeu will choose pogba.
Bartomeu will choose pogba.
Home of Barca Fans
