Ivan Rakitić

[Messi10]

love this player!!!! everyone needs a Ratitic in there team to succeed!

 

[Paganinisrvnge]

What a shot he has on him

 

[DinhoR10]

Probably our best Free kick taker, too bad the second one didnt go in.

 

[beautifulgame]

No it wasn't. Fabregas was far better 3d midfielder, than Keita ever dreamt to be. Barcelona had problems because of aging Xavi and Alves, not because of Keita's absence.

Pep wouldn't agree totally

 

[Deco 20]

Good freekicks, although he did get a bit of help by the GK and wall being poor. Still, I'd like to see him take more.

 

[dakt]

Needs to gain confidence to play with a bit of more risk to increase creativity. Otherwise, he'll be just good in set pieces.

 

[abual3bed1]

Needs to gain confidence to play with a bit of more risk to increase creativity. Otherwise, he'll be just good in set pieces.

This comes with some consistency in terms of tactics and team selection. To me, he's done so well so far. the room for improvement is still big and he's getting better on a steady pace.

 

[BerkeleyBernie]

Rakitic's biggest problem appears to be his situational awareness in tighter spaces. He often doesn't seem to know where the opposition players are. When he is closed down quickly, he finds himself having to release the ball quicker than expected. When he passes to an outlet, he is often unaware of the marker closing down on the intended recipient.

 

[Devils]

I'll take this guy over Fabregas any day.

 

[JamDav1982]

I'll take this guy over Fabregas any day.

I dont think any club in europe would agree with you there. Fabregas is miles better and been one of the top midfielders in europe this season again.

 

[Alik]

I dont think any club in europe would agree with you there. Fabregas is miles better and been one of the top midfielders in europe this season again.

Agreed.

 

[KingMessi]

I'll take this guy over Fabregas any day.

We should have kept Fabregas and gotten Rakitic, to be honest. Or at least if you're letting Fabregas go, then we should have gotten Kroos + Rakitic.

 

[JamDav1982]

We should have kept Fabregas and gotten Rakitic, to be honest. Or at least if you're letting Fabregas go, then we should have gotten Kroos + Rakitic.

Kroos and Fabregas have been two of the best CMs in europe this season. Possibly two of the top 5/6.

To let one go and refuse to sign another that was basically begging to join was insane.

Barca should have been building a midfield round one or both of them, not letting them go.

 

[KingMessi]

We should have had a midfield trio of:

Rakitic/Iniesta---Busquets---Kroos/Xavi

 

[Madara Uchiha]

We should have had a midfield trio of:

Rakitic/Iniesta---Busquets---Kroos/Xavi

Agree. Rakitic was a decent signing, but we should have got Kroos as well. He was cheap and wanted to join. But as dumb as I think it was to reject Kroos, I doubt he would have looked very good under Lucho's "tactics" of CMs babysitting FBs. But Kroos under decent tactics? Oh boy, that would have been awesome.

There were 2 cheap, world class players available in positions where we needed reinforcement in Kroos and Benatia (and the former even wanted to join us) and somehow our board managed to miss out on both of them while having plenty of money to spend.