Ivan Rakitić

[Vilarrubi]

Nothing here about his display? Look at his movement when cavani scored goal, he also didnt do much in attack, he run alot to press in midfield and got tired after, but still that was really bad defending

I thought he played well, never stopped running. Was 100x better than Gomes was in the first leg.

 

[MIXA]

Rakitic was incredible yesterday. Sure he made a mistake with the goal but he still has to cover an incredible amount of space because Iniesta and Busquests are not the most mobile midfielders.

Any midfielder that plays alongside Iniesta and Busi, will have to do a lot of running because Busi and Iniesta simply don't move around the pitch fast enough.

I like the new system that we using but I cant see how Rakitic can last 90 minutes given the amount of energy that he is required to expand in order to shield the defence. For this reason, I wouldn't mind if Rakitic played the first 60 min of every game from now on and Gomes plays the last 30.

 

[JerseyAddict]

In first half he cut so many passes and made zilion of fast recovries on the edge of PSG box. In second he was draining fast and lost pace... subbed rightly but in the end he was realy good.

 

[Barcaman]

Agreed. You can't expect a player to keep up that level of intensity for entire match.

He wad important piece in our pressing game and dominating midfield.

 

[Barcilliant]

He was very good. Imagine if we still had Cesc here?

 

[Total-Football]

We were crying out for this the whole year and finally the manager listened.. keep arda, gomes away from our starting midfield and we can have a shot.

 

[xXKonan]

[tw]839910439848972291[/tw]

 

[CatalinR10]

niiiiiiiiice

 

[Barcaman]

Good news. Things are falling in place for him since Gomes is out of the starting 11.

 

[Vilarrubi]

[tw]839910439848972291[/tw]

Deserves it. Trying Gomes in his place was a massive fail. The club still need to be ruthless imo and sell Gomes and bring another midfielder in though.

 

[Barcaman]

Deserves it. Trying Gomes in his place was a massive fail. The club still need to be ruthless imo and sell Gomes and bring another midfielder in though.

Just promote Alena. I am sick of not having 1 La Masia player promoted in 3 years.

 

[Vilarrubi]

Just promote Alena. I am sick of not having 1 La Masia player promoted in 3 years.

I agree we need to promote. Are you for keeping Gomes though?

 

[KingMessi]

I agree we need to promote. Are you for keeping Gomes though?

He deserves a chance at redemption in the new system. Everyone deserves a second chance.

Samper should be coming back as well. And Roberto will be playing midfield too.

 

[Altomonte]

Rakitic is a necessary complement to Iniesta, Busquets and Messi. He had a great performance against PSG - does not get enough credit because he was subbed. Lucho got the subs right this time - everything went well.

 

[BBZ8800]

A few weeks ago, I wanted to sell all of our midfielders when we played 433 since they were all crap (except Busi and 50:50 Iniesta).

But now, if we'll play this 343 in the future (and I hope that we will), Rafinha, Rakitic and Roberto are good enough for this formation.
For 343, we will need at least 6 midfielders (for the whole season).

So, we will probably keep Iniesta, Busi, Rakitic, Rafinha, Roberto.
Gomes and Denis will get a 2nd chance.
We will probably sell Arda.

If Denis and Gomes won't improve, we can sell them.

Also, I would still want someone like Verratti for the future.
Plus Alena.
And then these current guys Iniesta-Busi-Rakitic-Rafinha-Roberto.

Also, if we'll play 343, do we even need Bellerin then?
We can still use Roberto in this 343 as a hybrid Rb-Cm-Rm, plus Vidal can easily play as a Rm in this formation.

I wouldn't spend a cash now on a RB, I would rather spend 100M for Verratti and bring Munir back and that's it.