Ivan Rakitić

[DonAndres]

It's honestly just a very low quality article. Exactly the level of writing I'd expect from any one of those "twitter experts" who try their hand at being actual journalists.

The article isn't very long at all to start with, and on top of that a vast majority of it is fluff and unsubstantial.

The main points he makes are:
-Rakitic is this under the radar player that does all of the intangible things perfectly yet doesn't get recognition because he doesn't make flashy, hollywood plays. Then in the very next lines goes on to praise Rakitic for exclusively flashy plays (2 winning pens in shootouts) in the WC, when Rakitic was pretty much neutral/average performance wise in every knockout game except for the one against Russia.

-Rakitic is underrated by fans relative to Vidal/Arthur/Cou/Busi despite being deceptively crucial and constant for this team...... because he always plays. Yup, the writer used Rakitic's irrationally consistent playing time as an argument for why he is so vital. Talk about a circular argument

-Then posts a stat from the Celta game citing how Rakitic may have been "quiet" offensively but recovered 7 balls defensively to show how much he "hustles" and "works". He claimed that no other player had even close to 7 recoveries, the next closest being 3.

This is blatantly FALSE. Busquets had 2 tackles and 5 interceptions for 7 total ball recoveries, not 3. Rakitic had 1 tackle and 5 interceptions so that 7th one must've just been a loose ball recovered or something.

So in total this guy makes 1 completely contradictory/hypocritical argument, 1 completely circular argument, and 1 completely false argument. And those are all of them. Not one other point he made of substance, just a lot of fluffy/pretty literary words. Articles like this gets hyped up because people only read the title, see how contrarian it is, and get all excited. I'm willing to bet there are a ton of other (way better) arguments one could find to actually praise Rakitic, and a bunch of other writers who could do 10x a better job at this.

Really, really poor work from top to bottom.

 

[xXKonan]

For me, he went from being underrated to being overrated in a span of a couple of seasons. At Sevilla and his first season here I considered him Underrated, a guy who knew his limitations and used his strengths very well the best he could.

Rakitic in fairness isn't at fault. It's just the part of the Fanbase who created some weird image of him being much more than what he really is. Rakitic is similar to other Midfielders we have had in the past such as Keita who was something different to add to the team and proved to be important for Pep.

Rakitic won't and shouldn't be remembered for being some Maestro but he should be remembered for helping us win our second treble and a number of Doubles that followed since then.

 

[hulinat]

Good to know you have followed the match against Celta. Now how about the other 25 from the start of the season?

Im assuming youre bipolar then like 75% of this forum. "i hate this player, G0At best in the world!! 1!".

 

[henias]

Meanwhile, if you disagree with the vague article in Reddit you get downvoted into oblivion!

Saw some poor guys getting downvoted so bad as if being stoned by Reddit public, cracks me up everytime

 

[xXKonan]

Yeah, I have seen the comments and it's lol worthy how badly some people got downvoted for some of the posts.

Rakitic always had problems dealing with the press while on the ball and never was good in tight spaces either and often is a bit conservative when attempting a long ball/through ball at times. Not sure why some Barca fans get up and arms about people mentioning his flaws. He was never a Modric,Iniesta,Kroos,Xavi etc like player and there's nothing wrong with it.

 

[Zidane82]

Yeah, I have seen the comments and it's lol worthy how badly some people got downvoted for some of the posts.

Rakitic always had problems dealing with the press while on the ball and never was good in tight spaces either and often is a bit conservative when attempting a long ball/through ball at times. Not sure why some Barca fans get up and arms about people mentioning his flaws. He was never a Modric,Iniesta,Kroos,Xavi etc like player and there's nothing wrong with it.

When he's long gone I'll still remember him for his long 35 yard BACK~PASS to Umtiti just when we were supposed to be on the attack ...

 

[El Flaco]

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[xXKonan]

Like I said after the PSV match.

He always had the problem as his first instinct most of the time just to boot it back even if he's not under pressure. He's not a guy to most of the time just grab the ball while facing goal, turn around scan the field and run and run into space etc.

It still baffles me why Valverde persists in using him in a such a role like that. He isn't a controller as he doesn't have the skillset and ability to play in a demanding role. He's better suited either as a DM or being a Support CM who doesn't have to be chained to have that huge responsblities with the ball in a system like ours.

He has his qualities on the ball don't get me wrong, but not quite the ones needed to be a controller in the Midfield.

 

[Havesaks]

Rakitic has been a solid and at times amazing transfer for us. Why anyone would hate him, is beyond me. Its not his fault the manager plays him. He seems like a nice person, a professional footballer and for the 20m we payed him and his relatively low wages he has been a huge transfer success... hating him, would only mean those persons are morons of rank.

 

[CatalinR10]

Its not his fault the manager plays him.

He made a deal that he has to play all games so he wouldn't go to PSG.

 

[Ursegor]

[tw]1077949383335968769[/tw]

I'm convinced we have the stupidest fanbase. Because I haven't seen this kind of nonsensical "short clip analysing" from any other fanbase.

Rakitic is the player who made the most forward passes in La Liga out of any player last season, just to get this out of the way first. That alone makes the criticism of backpassing null and void.

No football match has ever seen perfect decision making in every single action, even when you put an eleven of all-time greats on the pitch. I can make 100 gifs of prime Iniesta not releasing the ball into space when it was on but instead recycle possession.

In that clip above it was a completely normal decision by Rakitic. He's getting pressed immediately by the guy infront of him and no one is in the "red circle space". Someone with Iniesta's ability might have taken the ball and dribbled into that zone while shaking off his marker. Someone like Busquets would have probably one-touch passed it back as well as he does every game.

It's amazing how folks waste time writing walls of texts about a few second clips in a 5400 second long football game.

And the other clip? Wow, Messi is 1 yard offside after a great pass. Never happened in a game of football before.

There is varanted criticism, it's stupid that Rakitic plays every single game after a tiring World Cup. But this? Pure stupidity.

If you look at the other midfield options we have it's Arthur who would have definitely passed it back because he's the #1 back passer in the squad and Vidal who would have simply lost the ball because he is the most loose midfielder in the squad.

 

[henias]

Exactly, Messi has been terribly annoyed with him countless of times. Defensive contribution is one thing, but not being able to deal with pressure, or even no pressure, just passing back again and again. Pass percentage and a few defensive duties, volleys doesn't change how limited he is. Even Gomes can keep a high pass percentage but it means nothing really.

His flaws are only indiscernible if the players upfront are playing perfectly well, otherwise he isn't the type to turn the game around when the going gets tough. It's always Messi who's helping out the midfield. Not to mention he is too slow at times and hardly have the legs anymore. He peaked in 2014 and that's about it. We are already missing Iniesta, Rakitic can't always hitch on other CMs in a system that's already limited.

It's all picture perfect when the game goes well, but when it doesn't it just shows how crippled he is. Hard truth.

Rakitic is the player who made the most forward passes in La Liga out of any player last season, just to get this out of the way first.

Hugely misleading.

Rakitic played the most minutes just behind Messi and Suarez, in a possession based system no doubt he would rack up large amount of completed passes, be it forward or back passes. This facade will be largely different if you look at it bases on per 90 metrics. Busquets had large amounts of completed passes while playing 200 mins lesser. But that doesn't say alot.

In terms of key passes, Rakitic has lagged behind Arthur (per game) and Arthur hardly ever plays the full 90 and just joined Barcelona this season.

Not just passing alone, Rakitic is just too slow, in pace and reaction, couldn't turn away from pressure, lack of agility, dribbles, he's too accustomed with sticking with his comfort zone where he tries to compensate with defensive duties. Not good enough. If the teams need help, he's gonna be a number one liability.

Lastly, calling this stupidity is as stupid as ignoring his countless major flaws. Then who's the stupid one who keeps playing Rakitic. Which is more stupid?

 

[te amo barca]

I do not agree with those clips at all. Especially in the first one, Rakitic was right to pass it backwards because one player was already closing him down and other two were ready to trap him and close down the passing lanes. There is no need to risk it in the center of the pitch while attacking positionally where every mistake may end up in a dangerous counter-attack.

 

[serghei]

Those clips prove nothing. It's not like our off the ball movement is so great that Rakitic is the dumbest player ever not to release in time. Our passing windows are so slim that you have to be a fucking midfield genius to have progression in this system, with these tactics, and with these slow players. I have no problem with Rakitic. When fresh and rested he's probably good enough to start in any team. The issue I have is that when he is slow, due mostly to playing all the time, he's one of the worst players on the pitch and I'm counting the other team too.

Every midfielder needs targets to pass to. Players that move and shake off markers, 3rd man runs, these sort of things. Those aren't happening without active and alert attackers who run the channels and constantly exploit gaps in the other teams' defensive lines. If we had Liverpool's movement up front, our midfielders would pour assists every game almost.

Plus, I can post videos with Rakitic, Semedo, Arthur doing everything right and Messi and Suarez sitting both 2m offside jogging back. Happens many times almost every game. Or players doing runs in space nicely while Messi and Suarez don't do anything to provide passing options in time, instead standing around waiting for that player to hit a dead end and return the ball back.

Everybody is to blame for our bad progression. Just as players bail themselves out with brilliant individual skills, referring mostly to Messi and then Suarez, it's also true that our highly skilled - but also lazy and unmotivated - veterans, together with the manager, don't do enough to make the system work.

 

[Joan]

Made Messi angry? Stone him to death!