Ivan Rakitić

[Jakabor]

Love this dude. Hopefully he is here for next season also.

 

[DonAndres]

what a b.s!!

in fact it is opposite! !

fans will call raki a shit every match no matter what........

suarez and raki most underrated players.

same thing happen with cr7 and madrid. fans called him a shit even though they were winning cl every year. now look.....

u will understand how good our senior players r when they retire and we struggle to win league and do even worse in CL! !

Yup, Ivan Rakitic is the one keeping us from losing the league and doing worse in the CL. When Arthur and FDJ run the midfield we will be sooooo much worse for it. lol

 

[te amo barca]

Great game. See ya next time haters

 

[YodaMaster]

Good game tonight. Still not great imo but pretty good. This Rakitic doesn't annoy me so much and can stay a starter until the end of the season. Problem is he doesn't perform like this very often.

Of course there are more than 5 games he was good. IMHO except El Classico, he was good against Tottenham (away), Espanyol, Inter (both games), PSV (home), few games in the beginning of the season etc. but now you'll say no he wasn't and we are in no-mans land again.

Raki is today very different player than he was under Lucho (first year) and I honestly like him more as DM. He was also great in that position during WC. He has PERFECT long ball and great tactical awareness. His last pass is also very good and his long shots are excellent. I agree that he is bad one on one and in tight spaces, he is slow as turtle and he doesn't take to much risks. I am aware of all of that. That's why I said he could never reach the level of Xavi or Madric. I am also aware that his way of playing is different than Barca used to have that's why I am looking forward to De Jong and that's the reason I said we should sell him next summer.

Took randomly the Espanyol game. Also because it’s the one I remembered the least.
I had time to watch first half vs Espanyol and I won’t watch the second half since Suarez made it 3-0 in the 45th minute and that was game, set and match.


Here’s is what I noted and I’m being completely unbiased.

He receives his first ball 30 seconds in to the game. I like the move he tries to pull by sending a long pass to Messi. It’s poorly executed and the ball is lost.
Now to summarize his 45 mins:
1 successful pass between the lines (a pretty easy one). He attempted 4 and failed miserably in 3 of them.
One thing I noticed: he’s the slowest in the midfield to track back in defensive scenarios. His overall running is the most unenergetic one. His pressing is so unaggressive, it looks like he does it just for the sake of doing it and not actually trying to recover the ball.
In possession, he’s completely neutral and slow.
The most advanced midfielder in defensive situations.
The least advanced midfielder in offensive situations.
He had like 4-5 interceptions in that first half. Immediately lost/gave away the ball after 3 of those interceptions.

Now here are his notable plays before 3-0.
37th minute: he recovers a ball and launches a counter attack which ends with him and Messi almost scoring from headers. Only really noticeable contribution play from Rakitic in that game.
42nd minute: gave a decent ball between the lines to Dembele.
43th minute: headed the ball well in a combination with a Messi which is a basic thing to do.


It’s a decent performance at best but you can’t call that a great and hardly even good game for a Barca midfielder (supposed to be elite) and it’s not a matter of opinion. It’s a matter of being honest and objective. I’d give him a 6/10 note at best for that display. And that was probably one of his top 5 performances this season indeed which shows how insufficient he is usually..

Link for that game if you want don’t believe me and want to see by yourself:
https://www.fullmatchesandshows.com/2018/12/08/rcd-espanyol-vs-barcelona-highlights-full-match/

I'll take time and go more in details with Rakitic performances later.

Yea, obviously keep the Classico out it. It not only is the most historical rivalry in football but generally it has matched the two best teams in the world since Rakitic arrived at Barca. It is often the matches with the singularly highest level of football displayed on a pitch in a given year.

Yep I'm willing to keep the Clasico out of it since it's the game where all our players overperform which happens twice a year. It's also a game where Real Madrid shits the bed 2 times out of 3. Our team is a Clasico specialist, Rakitic included. In other crucial CL big games Rakitic sucks more than anybody.

 

[Arizona Scott]

Uh do you have anything else apart from your dear stats to show that? Cos most people who actually watch matches and don't just check whoscored the next day, know Arthur has been our best midfielder by far.

Eyes, seeing the whole game and not just a single skill or function that is my favorite.

I'd say you have good excuses for Rakitic every time he's the biggest midfield flop in the most important match of the season in the biggest club competition.

Another poster already had an answer for this before you posted. If you apply this rule what about our captains? What about 7 best players over that period (I'd put Rakitic about #8).

Oh and yes when people start pulling out stats from that Roma or Juve games they should also pull out stats of Messi because if those stats are the only relevant thing than what would we conclude about our indisputable GOAT?

...He also had GOAT Messi who's simply unplayable in La Liga. ..

Let's keep Clasico out of this.

So Messi forgets how to play in the CL? The game is something mysterious different in a few matches in late may and april from all the rest of the year. OK

Keep the most important intra-club matches in world football out of the discussion, where the highest level of football is actually played. OK

Haters going to hate.

 

[YodaMaster]

So Messi forgets how to play in the CL? The game is something mysterious different in a few matches in late may and april from all the rest of the year. OK

Keep the most important intra-club matches in world football out of the discussion, where the highest level of football is actually played. OK

Haters going to hate.

Messi did great vs Juve in 2017 as I already said.
Last year against Roma Valverde decided to apply Mourinho's park the bus tactic. No way for a guy like Messi to shine in such system where midfielders just focus on defending and don't give balls to attackers.

Against Juve, our other midfielders besides Rakitic were grandpas Mascherano and Iniesta. That midfield got outplayed plain and simple with Rakitic being the worst performer. And these 2 guys (Masche and Andres) are no longer at the club, same thing should have happened to Rakitic.

That's literally what I was saying this whole time: I want a new midfield in CL this year. No more of these combinations (Rakitic Busquets Iniesta, Rakitic Mascherano Iniesta, Rakitic Busquets) that got severely outplayed in the last 3 CL seasons.

Now, after today's game, I'm willing to see if Rakitic can keep that same form for the rest of the season even though I'm sure he can't. But if somehow he can, I won't be against that Busquets Arthur Rakitic midfield until the end of the season.

FDJ Arthur association next season will show y'all doubters what waste of time Rakitic has been all these years.

 

[Raketa10]

FDJ Arthur association next season will show y'all doubters what waste of time Rakitic has been all these years.

It was not waste of time. We couldn't find a better player and that's the only truth. Nobody believes he is an elite player like Xavi was but in that period of time we couldn't find a better player not to mention he was much cheaper than some other targets. For example we couldn't get Verratti and we tried as much as we could and La Masia brought nothing to the first team. We now found Arthur and signed De Jong so yes we all hope this will be more fluent and interesting midfield to watch but let's be fair Rakitic did his job during last 5 season the best he could and he was great in some very important games.

If he was a waste of the time can you mention few better players who were available to sign during this last 5 seasons? Only player that comes to my mind is Thiago but we fucked up big time there when we bought Fabregas and to be fair he is injured 24/7.

 

[JerseyAddict]

The top game yesterday!

 

[EdmondDantes]

Very good game last night from Ivan. No question about that even if Busquets (back to his magical self) and Arthur were better. Cheeky finish too.


BBZ must have felt such conflicted emotions from that goal though. World-class assist by a player he said he dislikes (Arthur) but great run and finish by his favourite player ever in Rakitic.

 

[raedkuwait]

1 good game 6 shit games nice
so this is barca standards now!?
EV has to sub him off whe he is having a bad game and we all know EV wont do that.

 

[mc_lovin]

Not shit games, just 6/10 games. Hes good at that. Hes not (and was never) truly worldclass, but there arent many worldclass midfielders around. PSG/United would killl for someone like him. I have a lot of faith in Frenkie thats why I wouldnt mind selling him next summer, but I wouldnt mind him staying either. You wont get prime Xavi/Modric as an upgrade on the market. We can complain a lot, but we are doing the only sensible thing keeping him (and buying talents).

 

[Jakabor]

Never seen a player so disrepected by his own fans.

No, he will never be Xavi or Iniesta, but he has been doing good for Barca.

 

[Horatio]

Never seen a player so disrepected by his own fans.

No, he will never be Xavi or Iniesta, but he has been doing good for Barca.

Agreed.

 

[xXKonan]

According to Miguel Rico, the Club wants to sell him in the Summer while Valverde wants him to stay.

 

[YodaMaster]

It was not waste of time. We couldn't find a better player and that's the only truth. Nobody believes he is an elite player like Xavi was but in that period of time we couldn't find a better player not to mention he was much cheaper than some other targets. For example we couldn't get Verratti and we tried as much as we could and La Masia brought nothing to the first team. We now found Arthur and signed De Jong so yes we all hope this will be more fluent and interesting midfield to watch but let's be fair Rakitic did his job during last 5 season the best he could and he was great in some very important games.

If he was a waste of the time can you mention few better players who were available to sign during this last 5 seasons? Only player that comes to my mind is Thiago but we fucked up big time there when we bought Fabregas and to be fair he is injured 24/7.

Barca basically refused Kroos the same summer Rakitic was bought. One year earlier they could have bought a young Isco who would have evolved a lot better at Barca.
Huge Barca fan Modric could have been easily bought too if our board was a little bit visionary. Thiago, Modric and Isco involve some could/would but Kroos was a real opportunity back then and was already world class. Barca simply could have bought Kroos + Rakitic in 2014 which would have ensured Barca a great midfield until Iniesta's departure.

Since 2015 guys like KDB, Eriksen or Bernardo Silva if we ignore the fact that Barca's board sucks way too much and has 0 vision. Or even Kanté in 2016 if we wanted a real workhorse even though I personally don't think that's the kind of players we should purchase as starters.

And I'm not even telling that Barca didn't need to buy Rakitic in 2014. What I'm saying is that making him the undisputed starter for 5 years at Barca is madness.