Arizona Scott
New member
I am not in favor of an extension unless it is important to moving him to another club with a good fee (>40mil) in return as part of that transaction. I do believe Barca needs to get younger and better movement in the midfield and ideally you just want Busquets or Rakitic on the pitch at the same time. With Vidal we are really talking old legs and it further compounds the issue. But for that to be implemented we need 2-3 younger guys who are as least as good or better. We have one in Arthur, have high prospects for another in FDJ (though he has yet proven him in a top league or for Barca), none else I would say has shown enough to factor him in yet in teamsheets for one of Messi's last few seasons as the best player in the world.
Not the ratings I have seen for individual matches (whoscored, sofascore) and certainly not cumulative for the season, nor past seasons. Take the Real match where he was substituted.
Let's take one example, the recent match (Bilboa). Here is the whoscored ratings (with sofascore). MATS 8.3 (7.9), Messi 7.8 (7.0), Roberto 7.6 (7.0), Busi 7.2 (7.0), Pique 7.1 (7.1), Rakitic 7.0 (6.9), Coutinho 6.9 (6.9), Vidal 6.7 (5.9), Semedo 6.6 (6.6), Suarez 6.4 (6.1), Lenglet 6.3 (6.4). Two different ratings, both said mostly the same thing, Rakitic was spot average for the team on the field. To my eye and in the metrics, he was no where near the "problem" 3 players of the match. To my eyes (as I stated after the match) it was Vidal, Suarez, Couts & Lenglet. Turns out the metrics are pretty close. But keep believing what you and a not so few others want to reinforce yourself with.
For god sake I do want to see Rakitic, Suarez, Pique, and Alba to get many more games/minutes off than they have lately. That is the ship we have this year. Messi, Busi and Couts I have mixed feelings in terms of the amount of rest for different reasons.
