Ghostmaster
Danger Ahead
Exactly and he used to play as DM in Sevilla and still plays as DM in Croatia's NT and he adds height to our defense when defending from set pecies as well because he is 184cm and Xavi is only 170cm.
Ivan Rakitić
- Thread starter Barcaman
- Start date
Exactly and he used to play as DM in Sevilla and still plays as DM in Croatia's NT and he adds height to our defense when defending from set pecies as well because he is 184cm and Xavi is only 170cm.
Toecrusher
New member
Very happy with the Rocket! Gives our team so many more options in attack, and adds stability to defence.
Only question mark is his control in tight spaces when truly pressed, but for now its all good!
Only question mark is his control in tight spaces when truly pressed, but for now its all good!
:aga_fosaro2ble:
L
linetty
Guest
Rakitic's heat map from yesterdays game
darthvader7888
Banned
Rakitic's heat map from yesterdays game
Fake. An entire corner is black.
Luftstalag14
Culé de Celestial Empire
Does anyone know Rakitic's new buyout?
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Flavia
Guest
I checked and his wasn't mentioned. MAtS is 80m, Mathieu 50m. Rakitic's must be around that too.
Ghostmaster
Danger Ahead
Rakitic made at least 14 more passes vs Elche (104) than he has made in any Liga match since joining Sevilla in Jan 2011 [via @whoscored]
Rakitic can now unleash his full potential because he is surrounded by world class players.
Rakitic can now unleash his full potential because he is surrounded by world class players.
BerkeleyBernie
Senior Member
Despite the difference in their builds, I noticed the mechanics of Rakitic's passing motion are very similar to Xavi. Almost had to check twice seeing the #4 instead of the #6.
His heat map was more on the right side, which could reflect a few things over last season: 1) Iniesta playing more centrally without Cesc in the way, 2) Messi more mobile, and dropping more often into that area to work with Alves and Rakitic. Both are good developments.
Watching the highlights again, I was impressed with his speed on the Pedro-Messi counterattack. He started far behind the other two, but caught up with them, even while making a smart diagonal run. I'm not even sure Pedro saw him, he came out of nowhere; Pedro already had assessed a 2v3 counter and, with Messi double-marked, was lining up his shot. I bet teammates will keep an eye open for his runs in the future.
His heat map was more on the right side, which could reflect a few things over last season: 1) Iniesta playing more centrally without Cesc in the way, 2) Messi more mobile, and dropping more often into that area to work with Alves and Rakitic. Both are good developments.
Watching the highlights again, I was impressed with his speed on the Pedro-Messi counterattack. He started far behind the other two, but caught up with them, even while making a smart diagonal run. I'm not even sure Pedro saw him, he came out of nowhere; Pedro already had assessed a 2v3 counter and, with Messi double-marked, was lining up his shot. I bet teammates will keep an eye open for his runs in the future.
darthvader7888
Banned
He's only played one official game, but so far I'm really impressed by him. I've seen some people here saying he isn't world class, but imo it'll be safe to call him that if he performs like this all season, especially in the bigger games.
I was expecting him to be more of the kind of guy to play in smaller games to rest Xavi for the big ones, but now I believe he should be the starter over Xavi.
I was expecting him to be more of the kind of guy to play in smaller games to rest Xavi for the big ones, but now I believe he should be the starter over Xavi.
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Flavia
Guest
I got this from allas:
Positioning of xavi/cesc were more central than rakitic/iniesta. Think he's spot on about this, it was the biggest change.
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