can we combine Rakitic, Gomes and Arda and get one good player? no?
He will be good but pretty slow
can we combine Rakitic, Gomes and Arda and get one good player? no?
Nothing really.
He has never been that great or good on the ball and MSN and Alves helped mask that in the treble winning season where he was crap for first half and even last season was not great.
Never been good enough to be Barca starter. MSN treble or not.
Oh Alves really masked that stuff alright, masked Rakitic into becoming a defender leaving him acres of open space to cover . MSN are still here.
I don't care what team you play for, if you are a starter for a treble winning team you are club legend world class or not, you will always have that.
No idea what you are trying to say but if it was that Rakitic had to defend due to Alves going forward then you are right he did and part of the reason for that was he was so much better on the ball than Rakitic who couldnt support Messi the same way.
Rakitic is an average player who in his best period at the club was basically just plugging gaps partly caused by his own lack of techincal ability on the ball. He did a good enough job at that but Barca need a lot more from the midfield than he can give.
You do have an idea of what I am saying and part of the reason that he did defend was that opposing teams could drive bus through the amount of space that alves was leaving. I'd love to see your reaction at the boatload of attacks coming from that side without Rakitic babysitting that side. You would get your Messi support but you wouldn't get your treble.
He isn't an average player, an average player is someone playing at Stoke that never gets mentioned here. He isn't world class sure but you don't need 11 Wc players to win everything, Rakitic to you should be living proof of that. He wasn't even really the forgettable squad player you make him out to be, he scored in the champions league final..
If you think he is past it fine , but players who don't fit your archetypal playing style for midfielders play important roles in other top teams.
Alves was leaving that space as he was having to get forward and connect with Messi in a way Rakitic couldnt as doesnt have the ability on the ball. Alves virtually played as a midfielder in second half of that season which if midfield was good enough he wouldnt have had to. So of course that left space and Rakitic did a decent job of plugging the gaps.
He did the job fine but it was a fairly basic job that a lot of average players could do. When say average it is average for top top level teams not Stoke.
And rakitic masked the pseudo defender Alves. If rakitic is deficient to you with ability on the ball then what about Alves's defending and field positioning. So Alves gets a complete pass for that and good on him for linking up with messi but oh rakitic doing boring defending grunt work because he cant attack how average. Its really backhanded the way you mentioned Alves in masking rakitic when the reality of the situation was that rakitic was no free rider on the benefits of Alvez, his play allowed them to happen.
He was the top scoring midfielder in the team, at least he took off some pressure from MSN in goalscoring, the rest of barcas midfield barely scored.