Xaviniesta
Senior Member
A bit glad we won't sign Seri. We should be looking at either WC players or young players with WC potential
I argeee with the club on this one, not impressed by him.
If only that had said the same about Gomes, arda, paulinho, paco we would be perfect.
Plus as I keep saying he looks 40!
I am sad for Seri.
I haven't watched him before, but he wasn't too good in these 2 games.
He was horrible yesterday. Slow as Rakitic at times. Tired all the time, unable to run in attack in counters. Horrible in defending.
Also, there is a chance that he is way older than 26 and that he could lose physical abilities very fast (and he is already weaker and slow in that area).
To some extent, he offers nice passing (some sort of Xavi), but in terms of pressing, defening, tackles, counters, running, he is on Arda's level. Or even worse than Arda.
If we have bought him and he turned to be a new turtle, people on forum would yell: fuck this board, another 40M wasted (Arda, Gomes, Paco, Seri).
Now, if we won't buy him, people will yell again: fuck this board.
Again, I have watched only youtube videos where he looked fine.
But yesterday, against a stronger opponent, he was horrible.
He is good in going deep like Xavi, collecting the ball and passing it sideways and he has nice off the ball movement while he is asking for the ball.
But that is more or less it.
If his real level is somewhat close to a level of yesterday, I don't see how he could help on a Champions league level.
Some people will reply: but he was awesome in Ligue1 last season.
Well, even Neymar looks like the best player in the world in Ligue1 with 23-24 successful dribbles and 3 goals in 180 minutes.
I haven't watched too many matches from a French league in the past.
I watched Psg-Tolouse and Nice-Napoli in the last 3 days, and all I can say: Tolouse and Nice don't run too much and teams don't press as much as in La liga.
La Liga teams like Betis, Rayo and any random team are running and pressing like crazy.
While French teams play more like Italian Seria A midtable teams, with less running and pressing (unlike Spain and England).
Match from yesterday was posted already, but you guys should look at Seri's physical skills.
He doesn't run too much and his pressing and defending are horrible.
And again, most of his passes are sideway passes and backpasses, and some random long balls which were intercepted all the time:
To some extent, he offers nice passing (some sort of Xavi), but in terms of pressing, defening, tackles, counters, running, he is on Arda's level. Or even worse than Arda.
Prices starts from 150 m euros for players you mentioned his specialities. Also it's not ideal to rate him vs a really strong midfield. it's like rating Busquets vs Real midfield now.
We aren't buying a Cm to play against Betis and Rayo Vallecano.
Rakitic, Gomes and Roberto are more than good enough for matches against midtable and bottomtable La liga teams.
They aren't perfect against Real and for a CL level.
Seri would be good against Rayo, the same as Roberto and Rafinha.
Is he better against Rayo than Roberto and Rafinha?
And a key thing, would he improve our team against Bayern, Juve and Real?
With his physique and level of running, very unlikely.
And please people, don't mention how Xavi and Iniesta were weak.
We had a best generation in the same moment and everything worked perfectly.
But football evolved for 10 years since then and midfielders need more physique than before.
Plus, in 2018, even a prime Xavi wouldn't have prime Iniesta, prime Busi and prime alien Messi alongside him.
So, it is very questionable whether the original Xavi himself would have such an impact today compared to 2002, 2005 or 2009.
About Busi vs Real, Busi sucked really bad.
It is very questionable again whether players with turtle skills can cope in today's football.
Again, it worked once with prime Xavi-Iniesta-Busi and alien Messi to save their asses.
Turtles in Barca stopped dominating after 2011.
And turtles in Spain also stopped dominating after that.
And teams like Germany and Real Madrid with more mobile and stronger midfielders started to dominate after that.
Also, about comparing Seri vs Napoli.
For example, Halilovic looked like Messi in Croatian 1st division.
Not because he was THAT good, but because you get tons of space there, defenders are poor and slow and you can do whatever you want and have tons of space and time.
Pjaca looked like 3 levels above any player in Croatian 1st division.
In Juventus, he looks like a squad level or even worse.
If French league is poor (which we all suspect), then it is hard to judge players alone only based on League1 matches.
You need some NT matches, CL level and similar.
Even Zlatan looked 2-3 times better in League1 than in EPL.
He went from 1 goal per match in France to 0,60 goals per match in England.
Roughly, we should probably "remove" 30-40% from players skills where they come from France, Portugal and similar.
If a player is a GOAT there, he will be just good in Spain.
If a player is good in France, he will be average in Spain.
If a player is average in France, he will suck in Spain.
There are always guys who were good in France and who will stay on that level in other countries (Bernardo, Umtiti), but on larger sample, probably 4 out 5 players will play way weaker than in France.
Imo, the same could be said for players from Italian league who often suck when they come to Spain and England, and yet they looked awesome in (slowish) Seria A.
Why not go after Jorginho? He's the same age, and looks a lot more agile and with great passing as well.
We aren't buying a Cm to play against Betis and Rayo Vallecano.
Rakitic, Gomes and Roberto are more than good enough for matches against midtable and bottomtable La liga teams.
They aren't perfect against Real and for a CL level.
Seri would be good against Rayo, the same as Roberto and Rafinha.
Is he better against Rayo than Roberto and Rafinha?
And a key thing, would he improve our team against Bayern, Juve and Real?
With his physique and level of running, very unlikely.
And please people, don't mention how Xavi and Iniesta were weak.
We had a best generation in the same moment and everything worked perfectly.
But football evolved for 10 years since then and midfielders need more physique than before.
Plus, in 2018, even a prime Xavi wouldn't have prime Iniesta, prime Busi and prime alien Messi alongside him.
So, it is very questionable whether the original Xavi himself would have such an impact today compared to 2002, 2005 or 2009.
About Busi vs Real, Busi sucked really bad.
It is very questionable again whether players with turtle skills can cope in today's football.
Again, it worked once with prime Xavi-Iniesta-Busi and alien Messi to save their asses.
Turtles in Barca stopped dominating after 2011.
And turtles in Spain also stopped dominating after that.
And teams like Germany and Real Madrid with more mobile and stronger midfielders started to dominate after that.
Also, about comparing Seri vs Napoli.
For example, Halilovic looked like Messi in Croatian 1st division.
Not because he was THAT good, but because you get tons of space there, defenders are poor and slow and you can do whatever you want and have tons of space and time.
Pjaca looked like 3 levels above any player in Croatian 1st division.
In Juventus, he looks like a squad level or even worse.
If French league is poor (which we all suspect), then it is hard to judge players alone only based on League1 matches.
You need some NT matches, CL level and similar.
Even Zlatan looked 2-3 times better in League1 than in EPL.
He went from 1 goal per match in France to 0,60 goals per match in England.
Roughly, we should probably "remove" 30-40% from players skills where they come from France, Portugal and similar.
If a player is a GOAT there, he will be just good in Spain.
If a player is good in France, he will be average in Spain.
If a player is average in France, he will suck in Spain.
There are always guys who were good in France and who will stay on that level in other countries (Bernardo, Umtiti), but on larger sample, probably 4 out 5 players will play way weaker than in France.
Imo, the same could be said for players from Italian league who often suck when they come to Spain and England, and yet they looked awesome in (slowish) Seria A.
We aren't buying a Cm to play against Betis and Rayo Vallecano.
Rakitic, Gomes and Roberto are more than good enough for matches against midtable and bottomtable La liga teams.
They aren't perfect against Real and for a CL level.
Seri would be good against Rayo, the same as Roberto and Rafinha.
Is he better against Rayo than Roberto and Rafinha?
And a key thing, would he improve our team against Bayern, Juve and Real?
With his physique and level of running, very unlikely.
And please people, don't mention how Xavi and Iniesta were weak.
We had a best generation in the same moment and everything worked perfectly.
But football evolved for 10 years since then and midfielders need more physique than before.
Plus, in 2018, even a prime Xavi wouldn't have prime Iniesta, prime Busi and prime alien Messi alongside him.
So, it is very questionable whether the original Xavi himself would have such an impact today compared to 2002, 2005 or 2009.
About Busi vs Real, Busi sucked really bad.
It is very questionable again whether players with turtle skills can cope in today's football.
Again, it worked once with prime Xavi-Iniesta-Busi and alien Messi to save their asses.
Turtles in Barca stopped dominating after 2011.
And turtles in Spain also stopped dominating after that.
And teams like Germany and Real Madrid with more mobile and stronger midfielders started to dominate after that.
Also, about comparing Seri vs Napoli.
For example, Halilovic looked like Messi in Croatian 1st division.
Not because he was THAT good, but because you get tons of space there, defenders are poor and slow and you can do whatever you want and have tons of space and time.
Pjaca looked like 3 levels above any player in Croatian 1st division.
In Juventus, he looks like a squad level or even worse.
If French league is poor (which we all suspect), then it is hard to judge players alone only based on League1 matches.
You need some NT matches, CL level and similar.
Even Zlatan looked 2-3 times better in League1 than in EPL.
He went from 1 goal per match in France to 0,60 goals per match in England.
Roughly, we should probably "remove" 30-40% from players skills where they come from France, Portugal and similar.
If a player is a GOAT there, he will be just good in Spain.
If a player is good in France, he will be average in Spain.
If a player is average in France, he will suck in Spain.
There are always guys who were good in France and who will stay on that level in other countries (Bernardo, Umtiti), but on larger sample, probably 4 out 5 players will play way weaker than in France.
Imo, the same could be said for players from Italian league who often suck when they come to Spain and England, and yet they looked awesome in (slowish) Seria A.
Even Zlatan looked 2-3 times better in League1 than in EPL.
He went from 1 goal per match in France to 0,60 goals per match in England.
We should do it like Bayern with James: Loan player with option to buy after an year to see, if he does well!!
Zlatan passed his best when he went to EPL. While he was in prime in PSG and have better players around him.
Btw, Jese did well with Real yet he failed at Ligue 1. Perez did amazing at La Liga, yet he failed at Arsenal so on.