Jordi Alba

[DonAndres]

What happened to this guy? In 12/13, he was by far the best attacking LB in the world. He could dribble, his linkup with Iniesta on the left was absolutely magical, and his final ball superb. Almost always accurate cutbacks or low hard passes into the area, he'd actually look up and pick out his man before making the pass too. His run timing and placement was also superb, creating breakaway situations for himself constantly (goals against Madrid, Milan, Italy, numerous assists this way, etc.).

Nowadays he just plays like a headless chicken with shit runs and crosses so blind that Alves would be proud. Doesn't even link up well anymore or provide a true 'extra presence' in attack. It's a shame.

 

[serghei]

Nowadays he just plays like a headless chicken with shit runs and crosses so blind that Alves would be proud. Doesn't even link up well anymore or provide a true 'extra presence' in attack. It's a shame.

Players playing well under their value is one of the possible consequences of a clueless manager.

 

[Alik]

What happened to this guy? In 12/13, he was by far the best attacking LB in the world. He could dribble, his linkup with Iniesta on the left was absolutely magical, and his final ball superb. Almost always accurate cutbacks or low hard passes into the area, he'd actually look up and pick out his man before making the pass too. His run timing and placement was also superb, creating breakaway situations for himself constantly (goals against Madrid, Milan, Italy, numerous assists this way, etc.).

Nowadays he just plays like a headless chicken with shit runs and crosses so blind that Alves would be proud. Doesn't even link up well anymore or provide a true 'extra presence' in attack. It's a shame.

I think one of the factors is, as you mentioned, there's no Iniesta to link up with anymore. If Iniesta gets back to form, a left flank of Alba/Iniesta/Neymar would be great I'd imagine.

 

[Chainsaw]

Will be a constant danger on set pieces. Lucho better have a special plan to mark him out of the game.

 

[KingMessi]

Will be a constant danger on set pieces. Lucho better have a special plan to mark him out of the game.

Huh? I'm not sure what you mean.

 

[messi2140]

Huh? I'm not sure what you mean.

 

[Chainsaw]

Huh? I'm not sure what you mean.

What's huh about it?

 

[KingMessi]

What's huh about it?

Oh it was in reference to his own goal.

Atleti's the best team at set pieces in the world, so I thought you meant to say he was a liability at the back against the likes of Mandzukic/Godin.

 

[anguy]

What happened to this guy? In 12/13, he was by far the best attacking LB in the world. He could dribble, his linkup with Iniesta on the left was absolutely magical, and his final ball superb. Almost always accurate cutbacks or low hard passes into the area, he'd actually look up and pick out his man before making the pass too. His run timing and placement was also superb, creating breakaway situations for himself constantly (goals against Madrid, Milan, Italy, numerous assists this way, etc.).

Nowadays he just plays like a headless chicken with shit runs and crosses so blind that Alves would be proud. Doesn't even link up well anymore or provide a true 'extra presence' in attack. It's a shame.

WTF are you talking about? He has been absolutely amazing this season. He had one poor game, the first one against PSG. He's the main reason why our left flank is so dangerous compared to right. He attacks relentlessly, provides critical width and more important is that he somehow manages to come back in time too, contrary to Alves. He's probably one of the best, if not the best left fullbacks in the world right now.

 

[Siberia]

indeed. People are overreacting as always. Alba has been playing brilliant! He's a constant danger in attack and does his job well in defense. You could make an even better video than that with what he has done this season.

 

[6 Ballons for Messi]

Alba is our best defender and in many games contributes immensely to our attack as well.

 

[Hamzah]

WTF are you talking about? He has been absolutely amazing this season. He had one poor game, the first one against PSG. He's the main reason why our left flank is so dangerous compared to right. He attacks relentlessly, provides critical width and more important is that he somehow manages to come back in time too, contrary to Alves. He's probably one of the best, if not the best left fullbacks in the world right now.

He is clueless with his final ball, but is still good position ally and in his run timing. His defending is the same as always not terrible but not great either.

 

[DonAndres]

WTF are you talking about? He has been absolutely amazing this season. He had one poor game, the first one against PSG. He's the main reason why our left flank is so dangerous compared to right. He attacks relentlessly, provides critical width and more important is that he somehow manages to come back in time too, contrary to Alves. He's probably one of the best, if not the best left fullbacks in the world right now.

He still plays with the same defensive intent (tracking back all the time) and does provide width, but other than that he doesn't do anything. His final ball is awful now and he doesn't provide nearly as much penetration as he did before. These days he always just smashes crosses across the area with his head down instead of picking out a target. He's just there to overlap and be a wide outlet.

 

[Morten]

What do you expect from a crosser, when the target is Messi, Iniesta, Neymar and co?

 

[anguy]

Yeah, so he's not perfect. His final ball is not always there, and he blew up few excellent chances prepared by Messi (like the one against Elche, when he scored). But that doesn't mean he's poor. Just hope he doesn't get injured, like last season, because Adriano is older, slower and everytime I see him on pitch, I realize how good Alba really is. Look at the other teams, what's their situation? Real has Marcelo, who has similar issues, but IMO he's worse player, Bayern - Alaba, Bernat the same. PSG - Maxwell, good joke. United - Rojo? lol, Chelsea I don't know Azpi?, City IDK, Liverpool, Arsenal - just some trash, Atletico - Siqueira who is horrible defender and huge liability for otherwise good defense. So which one of them do you believe is better than Alba? All of them have some problems too.

Be lucky that you have a LB like Alba, and prey that Grimaldo will be at least as good as him.

ETA : I also believe that people are generally wayyyy too critical of our defense right now. Surely we have huge hole on our RB and our CBs made some pretty stupid mistakes. It is also often too chaotic when under pressure. But the fact is : after nearly half of season we have statistically the best defense in the league - and it's not even close. We got scored on just 8 times - Real and Atletico twice that much. We had not lost many points because of our defense, PSG and Real might be exceptions, but 3 goals away is not that catastrophic. When we lose points it's because of our attack and midfield - Malaga, Vigo, Getafe, Sociedad - those were not high scoring games.