Junior Firpo

[CanadianCanadian]

Alves is arguably one of the greatest full backs of all time. Unless you have a cloning machine you will not replace him like for like.
Junior is a Barca player for a reason and I hope he continues to perform and grow into his role. He add's much needed physicality to our back line and if he can provide consistent attacking threats he will no doubt replace Alba.

Speaking of everyone who took his position... Roberto, a midfielder and an actual bench player. Semedo has done a well enough job for somebody who plays under Valverde. Only player's I can confidently see replace Alves would be Kimmich, Hakimi, and perhaps Cancelo. And even then they don't hold a candle to prime Alves.

 

[xXKonan]

Losing Alba wouldn't be in the same stratosphere as someone like Alves.

Alba is great at what he does but he's about as simple as you can get in terms of technical ability and skill set. Not really much depth to him in comparison to someone like Alves who is up there in contention to be one of the greatest RBs in history.

Not really a knock on Alba but replacing Alves was always going to be a hard task as it would still be such a big drop in quality.

 

[clemente]

Losing Alba wouldn't be in the same stratosphere as someone like Alves.

Alba is great at what he does but he's about as simple as you can get in terms of technical ability and skill set. Not really much depth to him in comparison to someone like Alves who is up there in contention to be one of the greatest RBs in history.

Not really a knock on Alba but replacing Alves was always going to be a hard task as it would still be such a big drop in quality.

He has literally been the best left-back for years there with Marcelo/Alaba, just because he doesn't dribble or is flashy it doesn't mean his skillset is "simple", Messi has the most "simple" skillset and is the most efficient player ever, he is effortlessly clean with the ball at a really high pace, good luck trying to replace that.

 

[xXKonan]

He has literally been the best left-back for years there with Marcelo/Alaba, just because he doesn't dribble or is flashy it doesn't mean his skillset is "simple", Messi has the most "simple" skillset and is the most efficient player ever, he is effortlessly clean with the ball at a really high pace, good luck trying to replace that.

Yeah he is one of the best in the world but he is also about as simple as they come in terms of skill sets.

He was never some complex player, his main strengths are his pace and linkup play which he spent years to get up to elite status which made him one of the best in the world. But outside of his main strengths, he's pretty vanilla.

 

[mc_lovin]

He has literally been the best left-back for years there with Marcelo/Alaba, just because he doesn't dribble or is flashy it doesn't mean his skillset is "simple", Messi has the most "simple" skillset and is the most efficient player ever, he is effortlessly clean with the ball at a really high pace, good luck trying to replace that.

He certainly was a top 3 leftback, but he was still miles apart of Marcelo. Its like comparing prime Dani Alves to the best rightbacks now. Different class.

 

[clemente]

He certainly was a top 3 leftback, but he was still miles apart of Marcelo. Its like comparing prime Dani Alves to the best rightbacks now. Different class.

Lmao what? Marcelo was always a liability at defending, unlike Alba who is always reliable there, there was never a timeline where Marcelo was as much better as you say.

 

[Sailor Mars]

Lmao what? Marcelo was always a liability at defending, unlike Alba who is always reliable there, there was never a timeline where Marcelo was as much better as you say.

Marcelo's offense was worlds apart from Alba, and his defence isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Plus you don't need to play as much defence when you control the entire left flank.

 

[KingLeo10]

Alves is arguably one of the greatest full backs of all time. Unless you have a cloning machine you will not replace him like for like.
Junior is a Barca player for a reason and I hope he continues to perform and grow into his role. He add's much needed physicality to our back line and if he can provide consistent attacking threats he will no doubt replace Alba.

Speaking of everyone who took his position... Roberto, a midfielder and an actual bench player. Semedo has done a well enough job for somebody who plays under Valverde. Only player's I can confidently see replace Alves would be Kimmich, Hakimi, and perhaps Cancelo. And even then they don't hold a candle to prime Alves.

Alves is a top 3 RB of all time by all parameters. Only thing missing is WC success from his illustrious resume but he's been a colossus in the CL to make up for it.

 

[Sailor Mars]

Alves is a top 3 RB of all time by all parameters. Only thing missing is WC success from his illustrious resume but he's been a colossus in the CL to make up for it.

Yeah, I think Alves' lack of WC success is the reason he gets underrated by some fans. Didn't make the 2006 team. Maicon was a starter over him in the 2010 team. Alves got benched for Maicon after 2-3 games in the disastrous 2014 campaign for Brazil. And then he got injured for the 2018 cup.

 

[Nazario1985]

Alba is one of the greatest LB and his ability to control the ball and make good final decisions in passing the ball made him a huge asset for FCB.

The point is Junior Firpo will never be as good as Alba in the offense and we will end up with another Semedo , good in defense and Ok to terrible in offense.

So if really we want a replacement of Alba in say like 2 years, we should look for someone else.

Junior is fine as a resting/replacing when Alba is injured/tired until the real option is their.

I don't know if we saw the same match but the guy needs to work on his ball control if he even dreams of combining with Messi & Suarez !!

 

[xXKonan]

Alba is one of the greatest LB and his ability to control the ball and make good decisions made him a huge asset for FCB.

The point is Junior Firpo will never be as good as Alba in the offense and we will end up with another Semedo , good in defense and Ok to terrible in offense.

One of the best in the world in the past few seasons? sure.

You also have to remember that Alba didn't fully come to his own until at least the 2014/15 season. Before then there were massive doubts whether or not he truly was good enough to be a starter for us long term. He came off a great season at Valencia and shined with Spain in the euros in which he scored vs Italy in the Final.

His early years he showed great promise going forward but people were iffy on him due to his injury problems and he appeared to be physically weak and pretty poor the defensive end. He was a different beast compared to someone like Abidal who himself took awhile for him to get going here and he was more of a conservative LB than someone like Adriano and Alba.

What I'm saying is we shouldn't count out Firpo just yet and he has shown plenty of promise for Spain U-21 and Real Betis, especially the latter considering it was a possession-based system in which he excelled at.

 

[DonAK]

Alba has one attacking move, cutback to Messi. Otherwise he's useless in attack bar the odd good cross once every 6 months.

Defensively he shits his pants in most big games. Marcelo has clearly been a better LB than him for years.

Alba might be better than Marcelo defensively by a small margin, but they're not even in the same planet attacking-wise. Marcelo makes Alba look like Gerard Deulofeu going forward.

 

[Havesaks]

Alba Has been one of the best lb in the world and been one of our best players for many years, so there isn't much to complain about. I still think he is good enough as a starter for another 2 years.

Butdamn I'm exited for Firpo. I hope he develop into a player with abidal-like flair and chilness. He kinda looks for me to have those qualities.

 

[tacticvarium]

Whether you like it or not, Alba will be remembered as one of the greatest LBs in Barça history along with Sergi Barjuán.
I just hope he knows when to step down for the club like Xavi and Iniesta.

 

[kattanib]

Whether you like it or not, Alba will be remembered as one of the greatest LBs in Barça history along with Sergi Barjuán.
I just hope he knows when to step down for the club like Xavi and Iniesta.

Exactly, step down when there is someone who can take your place which is not the case today. I wish Alves would have stayed with us few more years and wish Alba to remain as long as he can run if our back up options remain unflattering