Lliga | Round 01: FC Barcelona - Deportivo Alavés S.A.D 3-0

[Hamzah]

It's a 4-3-3 and no, not everyone want that.

People want our best and most talented players to play and it's strange he benches Coutinho when he re-joined pre-season training at the same time as most of the players starting tonight

I agree that coutinho should play, at the expense of roberto

 

[vlad]

Dembele plays and Roberto is in midfield, thought that’s what everyone wanted?

they expect arthur suddendly will bench rakitic from the first match


i predict rakitic will play majority of strong matches as a starter, i dont expect he will to be promoted so fast as a starter, thats okay considering he played in brasil until now


edit: its first match and its important to start with the win

 

[Calidad]

I just think it’s far too early to worry about certain players being benched. I’m convinced even EV sees Coutinho as a starter.

 

[DonAK]

they expect arthur suddendly will bench rakitic from the first match


i predict rakitic will play majority of strong matches as a starter, i dont expect he will to be promoted so fast as a starter, thats okay considering he played in brasil until now


edit: its first match and its important to start with the win

If you read the thread you'll see most are surprised and annoyed about Coutinho being benched, not Arthur.

But perhaps you can rationalize that too. If it's so important to start strong why are we benching our 2nd best player?

 

[vlad]

If you read the thread you'll see most are surprised and annoyed about Coutinho being benched, not Arthur.

But perhaps you can rationalize that too. If it's so important to start strong why are we benching our 2nd best player?

my bad


cant understand EV on this one

 

[5ergio_Busquets]

Do some people seriously think Arthur is better than Rakitic? Based on what?

 

[GroneDanone]

What did we make all these improvements in midfield for then?

Both Arthur and Coutinho need to start FFS.

Arthur needs to start only in the mind of delusional fanboys. He's a 21 y/o player who just arrived from the Brazilian league and has multiple players ahead of him which are much more experienced and simply better. Seriously, throw him in there and after the rose-colored glasses wear off people are going to sh*t all over him just like with multiple guys before. Developing him slowly is exactly the smart and right choice.

Coutinho on the bench is surprising but not completely inexplicable considering his prominent role during the WC. He'll be starting soon enough. Also, what is the ‘why did for upgrade or midfield then' stuff you're talking about? We certainly didn't upgrade it to be able to win against the likes of Alaves. Or don't you remember how dominant we were last year against smaller clubs, with Rakitic and Sergio? With all due respect, if we don't win today then it's because we were playing crappy football, not because the starters weren't talented or good enough to win.

We improved our depth and we had to replace Iniesta. We didn't buy Arthur or Vidal to be starters out of the gate, nobody in their right mind believed that.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

I hope he rests Messi and Suarez with equal vigor as he has for the midfield..else all this is of no use come CL knock out time since they would be dead exhausted having been flogged across every game of the Copa del rey by EV

I couldn't agree more. Suarez and Messi need rest as well.

 

[Vilarrubi]

Looks like Valverde is hell bent on playing Roberto somewhere so if he want to start Semedo at RB he'll bench Rakitic or Coutinho for him.

Honestly I'm sure he's got a quota to fill with Roberto... 4th Captain now etc.. I thought last season Semedo started well then the random rotations came in and neither of them were consistent. Also I don't rate Roberto in midfield like some do here.

 

[jairzinho]

Coutinho on the bench? Our most expensive midfield signing ever and one our better players, on the bench at the start of the season. If Gomes was still here i'm sure EV would have start him too. Twat.

 

[Barcaman]

Roberto is backup RB, backup LB and a midfielder. Why we bought Arthur and Malcom again?

 

[serghei]

Arthur needs to start only in the mind of delusional fanboys. He's a 21 y/o player who just arrived from the Brazilian league and has multiple players ahead of him which are much more experienced and simply better. Seriously, throw him in there and after the rose-colored glasses wear off people are going to sh*t all over him just like with multiple guys before. Developing him slowly is exactly the smart and right choice.

Coutinho on the bench is surprising but not completely inexplicable considering his prominent role during the WC. He'll be starting soon enough. Also, what is the ‘why did for upgrade or midfield then' stuff you're talking about? We certainly didn't upgrade it to play the likes of Alaves. Or don't you remember how dominant we were last year against smaller clubs, wie Rakitic and Sergio? We improved our depth and we had to replace Iniesta. We didn't buy Arthur or Vidal to be starters out of the gate, nobody in their right mind believed that.

Gabriel Jesus arrived at City from Brazil in the same situation as Arthur and he played and did great.

Coutinho on the bench because of his 'prominent role' during the WC? What? Coutinho is on the bench because Valverde wants to keep Roberto happy. Coutinho is also on the bench because he is a good guy and less likely to make a fuss out of it.

 

[DonAK]

my bad


cant understand EV on this one

I agree that Arthur should get time to adapt and is not close to starter yet, but it annoys me when with Valverde it's always two very good decisions then a quite one bad one.

 

[hulinat]

if this is a 442 im gonna kill myself

 

[GroneDanone]

Do some people seriously think Arthur is better than Rakitic? Based on what?

He's the new shiny toy who had some good games during the pre-season. He's going to be overrated now until he plays more games, when he'll be unfairly criticized. It's the way it goes among fans, unfortunately.