Luis Suárez

[Potroh]

I understand that most of you have just been giving up on Suarez, but probably there are more to be considered.
First of all, he has always been heavy, clumsy with the ball, etc. but scored a lot of goals. These type of strikers or finishers depend a lot on luck, the opposition's goalkeepers luck or skills. Sometimes they score a lot of goals, sometimes nothing comes through. But that is their role, depending on the heavens if balls get in or not.
He will be "finished" when you will observe that he is not motivated anymore, which is definitely not the case with Suarez.
The team plays with more or less two attackers this season, the system changed, Neymar is gone, Dembele is injured, so in fact everything is upside down - apart from Messi.
The team scored 112 goals last season in the Liga, perhaps half of that will happen this season, which clearly shows that the spectacular Barca style is of the past, regardless if the team is capable of leading the Liga - with relatively slow, defensive and most of the time quite predictable play.

Is Ronaldo playing very bad just because he scores much less in the Liga? Wasn't Neto quite unlucky with Messi's quick shot (regardless the blind referee) and at the same time quite lucky twice with Suarez's shots? If Suarez scored two, would you all feel the same about him?
Yeah, he is in bad form and clumsier than ever, but his instincts are still there and I guess that's why the coach sticks with him.
I wouldn't give up that easily on Suarez, maybe Dembele's return could change it, though I do understand the sharp opinions.

 

[Raketa10]

Torres.

Torres?! Really??? Those cases are not even comparable!!!

1. Torres was never among top 5 players in the world and he was 26 years old when he went to Chelsea.
2. With Torres it was obvious that his problem was his head and heavy burden of 50 mil paid from Chelsea. 50 mil was ludicrous amount of money back than .
3. Even Torres wasn't this bad, he could at least pass the ball in the right direction.

 

[Giginho75]

he is declining...
but this doesn't mean that he cannot improve his performances during the year...

we need of him, absolutely...
despite he isn't the great player and striker of two years ago..

wonderful the users who wants immedately a substitute in january...

for them everything is always too much easy!!! totally absurd!!!

 

[Raketa10]

Of course we need him but we need healthy and fit Suarez. As I said before the thing we need the most in January is LM/LW. This position is empty after Neymar left.
One third of this forum consist of people who play FIFA 18 on day to day basis and think they know everything about football, other big group are people who still live in Pep era. Maybe only 10% of people here see things clearly as they are.

 

[behindbrowneyes]

Suárez is the one suffering most from Neymar's departure. He often is left alone as there are no wingers and Messi playing deep. So he basically has two defenders, way more ground to cover and barely receives a ball in front of the goal. No one is there to create more space for him. I think this will change when Dembélé comes back from injury.

Now midfield is our core and not MSN-attack. We score less but we're also more compact defensively. Suárez definitely is declining (first touch has become worse, passing is not good) and the injury he is carrying for a while now might also be a factor, but there's more than that. Our tactics don't do him a favor. I remember an in-form Costa having a hard time playing for Spain in a similar system. He looked as lost as Suárez does now.

 

[MessiCam]

Suárez is the one suffering most from Neymar's departure. He often is left alone as there are no wingers and Messi playing deep. So he basically has two defenders, way more ground to cover and barely receives a ball in front of the goal. No one is there to create more space for him. I think this will change when Dembélé comes back from injury.

Now midfield is our core and not MSN-attack. We score less but we're also more compact defensively. Suárez definitely is declining (first touch has become worse, passing is not good) and the injury he is carrying for a while now might also be a factor, but there's more than that. Our tactics don't do him a favor. I remember an in-form Costa having a hard time playing for Spain in a similar system. He looked as lost as Suárez does now.

Dembele is not going to fix the problem. The problem is and has always been accommodating both Messi and Suarez in a central position. The 4-2-3-1 is not going to work either because as we saw in the Juventus game it just results in Messi dropping deeper and deeper.

If Messi is to continue centrally then Suarez will inevitably be forced wide. Whether that be in the half space or on the wing really makes no difference.

The only thing that fixes the imbalance is Messi moving to the RW where he stays and Dembele operating on the LW.

 

[Giginho75]

Of course we need him but we need healthy and fit Suarez. As I said before the thing we need the most in January is LM/LW. This position is empty after Neymar left.
One third of this forum consist of people who play FIFA 18 on day to day basis and think they know everything about football, other big group are people who still live in Pep era. Maybe only 10% of people here see things clearly as they are.

probably you say well...
too many comments really stupid...
only with videogames someone can think to change suarez with aubameyang in january.

 

[Mitchell1978]

I understand that most of you have just been giving up on Suarez, but probably there are more to be considered.
First of all, he has always been heavy, clumsy with the ball, etc. but scored a lot of goals. These type of strikers or finishers depend a lot on luck, the opposition's goalkeepers luck or skills. Sometimes they score a lot of goals, sometimes nothing comes through. But that is their role, depending on the heavens if balls get in or not.
He will be "finished" when you will observe that he is not motivated anymore, which is definitely not the case with Suarez.
The team plays with more or less two attackers this season, the system changed, Neymar is gone, Dembele is injured, so in fact everything is upside down - apart from Messi.
The team scored 112 goals last season in the Liga, perhaps half of that will happen this season, which clearly shows that the spectacular Barca style is of the past, regardless if the team is capable of leading the Liga - with relatively slow, defensive and most of the time quite predictable play.

Barca scored 116 goals in La Liga last season not 112 and right now has 34 in 13 which is a 99 goal pace over a full La Liga season.
Barca will for shure score less this season but it won't be that dramatic.

 

[Raketa10]

Dembele is not going to fix the problem. The problem is and has always been accommodating both Messi and Suarez in a central position. The 4-2-3-1 is not going to work either because as we saw in the Juventus game it just results in Messi dropping deeper and deeper.

If Messi is to continue centrally then Suarez will inevitably be forced wide. Whether that be in the half space or on the wing really makes no difference.

The only thing that fixes the imbalance is Messi moving to the RW where he stays and Dembele operating on the LW.

In 4-2-3-1 Messi can play CAM while Suarez can still be in his natural central position. This formation would suit us best but the problem is even when Dembele comes back we don’t have proper LW/LM player. This position would be perfect for Coutinho or maybe Lemar.

 

[Mitchell1978]

The only thing that fixes the imbalance is Messi moving to the RW where he stays and Dembele operating on the LW.

This would mean playing 2 players not in there best position just to accomodate a declining Suarez.
I'm starting to agree with many here, Suarez' time as a starter with FC Barcelona is coming to an end.
We need to buy someone for the left wing and play Messi as a false 9 and Dembele as a RW.
Coutinho would be perfect but there are other options, but not convinced Griezmann would be a good fit.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

He's either injured or on sharp decline... or both...

 

[Raketa10]

This would mean playing 2 players not in there best position just to accomodate a declining Suarez.
I'm starting to agree with many here, Suarez' time as a starter with FC Barcelona is coming to an end.
We need to buy someone for the left wing and play Messi as a false 9 and Dembele as a RW.
Coutinho would be perfect but there are other options, but not convinced Griezmann would be a good fit.

Griezmann would be perfect only if we decide to replace Suarez since he is more CF or RW than LW although if we can’t get Coutinho I would buy Griezmann for sure and try to incorporate him.

Don’t get me wrong I like both of them but there is no way all 5 of them (Messi, Suarez, Dembele, Griezmann, Coutinho) can play in the starting line up and none of them would agree to sit on the bench.

 

[FCBfan22]

We have a lot of options on the wings in the squad right now (Deulofeu, Denis, Roberto, Dembele when he returns, Arnaiz coming from the B team,...). But firstly, Suarez needs to be benched and Valverde needs to stop compromising Messi's position just to accomodate Suarez. Put Suarez on a diet for 2-3 weeks and have him in personal training sessions, if he is injured, get him the operation already and do the same after that's done. If he can't play better after this, try to work out how to sell him before the rest of the world realises how bad he is.

 

[Theodor]

1. there is a slight chance that he might improve (but he won't be as good as before, of course)
2. there is absolutely no one to play in attack, except Paco, who has really strange movement at times and seems like a very strange fit for our team in general. Not to mention that he had confidence problems for Months.
3. another option is Deulofeu-Messi, we will have no one to drag players away in the middle, and Messi will be surrounded by 3-4 players all the time, like often happened yesterday
4. as always, Denis is not an option in any case for a team like Barcelona
5. Dembele is a winger and he has yet to play, click and show some impact

Pfft.... You'd rather have deulo than Denis? Get your head out of your ass boy.

Also, Messi has almost had no space since Dembele got injured, that's because Suarez doesn't drag shit. He just lingers in offside position and makes some pointless runs. And no need to mention the rest of his performance.

Our only good forward positions right now would be Denis - Paco - Messi. It's that fucking simple.

 

[MessiCam]

In 4-2-3-1 Messi can play CAM while Suarez can still be in his natural central position. This formation would suit us best but the problem is even when Dembele comes back we don’t have proper LW/LM player. This position would be perfect for Coutinho or maybe Lemar.

Yeah, you can play a 4-2-3-1 but as I said it drops Messi deeper into midfield and Suárez, 20 games into the season, still hasn’t found form... So it’s not a solution because the main scoring threat plays deeper while the off form player is the focal point of attack. If Suárez was bang on form then go for it but as it stands Suárez as a lone striker is a big Noooo.

Truth is, ever since the start of the season the bottleneck has unfortunately been Suárez. Whether that’s been playing wide, or upfront with Messi or as lone striker. It’s just not working. You can’t hit blood out of a stone.