Luka Jović

[Arizona Scott]

I’ve seen him a few times and he kinda reminds me of a young Suarez oddly enough

I see some similarity in lateral movement, burst and balance too.

The way he knocked De Vrij on his ass. This is the one.

The composure and strength were there, but what more impressed me was how quickly he got to the ball when De Vrij had the angle where you thought he could still clean up his mistake.

This wasn't the 1st time I have seen him, I say go get him.

 

[Raketa10]

The guy is 21 years old. How many senior seasons in the elite leagues (top 4) has he had other than the current one and the last one where he scored 9 goals in 27 games in his first season in Germany? The point was that he was scoring plenty of goals in comparison to minutes played for Eintracht and Red Star Belgrade from the age of 15 to 17. Been scoring for every category for the Serbian NT youth teams as well. So basically everywhere where he has got the chance to play regularly he has been scoring goals so far.

Well, there might be better options out there but you tell me? I honestly can't spot them and certainly not for the rumored price (€45-50 million). However there is not really any point in discussing Jovic as I and most other users know about your opposition to us buying him which is fair enough. Your opinion. However I don't see a better option in his age group and for this cheap (rumored) while having proven himself in a top 4 league (Bundesliga) and also doing well in the Europa League.

What is certain is that we need to buy a new striker (number 9) and that we can't use Suárez as an indisputable starter from next season on. Hence why the club is scouting the likes of Jovic and similar players.

Of course ideally we would buy Mbappé but that is not a realistic option so we need to settle for something inferior. Been saying it for quite some time. The "striker market" nowadays is shit to put it mildly. Not many options out there. I don't see a new Eto'o, Ibra, Drogba, Henry (other than Mbappé), Villa, Torres etc. anywhere out there.

To be fair I am not against buying him in general. I have nothing against this kid! If he is our backup plan OK I'll go with that. The thing that worries me is the fact that Jovic in some peoples eyes is a long term solution for Suarez replacement and for me that's an obvious downgrade. I know we won't get Mbappe now and I also don't see a new Eto'o, Ibra, Drogba, Henry or Villa out there but they will emerge, they always do so I would be a little more patient right now. Luka might be cheap at 40-50 in today's market but that's cheap only if he can succeed here and I am honestly not sure that he can. IMHO chances are much bigger that he will fail than succeed. It's hard to play as a striker for Barca, you really need to be a special talent for that because striker here needs to contribute much in a buildup and Luka is not the type of player who can do that at least I don't see him like that.

Great let's take his goal scoring abilities for U16 and U17 Serbian NT team as a benchmark. Why didn't you post his stats from Benfica and Eintracht during his first season?

Benfica B and Benfica first team - 4 goals in two seasons
Eintracht - 9 goals in his first season.

So calling him a natural scorer with only ONE good season is a clear example of exaggeration I would say. After having Eto, Ibra, Villa and Suarez here I should be happy that our next bet is a kid who wasn't good enough for Benfica and who had one good season with Eintracht behind him? Sorry but I can't get on this hype train right now.

 

[Jombi]

Eintracht - 9 goals in his first season.[/B]

Scoring 9 goals in 1000 minutes in his first season is hardly bad. Thats quite close to a goal every 90 mins. This season, he has 22 goals in 2200 minutes, so its not like the difference is huge.

I dont think we can wait for a new Mbappe and Eto'o any longer and just continue with old man Suarez for yet another season with no alternative. We need two strikers so we'll buy one this summer.

 

[Raketa10]

Scoring 9 goals in 1000 minutes in his first season is hardly bad.

But playing only 1000 minutes for Eintracht or even less for Benfica is. If this the best striker material we can find than I give up. Today's world is a crazy place, we are talking about risking 50 mil like it's 5 mil. Football and fans these days...

Prices are absolutely crazy! FFS Ronaldo went to Juve for 100 mil and 50 mil for Jovic is cheap because he is young and had one good season? Yesterday I watched Benfica - Dinamo again and the fact that Benfica wants 120 mil for Joao Felix is fucking hilarious! I hope market will crash soon because it's disgusting how much money is being spent only based on someones talent while we all know talent is only one small part of the success.

 

[Jombi]

But playing only 1000 minutes for Eintracht or even less for Benfica is. If this the best striker material we can find than I give up. Today's world is crazy place, we are talking about risking 50 mil like it's 5 mil. Football and fans these days...

The guy was 19 years old at the time of his first season in Germany. But, OK, so you give up then. You're not providing any solutions other than to slap yourself in the face.

 

[Raketa10]

The guy was 19 years old at the time of his first season in Germany. But, OK, so you give up then. You're not providing any solutions other than to slap yourself in the face.

I said what my solution is. I would wait. We have 5 attackers right now. Coutinho, Malcom, Dembele, Suarez and Messi. We can always play Messi in the middle and Suarez for sure has one more year in him. My solution is to wait for another year simply because I see no obvious solution on the market right now. In the next year new talents will emerge for sure and some players (e.g. Rashford) could become available. Imagine we buy Jovic for 50 mil and he get's Malcoms treatment which will probably happen. How much would he be worth next summer?

 

[Barcaman]

His goalscoring tally is great but I still see no skills needed to play here.

Pacman failed here and was a good and already seasoned striker from La Liga.

Don't forget the fact Valverde never rotates. He many games did Boateng play so far?

 

[Jombi]

I said what my solution is. I would wait. We have 5 attackers right now. Coutinho, Malcom, Dembele, Suarez and Messi. We can always play Messi in the middle and Suarez for sure has one more year in him. My solution is to wait for another year.

No, we can not always play Messi in the middle. The guy almost certainly does not want to play as a lone striker because he wont get the freedom to excel without a striker in front of him to keep the opposition defenders occupied. Messi has probably made that very clear to the coach. We're definitely going to sign a striker as an alternative to Suarez this summer. So given that, the solution cant be to simply do nothing.

 

[Raketa10]

His goalscoring tally is great but I still see no skills needed to play here.

Pacman failed here and was a good and already seasoned striker from La Liga.

Don't forget the fact Valverde never rotates. He many games did Boateng play so far?

That's basically what I was saying. IMHO neither Maxi Gomez nor Jovic are better than Paco.

No, we can not always play Messi in the middle. The guy almost certainly does not want to play as a lone striker because he wont get the freedom to excel without a striker in front of him to keep the opposition defenders occupied. Messi has probably made that very clear to the coach. We're definitely going to sign a striker as an alternative to Suarez this summer. So given that, the solution cant be to simply do nothing.

Yeah you are probably right but do you honestly think that 50 mil is a good price for a backup striker??? Or do you think that Jovic is the future star of this team so 50 mil is a fair price?

 

[Messi983]

The thing that worries me is the fact that Jovic in some peoples eyes is a long term solution for Suarez replacement and for me that's an obvious downgrade.

I don't see a reason to worry about that. He won't stay here longterm if he won't deserve that. He'll get two seasons at most to show what he can do. Next year as a backup to Suarez and then maybe as a starter if Suarez leaves. If Jović will show he can be a longterm starter then great. If he won't make it as a starter but still be good enough for rotation we'll look for another possible longterm starter. If he'll fail we'll sell him for whatever we can get and look for another player. There is no guarantee whichever forward we'll buy will succeed but I still believe we should take a risk because going into another season with an aging Suarez as our only #9 option would be even more risky.

 

[Jombi]

That's basically what I was saying. IMHO neither Maxi Gomez nor Jovic are better than Paco.



Yeah you are probably right but do you honestly think that 50 mil is a good price for a backup striker??? Or do you think that Jovic is the future star of this team so 50 mil is a fair price?

No I dont think Jovic is the future star of our team, but I hope I'll be surprised. Ideally our new striker should perhaps also be able to play as a left forward so he can get more playing time, but the market is awful and the rumored 50m tag isnt extortionate.

 

[Raketa10]

No I dont think Jovic is the future star of our team, but I hope I'll be surprised. Ideally our new striker should perhaps also be able to play as a left forward so he can get more playing time, but the market is awful and the rumored 50m tag isnt extortionate.

Don't think playing as a LF is something that he will experience with Barca many times. in 4-3-3 we have Dembouz and Malcom as a LW solution and Malcom as a RW backup and I doubt we'll go back to 4-4-2 any time soon.

As I already said I don't think he'll fit in here but I guess 50 mil is cheap these days. Also bare in mind that Luka had problems with his discipline before he played under Niko Kovac in Frankfurt and that's something that should also be taken into consideration.

 

[D10S_JC]

I haven't seen him play. But I heard he is more a supporting striker and Haller is the real centre striker.

So I think he won't fit our profile.

 

[MTL_Barca]

I haven't seen him play. But I heard he is more a supporting striker and Haller is the real centre striker.

So I think he won't fit our profile.

He can play both. Lewandowski started out as second striker as well when he joined Dortmund for example.

He has everything a "real" number 9 needs. Suarez, Lewandowski, Kun etc all can play or played other positions than 9 before.

If anything i would be more concerned about his overall link up play and how he would adapt and get used to being on the bench regularly but not his ability to play as a central striker.

 

[Jombi]

Don't think playing as a LF is something that he will experience with Barca many times. in 4-3-3 we have Dembouz and Malcom as a LW solution and Malcom as a RW backup and I doubt we'll go back to 4-4-2 any time soon.

You misunderstand. The fact that he can not play as a left forward is a negative. In an ideal scenario, our new striker should be able to play as left forward, but the striker market is awful so we have to be realistic regarding our options. I think it's highly unlikely that we'll keep Malcom as a non-EU player when he never plays.