Malcom

[xXKonan]

Whatever happened to Gabigol?

Well he went to Inter and was a massive bust there and apparently had a number of attitude issues there and his loan at Benfica. Went back to Santos after that. He's still technically owned by Inter as well.

Pretty much was never as good as people made him out to be and he had big ego as well.

 

[serghei]

There's more flexibility now so shouldn't be as much of a problem. There's a lot to still test. Young guys aren't always the best solution, but it's something...

Q1) Can you replace Pique 1 to 1 in all competitions should he underperform?
Q2) Will Busquets be any better in a 4-4-2 this time around with whichever partner, or will it force a 4-3-3 with Malcom/Dembele/Coutinho/Messi on the wings? Since Busi is practically undroppable.
Q3) Does dropping Suarez force a 4-3-3 with Messi up top? If so, will Coutinho/Malcom/Dembele's finishing be good enough for that to work?
Q4) That left side of the pitch looks a wee bit dodgy on both ends. Not sure anyone can do well covering for Alba who isn't as useful if left deeper.

So yea, flexibility isn't the issue anymore, which is good.

[MENTION=21912]Windhook[/MENTION]
I mean, the first two lines I wrote in that post were positive aspects of the transfer. No need to get tetchy about any criticism coming from a seemingly biased source...

I think Lenglet can replace Pique to a good level, especially if Pique is off form.

Busquets is not a player to own the midfield, but he's a brilliant 2nd or 3rd piece in a midfield. Purely a brilliant support player next to a commanding midfielder like Xavi, Pirlo, Modric. If Arthur is going to be a hit Busquets is also going to play better.

Sure. Dropping Suarez would force Messi to occupy the false 9 spot like in the past, maybe even make him stay more advanced if the midfield is doing its job well enough. Thing is that Coutinho/Malcom/Dembele don't need to score a lot of goals, but they do need to show up with big goals in big games. Madrid's supporting cast next to Ronaldo has been poor in terms of goals scored, but the team shows up in key moments in CL and those players score important goals.

Alba is not a big problem for this team. Been a consistently good, often great LB. Not many better than him. Only Marcelo because of his huge offensive output.

Biggest question mark for me, again, is Valverde. The squad we have at the moment is difficult to manage. You won't get around this by being a conservative play it safe coach. Young players will demand time, old timers will be pissed if you bench them. Bold moves need to be made and great managerial skills are needed. Jury's out but I'm skeptical about Valverde.

This season Valverde will either show Roma was an accident and he's a very competent manager with real skills, or he's a mid table manager who has been out of his depth at a big club like Barcelona. There are things about him wich somehow make both equally possible.

 

[Stoichkov1]

Nowhere did I write that. Get a grip.

It's a good deal. Complete 180 on the Willian thing, if it was ever happening.

Point is that you still have a locker room led by senior Suarez-Alba-Pique with Messi-Busquets as your captains, Rakitić as somewhat of a mediator between the generations whose style wasn't even defined at Barca and everything else is a complete accessory. You could sign absolutely ANY 20 year old and they'd be as meek of a piece as anybody. You need a fresh experienced face capable of ACTUALLY BENCHING any of the above to give Valverde someone to lean on with system implementation. Arthur and Lenglet COULD be those pieces, but they're probably too young. Coutinho COULD be that too IF he is central to success this season.

Malcom is great for the long-term. But short-term leadership is still not addressed.

Are you mad? This isn't an argument about leadership but about how good these players are.

From the players you mentioned the only one who could be benched is Piqué who keep underperfoming year after year.

Messi, Suarez, Alba and Busquets can't be benched because they're world class in their positions and we don't have a realistic alternative.

People here keep bitching about Suarez but it would be unthinkable to bench him for Paco who is a much worse player.

 

[xXKonan]

He kissed the badge so we should sell him.

 

[Stoichkov1]

I think Lenglet can replace Pique to a good level, especially if Pique is off form.

Busquets is not a player to own the midfield, but he's a brilliant 2nd or 3rd piece in a midfield. Purely a brilliant support player next to a commanding midfielder like Xavi, Pirlo, Modric. If Arthur is going to be a hit Busquets is also going to play better.

Sure. Dropping Suarez would force Messi to occupy the false 9 spot like in the past, maybe even make him stay more advanced if the midfield is doing its job well enough. Thing is that Coutinho/Malcom/Dembele don't need to score a lot of goals, but they do need to show up with big goals in big games. Madrid's supporting cast next to Ronaldo has been poor in terms of goals scored, but the team shows up in key moments in CL and those players score important goals.

Alba is not a big problem for this team. Been a consistently good, often great LB. Not many better than him. Only Marcelo because of his huge offensive output.

Biggest question mark for me, again, is Valverde. The squad we have at the moment is difficult to manage. You won't get away around this by being a conservative. Bold moves need to be made and great managerial skills are needed.

This season Valverde will either show Roma was an accident and he's a very competent manager with real skills, or he's a midtable manager who has been out of his depth at a big club like Barcelona.

Messi false 9 won't work as the match against France showed.

Messi's game nowadays is to stay outside the penalty area and provide the final pass or shoot. The only times he goes into the penalty area are when Alba has the ball.

Messi false 9 would mean that the opponents' box would be almost always empty and we would be even more one-dimensional than we are now.

 

[serghei]

A bit hard to resist kissing such a gorgeous looking badge to be honest.

 

[Messi983]

Quite fun to hijack a deal. Actually, Abidal might be on to something here: He is new to the job, so he has to learn from the best...

...and buys whoever Monchi has chosen!

Who else is rumoured to Roma?

Bailey and Ziyech.

 

[cro-man]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">❗️Monchi has announced that AS Roma will begin an investigation on the irregularities of Malcom's transfer to Barça. [rac1] <a href="https://t.co/ELO0ghLDq1">pic.twitter.com/ELO0ghLDq1</a></p>— Barça Centre (@barcacentre) <a href="https://twitter.com/barcacentre/status/1021821316599447552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[serghei]

 

[ThwiX]

Can’t wait for him to play against Roma in our pre-season tour.

 

[xXKonan]

What is there to investigate on our end? We came in with a last minute superior deal and Bordeaux decided to halt the transfer.

It's not like Malcom agreed to terms just yet at the time well at least publically and signed any documents.

 

[serghei]

We probably hired a top firm to bug the Roma offices. Monchi works for Bartomeu and he doesn't even know it. Masterstroke.

 

[jamrock]

Coward what?

Valverde just like any coach in the world, Wants to have players that can immediately address a need and fill a hole in his squad, Willian is a very experienced player that can start delivering immediately (Not in a few years down the road), And doesn't have a problem with being on the bench, To give some space for dembele to develop, And he's also somewhat versatile

When he sat down with the sporting directors, He asked for them to TRY and sign willian, Valverde didn't know in advance what chelsea will be asking (That's not the job of a coach), And i don't remember any news that signing willian was an absolute must for him, Or a condition for him to stay as our coach.

Our club tried to deliver on it's current manager request (As any sensible and normal club would do), But chelsea was not asking a reasonable price for him, And the club had to move on, That's it.

If it wasn't for his absurd price tag, One could say that bringing Willian made sense, And checked many needed boxes (Someone of them outlined above).
As for malcom, His signing looks absolutely **cking random, And is not what you would expect to be an alternative to willian.
-He's too young and inexperienced (21 years), And it'll take a few years, If ever, For him to start delivering, The opposite of what made willian desirable.
-When he was about to be a roma player, He expected to be starter, And i don't think it'll change with us, And will not be happy sitting on the bench for dembele.
-He's even less versatile than willian.

In a nutshell, Almost every trait that seemed desirable in willian, Isn't present with malcom.
The only good news about malcom, Is that we didn't have to pay 80m for willian (And there is no evidence that we were ever willing), It's the only advantage i can think off, Other than that, His signing makes no sense to me.

This obsession with hoarding, And emphasize the word HOARDING young players with 'potentials', Is not a reasonable strategy to make a successful team, Because in the future their will always be some young hyped player that we must have, And if our focus is only with what will happen in 5 years, Then we'll never win anything in the present.

Yep thats why real madrid as won 4 cl in 5/6 years with a bunch of players they signed that were all below 23 I think & have just spent 100m on 2 more.

That's why city have only signed young players over the past 2 years

Nope it's not good to sign young players & let the best ones rise to the top which will save us millions over the next 5-10 years

Nope let's go out & sign a bunch of Players in there prime for Crazy money because that's what those players cost & try to win now worry about the future later.

Because that's what Barcelona fans have come to now a days win by any means necessary.

Valverde as proven is cowardice ways I wont even address that bit, it will just be wasting my time.

Willian is not a player he should have ever asked for, he thought process behind that request must have been so simplistic & dumb "oh he played 2 games well against us let's go get him".


There is a reason why he is the coach & we have a technical staff who should be there to look for the clubs present & future, no to full the needs of every coach we get, if we would have a sqaud full of players that do not fit, which is what happened for a good few years

 

[Devils]

Monchi got finessed by Barto.

He needs to take it on the chin and move on.

Roma showed their cards way too early and got dealt a lethal blow because of it.

That's life.

 

[jairzinho]

Had no idea we were interested in him.

Monchi must be really pissed.

Checkmate b!itch.