Marco Verratti

[Hamzah]

i think i pissed him off. sorry bertus!

 

[DonAK]

Hermel is Flo's lapdog. When did he become reliable?

 

[DonAndres]

I have a better chance of hooking up with Yvonne Strahovski than him coming here mate

Care to place a wager Sissygirl?

Hopefully your assuredness works out as it did last time, Verratti would be a wet dream.

 

[Hamzah]

thing is, we already have rakitic. not an essential signing. we need a player in the iniesta mould.

 

[XaviMessiGirl]

the love in on this forum for Verratti would surely turn if he went there

I'd still love him...

 

[DonAndres]

thing is, we already have rakitic. not an essential signing. we need a player in the iniesta mould.

That's a bit of a static positional view of our midfield. You can't pin Rakitic as the purely conservative midfielder while Iniesta was the attacking counterpart when there equally many if not more scenarios where Rakitic took on an attacking role. It can't be vice versa either as Rakitic was the more defensive player while Iniesta had more freedom from defensive duties.

The true 'structure' of our midfield isn't a dumbed down "AM-DM-CM" trio. It's having a variety of duties and roles covered well in a cohesive unit. I find Rakitic to be indispensable in this system. He covers a lot of the off the ball running work, support play, defensive duties, etc. The other role left to fill is a playmaker who knows how to find/create space and give us more control of the ball. Verratti has the amazing dribbling instincts and vision to do so in whatever area (deep close to Busquets or in attacking plays). Plus, he's clearly a more than capable player defensively (he kept expertly dispossessing our players, namely Messi, when we played PSG in the knockouts). He is, in practically all truly important aspects, the *best* option for a midfield transfer we could possibly have.

Of course, I acknowledge that it's simply not going to happen anytime soon, if at all. No point in actually hoping that we get him.

 

[BerkeleyBernie]

The biggest compliment I can give this guy is that watching him on the ball reminds me of Busquets and Iniesta.

Reminds me of Messi even more. Right up there with Messi and Hazard as a physical, tight control, great balance dribbler.

 

[Bran the Greenseer]

I agree with [MENTION=12906]DonAndres[/MENTION] our midfield this season was more like the midfield of 2010 where it wasn't really just AM-DM-CM but it was just a cohesive unit where everyone just clicked and played great football so just like in 2010 when Xavi played CF half the time Rakitic was there all the time Iniesta was running past players but stealing balls away form players in our box.

 

[Cule4life]

Care to place a wager Sissygirl?

Hopefully your assuredness works out as it did last time, Verratti would be a wet dream.

You are on. I cant lose either way. But how long will this bet last?

 

[EdmondDantes]

I'd have Verratti over Pogba and Turan any day of the week. He truly is one of a kind.

 

[DonAK]

Either Bartomeu or Laporta will become our next President. PSG hate Bartomeu and his board for trying to make Thiago Silva and Marquinhos to force their way our and Laporta has pissed all over our ties with Qatar so you can forget anything then.

I think we'd be the last team they'd sell to, if they ever decide to do so.

 

[Asylum15]

I'd have Verratti over Pogba and Turan any day of the week. He truly is one of a kind.

Verratti >>>>>>> Pogba IMO, especially for us.

 

[Darko]

Pogba gets all the headlines but Verratti is the true future best midfielder in the world, I'd give 100M for him in a heartbeat.

 

[Hamzah]

Will Verratti reach the level of Xavi or Pirlo?

 

[DrPepper]

Will Verratti reach the level of Xavi or Pirlo?

He's already better than post-2012 Pirlo for sure, which is according to many prime Pirlo.