Martin Montoya

[Ursegor]

I don't think that's true about Pep. Busquets was probably the only player where this somewhat applies and people didn't understand why he benched Yaya at first. Which is only half of the truth anyway, it was Keita who got more minutes than Yaya at some point. I still wouldn't call that "for the sake of it", Pep clearly had a vision about the #4 role at Barca and saw Busquets as a better fit long-term, which I understand. Yaya might be big and black, like Song he's still not a DM, even if Yaya made it work due to his versatility. In nature he's an attacking player.

Pedro delivered from the get-go and made the collective better than past his best Henry or Ibra.

Thiago also didn't look out of place from the first minute. I certainly don't remember Thiago starting in a tough away fixture with Iniesta watching from the bench and Barca almost losing the game until Thiago got subbed off to salvage the result.

Unless I'm forgetting someone these 3 were the youth players promoted under Pep who got major minutes. The rest got garbadge minutes in the last round of the CL group stages, in settled game etc. With Lucho it's not quite clear why Munir would start ahead of Neymar and Suarez in an away fixture which was a narrow affair last season. Other than promoting youth "for the sake of it".

 

[khaled_a_d]

I don't think that's true about Pep. Busquets was probably the only player where this somewhat applies and people didn't understand why he benched Yaya at first. Which is only half of the truth anyway, it was Keita who got more minutes than Yaya at some point. I still wouldn't call that "for the sake of it", Pep clearly had a vision about the #4 role at Barca and saw Busquets as a better fit long-term, which I understand. Yaya might be big and black, like Song he's still not a DM, even if Yaya made it work due to his versatility. In nature he's an attacking player.

Pedro delivered from the get-go and made the collective better than past his best Henry or Ibra.

Thiago also didn't look out of place from the first minute. I certainly don't remember Thiago starting in a tough away fixture with Iniesta watching from the bench and Barca almost losing the game until Thiago got subbed off to salvage the result.

Unless I'm forgetting someone these 3 were the youth players promoted under Pep who got major minutes. The rest got garbadge minutes in the last round of the CL group stages, in settled game etc. With Lucho it's not quite clear why Munir would start ahead of Neymar and Suarez in an away fixture which was a narrow affair last season. Other than promoting youth "for the sake of it".

In Pep last year both Cuenca(30 games) & Tello (23 games) played major minutes

 

[Alarcón]

Yeah, I was thinking of those 2 when we had Alexis and Pedro available

 

[Ursegor]

True, forgot about both. But again, both were neccesities after Villa broke his leg, Pedro didn't perform well and Alexis had to fight with niggling injuries in his first season, rather than playing youth for the sake of it, wouldn't you agree? Moreover Barca played a lot of 3-4-3 that season which required more than only Alexis and Pedro, for example against Milan at home or Chelsea at home in the CL.

 

[Blaugrana Bull]

Nice gesture by Pedro towards him. It is a damn shame what is happening to Montoya.

 

[Flavia]

Carrasco (agent Montoya): "It's 100% sure he'll leave Barça in January. In the current system, he can't be ahead of Alves and Douglas." [rm]

 

[messi2140]

In the current system

In the current system

In the current system

Never thought that we had a system. Am I missing something ?

 

[raskolnikov]

It doesnt make sense, has Luch explained why Montoya is being threated like this and forced to leave while it will leave us with a major rb problem next season.

 

[Kohe321]

It doesnt make sense, has Luch explained why Montoya is being threated like this and forced to leave while it will leave us with a major rb problem next season.

Only thing I can remember is Lucho saying in a recent presser that "Montoyas situation pains me" and that "he should keep working". Since then the Huesca game happened and Douglas played 90 minutes with Montoya sitting there looking sad, and when the third substitute happened it was Munir off for Sandro, and Pedro ran up and hugged Montoya after scoring. The whole situation is just really confusing, it just doesn't make sense.

 

[KingMessi]

What if the board is forcing Lucho to play Doglass above Montoya?

 

[khaled_a_d]

True, forgot about both. But again, both were neccesities after Villa broke his leg, Pedro didn't perform well and Alexis had to fight with niggling injuries in his first season, rather than playing youth for the sake of it, wouldn't you agree? Moreover Barca played a lot of 3-4-3 that season which required more than only Alexis and Pedro, for example against Milan at home or Chelsea at home in the CL.

Alves was used as RW in 3-4-3 many times if my memory serves me well
look you can't overuse youth on the expense of the team but at the same time you need to play youth sometimes even if they aren't the best option if you believe they are in the future plans of the club .it is a sort of being able to coordinate between short term and long term targets ,you can't put one and forget the other totally

 

[gatsu]

What if the board is forcing Lucho to play Doglass above Montoya?

Maybe, I can't think of any other reason, even if Montoya is the worst RB ever, Lucho's treatment is inacceptable.

 

[ZenI]

Never thought that we had a system. Am I missing something ?

lol

 

[Alarcón]

True, forgot about both. But again, both were neccesities after Villa broke his leg, Pedro didn't perform well and Alexis had to fight with niggling injuries in his first season, rather than playing youth for the sake of it, wouldn't you agree? Moreover Barca played a lot of 3-4-3 that season which required more than only Alexis and Pedro, for example against Milan at home or Chelsea at home in the CL.

I guess it depends on your definition of "for the sake of it". In my opinion neither Pep nor Lucho play youth just for the sake of it; as Khaled said there needs to be a balance between playing the better players and giving youngsters playing time, and for me, if anything, Pep was even "worse" in that regard (playing youth players in important games) than Lucho. I mean we're criticising Lucho for playing Munir against Almería when Pep used Tello and Cuenca in games like the CL semi-final or second Liga Clásico of the season, where Tello wasted dozens of excellent chances.

I think Munir's features at the first team were always justified; Suárez was suspended, Pedro's been piss poor the entire season, Rafinha was injured for a few weeks and is not a striker, Deulofeu was loaned. Munir played very well , even in the Almería game, he just needs a few more goals.

 

[raki]

Disgusting treatment to montoya.