Mateo Kovačić

[Barcaman]

You are making it sound as if he's played as lb

 

[Alik]

You are making it sound as if he's played as lb

Well, obviously not that drastic. My point is, that Iniesta plays better further up the pitch and now plays deeper. A player like Gundogan fits just fine where Iniesta is currently playing.

 

[Stric]

I agree. That idea of "Iniesta's role" as we know it has been absent for a while now. Both Iniesta and Rakitić have much more supportive roles than those two positions had in previous seasons.

 

[BBZ8800]

Well, obviously not that drastic. My point is, that Iniesta plays better further up the pitch and now plays deeper. A player like Gundogan fits just fine where Iniesta is currently playing.

But, imo, while Rakitic is also sometimes good in creating random actions, he is not our "classic playmaker" over 90 Minutes.
He will make some good deadly passes and assists from time to time, but he is not a guy who will try to find/create holes constantly for 90 Minutes.
While Iniesta is still THAT guy. (Even though Iniesta has a poor number of assists in this Season. But he is still trying and he is the "key" brain in our midfield)

Let's say that our midfield had 3 positions for the last couple of years:
Dmc: Busi
Mc: Xavi
Mc-Amc: Iniesta

-- while Xavi and Iniesta more or less play on the same position (left and right in midfield), Iniesta is always slightly more attacking oriented and he is closer to our attackers and to the opponent's Goal

In that sense, our Mcs on Xavi's position are:
-- Xavi, Rakitic, Sergi Roberto
-- Pogba, Gundogan, Verratti are somewhat similar to that position

Iniesta's position is slightly different, and imo, that is a position for:
-- Iniesta, Rafinha, Kovacic (those type of players)

About Kovacic/Pogba/Gundogan, imo, they are not exactly "shooting" for the same position in our formation.
I would personally love to buy Kovacic+Gundogan for 50 Millions.
Then we would have:
Iniesta's position:
-- Iniesta, Kovacic and Rafinha
-- when Iniesta will retire/decline, we can have Kovacic and Rafinha (if Rafinha will develop well)

Xavi's position:
-- Rakitic, Gundogan

Players need some rest, there will be injuries, red cards, a lot of matches in a Season.

I personally wouldn't like a midfield combinations:
-- Busi+Gundogan-Rakitic
-- or Busi+Pogba-Rakitic

-- imo, that is the same as Xavi-Rakitic midfield
-- we "lack" something, some attacking power (which Iniesta provides) in that combination

So, when people say that we need a midfielder, it is not exactly the same to search for Iniesta's type of a midfielder and for Xavi's type of a midfielder.

** Even in Rijkaard's days (and Lucho is more or less copying Rijkaard's system), our midfield had Dmc-Mc-Mc/Amc combination.
Deco was always slightly more attackingly oriented than Xavi.
-- Xavi was Xavi, the guy who connects ALL THE TEAM
-- and Deco was more like a 2nd playmaker behing Ronaldinho. Plus, he scored a lot of Goals from his semi-Amc position
(When Rijkaard bought Deco, he said that he bought him to create another playmaker, because Ronaldinho can't do everything alone. So, Deco was indeed more like a creator/playmaker, while Xavi/Van Bommel were just regular "midfielders" with different duties)

And also, Iniesta was always Iniesta compared to Xavi.
(So, we never had 2 Mcs who are exactly with the same attacking duties)

 

[Barcaman]

Well, obviously not that drastic. My point is, that Iniesta plays better further up the pitch and now plays deeper. A player like Gundogan fits just fine where Iniesta is currently playing.

Speaking of comfort zones... What about Rakitic then?

 

[Alik]

snip

My opinion is based on how Iniesta performed this season (as well as how Xavi has performed.)

You say you don't like a midfield of Xavi-Busi-Rakitic. I actually think that it would be our strongest midfield if Xavi was younger and could play every week.

Despite playing fewer games, there have been more times that Xavi has "bossed" that position (playing alongside Busi and Rakitic).

Perhaps it was down to Iniesta's poor form in general. But I think that if Iniesta under-performed, a player in his mould would perform similarly.

I think replacing him with someone who prefers to play deeper, but is capable of attacking, would be better.

------
Although I do agree about getting two CMs, if go with a player like Kovacic though. It wouldn't be necessary if we got a Gundogan-like player, as I believe he could rotate with both Iniesta and Rakitic (but if we we went with Kovacic, we'd still need someone to rotate with Rakitic).

I also don't see Rafinha staying in the long-term.

Speaking of comfort zones... What about Rakitic then?

I don't know if Rakitic can play even better than he is now. In my opinion Rakitic is doing very well where he is. Where would you say is his comfort zone?

Actually, I would say that at the beginning of the season he was playing out of his comfort zone, babysitting Alves. His performances improved considerably since being given more freedom.

 

[Stric]

My opinion is based on how Iniesta performed this season (as well as how Xavi has performed.)

You say you don't like a midfield of Xavi-Busi-Rakitic. I actually think that it would be our strongest midfield if Xavi was younger and could play every week.

Despite playing fewer games, there have been more times that Xavi has "bossed" that position (playing alongside Busi and Rakitic).

Perhaps it was down to Iniesta's poor form in general. But I think that if Iniesta under-performed, a player in his mould would perform similarly.

I think replacing him with someone who prefers to play deeper, but is capable of attacking, would be better.

------
Although I do agree about getting two CMs, if go with a player like Kovacic though. It wouldn't be necessary if we got a Gundogan-like player, as I believe he could rotate with both Iniesta and Rakitic (but if we we went with Kovacic, we'd still need someone to rotate with Rakitic).

I also don't see Rafinha staying in the long-term.


I don't know if Rakitic can play even better than he is now. In my opinion Rakitic is doing very well where he is. Where would you say is his comfort zone?

Actually, I would say that at the beginning of the season he was playing out of his comfort zone, babysitting Alves. His performances improved considerably since being given more freedom.

IMHO, Rakitić's comfort zone is attacking midfield, with less defensive duties.

In fact, I think Rakitić excels at the exact same as Fabregas. Neither of them is a CM, really.

 

[Kohe321]

[MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] Buying Kovacic and Gundogan is a plan I'd get behind 100%. It would be a great way to really strengthen our midfield while still having money left for our other positions that needs bolstering as well.

I also think that Gundogan + Oliver Torres could be a really good option. Who do you think has the highest ceiling of Kovacic and Torres?

 

[DrPepper]

Get all three We'd still spend less money than for ONE Pogba and our midfield is truly set for the next 10 years...

 

[KingMessi]

Get all three We'd still spend less money than for ONE Pogba and our midfield is truly set for the next 10 years...

You have betrayed your signature.

 

[Kohe321]

Get all three We'd still spend less money than for ONE Pogba and our midfield is truly set for the next 10 years...

Or this

But really, what would that mean for Rafinha? I like him a lot, and he's grown substantially this season so I'm really curious to see how he keeps progressing. I have high hopes for him. At any rate, I completely agree with you that either option is way better than spending 100m on one player.

 

[KingMessi]

Or this

But really, what would that mean for Rafinha? I like him a lot, and he's grown substantially this season so I'm really curious to see how he keeps progressing. I have high hopes for him.

It'd be a big FU to Samper, Suarez, Halilovic, and Rafa.

 

[DrPepper]

Not sure any of those except Samper will truly become more than a squad player tbh.

But yeah, I'll be extremely happy if we sign two of those three players, rather than sign Pogba alone for double the price. Even if Gündogan is the one left out.

 

[KingMessi]

Not sure any of those except Samper will truly become more than a squad player tbh.

True. I was talking about getting 3 midfielders though. We should look at Tielemans, Torres, Kovacic, Gundogan, and Pogba and get 1-2 of them.

 

[Butaan4barca]

i don't think filling the shoes of iniesta or any other player is an adequate way to judge him. him or whoever will come will bring his own style and redefine the role he plays in, and as a result will change our game too.