Matthijs de Ligt
- Thread starter El Flaco
- Start date
Leo_Messi
New member
I don't get this recent Piqué bashing. Have people forgotten how good Piqué has been for us overall in the past 10 seasons? He is a club legend that deserves respect. MDL cannot even reach Piqué's toes in terms of accomplishments yet and I would be incredibly surprised if he even gets close to having as succesfull a career as Piqué has had for club and country.
messi2140
6racies Xavi
How is it bashing when I am saying that De Ligt is already a leader while being young , when Pique throughout his career always needed someone to set him straight (Be it Puyol , Masch , Lucho etc.). Not taking anytinhg away from what he achieved or what he meant for Barca even if the last few seasons were very underwhelming for Pique especially this one.
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Leo_Messi
New member
A player that has achieved as much as Piqué has and who formed the backbone of the most succesive periods of his club and country in recent memory if not history (to date) has leadership abilities in him. This myth of Piqué being some kind of stupid and not serious player who always needed a babysitter is not a fact or even close to being the reality. It was the case when he first got his breakthrough with Puyol next to him. He did his part alongside Mascherano, Umtiti and others.
MDL has not showed anything to be compared with Piqué in this regard yet. Let him play his first Round of 16 games in the CL, let him play in his first international tournament with the Netherlands and let him play in a better league than the Eredivisie which is even much worse than Ligue 1.
He is a very talented player and I don't want to take anything away from de Ligt but let us not go overboard while criticizing a club legend (Piqué) to make some cheap point.
messi2140
6racies Xavi
Well let's just agree to disagree. Personally I never saw a leader in him like Puyol or Mascherano barring Lucho's first season after he set him straight. When it comes to De Ligt even though he plays in a much weaker league and didnt achieve anything yet , it's imo really clear how he leads Ajax from the back and instructs players around him.
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Piqué was a big talent back in his days, tho MDL is an even bigger one. He had an amazing career but he also been lucky playing on a great spain and Barcelona side.
Besiddes that i think Piqué talentwise could have been even better through his career but he has always lacked motivation. It's funny because Piqué best period was when playing with Puyol and when the team and club needed him to step it up leadership Wise and football Wise after puyol stopped, he failed miserable. Since then he had on and off periods. He is a Barca icon, but not on Xavi iniesta level it even Sergio in my eyes. De ligt has the talent and mentality to surpass Piqué by a lot.
I always gel
Besiddes that i think Piqué talentwise could have been even better through his career but he has always lacked motivation. It's funny because Piqué best period was when playing with Puyol and when the team and club needed him to step it up leadership Wise and football Wise after puyol stopped, he failed miserable. Since then he had on and off periods. He is a Barca icon, but not on Xavi iniesta level it even Sergio in my eyes. De ligt has the talent and mentality to surpass Piqué by a lot.
I always gel
Leo_Messi
New member
Fair enough. BTW I was not writing that Piqué was a born leader in the mould of Puyol, Mascherano or even Sergio Ramos, as he is not, but he has had leadership abilities as well. You can't have had the career that he has had (trophies and personal performances) while playing as a CB without any leadership abilities. It is next to impossible. All of our recent CB's who somehow proved themselves at the club have had leadership abilities to certain degrees. Márquez, Gabi Milito, Puyol, Mascherano, Abidal (although he was much more of a LB), Piqué, Umtiti etc.
I have always been saying that the maturity that de Ligt has been displaying is beyond his age and I praised his leadership abilities as one of his strongest assets. See my post 1017. However that does not mean that Piqué has zero leadership abilities. Or when I wrote that de Ligt is not the fastest CB, that Piqué was slower than de Ligt in his prime, which was not the case actually.
There is always a tendency to downplay what the older generation has done in favor of the new flavor of the month (not that MDL is that). Just saying.
I don't think that Piqué failed anything miserably. Puyol was out in the crucial parts of the 2010-11 season and it was Piqué and Mascherano who played in the Cl final from the beginning. Same in 2015. Piqué was a key player in both seasons. His debut season was also stuff of legends given his young age and him coming as a non-hyped young Catalan defender who returned home. It was stuff of fairytales.
As for Piqué having had the opportunity to be even better, I agree with that. However for him it was never only about football in his life like with the likes of Mascherano and Puyol. Hence him struggling with his dedication and performances at times and why, when he is bad, he is really bad. However I won't take anything away from Piqué despite him not being the same player anymore (although I have hopes of him bouncing back in the CL and when the season gets decided), having just played a horrendous match against Sevilla and generally not performing well this season. The Griezmann stunt gave him no favors nor the "se queda" nonsense with the snake Neymar. Or the whole controversy related to the national team and what went on in Catalunya. He was probably the player with most vested interests in those political events and it no doubt impacted his game negatively.
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FC B
Senior Member
Agreed.
The question now is if de Ligt will ever join Barca, should've clearly be the priority not FdJ but this is Farto & Barca's board so no surprise...
El Barcelona
Well-known member
If we pay like we did for Frenkie, he is a Barça player in the summer.
FC B
Senior Member
Better be so, PSG, City and Juventus were also linked to him. If at least one of them outbid Barca by a noticeable margin they will get him even if the player would chose Barca out of them.
I don't believe that dø be right. We see just as much people overplay their nostalgic childhood players. Maradona comes to mind.
Piqué had a great career, but he was no Ramos. They ære players with different skill-set, but I always thought them to be equally talented. But Ramos has been head and shoulders above Piqué. Even tho Piqué has won more titles.
Well yeah he did all in all allright for a Barca starting defender, with great periods. I just hoped he would develop into a Ramos great defender. And I see de Ligt to have all the tools to surpass Piqué (performance not titles) by a lot. And that's because of his leadership and his dedikation and proffesionalisme. He could be puyol-good.
We totally agree on all the other stuff. A shame how politics harmed his career.
xXKonan
Senior Member
I think the sales of Paco, Paulinho and possibly Gomes will play in part of funding FDJ.
Sultan
Nosce te ipsum
So any additional sales plus 60 mil summer fund will be available? Unless Coutinho performances improve we’ll probably get loads of offers for him. I hope we keep him for another season at least but I can imagine him being sold in the summer too.
If we really want him we can probably find a way to afford him. But he’ll have to get a lot of playing time and that could be an issue.
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