Memphis Depay

[fergus90]

He gets given far more creative freedom than his quality deserves and overcooks it regularly. I feel like Koeman's attacking plan is to get the ball to Memphis in attacking areas but it breaks down way too often.

 

[jamrock]

Pooor should have been taken off instead of fati but Injury fears.

 

[Messigician]

Pooor should have been taken off instead of fati but Injury fears.

Fati was worse

 

[Nazario1985]

Fati was the only player you could e pe to something from, and he changed him...

No he wasn't had enough time to do it but didn't, Depay as unskilled as he is tried and did create something.

Mind you Fati & Depay were playing against a HORRIBLE defense

 

[iniestaGOAT]

Shoud have taken that shoot towards in the end when he passed it

what happened to the big balls depay

 

[JamDav1982]

He isnt productive enough to be the main man at a club like Barca and be allowed that many sloppy mistakes.

Good signing for free in time Barca have no money but should look to move on in summer and take what cash can for him.

Would rather have a player that can do less of the spectacular but is more consistent with the ball. Barca have enough players that easily lose it.

 

[JohnN]

He really tries to make something happen. He might not be a world class player, but he was free, so there is that.
We need attacking patterns badly. We seem to rely on individual moments from players that don't have the quality to provide. It's actually not their fault.

 

[Bobo32]

He really tries to make something happen. He might not be a world class player, but he was free, so there is that.
We need attacking patterns badly. We seem to rely on individual moments from players that don't have the quality to provide. It's actually not their fault.

This reads like coping mechanisms... Reading your posts from week to week is like seeing someone slowly realizing they're headed towards a mountain wall in 150km/h, but in 0,000001 times the speed.
It's impossible to have attacking patterns when you have a player missing as much as Depay, and also playing as much on 'inspiration', which is another thing I didn't focus that much on yet. Even when he succeeds, his decisions are taken as from a tombola, not really predictable. He is out of phase with his team mates and with the world, it is his style, he can't really change it at 27, and it is impossible to play in any way that does not rely on individual moments when you have a player like that. It's the same with Dembele and to some degree Coutinho and Fati too.
Maybe in a year, more people will realize he wasn't such a good signing, despite being """"free"""""

 

[mc_lovin]

Bottom line is our attack would be even worse without him.

 

[Rory]

He was never going to suddenly be good enough to start all the time and rescue us. A good player who can provide goals and assists in a squad role would be his role in a functioning Barca.

Multiple times yesterday the ball was passed into him, he held it up well and then passed to his teammates who did nothing with it. Attacking patterns start with the manager, we might as well not have a manager in Koeman.

Depay was poor yesterday in general though. However, our biggest goal threat so far this season.

 

[Bobo32]

He was never going to suddenly be good enough to start all the time and rescue us. A good player who can provide goals and assists in a squad role would be his role in a functioning Barca.

Multiple times yesterday the ball was passed into him, he held it up well and then passed to his teammates who did nothing with it. Attacking patterns start with the manager, we might as well not have a manager in Koeman.

Depay was poor yesterday in general though. However, our biggest goal threat so far this season.

He is looking for the goal threat every single time he has the ball facing forwards. He shoots, crosses, dribbles or tries a fancy pass, and roughly half the time he fails and often there is a counter on at the other end, as on 0-1 yesterday. When Depay fails, no other player can be a goal threat in that attack, but they all have to run backwards to defend instead. Mostly Depay doesn't care about defending himself, he did feel an unusual shame for 2 seconds after losing the ball yesterday and jogged towards Vinicius for a bit, but then he stopped.
He did have a couple of good flicks yesterday though, and his crosses are pretty decent. I think Collado would've been a better option, and he was actually completely free.

 

[Rory]

Bobo you'd have some fair points if you didn't come out with something like "Collado would've been a better option". There's 0 evidence to suggest that would be the case. Collado is 22 years old and can't get in the squad and wasn't wanted by half decent teams either.

 

[mc_lovin]

Just imagine a Fati-???-Collado front line. Or Konrad-Fati-Collado That sucks. Depay at least adds physicality.

 

[Bobo32]

Just imagine a Fati-???-Collado front line. Or Konrad-Fati-Collado That sucks. Depay at least adds physicality.

Depay is even slower than Collado, and I see him lying on the grass 1/3rd of the time, so he cannot be very strong either, despite the gym muscles he is so eager to show off. Fati and Konrad are much quicker, and brings threat without that extreme fail%, and they work for the team.

No there is no evidence, the only evidence is Depay playing all but 20mins so far this season, and he looked decent the first 2 games maybe. Collado isn't at a place where he can play all minutes and take all set pieces etc, but if he did I am pretty sure he'd offer more and that the team would perform better. I don't care if it seems ridiculous to you.

 

[freetocan]

He is looking for the goal threat every single time he has the ball facing forwards. He shoots, crosses, dribbles or tries a fancy pass, and roughly half the time he fails and often there is a counter on at the other end, as on 0-1 yesterday. When Depay fails, no other player can be a goal threat in that attack, but they all have to run backwards to defend instead. Mostly Depay doesn't care about defending himself, he did feel an unusual shame for 2 seconds after losing the ball yesterday and jogged towards Vinicius for a bit, but then he stopped.
He did have a couple of good flicks yesterday though, and his crosses are pretty decent. I think Collado would've been a better option, and he was actually completely free.

Absolutely 100% agree with you Bobo32. It is absolutely true. That means you really followed his reaction after he lost the ball for 0-1. It is really strange how still they are people who see any quality in this player. To me anybody else should be given a chance to prove instead keeping this wrestler entire time match after match.
But what is very bad, the idiot Cowman, being his countryman never spoke bad about him even if we already lost 2 important matches because he lost the ball. Instead, he immediately reacted to other players like Nico, Dest, Puig and so on. When his wrestler mate make these clear errors, he is blind. I am already too full of these 3 Dutchmen, Cowman, Depay and Luuk. Such a bad situation at Barca at the moment.