Miralem Pjanic

[El Gato]

He seems like a better player than Rakitic TBH. If you worry about him turning around fast enough and not doing regular take-ons, fair enough, but isn't that what Puig is for? If Pjanic has a decent cross-field/through ball in him, which I think he does, your fullbacks should benefit from his presence. Not much of what Arthur did struck me as productive.

You'll still get done by faster sides, but I think initial impact and control will make him ultimately a better piece of the puzzle. For about 2 years.

 

[vegitot]

Pjanic is certainly a better long passer and has better static kicks than Arthur.
I also think he runs more.
In all other respects Arthur is better. His ball retention skills are 5 levels above Pjanic's
And that will be a problem for Barca. We don't know if Pjanic can react quickly when under pressure.
In Juve and in the slow Serie A league no one is testing him like that.

IMO we should never play Busi, De Jong, and pjanic together in the same line-up, we would be worst than what we see now.
Only two of them in games vs good opposition and one one in games vs lightweight sides.
De jong is the youngest and more agile, so should be no1, and then between Busi and Pjanic for no2

Ball retention means nothing now. You can have 90% possesion yet can not do anything. Passing is way more important to Barca now.

Pjanic is way better not only at passing but at set piece, chance creating, defending, stamina.

 

[soul24rage]

Ball retention means nothing now. You can have 90% possesion yet can not do anything. Passing is way more important to Barca now.

Pjanic is way better not only at passing but at set piece, chance creating, defending, stamina.

It depends on the type of team we are facing.

If it's against teams like Liverpool who press really high, I'd much prefer Arthur than Pjanic.

 

[El Gato]

Ball retention is a base minimum which is important to have. If you suck at being able to contain a team in their own half, you'll get done on the break even by lower table Primera sides. And Barca do have trouble with that, especially away so press resistant players are crucial for your first 11.

Neither of the two are good vs the extreme case of Liverpool, but would be at least useful vs 80% of teams.

As with most team sports - it's about matchups. Pjanic would be a good player in an otherwise fit and fast side, ergo Chelsea, when facing pacey team. But he's average at best in a shitty slow offense, ergo Juve, Madrid. Same way Alonso wasn't garbage for Bayern despite being a turtle.

He'll do better than most Cules think IMO, at least in the beginning.

 

[Birdy]

"shitty slow offense" = Barca these days

The problem with Pjanic is that apart from set pieces, anything he can do offensively Busquets can do better,
anything he can do defensively, De Jong can do better.

And of course, set pieces Messi will be taking.
So, what did we get him for?

Oh yeah, I forgot. To balance the books

 

[El Gato]

^
The less slow players the better the offense. If we presume the team will be something like FDJ(Busquets)-Puig(Vidal)-Pjanic(Rakitic/Alena/x); Messi at 10 and Griez-Suarez up top, the offense doesn't need to be slow if you utilize the wings as you should. Suarez is the only weak link and maybe will play less in favour of Fati if he's consistently better for the attack. Which I think is the next step.
But if you do play Busquets and Vidal ahead of the other two it'll hurt you more.

He'll be better than people give him credit for IMO, at least for a time. Same way Braithwaite is slagged off when he can at least do 1 or 2 things well while adding speed against bottom 10 La Liga. He's not ideal, no. You should strive for better. But better isn't possible ATM

 

[Birdy]

In your setup there are no wingers, ergo the picture will be the same are we currently see.
'Nominal' wingers being Messi and Griezman, dragging themselves to the center all the time together with the 3 midfielders, and only the wing-backs providing some stretching.
It will be slow and predictable

 

[El Gato]

In your setup there are no wingers, ergo the picture will be the same are we currently see.
'Nominal' wingers being Messi and Griezman, dragging themselves to the center all the time together with the 3 midfielders, and only the wing-backs providing some stretching.
It will be slow and predictable

Utilizing the wings doesnt mean having wingers. Real in a diamond with Isco at 10 used the wings great with fullbacks. Barca can do the same with 4-3-1-2. With a caveat of Semedo being Semedo and Alba not having a sub so probably can't do it all season, but he'd not have to if you played 4-3-3 with Fati on that side more often.

The picture isn't the same in that proposed setup because Messi has to play in between lines and is naturally better there. If Griez plays on the right and Alba-Puig/Pjanic take care of the left, it could work.

Lots to take care of and lots to go wrong, but it's not impossible with the current pieces. Wouldn't be enough in H2H vs top sides of course though.

 

[Devils]

I dont watch Juve that often, but if Pjanic is that great, why cant Juventus midfield as a whole dominate games that often?
Also, Arthur is much younger.

Because one world class midfielder among 2-3 average ones isn't going to change much.

Arthur is much younger than Pjanic in the same way Joelinton is younger than Auba or Aguero, dawg.

 

[Devils]

After transfer to Barca was made official, Pjanic gave more key passes (19 in 5 games) than Arthur this season (14).

 

[Andresito]

After transfer to Barca was made official, Pjanic gave more key passes (19 in 5 games) than Arthur this season (14).

How many of those were corners and free kicks though?

 

[te amo barca]

How many of those were corners and free kicks though?

Arthur can't hit those either though.

 

[Andresito]

Arthur can't hit those either though.

Yeah but I feel Pjanic's numbers are inflated because of the corners. Not saying Arthur is better though, far from.

 

[khaled_a_d]

Yeah but I feel Pjanic's numbers are inflated because of the corners. Not saying Arthur is better though, far from.

Well, with Lenglet, Pique, Griezmann we have enough players to score few corners next year. I think we are trying to use them more under Setien

 

[Birdy]

After transfer to Barca was made official, Pjanic gave more key passes (19 in 5 games) than Arthur this season (14).

In the Juve setup.
Most things he is doing there, he won't able to do at Barca.
When you use stats you have to provide the context as well