Nelson Semedo

[JamDav1982]

I honestly want to stay polite here.
We're trying to analyze why a player playing for the club we support (Barcelona) is not playing as we know he can and had been doing before.
Rather give some insight into what you think he did wrong at the time he was so called "getting rotated". I'm waiting.

Already said... lots of new players at bigger clubs get eased in and he was first choice for the bigger games until Roberto was the better RB.

No one knows if he is 'not playing as know he can'. He has to show it and if being rotated destroys his confidence then he wont last long.

 

[serghei]

I'm pleased with our RB options with Semedo and Roberto. Both should be at the world cup easily. Some work should be done in midfield so that we keep the ball better. More pressing up front, very disappointed with Messi and Suarez in this department. Extremely poor off the ball, almost don't do anything to impede the other team's build-up. Midfield is slow and looked jaded, no wonder it came to life when Coutinho started to do something with the ball. Teams have been attacking our sides way too easily and we can't always demand our players to block skilled and fast attackers after we already let the danger happen. We need to start preventing teams to play higher up the pitch. A lot of the times we start the actually defend after the danger is imminent.

 

[ebieymjunior]

Already said... lots of new players at bigger clubs get eased in and he was first choice for the bigger games until Roberto was the better RB.

No one knows if he is 'not playing as know he can'. He has to show it and if being rotated destroys his confidence then he wont last long.

Oh, ok, so you think it's ONLY a matter of confidence? If that's the case, then yeah, I agree with you, he really needs to fix it quickly, or else he won't play much.
But you must admit if you're playing well, and the coach just drops you (let's call it what it is, it wasn't "rotation" - Coutinho was also new, but he didn't get "rotated" that often), then your confidence would be dropped too.
It takes a bit of time (not too much) to fix that, so hopefully we will see him more confident, but having the coach's trust really helps a lot.

And yeah, we do know he can play much better, especially attacking-wise, the video above proves that, as well as the fact that his performance dropped later in the season, so by definition we know he can play much better.

I'm pleased with our RB options with Semedo and Roberto. Both should be at the world cup easily. Some work should be done in midfield so that we keep the ball better. More pressing up front, very disappointed with Messi and Suarez in this department. Extremely poor off the ball, almost don't do anything to impede the other team's build-up. Midfield is slow and looked jaded, no wonder it came to life when Coutinho started to do something with the ball. Teams have been attacking our sides way too easily and we can't always demand our players to block skilled and fast attackers after we already let the danger happen. We need to start preventing teams to play higher up the pitch. A lot of the times we start the actually defend after the danger is imminent.

I agree, midfield and backs have to link up better too.
I think it also has to do with the fact that Valverde played the players to the ground and didn't rotate until after the Roma game.
Especially for defenders like Umtiti, at his age he can't be playing every single game, that's how fatigue and injuries happen, which leads to bad performances (I say it by experience).

 

[JamDav1982]

Oh, ok, so you think it's ONLY a matter of confidence? If that's the case, then yeah, I agree with you, he really needs to fix it quickly, or else won't play much.
But you must admit if you're playing well, and the coach just drops you (let's call it what it is, it wasn't "rotation" - Coutinho was also new, but he didn't get "rotated" that often), then your confidence would be dropped.
It takes a bit of time (not too much) to fix that, so hopefully we will see him more confident, but having the coaches trust really helps a lot.

No I dont think 'it is only a matter of confidence'.

He wasnt playing well and being dropped he was being rotated and was first choice for the biggest games all as they tried to give him time to get used to system.

No I dont agree that being rotated should be such a reason to lose confidence that much and he was given consistent runs anyway.

Roberto was first choice as he was the better RB.

The range of excuses used for Semedo is a joke... confidence, rhythm, players not passing, neymar fight.

 

[serghei]

I agree, midfield and backs have to link up better too.
I think it also has to do with the fact that Valverde played the players to the ground and didn't rotate until after the Roma game.
Especially for defenders like Umtiti, at his age he can't be playing every single game, that's how fatigue and injuries happen, which leads to bad performances (I say it by experience).

True. His rotation were chaotic and didn't make much sense.

But most of my problems are down to the fact that when we lose the ball, we have two players who don't do anything to get it back most often, and when they do it's just some random runs who are not coordinated in any way. At a very high level, you can't get away with that stuff. You see Madrid players in CL how they give extra and even guys like Ronaldo and Benzema, work hard to keep shape and be compact as a team. Because here is mostly where we suffer. We aren't skilled enough to pass the ball at high speed in fast tempo like in CL latter stages (huge problem no1), so we lose it more often than in the past. Which would be fine, teams like Liverpool for example lose the ball all the time. But when we lose the ball we also have too many players who are either a) too old, b) too lazy, c) not smart enough to think what the opponent might do next (huge problem no2). When we lost the likes of Alves and Xavi, who were master passers and quck thinkers, to survive close to that level of playing, your off the ball work and pressure has to be higher. Instead, it's also the areas that have declined to a huge degree, probably even more than our passing and fluid movement between spaces.

So if you add those issues together you'll see that counter pressing is not there. Every time we lose the ball to a very good team, that team has the tools to get to us if they get their attacks well coordinated on the night. Like Roma did. Like Chelsea didn't, even though they had the chance to do it. We are pressed into making mistakes, but when we are supposed to answer to that with our own pressing and our own pressure applied in the opponent's half we don't do it. We aren't motivated and hard working enough to deal with losing the ball more easily. We aren't good enough to pass and move as well as we did, but we are also not brave and comitted enough to compensate for it, to the point that we actually fail in the two most important parts of creating danger as a possession team. Positional progression through fast passing to find the free man, and ability to win the 2nd ball through pressing when riskier passes are attempted and an interception from the defending team happens.

 

[Danic]

No I dont think 'it is only a matter of confidence'.

He wasnt playing well and being dropped he was being rotated and was first choice for the biggest games all as they tried to give him time to get used to system.

No I dont agree that being rotated should be such a reason to lose confidence that much and he was given consistent runs anyway.

Roberto was first choice as he was the better RB.

The range of excuses used for Semedo is a joke... confidence, rhythm, players not passing, neymar fight.

Theres not a single true sentence in this post....

 

[JamDav1982]

Theres not a single true sentence in this post....

Aye you fit right in to those that make those claims so wouldnt expect you to disagree.

Probably lap up all those excused made for him. Probably made most of them yourself to be fair.

 

[ebieymjunior]

No I dont think 'it is only a matter of confidence'.

He wasnt playing well and being dropped he was being rotated and was first choice for the biggest games all as they tried to give him time to get used to system.

No I dont agree that being rotated should be such a reason to lose confidence that much and he was given consistent runs anyway.

Roberto was first choice as he was the better RB.

The range of excuses used for Semedo is a joke... confidence, rhythm, players not passing, neymar fight.

Then that's where we disagree.

Clearly Semedo was playing quite well in the earlier stages of the season and played a lot (and no he wasn't first choice for the biggest games, Roberto played against Real in December for example). Then after the winter break that all changed, he started only sporadically, only to - more than once - enter after the 90th minute!! Yes, your confidence would drop because of that.
Roberto was not better, he became "better" with constant playing time, yes, but still not better than Semedo at RB overall. That's why despite having played so much for one of the best teams in the world, he still wasn't picked for the World Cup. If Semedo had played more he would've been miles ahead.

 

[Joan]

I'm pleased with our RB options with Semedo and Roberto. Both should be at the world cup easily. Some work should be done in midfield so that we keep the ball better. More pressing up front, very disappointed with Messi and Suarez in this department. Extremely poor off the ball, almost don't do anything to impede the other team's build-up. Midfield is slow and looked jaded, no wonder it came to life when Coutinho started to do something with the ball. Teams have been attacking our sides way too easily and we can't always demand our players to block skilled and fast attackers after we already let the danger happen. We need to start preventing teams to play higher up the pitch. A lot of the times we start the actually defend after the danger is imminent.

Not sure about RB options. What do you expect from Semedo next season?

But agree with everything else. In the beginning of the season our pressing was consistent, when the ball was lost on sides we would've started pressing. Since the midfield was congested we tried to spare as much energy as possible.

Suarez used to have a profound role, he'd press the defender playing form the back blocking the pass on the other side of the pitch thus making it smaller. The player who got the ball would be surrounded by us and pressed.

It's not the perfect first line of pressing but I'd argue the best we could get with Messi and Suarez. Sad thing is that they stopped. Probably run out of power due to being overplayed. Same as others in the team.

 

[ebieymjunior]

Not sure about RB options. What do you expect from Semedo next season?

But agree with everything else. In the beginning of the season our pressing was consistent, when the ball was lost on sides we would've started pressing. Since the midfield was congested we tried to spare as much energy as possible.

Suarez used to have a profound role, he'd press the defender playing form the back blocking the pass on the other side of the pitch thus making it smaller. The player who got the ball would be surrounded by us and pressed.

It's not the perfect first line of pressing but I'd argue the best we could get with Messi and Suarez. Sad thing is that they stopped. Probably run out of power due to being overplayed. Same as others in the team.

Yeah, overplayed.

 

[Danic]

At least i try to explain my claims(did so several times) and not throw in the same stupid lines over and over again.
Btw my only claim was confidence.

 

[JamDav1982]

Then that's where we disagree.

Clearly Semedo was playing quite well in the earlier stages of the season and played a lot (and no he wasn't first choice for the biggest games, Roberto played against Real in December for example). Then after the winter break that all changed, he started only sporadically, only to - more than once - enter after the 90th minute!! Yes, your confidence would drop because of that.
Roberto was not better, he became "better" with constant playing time, yes, but still not better than Semedo at RB overall. That's why despite having played so much for one of the best teams in the world, he still wasn't picked for the World Cup. If Semedo had played more he would've been miles ahead.

He was first choice for biggest games after the Supercopa and at beginning of season.

You class December as beginning of season? I dont.

It changed much earlier than that when EV could see how little Semedo was offering going forward.

Roberto was better and across season he did not have much more constant playing time at RB than Semedo either.

Roberto was not picked for a spain squad that has better RBs than Portugals.

Semedo not being good enough is why a Soton and Leicester RB are going ahead of him to WC.

 

[JamDav1982]

At least i try to explain my claims(did so several times) and not throw in the same stupid lines over and over again.
Btw my only claim was confidence.

Nothing you just said is true.

 

[ebieymjunior]

True. His rotation were chaotic and didn't make much sense.

But most of my problems are down to the fact that when we lose the ball, we have two players who don't do anything to get it back most often, and when they do it's just some random runs who are not coordinated in any way. At a very high level, you can't get away with that stuff. You see Madrid players in CL how they give extra and even guys like Ronaldo and Benzema, work hard to keep shape and be compact as a team. Because here is mostly where we suffer. We aren't skilled enough to pass the ball at high speed in fast tempo like in CL latter stages (huge problem no1), so we lose it more often than in the past. Which would be fine, teams like Liverpool for example lose the ball all the time. But when we lose the ball we also have too many players who are either a) too old, b) too lazy, c) not smart enough to think what the opponent might do next (huge problem no2). When we lost the likes of Alves and Xavi, who were master passers and quck thinkers, to survive close to that level of playing, your off the ball work and pressure has to be higher. Instead, it's also the areas that have declined to a huge degree, probably even more than our passing and fluid movement between spaces.

So if you add those issues together you'll see that counter pressing is not there. Every time we lose the ball to a very good team, that team has the tools to get to us if they get their attacks well coordinated on the night. Like Roma did. Like Chelsea didn't, even though they had the chance to do it. We are pressed into making mistakes, but when we are supposed to answer to that with our own pressing and our own pressure applied in the opponent's half we don't do it. We aren't motivated and hard working enough to deal with losing the ball more easily. We aren't good enough to pass and move as well as we did, but we are also not brave and comitted enough to compensate for it, to the point that we actually fail in the two most important parts of creating danger as a possession team. Positional progression through fast passing to find the free man, and ability to win the 2nd ball through pressing when riskier passes are attempted and an interception from the defending team happens.

Completely agree on this. We've been found lacking in the overall tactical play that we used to have, especially in the midfield area. I guess it's what the coach is supposed to be working on.

 

[ebieymjunior]

He was first choice for biggest games after the Supercopa and at beginning of season.

You class December as beginning of season? I dont.

It changed much earlier than that when EV could see how little Semedo was offering going forward.

Roberto was better and across season he did not have much more constant playing time at RB than Semedo either.

Roberto was not picked for a spain squad that has better RBs than Portugals.

Semedo not being good enough is why a Soton and Leicester RB are going ahead of him to WC.

Exactly, at the beginning he was the first choice, until Roberto started playing more and more games, with January being the time from which he really didn't play much anymore.

Roberto is not a RB, at least not a first choice one anyway. Every single time he plays, you know that teams will attack on our right side - which should be the main priority of a right back. That's why he wasn't chosen for Spain. Semedo bring tranquility at the back. So OVERALL Semedo was the better right BACK for us.
Yes, Roberto was better at attack, and mind you, it took him a few years to get there, but again, Semedo was also really good in the start of the season. The reason why he regressed in that area is exactly the analysis we were trying to do before you came with all your unnecessary comments.

Semedo wasn't chosen at Portugal because of lack of consistent playing time, again, that's how you grow as a player (I'm telling you this, because it seems to go over your head - lack of playing time: a player doesn't play as well as if he's given consistent playing time to gel with the team, especially a new player), again, Roberto took years to learn how to play with the other players, at least give Semedo a fraction of that.