Roberto is very good at many things but necessarily great at anything. He’s no rookie. He’s been in the team a long time, has had years to adapt which has allowed to establish himself as a ‘safe option’ at RB. He’s hit his plateau a long time ago. Semedo on the other hand has shown especially in pre season that he’s on the path to being a great RB for us. Of course there are parts of his game that will continue to improve especially in the final third. He should be a starter this season, especially with Dembele on the right wing, those two can combine really good for us.
I personally have a feeling that Semedo is totally out of sync with a team.
I know that it is hard to learn Barca's game.
With Roberto, in numbers, I have a feeling that he will be involved in a build up 30 times.
With Semedo, I have a feeling that he is sleeping and not involved in 9 out of 10 actions.
Then in the 10th action, he will make a crazy run and eventually ruin a final pass.
Then he will again mostly "watch" the game for 10 minutes.
So, Roberto is involved for 90 minutes in a row in every attacking action.
While Semedo has an on and off switch in his head.
In those rare moments when Semedo tries to do something, he is more dangerous than Roberto.
But over 90 minutes, Roberto is way more consistent in movement and build up.
This is why with Semedo I often feel as if we play with 10 players.
With Roberto, it is evident that he understands our tactics, movement and mechanisms and that he has a nice IQ.
Semedo is faster, technically more talented, but with a low confidence, of a lower IQ and he doesn't understand our system.
I am not sure whether he will ever fully understand our system.
Even then, he will need to fix his confidence and IQ/decisions in the final third.
So, he is quite far behind Roberto in the pecking order imo.