Nico Gonzalez

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
I'm surprised [MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] hasn't said anything about him yet.

He's the type of profile he's been talking about for years.
 

KingLeo10

Senior Member
I'm surprised [MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] hasn't said anything about him yet.

He's the type of profile he's been talking about for years.

BBZ only likes to be negative and go with the safe bet that all players are shit, so he can be proven "right" in 99% of instances.
 

KingLeo10

Senior Member
His love for Coutinho was always weird though. Not exactly type of player he would recommend.

It's not about Coutinho. BBZ just doesn't like to be wrong.

I took my gigantic L on Arthur, Semedo, and a few other things already. But we'll never hear BBZ admit to the same with his flops and failed predictions.
 

FinBarcelonafan

Well-known member
It's not about Coutinho. BBZ just doesn't like to be wrong.

I took my gigantic L on Arthur, Semedo, and a few other things already. But we'll never hear BBZ admit to the same with his flops and failed predictions.

It's stupid though, like his statistics say, most of the signings fail and prospects, so if you are pessimistic in general, you will get way more right than wrong. I don't think it proves your amazing analytical skills or something. It's just math or data science.
 

Windhook

Well-known member
Welcome to the first team section.

Laughed hard at 01:18 in the video, the Benfica player tripping over.
 

BBZ8800

Senior Member
I'm surprised [MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] hasn't said anything about him yet.

He's the type of profile he's been talking about for years.

I tried to explained.
I don't like 168cm weak midgets, but I also don't like 185cm players without technique like Luuk or Paulinho.

My dream midfielders would be 178-185 cm tall with awesome technique like Kdb or Frenkie if he had turned out better.

About Nico, he is really different from usual Barca weak midfielders.
But he is kinda slow.
Also, he tries to dribble and shoot, which is awesome but he lacks technique and too often while dribbling he needs to use his hands to push a marker infront of him.

I know, when the player is taller, he is usually less agile.
But still, instead of Puigs and Gavis, we could upgrade to at least a level of height of Gundogan (180).

Anyway, even though his physical attributes, bravery and willigness to dribble and shoot are here, it remains to be seen whether his overal footballing technique and pace will be his deadly flaws.
 

te amo barca

Blaugrana al vent
He doesn't lack technique. It is one of his strongest sides if anything. The only reason he might seem clumsy is his size.
 

messi2140

6racies Xavi
Not sure where this "he has no technique" is coming from. He is fairly quick as well , especially for his size.
 

Andresito

Senior Member
Staff member
And I can't seem to recall Nico having a crack at goal in too many occasions.

Wonder if BBZ's eye test is letting him down or if it hasn't even been used in this case.
 

fergus90

Senior Member
I tried to explained.
I don't like 168cm weak midgets, but I also don't like 185cm players without technique like Luuk or Paulinho.

My dream midfielders would be 178-185 cm tall with awesome technique like Kdb or Frenkie if he had turned out better.

About Nico, he is really different from usual Barca weak midfielders.
But he is kinda slow.
Also, he tries to dribble and shoot, which is awesome but he lacks technique and too often while dribbling he needs to use his hands to push a marker infront of him.

I know, when the player is taller, he is usually less agile.
But still, instead of Puigs and Gavis, we could upgrade to at least a level of height of Gundogan (180).

Anyway, even though his physical attributes, bravery and willigness to dribble and shoot are here, it remains to be seen whether his overal footballing technique and pace will be his deadly flaws.

If height is your thing, I'd recommend a visit to Iceland. It's a legal requirement to be at least 6ft there. Women and children included.
 

BBZ8800

Senior Member
It's not about Coutinho. BBZ just doesn't like to be wrong.

I took my gigantic L on Arthur, Semedo, and a few other things already. But we'll never hear BBZ admit to the same with his flops and failed predictions.

I don't like to be wrong, but my love for Cou was not about that.
In the last few years, even though I wanted Messi out, it was clear that we will lose goalscoring ability and that we will need 4-5 scorers in a team.
Currently we have only forever injured Fati and Depay here and there.
Even in the last season, I said that we'll need midfielders who can score.

But since this is Barcaworld, where people grew up during Pep where midfielders were dominating the world and TikiTakaand they didn't need to score, you will often hear replies like from Serghei and other guys who are in Pepistas cult how we don't need that. We need midfielders who can CONTROL.

The thing is: we suck both in defense, midfield and attack.
And now with Xavi, he'll fix the midfield in terms of control.
But even after 2 matches we can see problems in attack and defense.
And Gavi, Nico, Pedri could bring back some midfield domination, but what after that?
We will have tons of possession and zero goals scored.

Some will reply: we need Fati and new wingers.
Fine, that will help, but probably not enough.
We'll still be 4th on the table.

In that sense, I wanted a different type of no8 than from Pep's world.
Something like Deco or Cou from Liverpool.

Also, not only that our midfielders don't score, they don't shoot and take risks in the final third.
In that context, I liked Cou's profile from Liverpool.
But it is clear, he'll never click at Barca. He might even be finished as a top footballer.

Btw, an interesting stat:
Gavi, Nico, Frenkie, Puig, Pedri have combined 50+ appearances this season.
They scored 0 goals.
So, our problem are not only attackers alone.
Only Busi scored 1 goal vs Celta.
With Busi, that is 6 Barca DNA midfielders with combined 70 appearances this season, 4 months ofclub football and 1goal scored.

One more time, this is EXACTLY why I liked Cou's profile.

Btw, this is why I like Abde for now.
Because he brings pace, directness, dribbles, shooting.
Something different to our slowmotion midfield-winger dwelling on a ball without any will to shoot on goal or make risks.
 

BBZ8800

Senior Member
Not sure where this "he has no technique" is coming from. He is fairly quick as well , especially for his size.

Why we have to say: for his size?
It sounds like: he is not as fast as 175cm guys but he is fast compared to Pique and co.

Frenkie is fast and agile for his size.
Imo, Nico is not.

About using hands, he often does what Rakitic has been doing: when you can't dribble a player, he uses hands.
Raki's hips and using hands were ridicouled, Nico's equal traits are glorified.
Not that I am surprised when you add fan's psychological factors like: bias for youth, bias for La Masia, a need for a hope/brighter future, desperate state of a club where all 3 factors from above are even magnified.

Btw, Nico is 20.
Remember that every player gets slower, heavier and less agile and mobile with age.
Rakitic was running like a light kid aged 22, yet aged 27 he was already old and heavy.
Messi was the fastest player in the world, now he is the slowest granny.
His acceleration went from Goat to Woat.

Now, do the maths for Nico.
If he is slowish or average in pace aged 19-20, imagine how he'll look like aged 26.

Btw I didn't want to write bad about Nico at all, since he is okish to me.
I just replied to DonAk to his question and wrote some of my concerns about Nico.

But in 10 minutes after my reply, I got several defensive remarks.

Which imo tells more about a desperate state of our fanbase who are now clinging onto Nico/Gavi/Pedri/Fati and concerns are not allowed, because if they suck, there is absolutely zero hope and a human's brain will not allow you that.
It will look for hope and cling on hope even if there's no hope, because life without hope doesn't make sense.

Anyway, we have been through this same loop a million times over the last few years.

We always see mostly good things when a new player emerge.
Flaws are accepted later by an average fan.
Just remember Dembele's IQ, media hating his professionalism for no reason, media hating Arthur, Arthur being tired because he runs for the whole team, Arthur being unable to pass the ball forward because his teammates are not making forward runs, Arthur having poor defensive stats because he is making pressure on the opponents and then Raki and Busi are just statpadding interceptions due to Arthur's heavy work lol, Frenkie being meh because of everything else but himself.
We needed 2-3 years to accept flaws of majority of players in whom we placed all of our hopes.

So, it's not time yet to discuss and argue about Nico's flaws yet.
 
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