Paul Pogba

[BBZ8800]

People here have seizures watching Rakitic passing, if Pogba does what he did today in a Barca shirt they would probably die. I admit I haven't seen a lot of Pogba but from the few matches I have seen he looks like a physical midfielder with some explosivness in his game but he lacks the vision and passing arsenal plus the seriousness of a Barca midfielder. BTW no one is doubting his potential

I watched closely a few matches before his injury, when the hype and rumors about Barca wanting him started.

And he played exactly the same like today in every match.
He has a pure class in some areas, but as others have said, his passing is sometimes a few levels worse than Rakitic's.
Also, a few times I yelled at him yesterday, like: move man, move, move, ask for the ball (in the way like Xavi moves, opens himself, offers himself so that you can pass to him).
Juve was passing the ball around and he was just standing on one place a few times waiting to receive the pass in Mascherano's way.
(He is good at receiving the ball when Juve plays counters, that's true. He has a space then and he is always available in the middle.
But when they have a possession and try to create something, Pogba's movement was very poor for Barca's standards, imo)

He is a very good player for our direct style of play.
But, the problem is that we play a pure direct style only a few times per Season on CL knockout matches, against Real and Atletico in La liga.

In other 40 matches per Season, we play good old: possession against parked buses against most of La liga teams. (where you need movement like Xavi's, Iniesta's, Busi's, Isco's, Modric's etc)
(People will reply that Juve plays against parked buses also.
But Juve can't create 2 logical attacking actions in a row, and yet they are trashing Seria A, so I will be slightly cautious about that part)

It wouldn't be the end of the world if we buy him in the end, but I am still not sure:
1. that he posses the skills required for Barca's midfielder (even if we don't consider the price in that calculation at all). So, even if he would cost 30-50 Millions, I am still not sure that he posses the skills which we need
2. and then, there is the price of 100 Millions

If real life football would be a manager game, and if we would have an unlimited amount of funds to buy whomever we want, then no problem=we should buy him.
But in the world where we already have 400-500 Millions of deficit as a club, and where we still need an expensive RB, a 4th attacker etc, then I am not 100% sure if he is worth 100 Millions for THIS Barca.

 

[Gaudi]

Fully agreed BBZ, 50 mil is quite a lot for a good/great prospect and decent/good player, everything else is too much, 80-100 is apsurd. Go to real then, or PSG, those are the transfers for them.
Only thing bothering me, or only reason why I would want him is my gut feeling - he has that class i spoted.

 

[Marchisio8]

no Yaya was much better in the technical aspect of his game

Nope.

 

[dakt]

He's good, but no where near 100 million euros good. Who ever throws that amount of money for him is stupid. Verratti is from another planet for him.

 

[Barcaman]

Agreed with BBZ, he's too letarghic and borderine lazy.
Barca is about movement and technique and Pogba lacks both.

 

[vinni]

Another problem with such a high profile player is that he probably expects to be a given starter in our midfield. That is the last thing we need. I would prefer a more "down to earth" signing or that we commit to one of our younger players

 

[BBZ8800]

Some matches before the injury, it is also visible:
1. whenever Juve plays a counter=Pogba is awesome
-- he receives the ball deep, he runs with the ball and create something dangerous usually
2. but whenever the defense is semi organized (like a bus), he is just poor, imo:
-- he either passes the ball to his defense (first touch pass), or plays short passes to a side
-- or he plays a long ball to another side/wing (we don't need that in Barca. That is more like Real's style of play)

So, in short:
-- on counters=he is awesome
-- against parked buses=he doesn't seem like what we need at all, he just passes the ball "to someone else" (to a real creator of the team) all the time, in order so that someone else can create something, and he will try to get into the box or around the box and score
-- so, he doesn't act like a creator, like Xavi or Iniesta against parked buses/organized defenses
-- he acts like a guy who just passes the ball to someone else (who will create something) and who will receive that pass from "the creator" and score in the end

Dortmund: (Look at his passing/actions when the defense is organized)

-- a guy just doesn't do "anything" against parked buses
But, some fans will say that he had an assist and made a few good runs/dribbles.

Against Atletico:

Real 2014:

I could somehow predict the meltdown on chat during matches and 100s of: wtf Pogba? Ffs Pogba? And sub him off, please.

Just imo, the guy doesn't look like a Barca's DNA player at all.
It is somewhat frustrating to watch his build up play against parked buses, especially if we will expect from him to be the next Iniesta.

Just imagine this:
1. Messi=is a creator
2. Suarez=is not a creator, even though he has a decent amount of assists
3. Neymar=is more like a scorer in Barca
And then a midfield:
4. Pogba=not a creator for Barca's style against parked buses in La liga
5. Rakitic=not a creator
6. Busi=plays far away from the goal

It just doesn't look too promising, imo.
I would rather buy a player with Barca's DNA in playmaking skills.

Pogba could work if we plan to kick Rakitic out of the team (but why would we do that, lol?)
Pogba and Raki together doesn't look too promising.
And if Pogba plays, then we need another Iniesta/Isco to be a main creator, because again, Pogba just passes the ball to "someone else" against parked buses.

 

[Leo_Messi]

While what you are saying BBZ is something that most of us here would agree with and something that has already been discussed in this thread, I feel that you are underrating Pogba's playmaking ability when defenses sit deep.

You also forget that Pogba just turned 22 years old. You forget that Pogba when playing for France is usually playing for the dominating side in 90% of all the matches. A side that actually plays possession football. For the French national team he is a crucial midfielder in the build-up play.

It's the same story when he plays for Juve in most regular Serie A games. Juve are not playing on the counter rather contrary they are attacking teams who sit deep.

What should be clear is that he is nowhere near worthy of a 100 million euros price tag!

 

[DrPepper]

Pogba could work if we plan to kick Rakitic out of the team (but why would we do that, lol?)
Pogba and Raki together doesn't look too promising.
And if Pogba plays, then we need another Iniesta/Isco to be a main creator, because again, Pogba just passes the ball to "someone else" against parked buses.

This. I've been saying that for a long time as well.

Pogba doesn't look that convincing when facing teams with intense pressing like Real yesterday. He can't evade pressure well enough for my liking, isn't world class enough in tight spaces, certainly not for a 100M player.

Look at how Verratti keeps the ball under the tightest of situations:

[vine]https://vine.co/v/e7OgZ1rpVTM[/vine]

This is stuff of the prime Xavi's, Iniesta's etc. A talent that comes extremely rare (I'm not saying we should buy Verratti btw). You can say that he's only 22 but I think something like that comes only naturally rather than as a product of training. So can Pogba do the same? No he can't, and since we have Rakitic as well who can't do it, we might be looking for a lot of early lost balls against the very best teams, provided those two play together.

People talk about Barcelona's direct style, but we're still the team that usually has 70% possession in a game. No one can tell me Pogba's technical and playmaking ability are better than Rakitic's who by the way plays a more vertical role since the start of January because it suited him more and he couldn't really adapt to playing a Xavi-esque role. And as BBZ has said, the only times we go more direct is against Bayern and Real.

We should strive to find players who mix both technical and physical aspects of the game, like Rakitic. Pogba leans too much on one side imo. And as I said before, the things Pogba does, Rakitic can as well, except Paul being more physical.

 

[Gasgas]

BBZ fair points but just like the guy above, Pogba has two sides to his game, the anarchic side as displayed with juve where he is more attack minded and the deep composed role he plays with the French national team. He is versatile.
If you have time please look out his matches with the French national team, he plays a completely different role, if you get time you can put up that analysis here as well,
But all i have seen is an issue with the role he has to play for Juve and the one he plays for France NT

 

[D10S_JC]

Koke is much suitable for Barca than Pogba.

 

[Bertus]

From french medias like RMC:

- Pogba has now great chances to stay a Juventus player one more year in Turin.
- Juve will get mass of money thanks to their CL run.
- The money gained is beyond what they planned. Allowing them to do the transfers they want without selling their best players.
- Pogba is set to go up, not down + the fact prices/fees increase every years despite the FFP (Platini was wrong, he said he created the FFP to stop that, but nothing can stop it), Juventus has no reason to sell him this summer.
- Pogba is not against staying a Juve player for now. He's happy there.
- Pogba has no reasons to take any risk 1 year before the EURO in France.


Sounds logical if true.

 

[DrPepper]

I like that.

 

[Ghostmaster]

From french medias like RMC:

- Pogba has now great chances to stay a Juventus player one more year in Turin.
- Juve will get mass of money thanks to their CL run.
- The money gained is beyond what they planned. Allowing them to do the transfers they want without selling their best players.
- Pogba is set to go up, not down + the fact prices/fees increase every years despite the FFP (Platini was wrong, he said he created the FFP to stop that, but nothing can stop it), Juventus has no reason to sell him this summer.
- Pogba is not against staying a Juve player for now. He's happy there.
- Pogba has no reasons to take any risk 1 year before the EURO in France.


Sounds logical if true.

We will make a lot of money as well, what is the money prize for winning CL?

 

[BBZ8800]

From french medias like RMC:

- Pogba has now great chances to stay a Juventus player one more year in Turin.
- Juve will get mass of money thanks to their CL run.
- The money gained is beyond what they planned. Allowing them to do the transfers they want without selling their best players.
- Pogba is set to go up, not down + the fact prices/fees increase every years despite the FFP (Platini was wrong, he said he created the FFP to stop that, but nothing can stop it), Juventus has no reason to sell him this summer.
- Pogba is not against staying a Juve player for now. He's happy there.
- Pogba has no reasons to take any risk 1 year before the EURO in France.


Sounds logical if true.

Could be:
1. true
2. or a false story how they have the money now and how they don't need to sell. Aka: if you want to buy Pogba (and 3-4 teams want to), you will have to pay even more than originally planned

I would put my money on a number 2.
They will just milk the money from some buyer.

Never trust to Juventus.
They managed to sell 29 years old Zidane for a world record fee back in 2001.