Paul Pogba

[BBZ8800]

Yeah, he's pretty complete in every aspect of the game. Defensebly the guy was a pitbull under Conte, now that he's under Allegri he has a way more free role where he can excell on shooting and skill.

He is dribbling past 3 opponents near his box
This is not exactly a proof of skills which we are looking at from our Amc.

Nobody questioned his dribbles on the other hand.
But he will require a lot of off the ball movement, short passes, vision, patience in passing/build up. (Totally different set of skills than what he currently is showing at Juventus)

I still can't see those virtues in him.

 

[Hamzah]

I doubted that too but he is good enough technically for the system we play at the moment. Maybe in a pure tiki Taka system he would look out of place though.

 

[dakt]

He is dribbling past 3 opponents near his box

Busi likes!

 

[adRHCP]

He is dribbling past 3 opponents near his box
This is not exactly a proof of skills which we are looking at from our Amc.

Nobody questioned his dribbles on the other hand.
But he will require a lot of off the ball movement, short passes, vision, patience in passing/build up. (Totally different set of skills than what he currently is showing at Juventus)

I still can't see those virtues in him.

I actually don't see him as a Barcelona-kind-of-player either.

Which is good because Beppe said he was an important part of our future.

 

[DonAK]

All this talk about Pogba lately and I had forgotten his agent is the Fat Rat.

 

[BBZ8800]

I doubted that too but he is good enough technically for the system we play at the moment. Maybe in a pure tiki Taka system he would look out of place though.

Yes, he could be our Rakitic, I agree.
But why buying another Rakitic for 100+who knows how many Millions, when you already have one Rakitic for 20 Millions, who plays well? (and we will probably win a treble, lol)

On the other hand, he is not the new Mc-Amc.
Again, it was discussed on previous pages, one of our Mcs is usually more defensive like Xavi/Raki.
The other one is more Mc-Amc, like Iniesta/Rafinha/Deco.

This guy is a typical central midfielder, like Raki in our formation.
If you put Raki and Pogba together, we will struggle.
Plus, again, even though we play more direct, we actually play direct only against biggest teams and in some away La liga matches.
In 2 out of 3 matches during Season, we will still play a good old: Barca versus a parked bus.

And then you need midfielders with Barca's Dna like Iniesta around the box.
And NOT guys like Rakitic or Pogba (even though, Pogba will score some long ranged goals and his fans will think that he played well).

So, we are NOT actually playing a direct football, which require players like Pogba.
We only play more direct compared to what we used to play.
But that is still something like 2/3 of possession football and 1/3 of direct football.

The same story as with RB. You know that Barca needs players like Alves, who are more like midfielders, than defenders.
Or Dmc like Busi who is better in the build up than in defending, because we are attacking 70-80% of the time.

Also, you know what happens when we play a classic Dmc, like Masch.
Well, he sucks.
Masch would be an awesome Dmc for 99% teams in the world.
But not for Barca.
We don't need his tackles and defending. We need vision, off the ball movement, patience, link up and passes.

The same could be said about Pogba.
He is the best Mc for 95% teams in the world.
But is he the best choice for Barca, that is the point?
Will his set of skills actually IMPROVE our team? Or it will only CHANGE our team, and we won't necessarily be better. We will just be different.

So, it is quite possible that we will splash 100+ Millions for a guy who won't improve our team at all.
He would improve 99% of other teams in the world, but that means nothing for us, isn't it?

 

[Vegeta]

False dichotomy... it's not literally black and white.

 

[adRHCP]

Yes, he could be our Rakitic, I agree.
But why buying another Rakitic for 100+who knows how many Millions, when you already have one Rakitic for 20 Millions, who plays well? (and we will probably win a treble, lol)

On the other hand, he is not the new Mc-Amc.
Again, it was discussed on previous pages, one of our Mcs is usually more defensive like Xavi/Raki.
The other one is more Mc-Amc, like Iniesta/Rafinha/Deco.

This guy is a typical central midfielder, like Raki in our formation.
If you put Raki and Pogba together, we will struggle.
Plus, again, even though we play more direct, we actually play direct only against biggest teams and in some away La liga matches.
In 2 out of 3 matches during Season, we will still play a good old: Barca versus a parked bus.

And then you need midfielders with Barca's Dna like Iniesta around the box.
And NOT guys like Rakitic or Pogba (even though, Pogba will score some long ranged goals and his fans will think that he played well).

So, we are NOT actually playing a direct football, which require players like Pogba.
We only play more direct compared to what we used to play.
But that is still something like 2/3 of possession football and 1/3 of direct football.

The same story as with RB. You know that Barca needs players like Alves, who are more like midfielders, than defenders.
Or Dmc like Busi who is better in the build up than in defending, because we are attacking 70-80% of the time.

Also, you know what happens when we play a classic Dmc, like Masch.
Well, he sucks.
Masch would be an awesome Dmc for 99% teams in the world.
But not for Barca.
We don't need his tackles and defending. We need vision, off the ball movement, patience, link up and passes.

The same could be said about Pogba.
He is the best Mc for 95% teams in the world.
But is he the best choice for Barca, that is the point?
Will his set of skills actually IMPROVE our team? Or it will only CHANGE our team, and we won't necessarily be better. We will just be different.

So, it is quite possible that we will splash 100+ Millions for a guy who won't improve our team at all.
He would improve 99% of other teams in the world, but that means nothing for us, isn't it?

Spot on m8. I don't think Barcelona would do good busines by buying this guy, he'd be just too expensive for you, and wouldn't really fit the team.

I was about to sugest to play him in Busquets' position, but, it'd be a waste of his talent, and a waste of time. He's a player that needs the ball to be efective, he'd probably just end up dragging it from behind and then having to play the ball to someone else, instead of doing a quick transition. And there are more important players that Barcelona needs to feed the ball to

 

[monamou]

Midfielder Paul Pogba (22) has told Juventus he wants to stay this summer, which could be linked to Barcelona's transfer ban. [gazzetta md]

 

[Hamzah]

I disagree, I think he fills the role of the more offensive midfielder, he isn't similar to Rakitic. He has the skills required apart from maybe his tiki Taka play around the box as you said.

He is the creative midfelder who can create a situation out of nothing, and with Busquets and Rakitic covering for him and that front three then this club is perfect for him to develop even more.

 

[sundar]

I dont know why do you think we need to replace xaviesta. We r playing different setup, rakitic really fits well by adding different attributes, ofc i love verratti but he is not going to come here. When it comes to iniesta, he is playing more of CM than AM. Pogba fits with this role, he just needs to be quick in passing and to be aware of his positional sense.

 

[Ghostmaster]

He is dribbling past 3 opponents near his box
This is not exactly a proof of skills which we are looking at from our Amc.

Nobody questioned his dribbles on the other hand.
But he will require a lot of off the ball movement, short passes, vision, patience in passing/build up. (Totally different set of skills than what he currently is showing at Juventus)

I still can't see those virtues in him.

Well, he would have to adapt, Rakitic was mostly playing as AM in Sevilla, had a lot of space, played differently as well and can you imagine if Pogba will improve in all your mentioned areas - he would be a complete midfielder, he is already good at dribbling, good at defending, tackling, can score headers, can score long range shots, he is tall which would add more height defending set-pecies (not that we desperately need that nowadays).

 

[IamGundogan]

All this talk about Pogba lately and I had forgotten his agent is the Fat Rat.

Wherever he goes, I reckon he'll move after 4/5 years. His agent loves the dollar sign rolling in his eyes.

 

[khaled_a_d]

Wherever he goes, I reckon he'll move after 4/5 years. His agent loves the dollar sign rolling in his eyes.

He was the agent of Nedved and the agent of Hamsik IIRC .both didn't move that often

 

[monamou]

Apparently Raiola demands Pogba to be the second highest paid player in the squad, only behind Messi... Ludicrous. This transfer would be financially dewastating.