footyfan
Calma, calma
You have to take into context when and whom the goals were scored against.
Pedro Rodriguez
- Thread starter M.L. King
- Start date
You have to take into context when and whom the goals were scored against.
BerkeleyBernie
Senior Member
What it points to is that Pedro typifies the exemplary La Masia conservative player, always working for the highest percentage scoring opportunity. Along with his high conversion rate are his "back passes" (more accurately, moving the ball to more open teammates). While this was symptomatic of the relative impotence of the Barça attack before the arrival of Suarez, with Messi doing his walking fencepost imitation and opponents well adapted to the false 9, Suarez up front and Messi reinstated on the right makes a recirculation tactic viable again, among other tactical weapons (Turan will most certainly add to that aspect).
Other than individual runs of poor finishing (by all the strikers) and the aimless floated crosses by Alves, the biggest killer of Barça attacks was Neymar dallying over the ball, taking his teammates out of the play and allowing opponent defences to set up. Towards the end of 2015, he seemed to have received instructions to cut out the nonsense, though one can't tell yet if that is an encouraging trend or only a momentary respite. One hopes he will improve in this area. That said, while an absence of Neymar may mean less of a poaching finisher from the left, Pedro in his stead means continuations of attacks that see Suarez and Messi getting the ball more- and that isn't a bad thing.
JamDav1982
Senior Member
Messi and Suarez wouldnt see the ball more if Pedro is there. All it means is that teams have one less player to worry about and can concentrate more on Messi and Suarez.
Barcelona as an attacking trio are far superior with Neymar than they are with Pedro and I say that as someone who likes Pedro and wants him to stay but Neymar put the attack into a different league than when Pedro is there.
Blaugrana Bull
HiiiPoWeR
Bla bla same old bullshit. Bernie does not like Neymar so he tries to tell us Barca would work at least as good or better without him. You wrote the same in the Hazard thread.
And I will say it again: Your favorite style does not equal Barca style. Get over it.
And I will say it again: Your favorite style does not equal Barca style. Get over it.
BerkeleyBernie
Senior Member
Well, we don't really know that. As I've mentioned, PSM blew most opponents away when Pedro started. We just don't know what would happen with a PSM versus a top 10 La Liga or CL team.
JamDav1982
Senior Member
Neymar has been part of a front three that has not been unrivalled in Barcelona history and played a huge part in that.
It is hardly an argument to say 'well we dont know what would happen'. You could use that for a thousand arguments that obviously dont ring true.
ZenI
Professor Balthazar
Please man, just stop it already.
Hope he leaves he is far from good enough. Everytime he is on the field its like playing with one man less. Yes he wordks hard but thats it. We need a back up for the front three and not a player who doesnt even shine with our b team. I mean he is still a ghost with these young players from the b team and thats a shame and how can someone claim he is good enough for us what did he do to earn this?? except running all the time?? still cant believe any big club will meet his clause haha just unbelieveable but lucky him and lucky barca they got rid of pedro with good money its like a present.
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Catalan Fan
New member
Agreed and I wouldn't castigate him if he decided to leave for more first team football either, especially with the Euros coming up next yr.
lessthanjake
New member
Your argument boils down to saying that Pedro should've gotten more shots. But you can't get that many shots if you're not even close to being the first option that teammates look to pass to. It's not like Pedro isn't constantly making runs. And his runs are generally pretty intelligent. But the team isn't built around him, so he rarely receives a pass when he makes those runs. Rather, he is used as a decoy to draw defenders away from other players, most notably Messi.
I'm not saying this is a bad tactic. Anyone would rather have Messi taking the chances than Pedro (or any other striker, really). But it has to be noted when it comes to Pedro. He is a player played on the wing and generally as the third option for the team to pass to. He'll just never get that many shot attempts. But when he does, he is quite clinical. And that's particularly valuable from a back up, because most strikers are more clinical when they've had consistent playing time and get lots of attempts, as the link below demonstrates.
http://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/morris-feature-messi-2.png?w=610&h=475
Obviously, Pedro doesn't do much to create his own chances, which easily puts him below higher-quality players like Suarez and Neymar. But he's a really great back up player. A guy who is really clinical despite having few chances and who has an amazing work rate. Barcelona would certainly be worse off if he left.
ZenI
Professor Balthazar
I would summarize him and his role like this too.
Bran the Greenseer
Well-known member
Fine i'll concede that he just doesn't get the ball as much and Messi doesn't seem to give him the cross field ball he usually gives neymar. And Pedro if given enough time will probably get back into better goal scoring form. But the problem is, he's never going to get that time while at Barca. If he wants to stay and is willing to sit on that bench then by all means i'll have no problems with him. But if he wants playing time, and he does want playing time Then he has to leave.
And this isn't just about MSN or even Turan and Vidal. Just think about it, why would Lucho promote two forwards from the B team outright? After buying two players that can both play as wide forwards? He's not stupid, he would've sent them on loan like he did Deulofeu if he didnt want to use them. But evidently he does. He probably has plans of grooming them into his next-gen strike force and he'll give them both time this season.
Pedro staying would be the best thing for the team. In case of an injury he'd be the best option to replace the front 3 in a tough game. But staying is not the best move for Pedro. He's already won all the trophies and he's only 27. If he wants playing time and to be a part of spain's Euro squad, quite possibly his last Tournament with the team with the way spanish prospects are popping up, he will need to move to another club. I'm fine either way. If he stays then theres a good chance we'll be in contention for a treble again. If not then we'd probably still be fighting for it but will be less comfortable, unless Munir or Sandro have a breakout season.
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F
Frejsgodes
Guest
Neymar is superior to Pedro as a player and he has integrated well and developed connection with the attack and midfield, as evident by his performance last season. Meanwhile you keep nitpicking, something that could easily be done with Pedro, who has more limitations that Neymar. Why dont you start critiquing Pedro the same way you do Neymar. or doesn't that fit your agenda? Simply put: claiming that Pedro would be better in our attack than Neymar in our attack is nothing but a nonsensical claim.
Never really noticed it until now, but your agenda is pathetic. Give it a rest with the Neymar "critique".
1)pedro is a good squad player and only that. he doesn't have the killer instinct, mentality that will make him dominate. 2)pedro is an attacker, but you guys only judge him based on runs/passes/working hard? neymar does all those things and still finds time to score and fuck with defenders brains.
3)by this same argument i could say throw tello into the front line, since messi made him score hat tricks before. we should prolly use TSM right?
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