Samuel Umtiti

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Altomonte

New member
I really like Umtiti, he was great before his injury and was a big factor for France to win the WC. Remember his header? He was close to scoring yesterday as well, but clearly looked rusty.
What concerns me is that he looked slow, somehow not willing (or able?) to run as fast as he did before the injury.
Still, we should give him another chance playing left CB next to Piqué. He definitely should not be paired with Lenglet.
 
khaled_a_d

khaled_a_d

Senior Member
serghei said:
I was mostly bothered by his arrogance. He's all over the place from all point of views, form, physical level, tactically, and instead of knowing his place and keeping it simple, he was fooling around 20-30m. away form his normal position trying to prove god knows what.
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Umtiti style of play was always reliant on his athletic ability, there was no arrogance in his play whatsoever. It is just the way he plays but with rust and without his speed.
Players who relied on speed, usually takes time to get used to losing that burst, as it usually happens gradually not suddenly. Umtiti would probably have catched Bacca during 4th goal and people would have applauded him, if he was playing like he was during 1st year and half here.


serghei said:
You know the issue with Valverde, don't you? Umtiti is still a senior in the squad and a big name. And he of course gets to play based only on that basically.
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Come on now, Umtiti is a player who is under contract for next 4 years, was once regarded as top 4 CB, suffered from injury and on is trying to find his groove again. Villarreal was a perfect game to start him.
Nevermind, we always needed to know how Lenglet/Umtiti partnership will work, that is essential for team long term and next season planning. How good Umtiti can be, how he and Lenglet can coexist and will his knee hold up. Staring him was great call without doubt.
 
Messigician

Messigician

Senior Member
Hasn't been the same since united turned his head, cost us the Roma game tbh he isn't all that if he stayed loyal and discussed terms of a new contract after the season was over he would be respected more. As it stands screw him
 
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Zidane82

Well-known member
Altomonte said:
I really like Umtiti, he was great before his injury and was a big factor for France to win the WC. Remember his header? He was close to scoring yesterday as well, but clearly looked rusty.
What concerns me is that he looked slow, somehow not willing (or able?) to run as fast as he did before the injury.
Still, we should give him another chance playing left CB next to Piqué. He definitely should not be paired with Lenglet.
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Great WC ??

I just recall him giving away one of the daftest penalties ever with that dumb as handball in his own box
 
BarçaBarça

BarçaBarça

New member
Havesaks said:
You mean the one to Lenglet? Well a player who just comes from long term injury is bound to making stupid mistakes, the player feels unease at start, and stupid mistakes just happen. Also i don't really think he had that many bad passes? But i wasn't wachting the game with full concentration so i may be wrong. My impression wasn't that he made bad passes, but that his positioning was just way off (for reasons i have mentioned before), destabilizing the whole defense - and normally we have Pique as a whole game but especially defense leader, and you can't expect Umtiti to fill those shoes after not playing with his mates for the whole season. Normally i consider Umtiti to be a vocal and leading figure (with fine positioning also, not perfect) but as said, he just came back, it wasn't up to him to organize our back line, actually it would have been Lenglets job i guess. Thats also a concern i have stated here before. Our board members here praise Lenglet a lot and want Umtiti sold, but as said several times, we have to remember that he is playing alongside Pique as leading figure, and Lenglet jobs is secondary to Piques. Umtiti has already showed that he can be a leading figure, managing a back line and maybe even a team from behind, lenglet hasn't. Im not saying he can't, but he hasn't shown it yet because it hasn't been necessary for him to learn it, just like Pique didn't when we had Puyol around. And it even took a lot of time for Pique to take a leading CB position at the club, before it wasn't him, but Mascherano, and now he has finally taken the staff (all tho he did do it in big games before and for some longer periods).

Finale note, i wouldn't read to much into Umitis performances right now. He is rusty as hell, like anyone would be in his situation. And all tho Lenglet has been amazing, but he hasn't yet shown what Umtiti did pre-injurie. And it would be a huge mistake to sell or witch hunt Titi because he has played a few bad games after a long term injure. just my 2 cents
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Well, I agree for the most part - I can see that others overreact quite wildly in here. My assessment was more a consideration whether he should start more important games in the next weeks like Atletico and in CL. And he made more mistakes (you are right that they were more positional mistakes than passes, but the Lenglet-pass for example shows that he was rusty and that his bad performance wasn't all due to playing RCB).

We should in no way look to sell him, that is ridiculous. It is baffling that people so quickly forgets how great he was! It's not like he did a Gundogan and got injured for a whole year or has had many bad injuries. We should keep him, maybe extend his contract now that he is in a weaker negotiation position. Real will maybe lose Varane, and if we get De Ligt we will have a really strong future CB-pair and backups in the squad, that is what a club like ours should aim for! I feel like there is a certain amount of love in this forum and if it starts to get directed towards new players (like De Jong or De Ligt) or ones recently performing better in our team like Malcom and Lenglet, then we just have to shit on others and wish them away. That is a dumb approach and very unhelpful for our club as a whole to always find scapegoats and wish them away instead of hoping they will do better for our mutual benefit.

I agree with the "leader"-points you make. Pique have risen to the occasion after Puyol, but you can never get too many leaders on the field - it is actually what prevents PSG-mentality and Roma-collapses from happening, and therefore we should value leaderpotential highly. Umtiti and De Ligt has potential to be awesome leaders from the back, and we should at least try that out during the next seasons before trashing such an exiting project beforehand. And seriously - who knows if Lenglet will keep his level - he could face formdips next season as well, so we need to have strong competition, especially because Piques retirement is not too far away..
 
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Arizona Scott

New member
Zidane82 said:
Great WC ??

I just recall him giving away one of the daftest penalties ever with that dumb as handball in his own box
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I didn't think he was all that great either. I thought varane, not the sharpest tool in the shed, looked far more the anchor, and even then frances defense wasn't like vintage Spain or anything.
 
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Zebulun

Senior Member
i cant believe folks are ready to bin what we have ( a world class defender) who is only returning from injury, for the possiblility of De Ligt who we dont have.
prior to de ligts rumours, the idea of umtiti leaving would have us laughing till we pass out, that shouldnt change now.
 
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