Sergi Samper

God Serena

God Serena

New member
Happy to see him stick around. It'd have been a travesty if a player could go from playing for every single Barca youth team, to get less of a chance to succeed here than the likes of Paco, Gomes and Yerry Mina.
 
BusiTheKing

BusiTheKing

Senior Member
BarçaBarça said:
Why? Alena seems much more determined and with a stronger mentality to me.
Or is it because of his position, or what?
Click to expand...

I believe that Valverde, for better or worse, has a prediliction for midfielders who seem to 'do the reasonable thing' on the ball. Conservative, restrained, dependable players who see the game like he does. I don't think he attributes much merit to Alena's creative capacity or even his fighting spirit, if the player doesn't fit his personal vision.

Gomes did the reasonable thing and literally nothing more and look how far that got him. Rakitic does the reasonable thing to a perfect degree and very rarely anything beyond that. He's basically untouchable. Semedo goes rushing forward too much and he's benched next game.

Dembele is one of the greatest talents in the world, but his strengths are not doing the reasonable thing and I think Valverde has been too reluctant with him. Both in playing time and in encouraging him to do what he does best out there on the pitch because it's too high risk/high reward.

A lot of words to say that I think that Valverde is very risk averse, quite possibly to a fault.
 
Xaviniesta

Xaviniesta

Senior Member
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BarçaBarça

BarçaBarça

New member
BusiTheKing said:
I believe that Valverde, for better or worse, has a prediliction for midfielders who seem to 'do the reasonable thing' on the ball. Conservative, restrained, dependable players who see the game like he does. I don't think he attributes much merit to Alena's creative capacity or even his fighting spirit, if the player doesn't fit his personal vision.

Gomes did the reasonable thing and literally nothing more and look how far that got him. Rakitic does the reasonable thing to a perfect degree and very rarely anything beyond that. He's basically untouchable. Semedo goes rushing forward too much and he's benched next game.

Dembele is one of the greatest talents in the world, but his strengths are not doing the reasonable thing and I think Valverde has been too reluctant with him. Both in playing time and in encouraging him to do what he does best out there on the pitch because it's too high risk/high reward.

A lot of words to say that I think that Valverde is very risk averse, quite possibly to a fault.
Click to expand...

:thinking:

Makes sense. We will see how it plays out between him and Alena. Although Paulinho/Vidal doesn't fit your description, and Valverde likes them as well.
I really hope Gomes was only used because the alternatives rarely was there last season, this season there are plenty.
 
G

gregorrin10

Senior Member
Needs to be in the starting lineup in midweek no question. Alongside Alena, Munir, Miranda and possibly Puig and Cuenca too. Would love to see that Alena-Samper-Puig midfield. But if even one of them makes it to the lineup it'll be a success, probably have to settle to watching Denis and Rafinha instead. I guess Denis could play LW then no problem, even though i see no point in playing him at all (needs to be sold/loaned in the winter), while Rafinha played today, so no need to play him on Wednesday, especially if he's going to be getting more minutes in La Liga and UCL). Malcom-Munir-Denis up front should be more than enough for a convincing win anyway.
 
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