Off topic but something i continuously ponder when thinking about Barca: The amazing difference between Ramos's career trajectory and Pique's. They were compared to eachother a lot during their careers. Early on Pique was almost universally hailed as a superior CB to Ramos. When paired with Puyol or Mash, Pique was truly a superb CB. Amazing positioning, great tackling ability, and able to stop most world class ST's of the world.
However, as soon as some leading figure in the back 4 left, Pique turned into an undisciplined clown. Horrible positioning, ridiculous arguments with refs over clear fouls, and never reaching the Capita potential of someone like the great Puyol or a general like Mascherano.
Compare that to Ramos, who had somewhat of an opposite trajectory. Undisciplined clown earlier in his career. Paired with Pepe or Carvalho you just knew he would do some dirty tackle and get a yellow or red. From 2013/2014 on, Ramos completely changed. Became more mature, and really became a leader for RM. He embraced the leadership role, he embraced those tense moments in the CL, and overall became a much better CB.
^^ more of a blog post than anything, but wanted to share my opinion.