Thiago or Pjanic?
- Thread starter Raketa10
- Start date
i_bleed_blaugrana
Senior Member
Thiago by far. [MENTION=11668]khaled_a_d[/MENTION] like could not disagree more with this sentiment. Rakitic was great last season?!?! Did you watch the 2nd leg at Rome, he next to Umtiti were the most culpable players during that dreadful performance. Rakitic just doesn't offer enough creativity nor control over games to merit him being a lock-in starter for us anymore, imho. We simply need more depth in ball playing MFs so Thiago is an easy choice.
[MENTION=19407]Andresito[/MENTION], I totally think having Thiago against either Juve last season or in particular against Atleti during Lucho's time would have potentially changed those outcomes. Roma was a collective failure, not much anyone could have done about that. However, when we are looking at a team who bank two deep lines of 4, that is when having a player of Thiago's caliber who can make a pentatrative yet accurate pass to release the forwards for a scoring opportunity is so incredibly important to our style and is how you beat teams like that. That is why Messi has come so deep since Xavi left, no one else on the squad can make those sort of passes. A Thiago or Gundogan style player can and so yeah, I actually think having one player in that mold alone could have a dramatic effect on the efficacy of our attack and on the squad as a whole.
For me, the only players we can count on for the foreseeable future as our CMs are Coutinho, Busi and Alena provided he comes back from his injury well and gets enough playing time to develop. Outside of that, compared to Real, we don't have nearly the quality or depth they do. They have Kroos, Modric, Isco, Asensio, Kovacic and Casemiro who could all still be dominant in MF for them for the next 3 years.
With Thiago, we'd have Phil, Thiago, Alena, Denis, Arthur, Busi and Rakitic. Imho given the same sort of playing time Asensio has had at Real, I think Alena can be as good if not even better than Asensio. We just have to manage this squad a lot better and give our younger players (Alena, Denis, Arthur) the time necessary to develop so we can count on them and know they will perform well.
There are simple, simple sporting decisions we can make that could make our squad so much stronger, get us back to playing the football that made us great in the first place and bring us back to our ethos (La Masia promotions, only signing quality players from the market, etc.). With Lenglet, Thiago and Arthur purchased, promoting Alena, Cucurella and imho, Palencia (so we can put Roberto back in MF) and either a young forward who we can steal for less than 100 mil or giving Munir another season to prove himself, we could legit hit another treble next season. But it takes our board and our sporting team to take some risks and get us back in line with our old ethos and the chances of that are pretty slim sadly.
Rant over lol.
[MENTION=19407]Andresito[/MENTION], I totally think having Thiago against either Juve last season or in particular against Atleti during Lucho's time would have potentially changed those outcomes. Roma was a collective failure, not much anyone could have done about that. However, when we are looking at a team who bank two deep lines of 4, that is when having a player of Thiago's caliber who can make a pentatrative yet accurate pass to release the forwards for a scoring opportunity is so incredibly important to our style and is how you beat teams like that. That is why Messi has come so deep since Xavi left, no one else on the squad can make those sort of passes. A Thiago or Gundogan style player can and so yeah, I actually think having one player in that mold alone could have a dramatic effect on the efficacy of our attack and on the squad as a whole.
For me, the only players we can count on for the foreseeable future as our CMs are Coutinho, Busi and Alena provided he comes back from his injury well and gets enough playing time to develop. Outside of that, compared to Real, we don't have nearly the quality or depth they do. They have Kroos, Modric, Isco, Asensio, Kovacic and Casemiro who could all still be dominant in MF for them for the next 3 years.
With Thiago, we'd have Phil, Thiago, Alena, Denis, Arthur, Busi and Rakitic. Imho given the same sort of playing time Asensio has had at Real, I think Alena can be as good if not even better than Asensio. We just have to manage this squad a lot better and give our younger players (Alena, Denis, Arthur) the time necessary to develop so we can count on them and know they will perform well.
There are simple, simple sporting decisions we can make that could make our squad so much stronger, get us back to playing the football that made us great in the first place and bring us back to our ethos (La Masia promotions, only signing quality players from the market, etc.). With Lenglet, Thiago and Arthur purchased, promoting Alena, Cucurella and imho, Palencia (so we can put Roberto back in MF) and either a young forward who we can steal for less than 100 mil or giving Munir another season to prove himself, we could legit hit another treble next season. But it takes our board and our sporting team to take some risks and get us back in line with our old ethos and the chances of that are pretty slim sadly.
Rant over lol.
Last edited:
BarçaBarça
New member
We would be blessed to get either, even if Arthur arrives..
i_bleed_blaugrana
Senior Member
Don’t disagree. I was refuting the hypothetical of if we had Thiago for our CL ties over the years, would he have made a difference. EV was a big part of that, clearly didn’t have us focused enough on getting a result but Umtiti and Raki were, at least for me, the players who played the worst overall in that match and they both played a big part in us crashing out. Umtiti was in LaLa land for their first goal that gave them belief and Raki did not offer any control in MF whatsoever that if we had gotten more control and pinned them back for just 10 mins, could have been enough for us to eek through.
I agree, I primarily blame EV for that debacle but Umtiti & Raki played their part in that. The difference is that that was Umtiti first categorically bad game since he’s been here for my money while I’ve seen Raki have invisible performances like that time and time again. That’s why I want him at least on the bench or even sold.
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
We are already signing a midfielder. We already signed many midfielders before
We need someone who we knew we won't be wasting money on him. I didn't talk about perfect one, I simply don't rate those as much
Again, CL is crap shot, even if you are the best team in the world there is very good chance you aren't going to win it, and our coach play 442 and he is staying. And I already said I will be ok with signing someone like Eriksen if EV want 433 and will use Coutinho as attacker, for me it is best case scenario but I don't see it happening.
Messi is our star player, people need to get that. He need to be held on another standard than Rakitic.Same for Busquets and Pique and Suarez if he stays as a starter. Those are the core players of the team along Umtiti and Coutinho (now)
If those perform the way they have been doing in CL knockout, we won't win CL if we pay Kroos buyout clause or brought Verratti somehow or even both. The criticism holds up, it doesn't mean we are saying Raki is better
BarçaBarça
New member
Btw, people are very arrogant and spoiled if they think we don't need either Thiago or Pjanic because 70-80M€ seems a lot of money for players who are 27/28 years old.
Fans of most other clubs in the world would die to be able to choose from world class options in their transfers, and be able to afford them as well.
Either one would be great for me, but I'm leaning towards Pjanic, mostly because of Thiagos injuries. If you compare them last season you really can't because Pjanic played more than double the amount of minutes. That will benefit us a lot compared to Thiago, imo.
Fans of most other clubs in the world would die to be able to choose from world class options in their transfers, and be able to afford them as well.
Either one would be great for me, but I'm leaning towards Pjanic, mostly because of Thiagos injuries. If you compare them last season you really can't because Pjanic played more than double the amount of minutes. That will benefit us a lot compared to Thiago, imo.
Raketa10
Senior Member
The real deal my ass, he is 28 years old and he was never great in big games.
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