Thiago Translantara

[Aryagorn]

Since when have we started criticising our central midfielders' performances for "not scoring"? I'd rather prefer them to play well overall and blow chances than to score and not play well overall. I mean we even have the latter type of player in our squad. I won't tell who. Everyone can make a guess of course.

Not to talk about the fact that 2 of the chances that Thiago "blew" were headers you'd never expect anyone in our whole squad (except Puyol) to score anyway. He didn't missfire towards an empty net like Iniesta likes to do outside of CL semi-finals and WC finals.

haha well put man

 

[Myrmecophile]

It's not "not scoring" in itself. Most of our midfielders should score more. It's not scoring when he has some very good chances to score.

 

[Theconomist]

Big difference between not scoring and missing chances.
Like I said before and here I am saying it again.
Thiago, since pre-season , although playing a fucklot has NOT PROGRESSED AT ALL.
Stop quoting that stupid most successful stat and watch the game. Most of his pass are short clear cut passes.

 

[barcelonista]

It's not scoring when he has some very good chances to score.

Show me the "very good chances":

@ 0:48 he misses a header from an absurd angle. From the trajectory of the incoming cross towards the open net where the ball needs to be headed into, a change of direction of at least a 90 degree angle is needed. Even more with the goalkeeper covering the near post. I expect no one in our squad to burry that in.

@ 1:37 he can't get any more power behind his header.

Conclusion: he's not the best header in the world?

I can live with that. Remains the question: Why was he the only one intelligent enough to get into those goalscoring positions in the first place but no one else? Last time I checked Sanchez and Pedro were our forwards. Why did they both combined take the incredible amount of 1 shot? Not even on target but shots in general.

 

[Povikas]

...

i'm so excited about what a monster he will BE when he's already experienced 24/25-year-old midfield genius.

 

[Aryagorn]

Big difference between not scoring and missing chances.
Like I said before and here I am saying it again.
Thiago, since pre-season , although playing a fucklot has NOT PROGRESSED AT ALL.
Stop quoting that stupid most successful stat and watch the game. Most of his pass are short clear cut passes.

oh my God the 'Pre-Season' logic... I don't understand why people put so much importance into the pre-season form. Sure the performances in pre-season games are bit of guidelines to inform how good a player is but they are no measuring tools man! Like we play really shitty teams in pre-season and the few good ones that we face don't field their better teams and even if they do they don't give their all, because it is just a fuckin' practice match!!

Young players always seem better in pre-season games than in the competitive ones because they give their all in the pre-season games to get noticed and have a shot at playing the competitive games... And when they do play the competitve games, they still give their all, but this time they are against infinitely stronger oppositions and they are bound to look less flashy than they did in pre-season games!!



Thiago is having a God-damn fine season BTW... Just put him on the market and you'd know how well he's valued by his suitors

EDIT : Did I mention the pressure a young player would be under while playing in a competitive game when compared to playing a pre-season match!?

 

[Barcaman]

I think the level of his defensive performances is a great example of Thiago's growth. He tracks back and hustles like Deco in his days.
There was a time I thought he's too lazy and chubby to develop into that kind of player but surprise, surprise..

 

[Theconomist]

oh my God the 'Pre-Season' logic... I don't understand why people put so much importance into the pre-season form. Sure the performances in pre-season games are bit of guidelines to inform how good a player is but they are no measuring tools man! Like we play really shitty teams in pre-season and the few good ones that we face don't field their better teams and even if they do they don't give their all, because it is just a fuckin' practice match!!

Young players always seem better in pre-season games than in the competitive ones because they give their all in the pre-season games to get noticed and have a shot at playing the competitive games... And when they do play the competitve games, they still give their all, but this time they are against infinitely stronger oppositions and they are bound to look less flashy than they did in pre-season games!!


Thiago is having a God-damn fine season BTW... Just put him on the market and you'd know how well he's valued by his suitors

I'm pretty sure we could get 40 million for Thiago as in.
That's not the problem.
The problem is Xavi is not getting any younger, Cesc although great just can't fill that role(for now).
Thiago is the closest thing -in-the-world- to Xavi.
When Xavi retires we WILL feel it. The question is how bad will we?
The way Thiago is progressing,we'll feel it a fucking lot.

 

[Aryagorn]

I think the level of his defensive performances is a great example of Thiago's growth. He tracks back and hustles like Deco in his days.
There was a time I thought he's too lazy and chubby to develop into that kind of player but surprise, surprise..

yeah man, Thiago is probably the creative mid fielder with best defensive awareness in our team... As I said I'd be most assured with Thiago playing in the middle than mroe than any other when we are to defend on a narrow load

 

[Raed]

I think the level of his defensive performances is a great example of Thiago's growth. He tracks back and hustles like Deco in his days.
There was a time I thought he's too lazy and chubby to develop into that kind of player but surprise, surprise..

Sometimes his slide tackles are that of Mascherano. Its freaky. I like his confidence but I think Pep likes it a bit too much. He needs to be talked to but I think Pep is letting him figure out things on his own, let him creatively find his groove and rhythm because when he does he will be unstoppable.

 

[barcelonista]

I'm pretty sure we could get 40 million for Thiago as in.
That's not the problem.
The problem is Xavi is not getting any younger, Cesc although great just can't fill that role(for now).
Thiago is the closest thing -in-the-world- to Xavi.
When Xavi retires we WILL feel it. The question is how bad will we?
The way Thiago is progressing,we'll feel it a fucking lot.

Tell you a little secret. There won't be another Xavi. You know why? Because he wouldn't be an all time great if the next best La Masia youth product would be just like him. I can console you though. It could be way worse. You could have ended up supporting a club trying to replace Paul Scholes with ... Anderson.

 

[Aryagorn]

I'm pretty sure we could get 40 million for Thiago as in.
That's not the problem.
The problem is Xavi is not getting any younger, Cesc although great just can't fill that role(for now).
Thiago is the closest thing -in-the-world- to Xavi.
When Xavi retires we WILL feel it. The question is how bad will we?
The way Thiago is progressing,we'll feel it a fucking lot.

Xavi is only 32 years old and he still has a good 4 years of highest performance levels on him

By that time Thiago should mostly develop into a WC mid fielder every body is expecting him to be. Even if he didn't develop into a great, we still have lot of options in our Cantera. But don't worry because this is his first season as a first teamer and he is doing damn well I'm telling you.

 

[Theconomist]

Tell you a little secret. There won't be another Xavi. You know why? Because he wouldn't be an all time great if the next best La Masia youth product would be just like him. I can console you though. It could be way worse. You could have ended up supporting a club trying to replace Paul Scholes with ... Anderson.

Thanks for the laugh. Actually that did cheer me up.

 

[Kerrybai]

The problem here is that a lot of people here jumped the gun with Thiago. They got carried away with his pre season performances and they expected him to slot right into the team. However not many players can develop their skills to play at the top level of football over night ( Players like Messi are an exception ) Most players need years playing with their peers before they are able to realise their full potential. He just needs time. Let's not be harsh on him until he has a couple of years with the 1st team.

 

[Metaphysical]

he was better than Xavi and Cesc, sure, but they were awful so who cares?

I don't care what his stats say, he didn't play well. he missed 3 easy chances (don't give me the "they were headers" excuse, this kid has scored three towering headers for us, he's great in the air) that could have proved crucial if Messi (assisted by Alexis, Cuenca - and obv. Badger & Capi being beasts) hadn't dragged our arses out of the fire.

still, those saying he's having a poor season or is slowing down need to check themselves too. forget the age issue, he's coming off an injury and hasn't played regularly for a while. he'll never be Xavi, no, but he's had a bloody good first season and will continue to get better as he goes. he definitely needs to work on his finishing because his movement & drive get him into a lot of great positions and he usually smacks it straight at the keeper. but overall, I've been very pleased with his debut season contribution, it's miles off Busquets 08/09 and Pedro 09/10, but it's still a very solid debut campaign.