dakt
Active member
You are wrong in thinking that Kroos alone would fix our midfield problems.
Toni Kroos
- Thread starter el tren
- Start date
You are wrong in thinking that Kroos alone would fix our midfield problems.
CuleLife4Life
Active member
Lol so true. I personal would have preferred Kroos to Rakitic but in this system and Xavi, we wouldn't get to see the best of him.
DonAK
President of FC Barcelona
R
Ryu Hayabusa
Guest
Yeah... he was excellent at corners and freekicks when he started at Bayern, when he played for the NT and now at Madrid. But for most of his time at Bayern, he was fairly shit at those things tbh. But then Bayern have continually degraded in that regard, especially since Pep arrived. So Kroos is probably only partially at fault there.
Or Bartemeo and Zubi are worse
We laughed at stupid florentino but he is laughing at us right now, even overpaid 75m James is better than suarez ...
Luftstalag14
Culé de Celestial Empire
red dragon2
New member
Yes, kroos gets better every year, its funny when he first played for bayern everyone said he was too lazy and selfish, now he is controlling games, when, before he used to play as a static 10. The transformation is incredible.I disagree. I think Kroos is much closer to Xabi than to Xavi.
DonAndres
Wild Man of Borneo
He's performing well in that holding midfielder role but I don't see a 'Xavi' in him. He's in his ideal conditions now for RM, spraying passes from a deep position without having to contend with much pressure or have creative duties.
He can make some passes between the lines but he needs a lot of time and can't stand that much pressure, anything more than one man coming from one direction and he suffers. Playing exclusively behind the opposition's defensive mass benefits him as he doesn't have to contend with the difficulty of tight spaces. His long balls and set piece deliveries are his strongest points. Spreading the ball and keeping it moving pretty much defines his role at Real. Defensively I'm not at all impressed, makes a lot of sloppy fouls and has wayward positioning at times.
All in all, he's basically on the same wavelength of a player as Rakitic except with tidier passing and less mobility. I could see Rakitic performing his role at Madrid with the same level of success and probably better defensively too since they have the same qualities and faults (great long-balls and ability to spread passes wide but poor vision, agility, and struggle under pressure).
Xavi is much more of a playmaker than either of the two. Creating space and combining with all of his teammates in the bulk of the midfield, not behind the pressure. He takes a large responsibility for chance creation and that's why the likes of Gundogan/Koke/Modric are closer to his role.
He can make some passes between the lines but he needs a lot of time and can't stand that much pressure, anything more than one man coming from one direction and he suffers. Playing exclusively behind the opposition's defensive mass benefits him as he doesn't have to contend with the difficulty of tight spaces. His long balls and set piece deliveries are his strongest points. Spreading the ball and keeping it moving pretty much defines his role at Real. Defensively I'm not at all impressed, makes a lot of sloppy fouls and has wayward positioning at times.
All in all, he's basically on the same wavelength of a player as Rakitic except with tidier passing and less mobility. I could see Rakitic performing his role at Madrid with the same level of success and probably better defensively too since they have the same qualities and faults (great long-balls and ability to spread passes wide but poor vision, agility, and struggle under pressure).
Xavi is much more of a playmaker than either of the two. Creating space and combining with all of his teammates in the bulk of the midfield, not behind the pressure. He takes a large responsibility for chance creation and that's why the likes of Gundogan/Koke/Modric are closer to his role.
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