Don't think Willian will be a game changer, even if comes somehow, he will be a rotation option. Because there is no way you can play Messi, Suarez, Dembele, Coutinho and Willian together.
If we want a rotation option, Odoi is better option by far, he is young and on the rise, while the other is on a downfall ALREADY. One has the potential to be a starter, other won't be remembered 2-3 years later.
Talking about direction, buying a player in winter 2019 for 50M and selling 1 1/2 years later thinking of getting 40M for him isn't a sensible move either & that too for a manager whose future is uncertain.
As said by Konan, we wouldn't play Messi, Suarez, Dembele, Coutinho and Willian together.
Dembele would be on a bench, and a 1st sub, we would play 442.
You guys can like Willian or not, but it is quite retarded from our board to hire a coach and not give him players whom he wants.
I have said yesterday, imagine that you or ANY guy from this thread gets hired next season as Barca's coach.
And let me guess, your idea is to play 433 with Dembele-Suarez-Messi, Busquets-Arthur-someone, right?
That is your general idea.
But, IMAGINE, that the board decides that they don't like Dembele and Arthur and they sell them, and buy Rabiot.
And suddenly, your midfield options are: Busi, Raki, Vidal, Rabiot.
You will now ask: wtf? How am I supposed to play 433 with these midfielders? How to play tiki-taka with a lot of movement with these not too mobile guys?
Well, the board will reply: this is our direction, you have to work with these players.
Again, for me, this is NOT about Dembele.
EV wanted Paulinho, he was sold to China.
He wanted Willian, we didn't get it.
He never asked for Malcom, he got it.
He probably never asked for Dembele, Barto bought him as a panic buy (Neymar's transfer) etc.
You can like/hate Barto or Willian, but this whole thing is stupid.
We should either get a coach what he wants or fire him.
One more time, imagine you trying to play copy of Pep's 433 and your only available midfielders are Busi, Raki, Vidal and Rabiot.
Would you be able to execute your ideas with wrong players?
No.
Is EV able to execute his ideas?
If you guys don't like EV and Willian, we should just suck EV.
And make a poll and hire a guy who will listen to fan's wishes and play Dembele, Coutinho, Arthur etc.
There is no point hiring a new coach if he will also ask for some NEW players to implement new ideas, instead of current players.
DonAk replied to me on chat: the last time when a coach asked for players, we got Andre Gomes and Arda.
Well, the last time when a sporting director was picking players long term, we got Denis, Gomes, Digne, Paco and similar.
Or when Barto picked Arda, Dembele, Coutinho to please the fans.
It works both ways.
Sometimes a coach buys good players, sometimes he doesn't.
The same is with a director.
Still, we are forcing a coach to play a system which he doesn't want (433) with players whom he obviously don't like too much either.