Arthur
- Thread starter Jair Ventura
- Start date
JerseyAddict
Well-known member
Arthur is a gem. I so like this player. He is set to carry our midfield.
By comparison these are Rakitic minutes in his first season here.
https://www.transfermarkt.us/ivan-r...14&verein=&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&trainer_id=
If we discount Arthurs injuries and recovery periods, the strategy is quite similar.
I would worry more about his fitness if the stamina issues and subs around 60/70 minutes continue over the next 2 seasons.
https://www.transfermarkt.us/ivan-r...14&verein=&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&trainer_id=
If we discount Arthurs injuries and recovery periods, the strategy is quite similar.
I would worry more about his fitness if the stamina issues and subs around 60/70 minutes continue over the next 2 seasons.
He saved us from conceding a goal during the first half.
Holy shit that's some great awareness and work rate.
BBZ8800
Senior Member
I think that people here are biased towards some players.
For example, my commentator, who is not a Barca fan, said that all players in Barca's midfield played below their level, or with 70% of motivation.
When Arthur was subbed, he said: not a good game from Arthur tonight.
About your remark that Rakitic had 65% passing accuracy, these are Sofascore stats:
Busquets 92%
Vidal 91%
Rakitic 85%
Arthur 83%
Regarding comments when people "don't understand" why is Arthur subbed off when we need to defend, maybe this will help:
Duels won:
Vidal 13
Rakitic 13
Busquets 8
Arthur 4
Interceptions, tackles and blocks COMBINED:
Busquets 10
Vidal 7
Rakitic 6
Arthur 2
Each of these midfielders have their strengths and weaknesses.
When EV is subbing off Arthur after 60 minutes, that is NOT because EV is a Retardo, but because:
1. We are trying to keep the lead and Arthur's set of skills are not that needed anymore
2. He has the weakest stamina out of these 4 players
3. In 90% of matches, he has the weakest defensive numbers out of these 4 midfielders
EdmondDantes
New member
It's funny that when the numbers are reversed, you never come here to post this stuff. I wonder why. Oh, I know, it must be because he's one of the players you openly said you hate, that's why.
When Rakitic averaged 0 interceptions and 1 tackle against Real for 3 seasons, and Arthur had 6 and 3 in a single clasico, you convenient never bring these stats up.
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I thought Arthur did well last night. Drew the foul near the opposition box that Messi scored from, that last-ditch tackle to prevent Betis from scoring themselves, played a few incisive passes from deep to Suarez and looked combative in general.
BBZ8800
Senior Member
Doesn't it apply for majority of people here?
When Arthur plays meh, not too many whine about that.
When he makes only a few defensive contributions, people don't whine.
When Rakitic has a good game, his usual haters don't come to his thead and post: he had 94% accuracy and 8 tackles tonight!
People even downplay his efforts and good games, no matter what he does, you for example, isn't it?
You, me and majority are the same.
It only depends which players do you prefer.
Regarding Arthur, the same as Dembele, he is not by default my type of a player, but he improved and is better than I expected.
If I were a coach, even I would play Busi-Rakitic-Arthur, Dembele-Suarez-Messi in this moment.
The only difference is that I don't see Rakitic as bad as majority of people here.
And I don't see Arthur as good as majority of people here, even though he is very good.
Regarding Arthur's subs, stamina and defending, I do understand EV's decisions and were are they coming from.
EdmondDantes
New member
Perhaps, but people tend to be far less cynical than you are. Again, you're the one who openly admitted to hating some of our own players, Arthur being one of them of course. That in itself is beyond ludicrous.
As it was clear even months ago Arthur has stamina problems. He is very very slow also. Even before the 70 minute you can see problems with his stamina. Lots of situations where Vidal and Rakitic were pressing and chasing the ball like crazy and Arthur stood there watching.
Really needs to fix it. Could lose some weight maybe
Really needs to fix it. Could lose some weight maybe
Joan
Well-known member
My commentator said the same thing. That he looked surprisingly quick last night. Notices the same.
BBZ8800
Senior Member
This is not about Arthur.
But I personally don't see him as a fast player.
Imo, on my eye test, on a scale from 1 to 10, his pace is somewhere between 3-4-5/10.
Btw, Rakitic and Busi are also slow.
But they are 30+. Rakitic had a decent pace in early 20s, and he slowed down already in his Sevilla's days, and was getting slower and slower in each of Barca's seasons.
So, with that logic, a young Arthur is way slower than for example a young Rakitic, so, after the age 25-26 and later, Arthur could really reach Busi's levels of turtlesness.
In our team I see only Dembele and Alba (and maybe Semedo) as fast players.
Roberto is ok-ish.
So, this is not about Arthur in particular, but about our team or midfield as a whole.
So, in my eyes, if our midfield from last season was a team of turtles: Iniesta, Busquets, Rakitic, Paulinho, Gomes, then an addition of Arthur hasn't improved us too much in a pace area.
We did get a controller and a press resistance though.
In terms of pace, let's hope that Frenkie will be somewhat faster than our current guys.
About Arthur, I know that I said to myself during his first preseason matches: he looks very slow and is tired after 45 minutes.
Regarding Arthur, he is fast in his first few steps. And this is why he can make his turns and why is he good at pressing.
But if you give him a through ball into space, he won't win a duel.
Also, when we are caught on counters, he will usually lose a duel, the same as our other midfielders.
I know that people will jump since they don't want to hear any cons about favorite players and they'll reply: Xavi was slow also!
Ok, but then, if you look at a larger picture, Xavi was surrounded by Iniesta who had a decent pace (or he was faster than our current midfielders) and he had young and quite explosive Messi in attack, super fast Etoo, fast Pedro, fast Dani Alves etc.
Our current team, according to my eye test is the slowest Barca since 90s, when you sum pace from all 10 field players.
In that sense, I would like to see 1-2 faster players. Frenkie and someone else in the future in our lineup to balance the things a little.
Acceleration is far more important than pace for a midfielder. Arthur also has a very quick mind, which is also far more important than pace in our midfield. But BBZ will always need something to complain about to justify his ridiculous initial assessment of Arthur as a joke of a player and a huge flop. Why not be happy he has proven you wrong instead? Arthur has proven to be an excellent addition to our squad in his first season and will only get better as he develops. Great signing.
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