Cesc Fabregas

[Ketoth]

Cesc doesn't need to have high passing accuracy. His passing stats are ok, but Cesc is not just a midfielder, he is a playmaker. He makes things happen, he wins games. He's an amazing passer (I don't mean a safe passer like Xavi, he can execute any kind of pass imaginable) and he has incredible vision. That's not where it ends, because Cesc has this ability to make space for himself. He has good movement. He's got incredible technique and he can dribble. I can't imagine what kind of midfielder could possibly pose a greater skill set than Cesc Fabregas, because such midfielders will never exist.

 

[Besiktas]

Cesc is a luxury signing. Why is that a bad thing?

Because, Barcelona do not have unlimited transfer funds. We need a world class CB badly for nearly two years. If that luxury signing did not happened, we could have bought a starter CB.

 

[ZenI]

Because, Barcelona do not have unlimited transfer funds. We need a world class CB badly for nearly two years. If that luxury signing did not happened, we could have bought a starter CB.

But, on the other hand, we need 2 backup midfielders (just like we need 2 backup CB's, just wish they were in the same class like Cesc and Thiago are in midfield). And Cesc have helped us enormously to (probably) win this seasons La Liga. Against weaker teams, when we rest Iniesta/Xavi or when he has a good day - we hardly loose any quality in midfield. He has also played well in false 9 against weaker teams when our other forwards (except Messi) can't score to save their lives.
Like I said, I have nothing against Cesc. He's been very good parts of the season. But comparing him to Iniesta based on stats just shows that some people now very little about football.

 

[Besiktas]

But, on the other hand, we need 2 backup midfielders (just like we need 2 backup CB's, just wish they were in the same class like Cesc and Thiago are in midfield). And Cesc have helped us enormously to (probably) win this seasons La Liga. Against weaker teams, when we rest Iniesta/Xavi or when he has a good day - we hardly loose any quality in midfield. He has also played well in false 9 against weaker teams when our other forwards (except Messi) can't score to save their lives.
Like I said, I have nothing against Cesc. He's been very good parts of the season. But comparing him to Iniesta based on stats just shows that some people now very little about football.

Currently, we have only two real CB's. Puyol and Pique. Puyol is not a reliable option because of his injuries anymore. We all love Masch but we know that he is not a real CB and he failed in many big matches (against Chelsea - Ramires goal,against Real Madrid, even against Milan- if Niang had scored we could be eleminated).

So we need two CB actually. One should be a starter world class CB. The other one should be a wonderkid backup.

In the midfield, we already have world's two best players in the world. (xavi,Iniesta) We have a wonderkid backup whose experience is sufficent.(Thiago) We have Song who can play MC role. We know that he played that role in Arsenal. In addition, we have Sergi Roberto who is rated highly in our cantera.

Let's compare the situation.

Current situation

1) Xavi....................1) Pique
2) Iniesta.................2) Masch
3) Cesc....................3) Puyol
4) Thiago..................4) ?

Let's see the alternative

1) Xavi..............................1) Pique
2) Iniesta..........................2) World class CB
3) Thiago..........................3) Puyol
4) Song/Sergi Roberto.........4) Wonderkid CB

Which one is better for the team. Cesc cost 35 million € for us. We could have bought both of our needs in defence with that money.

25 for world class CB and 10 for wonderkid CB.

 

[Maria]

Cesc: "I'm happy about my stats and about how I adapted, but you can always do better. No one is as critical for me than I am myself."

Cesc: 'Estoy muy contento con mi rendimiento y he notato una evolucion grande. Quizas ahora no tanto pero eso se debe a que hay otros jugadores y ahora estan mejor.' (I'm very happy with my performance and I feel like I have evolved a lot. Maybe not at this point, but that is because other players are in a better shape than me.)
'La gente no sabe muchas veces muchas cosas. A veces no estas bien y juegas, a veces estas tocado y juegas. Pero esto no se sabe.' (Many times the world doesn't know many things. Sometimes you're feeling bad and you play, other timer you picked up a knock and you play. But all this is not known.)
Cesc: 'With every bad game of mine, the fans are forgetting 10 good games.'
Right now I'm as confused as Cesc claimed to be when Pep was the coach.

 

[BigBarcaBoy]

I think Cesc needs to understand that criticising the fans isn't going to help his cause.

 

[Youngie]

Would having 'to' there in between make you happier? If so, sorry.

Overall what I was saying could be put 'has high passing percentage != can play tiki-taka'. Context was 'facts being twisted'. Reference should be clear.

Of course Cesc can (and did) play tiki-taka as his 90+% passing stats show. This should be perfectly simple.

Tiki-taka = high possession + passing accuracy.

He does not, nor has he ever, controlled matches from midfield like Xavi or Iniesta.

You must have missed the first half of the season....

Cesc doesn't need to have high passing accuracy. His passing stats are ok, but Cesc is not just a midfielder, he is a playmaker.

Yeah Cesc is a playmaker but at Barça you have to fit the system.

Because, Barcelona do not have unlimited transfer funds. We need a world class CB badly for nearly two years. If that luxury signing did not happened, we could have bought a starter CB.

Not really. Puyol was a starter even this season (at the start). Nevermind last season when Puyol & Pique were undisputed starters and Masch had played a perfect CL final. Anyway a CB could have been bought this summer but A DM (Song) was bought instead. That's hardly Cesc's fault...

 

[kollegah]

Stats throughout senior professional career in competitive matches(club and international level):

Fabregas
89 goals
150 assists
31864 minutes played
358 minutes per goal
212 minutes per assist


Iniesta
51 goals
113 assists
32952 minutes played
646 minutes per goal
292 minutes per assist


Xavi
81 goals
157 assists
52743 minutes played
651 minutes per goal
336 minutes per assist


Ozil
70 goals
155 assists
27258 minutes played
389 minutes per goal
176 minutes per assist

This took me a while to compile. Source is transfermarkt.co.uk. I included everything apart from friendlies and youth competitions.
I wasn't expecting Ozil to have that many assists, but Cesc has more goals so he's better.

Therefore, statistically it's Cesc > Ozil > Iniesta > Xavi. My hypothesis that Cesc is the best midfielder in the world is supported.

So cesc>ozil>xavi>iniesta , right?

 

[Galning]

Use multi quote instead of just posting 4 new posts, thanks.

 

[Besiktas]

Not really. Puyol was a starter even this season (at the start). Nevermind last season when Puyol & Pique were undisputed starters and Masch had played a perfect CL final. Anyway a CB could have been bought this summer but A DM (Song) was bought instead. That's hardly Cesc's fault...

You are manipulating the facts.

1) We are not talking about the quality of Puyol. We are talking about his constant injuries for almost 2 years. He can be a starter when he is healty despite his declining speed because of experience. However, you can not trust him as a starter anymore because of his constant injuries.

So, your statement about Puyol is nonsense. Starting games does not mean that you are a starter. In order to be a starter, you should be a reliable option. However, Puyol is not a reliable option anymore.

It is similar to Ledley King case. He was the best defender of PL however he was not a reliable starter. You can not put this type of players to your starting list and make transfer by referencing that list.

2) Not last season but two seasons ago, Masch had played in a CL final. However, one game does not mean anything. We lost to Chelsea because of Masch's mistake last year. We lost to Real in the super-cup because of his mistake this year. We were almost losing to Milan if Niang had put that shot in because of him. He showed that you can't trust him in big matches more than once.

3) This year we bought Song because we were needing to cover more than one position with one player. Keita leaved this summer. And, Tito do not trust Masch at DMC. He wanted a back-up for Busquets since Busquets can't play every game. Also, he wanted to have a physical option as Keita. In the last matches we are trying double pivot with Song and Busquets. It shows that it is also a requirement. As a last reason, Song had played CB at Arsenal in his early carier. So management tried to fix three position DMC, MC(Keita like MC) and CB with one man.

If we had more money, they could fix these positions one by one. For example, Song for DMC,MC(keita like MC) and a world class CB like Thiago Silva.

The fee of Thiago Silva was 42 mil €. He says Barcelona is his favorite club. If the issue isn't about money, I am sure he would come last year.

But we did not have 42 mil €. WHY YOUNGIE? Because, we bought a luxury signing Cesc Fabregas last year for 35 mil €.

So, do you still think that being a luxury signing is not a bad think?

 

[CatalinR10]

Just a random pic of Cesc passing by...

 

[Flavia]

The fee of Thiago Silva was 42 mil €. He says Barcelona is his favorite club. If the issue isn't about money, I am sure he would come last year.

But we did not have 42 mil €. WHY YOUNGIE? Because, we bought a luxury signing Cesc Fabregas last year for 35 mil €.

So, do you still think that being a luxury signing is not a bad think?

T silva problem wasnt only the fee, but also his wages. Psg offered a hell lot more than Barça. And he is injury prone, not the best fit, as there is puyol struggling with injuries too. Anyway, alexis can be seen as a luxury signing as well. If one of the 2 shouldnt had been brought, alexis should had been the one.

 

[Youngie]

Couple of points Besiktas:

If the Barça staff thought a CB was needed back in 2011 then Cesc would not have been bought. But fact is that management though Puyol + Pique + Mascherano (maybe + Abidal) was enough at that time.

Forget about Puyol's "constant injuries" in his mind and Barça's mind he was still #1 CB. It would have been an insult to The Captain to be told a new starter CB must be signed i.e. you're not good enough anymore Carles....

About Thiago Silva. He would not have joined Barça - his wage demands were (are) too high. Plus he's injury prone...

Cesc fee was not just €35M at once. It was spread out of years..Alexis was signed same year aas Cesc and he's just as much a luxury signing (yet you don't mention Alexis.)

And finally about Alex Song: Thiago could have played at DM (for instance) as Busquets backup. Yet you still think Song was needed?

This summer a CB will finally be signed. Hope that'll stop your complaining...

 

[Maria]

T silva problem wasnt only the fee, but also his wages. Psg offered a hell lot more than Barça. And he is injury prone, not the best fit, as there is puyol struggling with injuries too.

Not to mention that Thiago gave an interview recently where he said that he had promised Leonardo that he will go to PSG, so it makes no sense to me to continue with these supositions. The player that we should have bought, who made sense in every possible way and was cheap is Verthongen. And for this failure we can't say that there weren't enough money because of Cesc, Alexis and Song. We can only blame Zubi and/or Tito.

Anyway, alexis can be seen as a luxury signing as well. If one of the 2 shouldnt had been brought, alexis should had been the one.

I don't really agree with this..if we put things into context we should remember how exhausted Pedro and Villa were since February 2011 until Wembley and their performances&injuries in the next season..at that point buying Alexis made more sense than buying Cesc, especially as we couldn't have imagined that Xavi will have so many injuries and couldn't be trusted to keep up his form for a competition like the league. And if without Alexis we couldn't have competed in the last league, without Cesc we wouldn't be in this position to win the league this season. Also, if Mourinho can have Higuain&Benzema, buy Coentrao even though he had Marcelo, Modric when he had Xabi and Ozil or Varane when he had Ramos, Pepe and Carvalho(who has Puyol's age and less injuries) I don't understand why we should sell someone before we can buy a CB.
All these savings from black&white photocopies and money from Qatar should use at something..though knowing Zubi, we're going to have to pay to get rid of Afellay, Bojan, JDS and Fontas.

 

[PearLBLacK]

Why do you always use Real Madrid and Mourinho as a reference or justification in almost every argument?