4 - Ivan Rakitić

[YodaMaster]

Criticizing is fine, scapegoating a whole series of problems on a single (and often the wrong one) needs a reality check. The prime members if the club are rakitic, suarez, bob and pique. As does the idea of plating the next tom, dick or harry in there will fix our issues. If we had a kdb, both silvas, mahrez and Fernandinho i would agree he shouldnt see any of the pitch right now. Sorry, alena, oriel, and samper isn't quite that no matter what you wish it to be.

Some loon on flop of the match listed rakitic and not vidal, that shows the irrationality when it comes to him. Blowing off steam on your favorite scapegoat and a poor team performance is fine, but ill pop in here and there when the pile of horse crap gets a little too big.

Rakitic single handily fucked up the end of the match for Barca, he literally gave Bilbao 2 winning chances in the last 10 mins and he can thank Ter Stegen for those incredible saves. I don't know what game you watched. He was awful in the most crucial moment and that's enough to be top 3 flops. Him, Suarez and Vidal were worst players yesterday. Rakitic was also worst player vs Madrid. He's also been one of the worst players of this season so far. You can try to lie by saying otherwise but people aren't that dumb to believe it.

[xXKonan]

[Arizona Scott]

Rakitic single handily fucked up the end of the match for Barca, he literally gave Bilbao 2 winning chances in the last 10 mins and he can thank Ter Stegen for those incredible saves. I don't know what game you watched. He was awful in the most crucial moment and that's enough to be top 3 flops. Him, Suarez and Vidal were worst players yesterday. Rakitic was also worst player vs Madrid. He's also been one of the worst players of this season so far. You can try to lie by saying otherwise but people aren't that dumb to believe it.

If you think he has been worse than Vidal lately I would quite disagree with that. Personally I think neither should have played more than a half sunday, subbing him earlier would have taken out the last quarter of the game problem. And he was great vs Sevilla in that decisive match, not good vs Madid (but Alena was worse with the time he had). No I don't think you and many others are balanced in your evaluations of Rakitic compared to other midfielders/options (this year that would be Busi, Arthur, Vidal, Alena, last year you have on his last legs Iniesta and Paulinho). Data would show this out over the course of this season, or last season, or the year before that. But we know we would go circles around on this.

[Arizona Scott]

That is impressive xxkonan and I sincerely mean that

[YodaMaster]

If you think he has been worse than Vidal lately I would quite disagree with that. Personally I think neither should have played more than a half sunday, subbing him earlier would have taken out the last quarter of the game problem. And he was great vs Sevilla in that decisive match, not good vs Madid (but Alena was worse with the time he had). No I don't think you and many others are balanced in your evaluations of Rakitic compared to other midfielders/options (this year that would be Busi, Arthur, Vidal, Alena, last year you have on his last legs Iniesta and Paulinho). Data would show this out over the course of this season, or last season, or the year before that. But we know we would go circles around on this.

Lol dude ok I'll give you that: Rakitic has been slightly better than Barça's worst player Vidal in recent weeks. That puts Rakitic only 2nd in worst Barca player rankings (Suarez and Roberto aren't far away). Crazy performance from the blondie ! Should give him a contract extension for such achievement !

Mate no disrespect but you should go watch another sport if you're comparing Rakitic performance with Alena's performance in the last Clasico. Alena hasn't even 500 minutes of first team football in his legs. Rakitic is fucking undisputed starter since 2014 here !!!
Alena also had to play on the fucking left wing !!! Let's put Rakitic on the left wing and see how he performs there. I guarantee you that it will be even worse than RB Douglas performances !

Despite the fact that Alena played on the left wing, he still wasn't as garbage as Rakitic during El Clasico !

[Leo_Messi]

Haha. Priceless. Absolutely amazing. Haha.

May I be so naughty (already received a warning today for saying that there is a real rivalry, sporting obviously as well, between Croatia and Serbia and that anti-Jovic bias from Croatians here and Reddit MIGHT be due to that = was deemed to be "bigoted") to ask whose user that "wise speech" is trying to imitate?

[KingLeo10]

Haha. Priceless. Absolutely amazing. Haha.

May I be so naughty (already received a warning today for saying that there is a real rivalry, sporting obviously as well, between Croatia and Serbia and that anti-Jovic bias from Croatians here and Reddit MIGHT be due to that = was deemed to be "bigoted") to ask whose user that "wise speech" is trying to imitate?

I want to say BBZ but lately wolfe has been matching him in mental gymnastics.

[FCBfan22]

I want to say BBZ but lately wolfe has been matching him in mental gymnastics.

But Wolfe as a Real Madrid fan has a reason to do them. He knows that Real just started their season and we are only 6 points ahead.

[Arizona Scott]

Lol dude ok I'll give you that: Rakitic has been slightly better than Barça's worst player Vidal in recent weeks. That puts Rakitic only 2nd in worst Barca player rankings (Suarez and Roberto aren't far away). Crazy performance from the blondie ! Should give him a contract extension for such achievement !

I am not in favor of an extension unless it is important to moving him to another club with a good fee (>40mil) in return as part of that transaction. I do believe Barca needs to get younger and better movement in the midfield and ideally you just want Busquets or Rakitic on the pitch at the same time. With Vidal we are really talking old legs and it further compounds the issue. But for that to be implemented we need 2-3 younger guys who are as least as good or better. We have one in Arthur, have high prospects for another in FDJ (though he has yet proven him in a top league or for Barca), none else I would say has shown enough to factor him in yet in teamsheets for one of Messi's last few seasons as the best player in the world.

.... That puts Rakitic only 2nd in worst Barca player rankings (Suarez and Roberto aren't far away). Crazy performance from the blondie !

Not the ratings I have seen for individual matches (whoscored, sofascore) and certainly not cumulative for the season, nor past seasons. Take the Real match where he was substituted.

Let's take one example, the recent match (Bilboa). Here is the whoscored ratings (with sofascore). MATS 8.3 (7.9), Messi 7.8 (7.0), Roberto 7.6 (7.0), Busi 7.2 (7.0), Pique 7.1 (7.1), Rakitic 7.0 (6.9), Coutinho 6.9 (6.9), Vidal 6.7 (5.9), Semedo 6.6 (6.6), Suarez 6.4 (6.1), Lenglet 6.3 (6.4). Two different ratings, both said mostly the same thing, Rakitic was spot average for the team on the field. To my eye and in the metrics, he was no where near the "problem" 3 players of the match. To my eyes (as I stated after the match) it was Vidal, Suarez, Couts & Lenglet. Turns out the metrics are pretty close. But keep believing what you and a not so few others want to reinforce yourself with.

For god sake I do want to see Rakitic, Suarez, Pique, and Alba to get many more games/minutes off than they have lately. That is the ship we have this year. Messi, Busi and Couts I have mixed feelings in terms of the amount of rest for different reasons.

[Cule4life]

Not sure what happened but it's really peculiar how BBZ went from claiming the entire squad needs a refresh specifically because players like Rakitic are still able to start for us

Hell fell into a vat of stats and became the "The Statsman"

[xXKonan]

Says "Stop Rakitic" despite the demands Rakitic has been making, the Club has no intentions of giving him a new deal. And it also says despite him wanting to stay, his future remains open as a number of clubs have shown interest in signing him.

[soul24rage]

I wonder which clubs are interested in him. Chelsea comes to mind.

[wisconsincule]

The last thing we should do is give him a pay raise. If someone will give us 40+mil take the money and RUN

[xXKonan]

I wonder which clubs are interested in him. Chelsea comes to mind.

Wouldn't doubt some Italian teams like Inter being interested either.

But I doubt any of them would want to spend large amounts of money to secure him.

[Raketa10]

Rakitic single handily fucked up the end of the match for Barca, he literally gave Bilbao 2 winning chances in the last 10 mins and he can thank Ter Stegen for those incredible saves. I don't know what game you watched. He was awful in the most crucial moment and that's enough to be top 3 flops. Him, Suarez and Vidal were worst players yesterday. Rakitic was also worst player vs Madrid. He's also been one of the worst players of this season so far. You can try to lie by saying otherwise but people aren't that dumb to believe it.

With Suarez walking for 90 minutes and not being able to make a simple pass, with bad performance from Coutinho once again, with Vidal playing like a drunk man and Roberto like a clown on the right side you again find Rakitic as our main problem? Unbelievable stuff.

He was bad I agree but tell me who was good against Bilbao except Mats? I get you hate him but try to be less biased FFS.