Ivan Rakitić

mc_lovin said:

How the fuck did you figure our midfield was the problem in terms of creating chances?

Click to expand...

2011 season:
Key passes per game:
2,5 Xavi
2,0 Messi
1,9 Dani Alves
1,6 Iniesta
1,1 Pedro
1,0 Villa
0,3 Abidal
0,8 Busi

Since Pep's days are a holly grail on this forum, let's check those days.
Our main creators in terms of key passes were: Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Alves.

Today: we don't have Alves, we have a braindead Semedo.
That means even less attacking options.
Besides Messi and Alves, our main creators back then were Xavi and Iniesta, aka Frenkie-Arthur today.
Now, since we don't have Alves anymore, the burden is even bigger on Frenkie's and Arthur's shoulders.
Since none of them is a natural creator, who is supposed to create chances?

And then you get matches (3 times this season out of 5 matches) where we can't create more than 2 chances per match.
What a surprise.
I am shocked

You guys will reply: there is no movement in attack.
Lol, there won't be movement for 4-5 years.
Messi won't move. Suarez won't move. Griezmman is not a no9. Dumbele is dumb.
So:
1. EV is bad
2. we won't have too much movement in attack
3. that means that midfielders won't be able to pass the ball to anyone, as seen today
4. Semedo surely won't help with his RB play

Then we go back to=this team is shit and all we have is Messi, 2 midfielders and a GK.
We will need 3-5 years of heavy rebuilding to bring back the balance into our team.

Rakitic looked soulless when coming on.


I think he's still shocked he's no longer first choice. I feel he thought he just needed to refuse to leave and he'd be a starter again once the window closed.


He's visibly not dealing with it well. He didn't do badly but when you're coming on with 30 min left to play against tired legs, when you're trying to earn minutes, you need impetus. Much like Arthur did vs Osasuna.


Instead he just settled him and became more of the same, he should have tried at least a shot or something.

BBZ8800 said:

2011 season:
Key passes per game:
2,5 Xavi
2,0 Messi
1,9 Dani Alves
1,6 Iniesta
1,1 Pedro
1,0 Villa
0,3 Abidal
0,8 Busi

Since Pep's days are a holly grail on this forum, let's check those days.
Our main creators in terms of key passes were: Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Alves.

Today: we don't have Alves, we have a braindead Semedo.
That means even less attacking options.
Besides Messi and Alves, our main creators back then were Xavi and Iniesta, aka Frenkie-Arthur today.
Now, since we don't have Alves anymore, the burden is even bigger on Frenkie's and Arthur's shoulders.
Since none of them is a natural creator, who is supposed to create chances?

And then you get matches (3 times this season out of 5 matches) where we can't create more than 2 chances per match.
What a surprise.
I am shocked

You guys will reply: there is no movement in attack.
Lol, there won't be movement for 4-5 years.
Messi won't move. Suarez won't move. Griezmman is not a no9. Dumbele is dumb.
So:
1. EV is bad
2. we won't have too much movement in attack
3. that means that midfielders won't be able to pass the ball to anyone, as seen today
4. Semedo surely won't help with his RB play

Then we go back to=this team is shit and all we have is Messi, 2 midfielders and a GK.
We will need 3-5 years of heavy rebuilding to bring back the balance into our team.

Click to expand...

Stop with those useless statistics, please. 2011 is not the benchmark anyway. The only bright spots today were Arthur and 2nd half Frenkie. They looked mobile and sharp. Our frontline clearly looked dysfunctional - you could have put De Bruyne in midfield today and he wouldnt have made those highlight passes either.

BBZ8800 said:

I am saying that our team in general is shit, old, mentally drained and poorly planned and poorly balanced.
Not from EV, but from a board and due to living on Messipendencia for 10 years.

Click to expand...

Well yes, board is no. 1 on the list of guilty parties, but that doesn t mean that Valverde is absolved.
Team is not shit, stop exaggerating. It just looks like shit because our coach is incapable of benching couple of players (Busq, Suarez) and
he is tactically poor. Messi-dependencia is on him.

I m pretty sure 4-3-3 is a wrong choice with this current team.

BBZ is mentally ill. Don't play attention to him. Also should have "Raki" in his username like all the other local retards here.

Didn't add anything when he came on and looked like he was being tied down by an anchor every time he moved.

He doesn't have the legs to play as a CM anymore.

Rakitic comes on and our team quickly turns to shit. Coincidence? At least in the first half we had some control in the midfield. Rakitic literally looks scared when he receives the ball.

xxxxxx said:

Rakitic comes on and our team quickly turns to shit. Coincidence? At least in the first half we had some control in the midfield. Rakitic literally looks scared when he receives the ball.

Click to expand...

This is not fair at all.

We were garbage before Rakitic came on too. Rakitic was a part of the problem last season and our midfield is better this season, but the biggest problem in our team remains Valverde.

I don't think we'll lose 4-0 and get humiliated in an away game in the CL because we're better at sustaining pressure and releasing a pass between the lines or play passes to open players, but we're still going to struggle a lot because we move the ball too slowly and are unable to create chances due to how slow our attack is and how they barely move off the ball.

mc_lovin said:

How the fuck did you figure our midfield was the problem in terms of creating chances?

Click to expand...

This post is the epitome of the average pea brained Barca fan.

When we played Rakitic-Vidal-Busi last season:

-The midfield lacks creativity and cannot advance the ball to the forwards properly
-A glorious total-football, Cruyffian midfield consisting of Busi-Arthur-FDJ will solve our shite creativity problem
-Fecking sods Vidal and Raki are ruining our style

Fast forward to today:

-The midfield is not the problem in terms of creating chances, let's just ignore the fact Arthur and FDJ are best suited as deeper lying controllers
-The lack of chances is not their fault
-Blame literally everybody and everything else

Love to see it.

Tackle said:

This post is the epitome of the average pea brained Barca fan.

When we played Rakitic-Vidal-Busi last season:

-The midfield lacks creativity and cannot advance the ball to the forwards properly
-A glorious total-football, Cruyffian midfield consisting of Busi-Arthur-FDJ will solve our shite creativity problem
-Fecking sods Vidal and Raki are ruining our style

Fast forward to today:

-The midfield is not the problem in terms of creating chances, let's just ignore the fact Arthur and FDJ are best suited as deeper lying controllers
-The lack of chances is not their fault
-Blame literally everybody and everything else

Love to see it.

Click to expand...

You just have this weird infatuation with making the most dumbed down and regurgitated comments ever. You can stack your post right alongside the generic ones that say shit like "But muh Barca have only lost 2 CL games in the past 2 years, EV just got unlucky" or "Valverde won the league 2 years in a row and nearly went undefeated, he's an amazing coach". Or the classic "Rakitic had a good game" or "Rakitic is our best midfielder" etc. etc.

It's no coincidence that you have been the mouthpiece for every one of those statements of pure bile on this forum too.

1. You say that the Arthur-Busi-FDJ midfield so far this season is utter shite and creates no chances, just like the Rakitic-Busi-Vidal midfield last year.

18/19 Rakitic-Busi-Vidal: 1.6 combined key passes per game in La Liga
19/20 FDJ-Busi-Arthur: 5.0 combined key passes per game in La Liga

2. You say FDJ and Arthur's performances are basically the same garbage we got last year and they make no difference to the team.

Matchday 3 against Osasuna we were getting dicked like we always do in away games, Arthur subs on and scores while creating several chances and claiming the MOTM award. Absolutely dominant and heroic performance. Matchday 4 against Valencia, Frenkie de Jong scores and assists to claim the MOTM award with a great performance playing out of position. Arthur also assists in this game. Matchday 2 Busquets had a great assist as well against Betis. In the CL, Arthur and FDJ were easily amongst our best players against Dortmund and won several duels while controlling the game. Arthur was dominant in the first half, and FDJ more in the 2nd when playing in his natural position. And this was alongside donkeys like Suarez, Rakitic, Roberto, etc. and other players like Ansu/Griez constantly playing out of position. FDJ won 6 defensive duels and had a great game, Arthur was a beast at set pieces and created the best opportunities we had during the game.

Compare that to Rakitic who was a consistently horrendous bum week in week out in both La Liga and CL last year, save for very few appearances. This season the goal differential with him on the pitch is -1, he has been nothing short of useless, awful, and a total waste of space in the limited minutes he has gotten this year. He has been utter shite for pretty much 4 years now, including 17/18 when everyone was absolutely on his knob for giving average performance after average performance.

Never in my life have I seen a player make a reputable career out of dumping the ball off to the fullback, and literally playing hot potato with the ball the moment a defender comes within 5 meters of him. Never until Rakitic. Dude plays fucking hide and seek whenever the opposition defense is even remotely a factor in the game. When defenders aren't near him, he chills and plays at his snail-speed and carefree pace, as if his duty is just to kick the ball around side-to-side like its a warmup and not actually push the game forward and dictate offensive moves.

You're just completely incapable of isolating the performance of the individual from the result. Despite us getting worse this year (which has been THE trend under Valverde, a steady linear decline in team performance over time) FDJ and Arthur are clearly improving our midfield play and overall ball movement in spades.

And they're doing this without being completely carried by Messi, like Rakitic was.

xXKonan said:

Didn't add anything when he came on and looked like he was being tied down by an anchor every time he moved.

He doesn't have the legs to play as a CM anymore.

Click to expand...

That's what I said - Rakitic should have come on all guns blazing since he had a point to prove but he looked more static and tired than the players who'd started.

Tackle said:

This post is the epitome of the average pea brained Barca fan.

When we played Rakitic-Vidal-Busi last season:

-The midfield lacks creativity and cannot advance the ball to the forwards properly
-A glorious total-football, Cruyffian midfield consisting of Busi-Arthur-FDJ will solve our shite creativity problem
-Fecking sods Vidal and Raki are ruining our style

Fast forward to today:

-The midfield is not the problem in terms of creating chances, let's just ignore the fact Arthur and FDJ are best suited as deeper lying controllers
-The lack of chances is not their fault
-Blame literally everybody and everything else

Love to see it.

Click to expand...

Good post

But we got the ball forward? Our midfield looked alright yesterday, just rewatch Anfield and Roma. If you cant see the difference... but that doesnt mean its our only problem.

Tackle? More lie Rackle, rite? Another cocksucker, who doesn't filter what's actually happening on the field and joined this forum as a groupie for certain player/s.

There was one occasion yesterday where a Dortmund player just walked past one of ours like he wasn't even there. At first I thought it was De Jong who'd been beaten so easily and I was puzzled. Then I realised it was Rakitic and things suddenly made sense.