Lol dude you're talking about Alena as if I told somewhere that he'll be the guy for sure. I said we'll have decent midfielders (unlike Gomes & Paulinho) this season including Alena, Arthur and one more midfielder. I don't know Alena so well but I doubt he's an Ozil in defensive aspects. One thing's for sure he's better than Rakitic with the ball.
"Cou-Alena/insert similar player" ? What similar player ? We have Busquets and he's the best DM in the world. He is and has to be our first starter in the midfield. About the other 2, you're talking about Coutinho as if I said something about him. The truth is I'm not so sure he'll fit in the midfield (he's got work to do and things to learn for sure). I think he's way too offensive atm to be a midfielder in 4-3-3. But with right management, discipline and a lot of work, he could become a complete midfielder.
Manchester City and Napoli are the 2 most beautiful and dominant teams in the world over the past year. Look at their midfielders. David Silva, KDB, Fernandinho, Gundogan. Jorginho, Hamsik, Allan, Zielinski. I see no great powerhouses in there. You'll probably respond that Napoli won nothing, yeah but they don't have Messi, Suarez, Ronaldo, Dybala or Salah up front. And they don't have great defenders at the back like all the big clubs. Still with their restricted conditions, they battled till the end and were not far from winning the league against Juventus. All this while playing beautiful football and giving pleasure to fans.
Main quality for a Barça type midfielder ? Pretty simple: great technical skills with the ball. And by that I mean opponent breaking passing, ability to keep the ball against big pressure, ability to play in tight spaces, quick thinking, ball control, agility. Why are these the first qualities we should be looking for ? In order to play BARCELONA STYLE FOOTBALL. What is that ? Possession football which demands to play super high on the pitch which means facing big pressure and playing in tight spaces. Having around 60-70% possesion each game. Which means the team will spend a lot whole more time with the ball than WITHOUT it !
That's why "on the ball qualities" are more important than defensive contribution.
But don't get me wrong. In no way am I saying that the Barça style midfielder can be shit without the ball. Off the ball qualities are very important too. Even when the team has the ball, a good midfielder has to be able to make himself free in order to offer a passing possibility to teammate. When the team loses the ball, put pressure on. But these qualities as I said, almost every top or promising midfielder possesses them. And even if one guy is technically super good on the ball but lacking off the ball, it's easier for him to learn off the ball movement than it is to learn technical abilities for a mediocre on the ball midfielder. I don't know if you get what I'm saying. Is it clear enough ?
Apart from that, I gotta say that I find it kinda funny that you mention Spain NT. Their main problem (and I was telling this all my friends before the beginning of WC) is that they lack good forwards, espcially wingers. They play Isco, David Silva and Asensio on the wings. None of these players is a real winger. These 3 are more attacking midfielders. I think the only winger they had in the 23 list is Vasquez.
Then, the funniest part. Did you see their midfield ? Against Russia they started with Busquets, Silva and Koke. Koke was an undisputed starter during the whole tournament. Did you see him ? He plays exactly like Rakitic. The exact same qualities they have. Only difference is that Ivan is a better long rage shooter. Koke played exactly like Rakitic plays at Barça. Running a lot, backwards passes, and only contribution to the team was defensive work. Guess what ? He was by far the worst Spain's player. All the other midfielders were far better. Spain NT is actually an evidence that Koke/Rakitic type of player isn't the best for a possession based team.
One thing I'll admit [MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] is that it is interesting to discuss with you cause you're always making arguments to defend your opinion, unlike some others here. Sadly, you're almost always wrong.
In Sevilla he played behind the striker in a 4-2-3-1, in a team that wasn't possession based. I don't know what's your talking about but I actually watched Raki's final season at Sevilla and used to love the player back in the days. And I still think that he's a good footballer in general. The only problem is that his qualities don't match with Barcelona style football. Possession football requires "jugones" and Rakitic isn't one, he loves big spaces. Never in his life was he a good player in tight spaces, and never in his life was he a creative midfielder in a possession based team. That's why at Barça we always find a role for him that hides his poor on the ball qualities. His first season here the team worked well it's true. The way I saw it, Alves and Messi did all the creative work on the right so Raki had no responsabilities in creativity department. As soon as Alves left, Rakitic was exposed because Alves wasn't there anymore to do Raki's job for him.
Defensive contribution is the only thing Raki has that is Barca level. His on the ball qualities aren't Barça level. What I'm saying is that we need to get a midfielder that has Barça level on ball qualities AND Barça level defensive contribution. And that kind of player exists. We can buy one. Xavi wasn't the last one of that sort. Xavi was just the goat of that sort.
When Messi retires, are you gonna say "screw Dybala, Griezmann, Hazard etc we don't need them because they aren't on Messi's level. Let's just bring Lukaku instead, he has crazy off the ball qualities." ?
PS: I think my (footballing) IQ is just fine. I wouldn't exchange it for yours for sure.
PS 2: Sorry for the long message everybody.
Talk about knee-jerk reactions
