Ivan Rakitić

Ivan Rakitic (FC Barcelona and Croatian NT): “Modric? I made jokes to him that he is more Culé than I am. All of us children have had their favorite teams and it's no secret that Modric loved Barcelona back in the days.”

“After beating England in the semi-final I called my wife Raquel. I kept repeating it, over and over again: “Hey, we're in the World Cup final, Croatia is a finalist, I'm going to play against France on Sunday!””

“Ronaldo to Juventus? The truth is that I congratulate Juventus for having shown impressive strength to sign Cristiano. Italian football will notice it positively.”

“One of my daughters told me that we will win the World Cup.”

“I lost 4 kilos during that game, I ran 14 kilometres.”

“On the night before the semi-final I had a fever of 39 degrees. I thought I would not be able to play the game.”

“We won against England because we were the better side.”

“I also represent Barça, as Samuel Umtiti and Ousmane Dembélé do as well. It's important for the club. It's very nice that there are Barça players in a World Cup final.”

“France deserve to be in the final, the play very good football. It will be a complicated final, it's going to be a historical game for us.”

“Messi has always been giving me encouragement and I thank him very much.”

“I said I found it to be strange that Iniesta didn't start against Russia. We were watching the game with the Croatia national team together and everyone asked me if he was injured. Nobody understood Hierro's decision.”

“For me, Iniesta would always start. Iniesta and 10 more. It was so strange because he played excellent in his previous games.”

“Compliments from Xavi? I'm proud of what he said about me. There are no words to describe him for what he represents in football as a player and as a person.”

“If the players and Valverde choose me as one of the captains, that would be a great pride.”

“Umtiti is amazing, his quality is extraordinary. I'm very happy everything is going well for him.”

He was as good as Modric, even better in moments of great pressure vs Denmark and Russia (you always put your best player mentally to take the last penalty). Proving this World Cup he is a very fine midfielder. It's just our management that's clueless.

Let's just give the ball to Messi and he'll be striker, midfielder, playmaker, everything. All while running 7-8km. Yea, right...

It's been a journey for him and Modric . Both missing their pen's in 2008 Euro's and getting knocked out . 10 years later they are in world cup final .

I'd love to see another Raki masterclass on Sunday.


I'd be more than happy to see Ousmane and Umtiti win it but I won't deny I'll be rooting for Croatia in the final. A nation of just 4 million people lifting the cup would be immense in this day and age.

BBZ8800 said:

[MENTION=22246]Judoman[/MENTION]

Edit: After your post, I though a little about it and then wanted to say that Brozovic looks more like a fighter/runner/thug for Atletico Madrid than for Barca.

And then I googled this, lol, of course:

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Atletico already bought Rodri as Gabi's replacement. I think they are well covered in midfield with Koke, Saul, Rodri and Thomas but then again, we know Simeone loves workhorses so wouldn't suprise me if they are looking for another one.

Question is, can they afford him? Brozo is important for Inter who has big plans this season and they won't sell for cheap. They've spent 90M on Lemar and Rodri and renewed contracts of Griezmann and some other players. According to rumours they are planning to also sign Sidibe, Gelson Martins and Kalinić so that's another 60-70M. They will get around 15M for Gameiro and Inter has apparently offered a 8M loan with obligatory 25M buy for Vrsaljko which AM are considering to accept (well, thinking about this if they want Brozo and Inter Vrsaljko they could maybe swap them but as said above I don't think Inter is prepared to sell). If that's true then they won't get much money from selling players this season.

Morten said:

perhaps most of you do rate him.

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No, not on this forum. Him getting to the WC final is barely keeping the hate in check and its still leaking through. Just take a look at the comment history during a bad stretch to see this forum rating him.

Still an awful midfielder for pure Barca style football.
And this WC proves it even more: in a team with only one creative midfielder (Modric) he’s nowhere to be seen in the build up. Modric who is supposed to play n10, goes down till his defenders to touch the ball because Rakitic isn’t able to bring the ball forward. Mr. backwards passes. I don’t give a damn about his 14km. All the elite midfielders are supposed to manage to run a lot. Plus that’s not the main quality we look for at Barça. He can go run a lot at Atletico.

Anyway this season we will have some decent midfielders (Arthur, Alena, maybe one more world class mid) that will show the Raki lovers what a waste of time and space this dude was.

YodaMaster said:

Still an awful midfielder for pure Barca style football.
And this WC proves it even more: in a team with only one creative midfielder (Modric) he’s nowhere to be seen in the build up. Modric who is supposed to play n10, goes down till his defenders to touch the ball because Rakitic isn’t able to bring the ball forward. Mr. backwards passes. I don’t give a damn about his 14km. All the elite midfielders are supposed to manage to run a lot. Plus that’s not the main quality we look for at Barça. He can go run a lot at Atletico.

Anyway this season we will have some decent midfielders (Arthur, Alena, maybe one more world class mid) that will show the Raki lovers what a waste of time and space this dude was.

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Mr. can't wait till FIFA 19 comes out is calling Rakitic waste of space because he isn't creating chances as a pivot lmao, so Busquets is a waste of space too then?

YodaMaster said:

Still an awful midfielder for pure Barca style football.
And this WC proves it even more: in a team with only one creative midfielder (Modric) he’s nowhere to be seen in the build up. Modric who is supposed to play n10, goes down till his defenders to touch the ball because Rakitic isn’t able to bring the ball forward. Mr. backwards passes. I don’t give a damn about his 14km. All the elite midfielders are supposed to manage to run a lot. Plus that’s not the main quality we look for at Barça. He can go run a lot at Atletico.

Anyway this season we will have some decent midfielders (Arthur, Alena, maybe one more world class mid) that will show the Raki lovers what a waste of time and space this dude was.

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If you are able to write something like this after this season and this WC than you really don’t understand football at all.

clemente said:

Mr. can't wait till FIFA 19 comes out is calling Rakitic waste of space because he isn't creating chances as a pivot lmao, so Busquets is a waste of space too then?

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Ok then what happened when he played in 433 ? Did you see him create some crazy amount of chances ? As a pivot Busquets is 1000 times better. As a central or attacking midfielder, there are lots of better players especially for Barca style football.

Why are you talking about FIFA man btw ?

YodaMaster said:

Still an awful midfielder for pure Barca style football.
And this WC proves it even more: in a team with only one creative midfielder (Modric) he’s nowhere to be seen in the build up. Modric who is supposed to play n10, goes down till his defenders to touch the ball because Rakitic isn’t able to bring the ball forward. Mr. backwards passes. I don’t give a damn about his 14km. All the elite midfielders are supposed to manage to run a lot. Plus that’s not the main quality we look for at Barça. He can go run a lot at Atletico.

Anyway this season we will have some decent midfielders (Arthur, Alena, maybe one more world class mid) that will show the Raki lovers what a waste of time and space this dude was.

Click to expand...

Good luck with Alena.
Or with two Alenas in midfield.
That will be a horror show when we'll lose the ball.
And Alena will lose them a lot.

The same as how this season will show the Raki lovers what a waste of time and space this dude was, you'll see what a waste of time and space is to play with 2 players like Cou-Alena/insert a similar player/ together, for example.

So, it seems, either way, that we will all learn a lot in the future.

YodaMaster said:

Plus that’s not the main quality we look for at Barça.

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I just have to ask.
WHAT is the main quality we look for at Barca?
And do all 3 midfielders need to have the same qualities?

Are we looking for 3 clones in midfield?
Or for 5 clones in midfield, like Spain?
Again, good luck with that, the same as a Spanish NT, you'll need it with 5 clones who all do exactly the same thing on a field.
And all of them have the same strengths and weaknesses.

YodaMaster said:

Still an awful midfielder for pure Barca style football.
And this WC proves it even more: in a team with only one creative midfielder (Modric) he’s nowhere to be seen in the build up. Modric who is supposed to play n10, goes down till his defenders to touch the ball because Rakitic isn’t able to bring the ball forward. Mr. backwards passes. I don’t give a damn about his 14km. All the elite midfielders are supposed to manage to run a lot. Plus that’s not the main quality we look for at Barça. He can go run a lot at Atletico.

Anyway this season we will have some decent midfielders (Arthur, Alena, maybe one more world class mid) that will show the Raki lovers what a waste of time and space this dude was.

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He plays as a Dm and his job is to cover attacking midfielders . Are you out of your mind ? whole post is nothing but crap

YodaMaster said:

Ok then what happened when he played in 433 ? Did you see him create some crazy amount of chances ? As a pivot Busquets is 1000 times better. As a central or attacking midfielder, there are lots of better players especially for Barca style football.

Why are you talking about FIFA man btw ?

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In sevilla he played as a Cam in 433 and was their best player and then he was asked to play out of his position in 433 as a cover for Messi in Rw , under lucho's first season and did an amazing job . In third season of Lucho , Messi absolutely abandoned that wing after Dani left , leaving Rakitic alone in that wing and you expect him to create shitload of chances with Roberto refusing to go forward . what kinda footballing Iq do you have

BBZ8800 said:

Good luck with Alena.
Or with two Alenas in midfield.
That will be a horror show when we'll lose the ball.
And Alena will lose them a lot.

The same as how this season will show the Raki lovers what a waste of time and space this dude was, you'll see what a waste of time and space is to play with 2 players like Cou-Alena/insert a similar player/ together, for example.

So, it seems, either way, that we will all learn a lot in the future.



I just have to ask.
WHAT is the main quality we look for at Barca?
And do all 3 midfielders need to have the same qualities?

Are we looking for 3 clones in midfield?
Or for 5 clones in midfield, like Spain?
Again, good luck with that, the same as a Spanish NT, you'll need it with 5 clones who all do exactly the same thing on a field.
And all of them have the same strengths and weaknesses.

Click to expand...

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.

RMU ReBorn said:

In sevilla he played as a Cam in 433 and was their best player and then he was asked to play out of his position in 433 as a cover for Messi in Rw , under lucho's first season and did an amazing job . In third season of Lucho , Messi absolutely abandoned that wing after Dani left , leaving Rakitic alone in that wing and you expect him to create shitload of chances with Roberto refusing to go forward . what kinda footballing Iq do you have

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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.