Ivan Rakitić

He was average imo.

many give aways and misplaced passes today

SeloBarca said:

Bad game. Did almost nothing.
Should be phased out sooner or later

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dream on.

He played good game. Made no mistakes and made coullegood through passes.

He was alright. People acting like Rakitic hasn't always been able to play long balls against La Liga fodder under 0 pressure.

They didn't sit back properly and they didn't press us in midfield. He still simply does not move off the ball in possession tho which is so detrimental to the speed of our play. Arthur fixed that a lot as soon as he came on.

He had a bad first half. After moving to right he did much better.

Nothing special. Didn't contribute much but wasn't a liability either.

Was one of the better players tonight. Think Arthur and Vidal presence will push him to some good performances this season.

One thing I will say is.

You cannot play both Bob and Rakitic together. Both are way to similar to be paired up together, especially against a bus parking team.

Did you guys watch the first half.. he passed it straight to the Alaves players at least twice and was very average. Enjoyed his long balls though, should do it more often.

xXKonan said:

One thing I will say is.

You cannot play both Bob and Rakitic together. Both are way to similar to be paired up together, especially against a bus parking team.

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The same applies for Busquets and Arthur.
Too similar, too defensive, too slow in build up against parked buses.

BBZ8800 said:

The same applies for Busquets and Arthur.
Too similar, too defensive, too slow in build up against parked buses.

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So in your mind Rakitic is the pinnacle of fast buildup play against parked buses?

He's slower than either of them on the ball when it comes to decision making and progressing the attack. He walks so much that it's rare to ever see him break into a slow jog off the ball when we're holding possession let alone be constantly moving and shuffling to provide an outlet.

I don't even consider Arthur slow either.

Rakitic on the other hand runs like he's being weighed down by sandbags. He may not be as slow as Cesc but he's still slow as fuck. The thing is you if your reading of the game is good enough and your ability to retain possession and being good with the ball under pressure can go a long way in help migrate some of the flaws like the lack of pace.

With Rakitic my real opinion on him is pretty simple. I see him as a guy who's intelligent and especially in a two man Midfield he can ping some nice balls here and there and a lot of teams would kill to have him on their teams.

However his biggests weaknesses is in a possession system in a three man Midfield his flaws are more apparent. He's not good in tight spaces, He's not great handling being pressed with the ball and it seems unless the conditions are right that he struggles to attempt creative passes in a RCM. He either doesn't have the vision for it or he's feels not confident in his own mobility and pace to help track back if the ball ends up being intercepted and the team counters.

In the second half of the 14/15 season and for a good portion of the 15/16 season He did well as he had Alves and Messi on the right hand side to help him out in terms of creativity and it allowed him to not worry as much either and every now and then he did contribute some nice creative passing.

After Alves left and Messi not being all the interested in staying as a RW. He did form a pretty decent connection with Bob but Bob isn't Alves and the RW was just vacant leaving the guy and Bob without anyone to linkup with and in general his 16/17 season was meh for the most part. And there was a time where Lucho had trusted even Gomes ahead of him until Iniesta got that injury vs Valencia.

He didn't play all that well at first under Valverde. It wasn't until the switch to the 4-4-2 is when he began to regain form. His role seemed pretty simple, help maintain control with Busi and try to sniff out attacks as best he could and it pretty much worked although in the CL he like the rest of the team wasn't all that great though.

He was a steal for his price and perhaps one of the best deals we ever made even though he has a number of limitations.

He or Busquets should be dm. Otherwise with this squad Coutinho and Vidal would be automatic starters.

Vidal need to be utilized as utility player I am still not convinced on him being starter. Coutinho is the only undisputed starter. Busi raki Roberto Arthur Vidal need to rotate a lot.