6 - Carles Alena

Andrew M said:

Useless stat

Click to expand...

Midfielders seeing more of the ball and being more involved in buildup play than anyone else is not useless. Are you Mourinho in real life?

95% side ways passes tho. any decent youngster from the cantera can come in and do the same. the guy is already 21 years old. he needs to go on loan and play consistently

God Serena said:

Midfielders seeing more of the ball and being more involved in buildup play than anyone else is not useless. Are you Mourinho in real life?

Click to expand...

I'm just pointing out that just because you had a great passing % doesn't mean you played well.

also considering it seems like majority of the passes were all to the side.. pique could accomplish that stat if he played in the mid as-well nothing special.

Hope he gets some meaningful minutes and manages to become a key player for us next season with a new, proper manager.

Please make this kid a starter next season alongside de Jong and Arthur

At least he has the balls to try and shoot the ball, not like bob yesterday in that last chance
where he was in front of the goal and tried to pass it to messi, please make him a starter
next year.

I hope I am wrong but the more I watch him the less I like him. He is too slow with the ball and has horrible first touch. He often struggles with the ball and sometimes he looks like a Luis Suarez of the midfield. I sincerely doubt he will ever be a first 11 material, maybe only a squad player.

Raketa10 said:

I hope I am wrong but the more I watch him the less I like him. He is to slow with the ball and has horrible first touch. He often struggles with the ball and sometimes he looks like a Luis Suarez of the midfield. I sincerely doubt he will ever be a first 11 material, maybe only a squad player.

Click to expand...

Unless we convert him to RB

Raketa10 said:

I hope I am wrong but the more I watch him the less I like him. He is too slow with the ball and has horrible first touch. He often struggles with the ball and sometimes he looks like a Luis Suarez of the midfield. I sincerely doubt he will ever be a first 11 material, maybe only a squad player.

Click to expand...

His biggest virtue in this moment is his bravery, passion and good finishing skills.
In terms of midfield skills, he is quite average in this moment.
He looked like a gem 3-4 years ago, but doesn't look that way anymore. Not because of EV.

Anyway, we have an interesting situation:
1. A coach, whom Barto picked, is not good
2. Old players like Busi, Raki, Suarez, whom Barto gave long contracts, are not good anymore
3. Young players whom we have are probably way weaker than people think.
A lot of people want to turn the page and rely on youngsters. Which youngsters?

1. Alena seems to be far from a starter's potential.
2. Puig is better on the ball, but it is questionable whether he will be able to play serious senior football in 2020-2030 due to his physique in era which is more and more athletic
3. Malcom is probably on a level of West Ham and Crystal Palace.
4. Arthur is almost aged 23 and forward passes are not in his blood. Can he improve in that area that much?
5. So, basically, forever injured, low IQ Dembele is our brightest prospect.

People are hailing Goat Barto for his expensive signings.
But maybe is he a number one reason for a state of our club?

Every young player in the world except maybe Mbappe who's a finished product need development and good coaching. Start from there and build up.

BBZ8800 said:

His biggest virtue in this moment is his bravery, passion and good finishing skills.
In terms of midfield skills, he is quite average in this moment.
He looked like a gem 3-4 years ago, but doesn't look that way anymore. Not because of EV.

Anyway, we have an interesting situation:
1. A coach, whom Barto picked, is not good
2. Old players like Busi, Raki, Suarez, whom Barto gave long contracts, are not good anymore
3. Young players whom we have are probably way weaker than people think.
A lot of people want to turn the page and rely on youngsters. Which youngsters?

1. Alena seems to be far from a starter's potential.
2. Puig is better on the ball, but it is questionable whether he will be able to play serious senior football in 2020-2030 due to his physique in era which is more and more athletic
3. Malcom is probably on a level of West Ham and Crystal Palace.
4. Arthur is almost aged 23 and forward passes are not in his blood. Can he improve in that area that much?
5. So, basically, forever injured, low IQ Dembele is our brightest prospect.

People are hailing Goat Barto for his expensive signings.
But maybe is he a number one reason for a state of our club?

Click to expand...

Lmao Arthur no forward passes, at least mention that such thing is not necessary in this team since Rakitic also doesn't pass forward but is a permanent starter every game.

BBZ, some time ago, when he was in his get Rabiot, fuck FDJ phase, actually complained about De Jong passing forward too much as opposed to the Frenchman. Mind you, he didn't waste more than 1 or 2, so almost every pass reached its target. Now surprise, surprise, he complains about a player passing sideways too much just so it fits his ever changing narrative. The only consistent argument he has is that he prefers tall, strong footballers to the more technical short guys. Any other issue and he'll flip flop each and every way so he looks like he is always right in the end.

BBZ8800 said:

His biggest virtue in this moment is his bravery, passion and good finishing skills.
In terms of midfield skills, he is quite average in this moment.
He looked like a gem 3-4 years ago, but doesn't look that way anymore. Not because of EV.

Anyway, we have an interesting situation:
1. A coach, whom Barto picked, is not good
2. Old players like Busi, Raki, Suarez, whom Barto gave long contracts, are not good anymore
3. Young players whom we have are probably way weaker than people think.
A lot of people want to turn the page and rely on youngsters. Which youngsters?

1. Alena seems to be far from a starter's potential.
2. Puig is better on the ball, but it is questionable whether he will be able to play serious senior football in 2020-2030 due to his physique in era which is more and more athletic
3. Malcom is probably on a level of West Ham and Crystal Palace.
4. Arthur is almost aged 23 and forward passes are not in his blood. Can he improve in that area that much?
5. So, basically, forever injured, low IQ Dembele is our brightest prospect.

People are hailing Goat Barto for his expensive signings.
But maybe is he a number one reason for a state of our club?

Click to expand...

A pretty good summary, with a few points to touch upon.

- Alena has no good or instinctive finishing skills. Something at the level of Malcom, but not good enough. Rakitic is better in that regard.
- He is average compared to the present low level of midfield, otherwise he would be slightly below average.

- Puig is the talented one there but his problem is not related to his athletism. He is a typical player who needs to play and practice more with very good forwards to learn his final passes or solutions, but it will not happen with EV or in this team now.

- Arthur can improve upon his forward balls and attacking, but his major drawback is the timing of his final balls. Either he is passing those too early or too late...

- Dembele probably will not be always injured in the forthcoming 10 years, his injuries are most probably the fault of the coaches, medics and wrong specific work he does.
- If an expensive attacker arrives, his days are anyway numbered under EV, so I'm positive that he should leave on his own (if possible) to become an outstanding player elsewhere. This extremely slow Barca style is not the one for him and his confidence will hardly ever return under EV and Suarez's loudspeaker.

- People hail the board for potentially expensive signings, because they play a "football manager PC game" in their heads, wrongly believing that simply buying some stars they like, will solve tactical problems and the like and will form a TEAM. Until the coach hides behind his own ego and lack of creative ideas, nothing will happen, which is clearly shown by Coutinho's example.

Has taken the mantle of La Masia golden boy from Sergi Roberto amongst the fans who somehow can't see that he will never have the technical ability to play for Barca