6 - Carles Alena

Let's be fair, apart from few good moments he had a poor game.

Think he moved the ball well, very fast and nicely. Still think Puig is a bigger talent.

I liked him. He showed class in a number of times, but the approach of this game was all wrong for us.

Good match considering this was his UCL debut

He played better tonight than Rakitic has played in the last 9 months ..

Zidane82 said:

He played better tonight than Rakitic has played in the last 9 months ..

Click to expand...

Lmao. No need to look at the last 9 months. Tonight will do it.

Raketa10 said:

Let's be fair, apart from few good moments he had a poor game.

Click to expand...

Tell me how was it a poor game

clemente said:

Tell me how was it a poor game

Click to expand...

A mediocre match.

He did everything Rakitic does on the average performance. Circulated possession and covered for his fullback. Perhaps it's just Valverde's system, or perhaps it was a young player making his UCL debut, but it's good for him to get some good minutes. These types of minutes will surely help him to build up the confidence with the first team to play the way we know he can.

He can be okay squad player, but nothing special i'm afraid. One thing good about him at least is the pace. Tired of all the slowbros.

God Serena said:

He did everything Rakitic does on the average performance. Circulated possession and covered for his fullback. Perhaps it's just Valverde's system, or perhaps it was a young player making his UCL debut, but it's good for him to get some good minutes. These types of minutes will surely help him to build up the confidence with the first team to play the way we know he can.

Click to expand...

He looked so comfortable with the ball and so much faster over the ground than you know who

lol i've been very sceptical of him, but I thought he did great tonight. There were a few passages where he fell out of the game a little bit, but did most things right and covered a lot of ground defensively.

clemente said:

Tell me how was it a poor game

Click to expand...

You have eyes don't you? Why are you all so biased? If Gomes played a match like this you would shit all over him but since this is La Masia kid he was "superb"? Come on get a grip. I hope the kid will succeed but he was mediocre yesterday. He basically had a few good moves and when Rakitic was subbed off our midfield completely lost control not to mention that our second half ball possession was quite bellow 50%.

We can choose to lie to ourselves but this is not the right way to go. This was his debut in CL and he needs time like any young player. I believe this kid can succeed but I for sure won't lie to myself and claim he had a great match. He simply didn't but rarely any player has a great debut. As I said he needs playing time and patience but he also needs to improve his first touch.

[MENTION=20420]God Serena[/MENTION] I know you like La Masia kids (especially Alena) and so do I and I also hope he will surpass Rakitic in every aspect of the game but for now he is far from that. Only sure thing is that he needs plying time and I sincerely hope Valverde will give him more minutes from now on.

Raketa10 said:

You have eyes don't you? Why are you all so biased? If Gomes played a match like this you would all shit all over him but since this is La Masia kid he was "superb"? Come on get a grip. I hope the kid will succeed but he was mediocre yesterday. He basically had a few good moves and when Rakitic was subbed off our midfield completely lost control not to mention that our second half ball possession was quite bellow 50%.

We can choose to lie to ourselves but this is not the right way to go. This was his debut in CL and he needs time like any young player. I believe this kid can succeed but I for sure won't lie to myself and claim he had a great match. He simply didn't but rarely any player has a great debut. As I said he needs playing time and patience but he also needs to improve his first touch.

[MENTION=20420]God Serena[/MENTION] I know you like La Masia kids (especially Alena) and so do I and I also hope he will surpass Rakitic in every aspect of the game but for now he is far from that. Only sure thing is that he needs plying time and I sincerely hope Valverde will give him more minutes from now on.

Click to expand...

I would be shocked if he ever becomes as good as Rakitic.

Raketa10 said:

You have eyes don't you? Why are you all so biased? If Gomes played a match like this you would shit all over him but since this is La Masia kid he was "superb"? Come on get a grip. I hope the kid will succeed but he was mediocre yesterday. He basically had a few good moves and when Rakitic was subbed off our midfield completely lost control not to mention that our second half ball possession was quite bellow 50%.

We can choose to lie to ourselves but this is not the right way to go. This was his debut in CL and he needs time like any young player. I believe this kid can succeed but I for sure won't lie to myself and claim he had a great match. He simply didn't but rarely any player has a great debut. As I said he needs playing time and patience but he also needs to improve his first touch.

[MENTION=20420]God Serena[/MENTION] I know you like La Masia kids (especially Alena) and so do I and I also hope he will surpass Rakitic in every aspect of the game but for now he is far from that. Only sure thing is that he needs plying time and I sincerely hope Valverde will give him more minutes from now on.

Click to expand...

Also, player's development (as seen in Dembele's case) is not only about a potential.
It consists from: technical skills and technical potential, IQ, player's professionalism and a factor of experience (true, where coaches need to help you with playing you a lot from the early age).

I have seen posts how Alena is already better than Rakitic or how he will surpass everything what he has done in his career.
1. Raki has just been voted as the 19th best player in the world in the last year
2. he has been the most used Barca's player over the last 5 years, even before the Psg's clause
3. has just played in a Wc final
4. plays as a midfielder starter in his NT team from the age of 19

Btw, an interesting comparison of where their career's where at a certain moment.
Today, Alena is 20 years and 11 Months old. He is getting his first minutes for Barca and played till now in a Bteam.
Rakitic, one of the most underrated players here, aged 20 years 3 Months (8 Months youngers than a current Alena) was playing here already as a somewhat important and established midfielder:
Euro 2008, Croatia:Germany:

In terms of development in matches and big matches, Rakitic's level at the age of 20 was already 3-4-5 years infront of a current Alena.

So, Alena would need to have a way higher potential and IQ than Rakitic to overcome these obstacles (playing time & development and experience in big matches).

Btw, do you know how many mistakes Rakitic and Modric needed to make in order to develop their steel-mental strength on penalties? A lot.
That mental strength didn't come over 1 day, they needed years of losing, making mistakes and learning to get there.
Rakitic, a world cup her for Croatia on penalties in 2018, look at his and Modric's pens in 1/4 of Euro 2008, 10 years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXq13PjO-FQ

My point is: Alena is already a few years behind Rakitic (and Rabiot, for example) in that area of learning, making mistakes and developing on the highest level.
And even when he'll start to play those matches, he will need years and years of learning and making mistakes to eventually reach the even higher level.

Let's go back to the beginning of a post: Alena can't be better than a current Rakitic and he has 1000s of steps infront of him to get even close on that level of tactics, IQ, mental strength, experience and similar.