Mavericky Puig

tacticvarium said:

I have been regularly following La Masia for a decade now and Aleñá has been clearly the most prominent midfielder talent since Iniesta.
Some rate Cesc and Thiago higher but I have never seen such dominant performance from a midfielder especially during his time in Juvenil B and A. He was much more than just a talented attacking midfielder. His role was more similar to that of Messi and he was given complete freedom. There were even matches that he created 18-20 chances ALONE in the first half only.

Puig on the other hand, while still being considered as a good talent, it was only the last season that he truly showed he has the first team potential when Pimienta took over the Juvenil A team. Until then, he struggled a lot and didn't even make to the starting 11. That was one of the reasons why his promotion was so late compared to Oriol (and others) who is the same age. It was Pimenta who helped Puig to step up his game. So unlike Aleñá who always has been considered as the best talent in La Masia since he joined the academy, Puig was not the case. I hope you are not one of those people who just recently started overhyping him. No one knows who will end up as a more successful footballer in the future but up till now, Aleñá has been and is a clear winner.

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I have been following La Masia regularly (a few games each month) for 15+ years. If seniority is of any worth.

Let us not kid ourselves. At no point, at least not in the media, was Aleñá the higher rated talent than Thiago and dare I say Cesc. In any case, yes, he was highly rated but that does not really mean much as there have been TONS of highly rated La Masia prodigies who were overrun by lesser hyped and known La Masia talents who made it bigger.

Bojan, probably THE MOST hyped La Masia product in the past decade, was overtaken by the likes of Busquets and Pedro. No need to say more.

Just because I see a bigger innate talent in Puig and like the profile more (as they are more rare IMO) does not mean that I am overrating Puig (where did you see that in this thread?) or that I am somehow not rating Aleñá. I rate both of them highly. Always wrote that and wrote it recently in this very thread. However I, like any other persons, have my preferences. In any case it is notoriously difficult to predict which talent is going to have the better career as so much can occur (even extremely unpredictable things).

What I just want to see is for talented La Masia players to actually get the chance for the first team irrespective of name, position etc. That and us continuing to be truthful to the Johan Cruyff model and the ethos and philosophy of our club that has made us what we are. With enormous success sporting wise, in terms of legacy, playing style and dynasties created. Second to none in the past 30 years as stated before.

Stuani
Ricky Puig missed training after a collision with Stuani in the Super Bowl.And can not take part in the match with "Villareal B"!

[youtube]p47OCxlwE1g[/youtube]

should be a permanent part of the first team next season.

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Than Raki and someone else on midfield needs to go. {Vidal probably} I would keep Vidal and sell coutinho.

soul24rage said:

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Kind of insane how popular he is. He's definitely not better than Alena as those on the hype train may swear by, but he's for sure a very talented kid. It'll be interesting to see if he we can clear out some space for him in our midfield next season.

I might be in the minority here, but I don't think a full promotion to the 1st team is the right move for him. Let him develop physically for another season and call him up regularly, but a full promotion? A bit skeptical about that.

He'll stay with the B team for another season. Unless he leaves on loan, which I doubt. There's no room in Barca's first team.

He's too light weight right now for the top flight. Let him grow some both physically and game wise

He'll be 20 this summer. I doubt he'll grow much more.

He could have Aleña's role next season.

Although now that I think of it, there's not a lot of experience in this midfield:
Arthur, de Jong, Busquets, Vidal, Aleña, Riqui

I think Rakitic might stay another year and rotate with de Jong the first 6 months before becoming more of a bench player.

Should remain with the B team imo for one more season and get called up occasionally to the first team imo.

A good loan might work as well, but we are no good in doing those.

I see no reason to loan him at all. If we intend to see how he develops that's just lazy and hoping some other club will do the work of developing him for us, which isn't very likely. Leave him in the B team and call him up for easier games. In theory this makes perfect sense, but Lucho did that with Alena semi-frequently last season and he almost never played even a single minute in those games, so it ended up being a waste.

tacticvarium said:

No offense, but I am honestly confused if you actually watch B team's full matches or just pretend you do while you are in fact judging players based on individual highlights on youtube like those twitter kids. Because if you do actually watch the games, you will be able to easily tell Puig struggles to properly execute passes, dribbling and shooting especially in the final third when physical pressure gets more intense. His final execution is often clumsy (hence poor decisions, accuracy) due to the fact that his physique cannot keep up with his intentions and techniques.

Some people also try to limit the matter of physical ability only to height by using the examples of Xavi, Iniesta, Silva etc. but physical ability is about how accurately one can impose in accordance with his original intention under physical pressures from the opponents and this is often more than just one's height.

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None taken. To be honest with you, I think his final execution is more decision making and experience than physical issues. He has shown in central midfield he can be combative, hold off challenges/receive an offensive foul, shield the ball, break lines, move away from opposition and create space. He would not be able to do these things in the central positions if he did struggled with his physical disposition. All in all I watched around 8-10 full B team games this season for this judgement and all of Puigs minutes with the first team, not discounting last season.

Been watching the youth team since the days guys like Jose Pena looked a huge star before fading to oblivion. So not saying that I am the best judge of talent here, but I have been watching the youth categories enough decades to not be a youtube kid.

No, the point is Assulin's hype was a manufactured one (agent) - not one based in reality on the pitch

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That is slightly unfair. Gai played 22 games and scored 10 for Pep at Barcelona B at 17 in 07/08 and took part in the pre-season with the first team in 2009/2010, debuting that year in Copa at 18.

He obviously didn't make it (partly because of what I attributed before), but managers like Pep and LE wouldn't give him the opportunities to purely satisfy Pino Zahavi, and he was seen as one of our best talents in those years).