Yerry Mina

Why did we even sign this player? Wasn't even in the squad against Girona FFS. Match was over at half time. Why not sub in Mina at half time, and allow him to build confidence?

Valverde said he likes small squads. I can see that now. He doesn't know how to deal with many options. But, unfortunately for him, at a club that wants to fight on all 3 fronts, you just have to know how to rotate the squad in a smart way. Valverde is failing this test big time recently.

Droped Semedo after a good start. Underplays Coutinho and when he plays him it's on his 3rd best position most often, underplays Dembele with garbage minutes in games in which we have to come back from behind and the opponent is parking the bus (see Getafe, see Las Palmas). Overplays Iniesta, overplayed Roberto, doesn't give any minutes to Mina after an encouraging first game (in what was actually one of our worst home games this season). Trusts Paulinho way way too much considering he's playing horrible for about two months and just brings nothing at all. Just one dumb decision over another.

Just enough. He should show he's a fast learner by now. Just don't repeat the same mistakes over and over again until they cost you the season. Start well, dominate the smaller teams, score a couple of goals and then start giving time to other players while resting the key starters. Don't start games away to La Liga bottom teams as if you're playing peak Juventus and need to take a whole lot of precautionary measures. Adapt to the opponent FFS. Las Palmas is the kind of team you score 5 against if you attack well enough. Atletico beat them 5-1 on their stadium.

serghei said:

Why did we even sign this player?

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He was signed because we can't have 3 CB with one of them injury prone. Not like it was EV request nor that we really wanted this to happen in January. Mascherano forced things and it didn't help anyone
There is a lot to talk about EV right now, but Mina situation isn't really one of them.

khaled_a_d said:

He was signed because we can't have 3 CB with one of them injury prone. Not like it was EV request nor that we really wanted this to happen in January. Mascherano forced things and it didn't help anyone
There is a lot to talk about EV right now, but Mina situation isn't really one of them.

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Yea, but you have to think about the player too. He is a starter for the Colombia NT, if we bought him, let's just give him time, especially when games are already decided. Why leave him out of the squad for an easy game at home vs Girona. Doesn't make any sense.

You mean to tell me that we brought a talented young CB to play him only if 2 of our CBs get injured/suspended, like it was the case vs Getafe? Just give the man playing time, especially when we have big leads. That's the sensible thing to do.

I'm telling you right now, when you sign players like that, potential young players, you have to play them, or else they won't do anything. They will fail 100% because the only way a young player can improve is by playing.

serghei said:

You mean to tell me that we brought a talented young CB to play him only if 2 of our CBs get injured/suspended, like it was the case vs Getafe?

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It is precisely what we bought him for. He is the one who need to change that and convince Valverde. His talent isn't unquestionable either, we have seen him for what? 97 minutes? Even during those many questioned how good he is
We had an urgent need for someone to cover for our 3 CB and we had the right to get him, he accepted it and decided to try his luck and fight for his spot and he knew he is doing that coming from an injury in world cup year

serghei said:

Yea, but you have to think about the player too. He is a starter for the Colombia NT, if we bought him, let's just give him time, especially when games are already decided. Why leave him out of the squad for an easy game at home vs Girona. Doesn't make any sense.

You mean to tell me that we brought a talented young CB to play him only if 2 of our CBs get injured/suspended, like it was the case vs Getafe? Just give the man playing time, especially when we have big leads. That's the sensible thing to do.

I'm telling you right now, when you sign players like that, potential young players, you have to play them, or else they won't do anything. They will fail 100% because the only way a young player can improve is by playing.

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I've never seen you be nearly this passionate about any B team player. Why is it only young *signings* that you want to see develop, but you don't seem to care about La Masia players developing? You have the same type of bias as the people who bow down to the academy, except it seems to be towards every shiny new toy the board brings in. Literally everything you've said has been said about Bartra. How is Mina any different? No matter what anyone says, Mina's single performance wasn't exactly strong. In fact, I've been more impressed by Bartra, against better teams, and he was still not good enough.

The common argument for not using Alena, Palencia, Cucu, Oriol, Arnaiz, etc. is "They're not better than X player", but the exact same should apply to Mina. He's far and away our 4th best CB. Why we bought him is a question for the board, but he's clearly not a player Valverde wanted, that's for sure. It's better imo that Mina doesn't play, because not only would it hurt the team if Mina starts getting the Vidal/Paulinho treatment of playing no matter how good he is or isn't, but it'd be a blatant double standard for the La Masia kids who work so hard to make it to the first team, but just aren't quite good enough.

God Serena said:

I've never seen you be nearly this passionate about any B team player. Why is it only young *signings* that you want to see develop, but you don't seem to care about La Masia players developing? You have the same type of bias as the people who bow down to the academy, except it seems to be towards every shiny new toy the board brings in. Literally everything you've said has been said about Bartra. How is Mina any different? No matter what anyone says, Mina's single performance wasn't exactly strong. In fact, I've been more impressed by Bartra, against better teams, and he was still not good enough.

The common argument for not using Alena, Palencia, Cucu, Oriol, Arnaiz, etc. is "They're not better than X player", but the exact same should apply to Mina. He's far and away our 4th best CB. Why we bought him is a question for the board, but he's clearly not a player Valverde wanted, that's for sure. It's better imo that Mina doesn't play, because not only would it hurt the team if Mina starts getting the Vidal/Paulinho treatment of playing no matter how good he is or isn't, but it'd be a blatant double standard for the La Masia kids who work so hard to make it to the first team, but just aren't quite good enough.

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You must have missed the rage from me when Alena didn't play the Sporting game at home then.

Mina is a NT starter for Colombia, that's one of the best South American teams out there. That's no small feat. He's better than any defender we have in La Masia (from what I've seen which isn't much).

Bartra had so many chances at Barcelona and he failed. Mina should get those chances too. I purely want to see him play because he seems to be highly rated in South America. And starting at 22 for Colombia is no joke.

Mina played at a higher level than any Barca B defender. Even had great performances in the World Cup qualifiers. Scored a stunning header vs Uruguay in the 2-2 draw. He's just a higher rated young player than what we have, which is why he was brought. It's only natural to get games, considering that Pique was injured and Vermaelen was injured too. Didn't understand why he didn't play vs Girona, 4-1 at half time, with Pique clearly struggling. It's decisions like that which just don't make any sense.

serghei said:

You must have missed the rage from me when Alena didn't play the Sporting game at home then.

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I saw some minor complaining, but nothing like this. Granted, you could be right on that, I know Alena is one of the ones you like.

Mina is a NT starter for Colombia, that's one of the best South American teams out there. That's no small feat. He's better than any defender we have in La Masia (from what I've seen which isn't much).

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No, he's definitely better than any La Masia CB we have, and has higher potential as well. Cuenca, Tarin, etc. are all far from impressive nowadays. But starting for Colombia shouldn't mean anything to us. After all, that's the same logic used for buying Paulinho, and he actively makes us worse.

Bartra had so many chances at Barcelona and he failed. Mina should get those chances too. I purely want to see him play because he seems to be highly rated in South America. And starting at 22 for Colombia is no joke.

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Bartra had those chances stretched out over years. At first he was being benched by Adriano and Alex Song. Compared to that, Mina's got it pretty good. If he wants all the chances Bartra had, he's gonna have to wait, just like Bartra did.

Mina played at a higher level than any Barca B defender. Even had great performances in the World Cup qualifiers. Scored a stunning header vs Uruguay in the 2-2 draw. He's just a higher rated young players than what we have, which is why he was brought.

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I couldn't care less about goals scored by a CB. That was the main defense used for Mathieu even as his form fell off a cliff and he started leaking goals, both from LB and CB. It's a line of reasoning I can not and will not ever be able to understand. He's barely even younger than Umtiti as well, so his youth is hardly needed. Umtiti will play with Pique until Pique can no longer handle starting for us, which could easily be the next 2, 3 or more seasons, and by then Mina won't be a highly rated young player at all, and we'll either be chasing our next highly talented youngster from abroad, or possibly bringing one up from the B team, although the latter is a lot less likely with Garcia gone.

In his one game he played he showed us why Valverde doesn't want to use him. He needs to make a lot of improvements to his game and at this point most of them are just discipline based. No look passes and suicide runs forward are all things that can be fixed on the training ground, and I wouldn't expect to see him feature again unless either everyone else is unavailable, or he cuts that shit out.

Valverde is a dick. At the moment that is Barcas biggest problem. He is petrified of his own shadow.

Mina is considered a big talent in South America. Davison Sanchez who is a starter at Spurs is behind Mina.

Valverde has no personality and will fuck our season up. The problem is he will fuck up the confidence of these youngsters too. He is a Bilbao level manager.

Valverde didn't have many options in Bilbao with their Basque policy. That seems to be manifesting here with Valverde unable to utilize all the players at his disposal effectively. What if 2 CBs get injured and Mina is thrown in vs a tough opposition with no playtime and confidence?

khaled_a_d said:

It is precisely what we bought him for. He is the one who need to change that and convince Valverde. His talent isn't unquestionable either, we have seen him for what? 97 minutes? Even during those many questioned how good he is
We had an urgent need for someone to cover for our 3 CB and we had the right to get him, he accepted it and decided to try his luck and fight for his spot and he knew he is doing that coming from an injury in world cup year

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I don't think this is the case with EV. It's not like Mina or Semedo etc. has to prove themselves in the training so they get picked for the game. Gomes for instance, played in most big games this season, Raki, Paulinho and Vidal showed weakness in matches but still picked in the next one. Which is a better parameter to decide who is more fit or deserve the spot, training or real games? Semedo, for instance, played very well at the beginning of the season but was dropped for no reason.

EV is exercising nepotism, nothing more nothing less!

George_Costanza said:

EV is exercising nepotism, nothing more nothing less!

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Or he's afraid to experiment and goes back to the one safe way he thinks he can setup the team.

Big guy has made a major mistake signing for Barca, no chance hes going to get a chance to show what he can do , wont be here long.

Raki13 said:

Big guy has made a major mistake signing for Barca, no chance hes going to get a chance to show what he can do , wont be here long.

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I didn't expect for him to be here very long when he didn't play for the first several weeks until literally everyone else was injured. He's just nowhere near Barca level and seems to have a long way to go to reach that.

God Serena said:

I didn't expect for him to be here very long when he didn't play for the first several weeks until literally everyone else was injured. He's just nowhere near Barca level and seems to have a long way to go to reach that.

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Will agree to disagree , i think he looks a great player and it will show when he goes elsewhere.

Raki13 said:

Will agree to disagree , i think he looks a great player and it will show when he goes elsewhere.

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When he goes elsewhere he'll need to develop first. We don't have the time or need to give that to him now though.