Paulinho

Barcaman

Administrator
Staff member
Girona played a physical game and while he looked uncomfortable (who in midfield didn't?) he gave us muscle and energy.

Wasn't a disaster at all as some are saying.
 

xXKonan

Senior Member
Paulinho was getting a lot of stick on twitter, but I don't think he was as bad as some folks were making him out to be.

Rakitic was a lot worse imo.
 

Xaviniesta

Senior Member
Rakitic should have been subbed, not Pauinho

Paulinho was running his ass off and getting into the box and creating opportunities. Showed great technique as well.

I guess Paulinho was subbed for some rest, I think he will start vs Sporting.
 

DonAndres

Wild Man of Borneo
I agree that he shouldn't play with Rakitic (or, by extension without Busi/Iniesta). That hurt Iniesta way too much as there was literally no one else who was competent and helped our circulation/retention in the middle of the park.

There are also some games that he simply should not play due to his style/limitations and IMO it's probably against high pressure teams like Sevilla. If we have a lack of presence and control of the middle against high pressing teams we'd get run over and not be able to form any attacks.
 

God Serena

New member
The main problem I can see in Paulinho is he just doesn't want anything to do with our midfield. When our defenders have the ball he isn't showing for them, he's running towards the opposing final third. Watching at a glance while the game was live gave me the impression he was constantly woefully out of position but in reality he was just pulling a Messi when told to play RW.
 

booge

New member
wtf ;Paulinho was great.

He's is very direct and strong. He does what the Madrid players do. He bullies, he drives forward, he causes havoc in the box.

Looks like some people don't understand "balance"

The shit players are players like vidal and sergio roberto who don't have heart, Their cowards. Always will be.

Samedo and Paulinho over those two anyday. They will put thier foot in atleast.
 
wtf ;Paulinho was great.

He's is very direct and strong. He does what the Madrid players do. He bullies, he drives forward, he causes havoc in the box.

Looks like some people don't understand "balance"

The shit players are players like vidal and sergio roberto who don't have heart, Their cowards. Always will be.

Samedo and Paulinho over those two anyday. They will put thier foot in atleast.

Too much BS in one post.
 

BBZ8800

Senior Member
People complain about Paulinho not being a classical (Barca) midfielder and not offering too much control and passing.

Well, he could be a problem against RM and Bayern, but we have yet to see that since he is bringing some other things on table.
About being a classical controller (Xavi type), well, Barca is so much better than 90% of opponents that even if we get a red card and play with 10 players, we will still dominate the match and possession.

In numbers:
Barca vs opponents 11 vs 11:
65:35% possession

10 vs 11:
Still 55:45 possession for Barca

So, even if "remove" one player from our team, we will still dominate 90% of other teams.
Now, if we want to "bring back" that 11th player into a team, we can do 2 things:
1. bring a classic controller who will raise our possession from 55% to 65% and add nothing except passes and keeping the ball
2. or put a 4th forward in a lineup, or some false-Cam midfielder who will help in attacking sense

So, no matter what we do, we will dominate the match in 90% of cases.
So, we can use the 11th player in other areas.
We can strengthen a defense.
Or strengthen wings.
Or strengthen around-the-box-attacking-threat, like with Paulinho.

For example, just imagine that we had prime Xavi in our team yesterday instead of Paulinho.
What would we gain exactly in yesterday's match?
We would surely play more beautiful WHEN we have the ball, and we would have more left and right passes and higher possession.
Xaxi would probably create 2-3 more goal scoring opportunities for Messi and co.
But would Xavi help to a team in a way that Paulinho does, in terms of playing as a false Cam and dragging players away from Messi? No.
Not to mention muscles and won balls from Paulinho.

So, a possession battle is won even with 10 players.
Imo, it is a nice idea to use our "extra" player, the 11th guy, for something else.

The analogy would be:
Imagine if we play at Camp Nou against a team who parked a bus and plays 4411 with only 1 Cf rarely coming into our half.
Do we need 3 Cbs to keep an eye on 1 guy?
Do we need even 4-5 guys to keep an eye on 1 guy?
Or we could play with only 2 Cbs, risk and let the 3rd Cb to play as a Cdm or Cm in that match since he is not needed and wasted in defense against their lone striker (marked by 3 of our Cbs)?

The same is with our possession and control.
We have enough of possession and we have enough of control, regardless if we play with 10, 11 or 12 players.

This is why, imo, Paulinho is not "ruining" anything.
He is here to offer different things.
We don't need more control, possession and sterile passes. We have enough of that.

On the other hand, he is the only guy who can play as the 4th striker and add way more danger around the opponent's box when we struggle to score against midtable teams.

So guys, ask yourself:
On majority of nights when we lose points against midtable teams:
1. do we lose points because we didn't have enough of possession and control?
2. or do we lose points because we had enough of possession but we couldn't score a goal?

Well, we all know the answer.
THIS is EXACTLY why someone like Paulinho can help a lot to our team, especially against midtable and bottomtable teams.

** Yesterday's match, with Paulinho and "without" midfield control from him, we still had 39:61% possession in an away match.
That says it all.
 
Last edited:

Potroh

New member
Possession of the ball in itself is NOT domination.
You can watch dozens of games weekly, where a team has very high possession and still loses the game.

If you meant mere possession with time-killing passes between the defenders and midfield as being the typical Barca style, you were mistaken. Barca's traditional style is based on creativity and vagary.
Having said that, I agree with you on Paulinho... but not with the reasoning...
 

booge

New member
People complain about Paulinho not being a classical (Barca) midfielder and not offering too much control and passing.

Well, he could be a problem against RM and Bayern, but we have yet to see that since he is bringing some other things on table.
About being a classical controller (Xavi type), well, Barca is so much better than 90% of opponents that even if we get a red card and play with 10 players, we will still dominate the match and possession.

In numbers:
Barca vs opponents 11 vs 11:
65:35% possession

10 vs 11:
Still 55:45 possession for Barca

So, even if "remove" one player from our team, we will still dominate 90% of other teams.
Now, if we want to "bring back" that 11th player into a team, we can do 2 things:
1. bring a classic controller who will raise our possession from 55% to 65% and add nothing except passes and keeping the ball
2. or put a 4th forward in a lineup, or some false-Cam midfielder who will help in attacking sense

So, no matter what we do, we will dominate the match in 90% of cases.
So, we can use the 11th player in other areas.
We can strengthen a defense.
Or strengthen wings.
Or strengthen around-the-box-attacking-threat, like with Paulinho.

For example, just imagine that we had prime Xavi in our team yesterday instead of Paulinho.
What would we gain exactly in yesterday's match?
We would surely play more beautiful WHEN we have the ball, and we would have more left and right passes and higher possession.
Xaxi would probably create 2-3 more goal scoring opportunities for Messi and co.
But would Xavi help to a team in a way that Paulinho does, in terms of playing as a false Cam and dragging players away from Messi? No.
Not to mention muscles and won balls from Paulinho.

So, a possession battle is won even with 10 players.
Imo, it is a nice idea to use our "extra" player, the 11th guy, for something else.

The analogy would be:
Imagine if we play at Camp Nou against a team who parked a bus and plays 4411 with only 1 Cf rarely coming into our half.
Do we need 3 Cbs to keep an eye on 1 guy?
Do we need even 4-5 guys to keep an eye on 1 guy?
Or we could play with only 2 Cbs, risk and let the 3rd Cb to play as a Cdm or Cm in that match since he is not needed and wasted in defense against their lone striker (marked by 3 of our Cbs)?

The same is with our possession and control.
We have enough of possession and we have enough of control, regardless if we play with 10, 11 or 12 players.

This is why, imo, Paulinho is not "ruining" anything.
He is here to offer different things.
We don't need more control, possession and sterile passes. We have enough of that.

On the other hand, he is the only guy who can play as the 4th striker and add way more danger around the opponent's box when we struggle to score against midtable teams.

So guys, ask yourself:
On majority of nights when we lose points against midtable teams:
1. do we lose points because we didn't have enough of possession and control?
2. or do we lose points because we had enough of possession but we couldn't score a goal?

Well, we all know the answer.
THIS is EXACTLY why someone like Paulinho can help a lot to our team, especially against midtable and bottomtable teams.

** Yesterday's match, with Paulinho and "without" midfield control from him, we still had 39:61% possession in an away match.
That says it all.

Great opinion backed up facts :) The Lord is making people eat their BS words. :)
 

PhilS

Active member
He's the only midfielder who's played on this team in quite a few years who can take my breath away in crucial offensive opportunities. Maybe he should only be in the starting lineup some of the time, at least until he melds into the side better. Must play every game.
 

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