Do you remember first ever match in starting line up by every one of our mids since 2000? FFS, people in the internet era have become crazy. Guy just played his debut match as a starter (while having played half an hour as a sub before) in very disadvantageous circumstances and wasn't even close to being among worst players and guys on here are already drawing grand conclusions. Shit's ridiculous.
From what we have seen with Gremio, Brasil and Barca, he plays exactly the same in his whole senior career.
Try to watch any clip from Brasil, he plays exactly the same in every match.
Is there actual stats to back this up?
Haven't looked into it myself BUT even if the stats show he has less forward passes than a lot of previous midfielders... you are definitely going overboard with this one mate.
Look at his minutes so far below... how can you make any judgement on a player based on that who is also new to the team. C'mon bro.
La Liga - 13 mins - 14 mins - 58 mins (Red card from 35 min onwards)
UCL - 7 mins
Supercup - 53 mins (First official Barca game)
As said to Gnidro, from what I have seen TILL NOW from Arthur in Gremio, Brasil and Barca, he plays exactly the same in every single match:
Get the ball out of our half.
And once when he gets into the opponents half, he plays as his only moto is: keep the ball, slow down the tempo, pass sideways, keep the possession no matter what.
I commented before, as if he watched videos from 2010, but nobody told him that the world moved on since then and that a possession for the sake of possession is not a positive thing anymore.
The whole point is that it's far too soon to judge him yet. Your thesis haven't been proven right because a journo said that he was a little too cautious in his first ever La Liga start lol. I can't even imagine how would you have reacted towards Xavi who was repeatedly mocked by the press for only playing sideway passes far into his first team career.
I watched young Xavi and I loved him from the day 1, even though he was a young player (so, no, I don't hate all young players).
We had exactly the same discussion for 2-3 times regarding Xavi vs Arthur in the last few weeks, so let's repeat the basics:
1. I know, it is stupid to compare anyone with Xavi
2. but since people say that Arthur looks like Xavi in some areas and that he plays in his role, let's do some comparisons between 22 aged Arthur and 22 aged Xavi
3. and I know that back then teams were leaving more space (but on the other hand, we didn't know about Pep's possession back then, so maybe we risked more, had a faster transition, and we weren't as much possession obssessed?)
Anyway, if you look 22 years old Xavi, let's say that out of 10 passes:
He will have 6-7 sidepasses/backpasses and 3-4 forward passes.
So, I know, you need to play sidepasses and backpasses to keep possession.
But the thing is, my estimation, Xavi will play 3 forward passes out of 10 passes.
Arthur will play 0 or 1 forward passes out of 10 passes, if you understand my point?
In total, Arthur (in his whole career) is too much oriented towards keeping possession no matter what.
Further, out of 10 passes, Xavi will sometimes have 10 touches, but often he will play a fast 1st touch pass or a 2nd touch pass.
On the other hand, Arthur rarely plays 1st touch passes.
He touches the ball (at least against Girona) on average (my stats after watching a video) 4 times before releasing it.
And too often he has 7-10 touches and STILL plays a backpass after that.
In short:
Xavi was playing a lot of sidepasses. But more like 7 out 10.
Arthur plays 10/10 or 9/10 sidepasses and backpasses.
Xavi was also hogging the ball sometimes.
But more like 2 times out of 10 passes.
Arthur holds the ball for too long in like 5 out of 10 passes.
And still, nobody was able to find a single player in the last 18 years who was THIS cautious in his career before Barca and at Barca (for now).
Why am I attacking Arthur?
Well, because people are talking for years: controller this, controller that, Arthur could be the new Xavi or similar to him.
And then a guy is just slowing down the game all the time and doing more or less nothing with his passes than keeping possession.
For me, there isn't too much similarities with Xavi except his off the ball movement and making himself available for pass (only to pass back after that, ouch) and his ability to get the ball out of our half.
One more time, I know that it is stupid to compare anyone with Xavi, but since people are often mention Xavi in this thread (and you have now mentioned him again), so NO: Xavi wasn't cautious at all in young years.
Xavi aged 22 against Real Madrid:
Arthur aged 22 vs Girona:
