DonAndres
Wild Man of Borneo
First half was quiet. Won some dribbles and some defensive work but nothing too much as Blind was the main ball carrier in the midfield.
Then in the second half FDJ took control of the midfield entirely for the first 25 minutes or so which led to Ajax scoring. He made a lot of very good forward passes in this period and outplayed Kimmich and the other Ajax midfielders in general on the night. The red cards made the game chaotic mostly after that.
Then at the end he had that lackadaisical error which led to the goal, but also was important in the buildup of the attack for Ajax's equalizer.
Up and down game, had the 2nd most touches on the pitch at the end of it all. Pretty much no one on the pitch had a flawless game, much less so any of the midfielders (save for Thiago who came on at the end and carried Bayern). FDJ was able to make an impact in a big game and be one of the more notable midfielders on the pitch even though it wasn't a good performance.
If we do sell Rakitic for around 70-80+ that gives us a big financial boost. And it's not that much of a risk if we increase the role of both Arthur/Vidal who have proven themselves to be as good as we need them to be. Plus Coutinho who can play in midfield even if we do have to still figure out how to best fit him there.
As for Rabiot, you really seem to be overrating him quite a bit. This is a guy that gets benched for freaking Marquinhos in midfield at times and got benched for their last 2 CL wins. He put up an absolutely disgusting performance against Liverpool in the first game and then, quel surprise, they played way better without him and won the second game.
His wages aren't cheap and he has a horrible attitude. Didn't we have enough years of "cheap players who can contribute to the squad/make a difference" in Denis/Turan/Gomes/Paulinho/etc. That's basically another way of saying "mediocre dead weight that are ok enough to exist in the squad but not enough to be meaningful as a starter or impact sub". If we want to rotate, Aleña is already showing enough talent to take on more significant minutes.
Then in the second half FDJ took control of the midfield entirely for the first 25 minutes or so which led to Ajax scoring. He made a lot of very good forward passes in this period and outplayed Kimmich and the other Ajax midfielders in general on the night. The red cards made the game chaotic mostly after that.
Then at the end he had that lackadaisical error which led to the goal, but also was important in the buildup of the attack for Ajax's equalizer.
Up and down game, had the 2nd most touches on the pitch at the end of it all. Pretty much no one on the pitch had a flawless game, much less so any of the midfielders (save for Thiago who came on at the end and carried Bayern). FDJ was able to make an impact in a big game and be one of the more notable midfielders on the pitch even though it wasn't a good performance.
If we do sell Rakitic for around 70-80+ that gives us a big financial boost. And it's not that much of a risk if we increase the role of both Arthur/Vidal who have proven themselves to be as good as we need them to be. Plus Coutinho who can play in midfield even if we do have to still figure out how to best fit him there.
As for Rabiot, you really seem to be overrating him quite a bit. This is a guy that gets benched for freaking Marquinhos in midfield at times and got benched for their last 2 CL wins. He put up an absolutely disgusting performance against Liverpool in the first game and then, quel surprise, they played way better without him and won the second game.
His wages aren't cheap and he has a horrible attitude. Didn't we have enough years of "cheap players who can contribute to the squad/make a difference" in Denis/Turan/Gomes/Paulinho/etc. That's basically another way of saying "mediocre dead weight that are ok enough to exist in the squad but not enough to be meaningful as a starter or impact sub". If we want to rotate, Aleña is already showing enough talent to take on more significant minutes.
