Ilaix Moriba

MTL_Barca said:

Not really much difference to todays midfield, it's not like zombie Rakitic or Vidal give the team any stability either. With Puig and Pedri being solid prospects for offensive minded midfielders + Frenkie/Pjanic the team could use another physical CM but i doubt the board will buy someone good enough this window so i guess it's either the roster from above or the same + 33 year old Vidal if he doesn't get sold.

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We hear these stories "xx can't be worse than current players" for years.

Yet, till now, every single "xx" was way worse than the current players.
Don't forget: "nobody can be worse than Valverde".

I think that a roster from the original post is way weaker over 38 rounds than the current granny midfield.

But, let's wait and see.

Imo, in numbers, it's something like:
1) we dream about a golden midfield like from Pep's era, level 10/10
2) we have a 7/10 midfield with Busi, Raki, Vidal
3) we try to trade this 7/10 midfield to get back to glory days with 10/10 midfield.
Yet, in reality, new guys are usually a level 4/10 or 5/10.
Arda, Gomes, Denis, Samper, Arthur, Alena, Puig, Oriol, Paulinho, Coutinho.

I know, we won't get too far with 7/10 players.
But we'll sink even lower with overhyped 5/10 players.

BBZ8800 said:

We hear these stories "xx can't be worse than current players" for years.

Yet, till now, every single "xx" was way worse than the current players.
Don't forget: "nobody can be worse than Valverde".

I think that a roster from the original post is way weaker over 38 rounds than the current granny midfield.

But, let's wait and see.

Imo, in numbers, it's something like:
1) we dream about a golden midfield like from Pep's era, level 10/10
2) we have a 7/10 midfield with Busi, Raki, Vidal
3) we try to trade this 7/10 midfield to get back to glory days with 10/10 midfield.
Yet, in reality, new guys are usually a level 4/10 or 5/10.
Arda, Gomes, Denis, Samper, Arthur, Alena, Puig, Oriol, Paulinho, Coutinho.

I know, we won't get too far with 7/10 players.
But we'll sink even lower with overhyped 5/10 players.

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Always depends what exactly we talk about. For this ongoing season even Setien wasn't worse than Valverde, similar results, slighty better stats i think, equally disappointing football, played Puig while amigos aren't so fond of him. So all in all more or less the same i guess, so if a bum like Setien can take over mid season and achieve that it's probably not too hard.

Similar for midfield, just by still having legs even a bum like Roberto looks refreshing and Puig suddenly looks like Iniesta in some games lol. Rakitic is at a point where it's really not a big deal to replace him with whoever you want. 7/10 yeah maybe years ago but certainty not now.

The real challenge isn't to get even or slightly better and/or younger replacements though, it should be about aiming for true world class in all areas. But if it's between old, expensive, physically/mentally dead, average and young, cheap, motivated average players i'd rather go with the latter.

Same goes for Umtiti, with the level of play and the injuries i'd rather give his spot to Araujo, at least he can properly run and doesn't have knee discomfort after every game.

Ideally the squad would still need at least one high level reinforcement for the midfield either way but i don't have any hopes for this happening.

You realise we are going into the season with Pjanic-Busquets-Frenkie? Thats a 7/10 midfield at the very least by your metrics But yeah, we are doomed with a 4/10 midifeld without Rakitic, Vidal and the likes.

Your midfield apocalypse has to wait for now.

7/10 is busi/Raki/Vidal? Maybe 2015

BBZ8800 said:

That's a really horrible roster defensive wise.
Frenkie can't hold position.
Busi is on a verge of needing a wheelchair.
Roberto played 2 matches as a midfielder in the last 2 years.
Puig and Alena can't defend.
Pjanic is an unknown.

I guess that we will face a crazy amount of shots on our goal in the next season.

Messi-Suarez in attack, and midfield who can't defend behind them.

Oh, fun times are coming.

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That's why I've said in other threads we need someone like Partey or even Camavinga (though he's still young and unproven at the top level) as a midfielder destroyer to replace Busi in the lineup. Until he and Suarez are starters our chances for winning an important title are very low, I've already accepted that. But realistically we don't have money (or well, we're saving money for Lautaro) to bring another midfielder this year and more importantly we know Busi will stay a starter next year or even two regardless of who we'll bring.

Still, we need to rejuvenate the team somehow and while they all have question marks Puig, Roberto (as a midfielder) and Alena at least have fresher legs and are faster than Raki or Vidal. Personally I actually still like Raki (as a DM I think he's better than Busi these days) and Vidal (but mostly when he comes off the bench and brings his energy to the team; although they are different profiles I think Puig can take over that role next season) and wouldn't mind keeping one of them IF they would accept a backup role but they won't so they should leave. We'll see how Pjanic will adapt but hopefully he'll play in a more advanced role like he did at Roma and his first seasons with Juve. He should clearly be an upgrade over Arthur.

I think a full season under Pimienta who will polish his positional sense will do wonders for him.

Ilaix Moriba will train with the first week in pre-season, along with Jorge Cuenca, Tenas and Akieme. [md]

Training with the first team.

Tears in my eyes, dawg. Dembouz, Iliax and Ansu...the next holy trinity of FC Barcelona.

Devils said:

Training with the first team.

Tears in my eyes, dawg. Dembouz, Iliax and Ansu...the next holy trinity of FC Barcelona.

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The Moors are back to reclaim what was stolen.

Devils said:

Training with the first team.

Tears in my eyes, dawg. Dembouz, Iliax and Ansu...the next holy trinity of FC Barcelona.

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BBZ will burst your bubble and tell you only 10% of the prospects make it yada yada.

FinBarcelonafan said:

BBZ will burst your bubble and tell you only 10% of the prospects make it yada yada.

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But...it's true. How many barcaforum hyped La Masia products have made it in the past few years? Juan Miranda the next great LB successor, I remember reading essays about him; how he's basically "destined" to become a great player. Where is he? Where's Sergi Samper? Countless of others this forum has hyped and have failed to step up to top division football, let alone Barcelona's level. Don't know why so many of you guys waste so much emotional energy on players that haven't even played first team football yet. Relax on the hype.

Laplacian said:

But...it's true. How many barcaforum hyped La Masia products have made it in the past few years? Juan Miranda the next great LB successor, I remember reading essays about him; how he's basically "destined" to become a great player. Where is he? Where's Sergi Samper? Countless of others this forum has hyped and have failed to step up to top division football, let alone Barcelona's level. Don't know why so many of you guys waste so much emotional energy on players that haven't even played first team football yet. Relax on the hype.

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It's fun to talk about potential because it's exciting. Old players rarely have hidden potential anymore.

He is raw as it gets. For sure there is a potential but he needs to work hard for at lest 2 seasons in Barca B to develop properly.

Unreal player.

Hopefully he works on his work rate. Excellent player.