Okay, I'll acknowledge that, but do any of you believe that Roberto should be a long-term option as Barcelona's RB?
If you put Roberto and Carvajal and let's even include Kimmich, at their best, Carvajal followed by Kimmich are far, far better than Roberto it's not even funny.
A couple of days late, but I will answer that here.
I think it depends on many factors:
1-I believe what Crujif once said that best change is the one from inside, and when I look at Roberto I see he has been used as RB for 3 seasons. 1st one in 15/16 he was a back up who was used when needed. but from last year (16/17) he was a full time RB, when season started he looked brilliant. Remember when people complained when we were linked with RBs? saying why while we have a gem in Roberto? then everything went south for him and we looked like playing without a RB at all. He ended the season with an acceptable form. Now this season (one that just ended) Roberto looked much better IMO, he was considered by many as one of best RBs in Liga if not the best. while he was still liability in some games this was a significant improvement from last year, can he keep building on that?
On one hand at the age of 26 he isn't young, on the other hand he is same age of Mascherano when we signed him in 2010, and Mascherano became a CB in later part of his first season. Roberto seem like a hard worker.
He doesn't have a physical limitation for the position unlike Mascherano who was too short, sure Roberto isn't the fastest full back out there but I don't think he is slow either in comparison to the likes of prime Alves/Cafu or Marcelo.
Mascherano was called "not a CB" for 5 years out of 7 and half he played here. he was never as good as Puyol and yet when he left people were saying goodbye legend. I can't help but wonder if that could be the case again.
2-The second factor for me is playmaking fullback. Giovanni van Bronckhorst,Zambrotta,Roberto all played in midfield for some time in their careers, Alves is a brazilian fb which all seem to play with play making ability. all of them were capable of creating something and connecting to their teammates to some extent, what I would call they were all playmaking fullback. I think this is very important in Barcelona. and very underrated aspect for our fullback. Alba is probably the best FB we have but he isn't that type of playmaking one.
That is the main reason I've been advocating or Roberto over Semedo, the later just doesn't have it, like at all. he plays with his head down and this limit his awareness to where he and teammates are, for me if Semedo met his potential he will be a taller right version of Alba. which is good, really good -although I have doubts he will reach that level-but isn't what we need, not with Alba himself on LB
Could this change? may be, may be we find a way we use same type of FBs without making the type even less creative than they were last year. But it will be team adaptation and not just a RB change.
3-What is on the market? Look, I haven't been watching as much football as I would love too in past few years so I might be missing something. but the way I see it I would say between top teams there are clear top notch players in that position when in for: Carvajal,Kimmich and Walker
All whom we don't have a chance to get, after that you go to Valencia/Bellerin or grandpa Alves/Lichtsteiner of RBs. even Carvajal when at his best were a liability against top notch attackers like Neymar.
Is there is some hidden gem we can get that I don't know about? more than possible, but I won't bet on it.
So overall, I can see a possibility of Roberto being a long term RB for us, I won't deny that the idea of getting another top notch RB is very tempting but I would like to see what happens next season before making a conclusion
And Odriozola is one of the RB I would like us to follow, hence I won't mind if the deal with RM fails
