Arthur

[Garrus]

Coutinho: successful dribbles after successful dribbles, through passes, forward passes, followed by threatening blasts from distances with occasional Tiki Takas mixed in

Arthur: back passes, side way passes, more back passes, side way passes, the easiest plays, the most obvious plays = the new/next Xavi

LMAO

Messi: Goals, Dribbles, Key passes, Through balls, Free kicks....

Busquets: Takes the ball from the CBs and pass it forward to the nearest player.

And If you think this comparison is superficial and nonsensical , Then the joke is on you.

 

[Danic]

Girona was done thats why they came barely in our box in the end.

 

[pregra]

This guy is getting the "Semedo-syndrome" already. Looks too scared in possession to do anything besides passing backwards and sideways.

 

[Raketa10]

As said, he moves off the ball and he is good at getting the ball from our box into an opponent's half.

But that is more or less it from his virtues for now.
I have said after 1-2 preseason matches that he seemed to moving like a bunny for 30 minutes and then he would suddenly slow down as if he lost the energy.

Today it was the same.
After 30-40 minutes, his off the ball movement was gone and he started to walk more and more.

Another question mark in my eyes: his defending.
I don't think that he is THAT good in defending.
He IS though good in those actions where you need to jump like a bulldog on your opponent (applying pressure right away after your team loses the ball).
So, he is good in that pressure and his stats will show some tackles and interceptions in that part.

But, once when an opponent keeps the ball for 10 seconds (when we don't get the ball back RIGHT away due to this pressure), he is quite meh in that regular defending when we sit deeper in our half.

If I am not mistaken, once when Rakitic stepped in, Girona barely came close to our box in the last 30 minutes even though we had only 10 players, right?
We can't say that it was only due to Rakitic, but Arthur has a lot to learn in that part of *regular* defending, positioning... and stamina, of course.

I know that people are blinded by his Xaviesque skills, but this player will need to improve LOTS of skills to come close to a level of Barca's starter in the future.

Stamina, regular defending, forward passes.

100% true. His defending could improve if he raises his stamina level though but this will take some time. Let’s be fair here if he had fitness problems against Girona what would happen in CL? He would die after 30 minutes. If he wants to achieve anything here he needs to work a lot, he needs to raise his fitness level A LOT and he also probably needs to take care of his diet.

 

[Arnaez]

anyone can receive the ball from the CBs/GK and get a lot of touches. there is nothing special about Arthur's game... positionally and technically average, is fairly mobile but can't dribble.

 

[gasgas]

This guy is getting the "Semedo-syndrome" already. Looks too scared in possession to do anything besides passing backwards and sideways.

He was passing backwarda and sideways in Gremio.
Nothing new here.

Those forward passes in youtube highlights were the exception not the norm

 

[KingLeo10]

He was passing backwarda and sideways in Gremio.
Nothing new here.

Those forward passes in youtube highlights were the exception not the norm

as if you followed him at gremio when you don't even follow barca games

 

[gasgas]

as if you followed him at gremio when you don't even follow barca games

once a backpass merchant always a backpss merchant

 

[BBZ8800]

Girona was done thats why they came barely in our box in the end.

I know that we had a man down, but this happened a lot of times tonight.
When Rakitic plays, him and Busi babysit for our whole team.
Today, with Busi-Arthur, often it was unclear who is a pivot.
When Busi was a pivot, I had a feeling that Busi was going too much in attack (due to Arthur's nature of playing too safe and like a pivot?) and then we would play without a pivot and it was easy to break us on counters behind Busi's and Arthur's back.

This video is not about Arthur, but in general how something was wrong in our midfield's defending and positioning.

Look at Girona's 2nd goal.
Who is a pivot here?
Who is defending?
Look how much space is behind our midfielder's back.

Ok, I know, we had a man down, but this happened even with 11 vs 11.
And I know, it could be trained (maybe) with more matches.
But we paid a price for learning tonight.

A giant hole between our defense and midfield.
No pivot.
3 midfielders watching the action and walking back while Girona is scoring.

We had 7 players (4 defenders and 3 midfielders) versus Girona's 6 players.
And we were outsmarted since all 3 midfielders were out of play later in that action and that actually turned from 7:6 action into 4:6 players action in 10 seconds.

Someone is missing who is usually babysitting around the box. Rakitic?

 

[Raketa10]

Problem is people are comparing him with Xavi and this is crazy to begin with. He has potential but it’s a long way from his current level to the level we all want him to reach. When you are phisically bellow required level it’s hard to show your talent. First of all he needs time and he needs to start working on his phisique more than he ever did. If he looks unfit on TV and from the stands than he is FOR SURE TOTALY UNFIT.

 

[Arnaez]

why would be unfit he was never injured or overplayed, just making excuses for a lack of ability.

 

[Felipetonelo]

Isn't anybody worried that every new player that comes to Barca as a very good player, starts to be a bad player after being coached by Valverde? I didn't see the game to make a comment about Arthur's performance, but looking at everyone comments, it seems he's getting worst day after day. So, players come to Barca with high expectations but most of them aren't that good after a couple months at Barca. I mean, there are just a few guys that were bad players before Valverde and became very good after him, but the opposite happens too often: Dembele, Semedo, Vidal, Lenglet, Malcom, Arthur, just to name these that I can remember.

 

[Alik]

Coutinho: successful dribbles after successful dribbles, through passes, forward passes, followed by threatening blasts from distances with occasional Tiki Takas mixed in

Arthur: back passes, side way passes, more back passes, side way passes, the easiest plays, the most obvious plays = the new/next Xavi

LMAO

Are you... are you somehow implying Coutinho is disliked in this forum?

 

[Raketa10]

why would be unfit he was never injured or overplayed, just making excuses for a lack of ability.

No one is making any excuses but if you watched the game it was clear he was dead tired after 45 min.

 

[DonAK]

Are you... are you somehow implying Coutinho is disliked in this forum?

I think people are just losing their minds and are trying to find ways to kick up some strange narrative around here

I don't think Arthur, Vidal or the rest of the players played too bad until Lenglet got sent off.