Ibrahim Afellay

El Guaje

Member
No way is Afellay going to take Pedro's spot in the starting XI. The big difference is work rate and positional sense. Nobody on the team comes close to Pedro's work rate, although he's been playing injured since the Arsenal tie and it's slowed him down. Positioning is a big weakness for Ibi. I expect him to get better once he learns some Spanish and after a full preseason with Pep, but it would be surprising if anytime soon he catches up to Pedro who has the huge advantage of playing in la cantera. To me the competition should be between Ibi and Jeffren for the impact sub spot, but it seems like Jeffren is not really getting a shot as he was the most productive attacker on the pitch against Osasuna in the first half but he was subbed off anyway at half time. It will be interesting to see what he can do with playing time in La Liga to close out this season.

Positioning & work rate is another advantage for Pedro, yeah. But its not like Afellay aint running, he was also running up and down when playing & pressing the other players.

Position, I agree. But that is one of the things you get better on when you play a lil more.
 

SeloBarca

Senior Member
affelay "stop" the play to much as it is now, and his positioning is quite bad, maybe he will improve but hes not nearly as good as a pedro on form
 

gingerless

Active member
almost got us a goal in the end... thank thiago for that horrible miss. playing out of position he was decent imo, should have played him in mid rather than thiago if we had another forward
 

Galning

Moderator
Good run at the end, pretty average performance overall. Still not impressed. Was surrounded by a B-team so let's give him some credit.
 

rmpcsl

New member
Pedro is better no doubt but today he played ok with no help by fontas it was affe against 2 defenders and fontas never crossed the midfeild to help him.
 

Silver

New member
Some days ago he was already praised as the new world football player. 4 days later everyone is back with his feet on the ground. Don't judge a player on one match and defiantly don't judge a pleyer on 20 minutes. Marcelo played 70 minutes more than him. If I run with a guy that has played 70 minutes more then it's normal that I'm less exhausted that him.

Still his overall report for his 4 months is POSITIVE. But still he should work on his finishing if he really want a future spot in the starting XI. If you play as Winger for FC Barcelona you need to make assists, what he does, but also you need to be able to make some goals.

I'm sure he keeps working hard and will grow more as a FC Barcelona player. I doubt he will ever have a spot in the starting XI. Players like Pedro, Villa, Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Mascherano you don't bench that easy. Still for the time being he is a very good back up.
 

El Guaje

Member
Decent match imo. Some good stuff and some bad. He and the whole team seemed to be not interested in the match at all apart from Thiago & Pique.

The run in the end was just awesome. To bad he didnt score.
 

Home of Barca Fans

Top