10 - Lamine Yamal

Feel bad for him having Kounde behnd him and Lewa on front of him.

Must be a fucking nightmare at times.

serghei said:

What he needs to do is simplify his game a bit. If he can't dominate some of the higher tier defenders 1 vs 1, then he needs to release the ball quicker, and work a bit harder off it.

This solo act with him making runs and taking players on is only good if it works. If not, it's costly, and can lead to many turnovers. But imo, it's not that bad that he is receiving some healthy dose of realism this season so far. That's what happens when you make a name for yourself, you're no longer the surprise kid and you get the full top player treatment. And this makes everything more difficult.

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His off the ball work is just weak.

I said this before but he is brilliant on the ball, the question is, what happens in games that are harder to get into, where there is less space, where ball to feet might not be possible?

He needs to learn to threaten more with his movement, to make runs in behind, to play with one or two touches, and then he will reach his full potential.

The best forwards all learnt how to threaten not only with the ball but also off it.

Unfortunately, to be an all time great, you need to have some off the chart physical attributes. Look at how strong and agile Messi's core and legs are

serghei said:

What he needs to do is simplify his game a bit. If he can't dominate some of the higher tier defenders 1 vs 1, then he needs to release the ball quicker, and work a bit harder off it.

This solo act with him making runs and taking players on is only good if it works. If not, it's costly, and can lead to many turnovers. But imo, it's not that bad that he is receiving some healthy dose of realism this season so far. That's what happens when you make a name for yourself, you're no longer the surprise kid and you get the full top player treatment. And this makes everything more difficult.

Click to expand...

He passes the ball back a lot when there isn't a way for pass forward. Even Vini accused him of doing this too much in clasico. The problem is him passing the ball back usually results into nothing for us because most of the time others are incapable of finding space to pass the ball forward and instead of playing the ball forward they keep passing it back resulting into enemy pressing us and eventually forcing our backline into hasty decisions with the ball.

We need RB someone like Dani Alves who has the stamina and skill to keep up with the best and make support runs for our best player. But that is easier said than done.

serghei said:

What he needs to do is simplify his game a bit. If he can't dominate some of the higher tier defenders 1 vs 1, then he needs to release the ball quicker, and work a bit harder off it.

This solo act with him making runs and taking players on is only good if it works. If not, it's costly, and can lead to many turnovers. But imo, it's not that bad that he is receiving some healthy dose of realism this season so far. That's what happens when you make a name for yourself, you're no longer the surprise kid and you get the full top player treatment. And this makes everything more difficult.

Click to expand...

Release the ball to who? He has no one close to him to play 1-2. His only choice is playing through pass or cross forward.

KingLeo10 said:

Unfortunately, to be an all time great, you need to have some off the chart physical attributes. Look at how strong and agile Messi's core and legs are

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Yeah but can you imagine Messi played hug the touchline role all the time, with Kounde as RB instead of Dani Alves???

vegitot said:

Release the ball to who? He has no one close to him to play 1-2. His only choice is playing through pass or cross forward.

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Facts

The haters who are getting at him for not showing up in big game so far this season are the same ones who downplayed when he was tearing everyone apart in every big game for 18 months straight.

Its just frankly regarded & make what araujo did today for the first yellow look genius

vegitot said:

Yamal showed that he can go between flank and central with ease. He is comfortable in central and he will get more options and choices.

What he needs now is team's tactic to allow him to play that way.

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I wouldn't change team's tactics because of Yamal.

In terms of tactics, in Football Manager words, Barca went from a slow sterile TikiTaka from the last decade to a more direct Vertical TikiTaka under Flick.

If you slow down the game and move Yamal more centrally, you will get more balls from Yamal but the team will have less space and less counters.

Our goal (tactics) is not to get the best out of Yamal but to win matches.
And in the last few years, big teams are moving away from a slow TikiTaka towards more vertical approach to avoid playing against parked buses for 90 minutes.

So, the question shouldn't be: how to change tactics for Yamal but instead how to make Yamal better in a faster, more direct version of TikiTaka football.

Sell him to psg and bring back Messi

I don't know if we're all talking about the same game, cause I saw Yamal's quality in this game, though not like against Bilbao. He created that first chance for Torres, and pushed the attack whenever he had the ball, and he didn't have the ball a lot. Chelsea, on the other hand, played well. They were pressing like bees, and it was like they weren't tired, cause I was starting to wonder if they were more than us, even when it was 11 v 11.

We would've had a better chance if there was a Pedri who could think and hold the ball under pressure, cause the pressing from Chelsea was a lot, and only Yamal and Balde were able to push forward sometimes. Cucurella was also in his A game against Yamal, and Chelsea also had an extra player helping Cucurella when Yamal was on the ball, like they didn't even allow Barca to think with the ball, would've definitely been easier with a Pedri, but kudos to Chelsea.