Sergio Busquets

khaled_a_d said:

I would say the most important part is to forget about single pivot system. It's time is over and there is no one who can protect defense and help in build up at the same time playing a single pivot.
You mention Tchoumeni for example, but he has the same issues you mention about those players, and his team has to make switches and some "your turn, my turn" movements while other players take some of the burden from him.

Once you make that decision to evolve that style, it simply open things or us and many of the options simply don't look as bad.

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Couldn't agree more. The whole golden era is over. Time to adapt and evolve. The biggest problem in my opinion is Xavi and his "vision" of how we should play. His addiction to so called Barca philosophy is killing the club. For the love of God try something else. Even KOEMAN was willing to experiment with different formations. Xavi is so close minded and stubborn it's crazy.

DonAK said:

Guys like Enzo Fernandez and Romeo Lavia really need to be looked at. They won't be cheap either and whilst they might be playing a more B2B style currently for their teams they have grown up playing as CDMs.
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Apparently Ramon Planes wanted to sign Enzo in 2021 but club didn't want him. Don't know if that was before or after Xavi's arrival (probably before as Planes left just a week or so after Xavi's appointment IIRC). Anyway, I can understand why we couldn't sign him in summer 2021 but even last summer when we were throwing money around Benfica signed him for around 12m and add-ons. They'll clearly ask for at least 50-60m now.

As much as I loved Tchouameni and wanted him here I can understand why we didn't go for him for that price. But OTOH guys like Fernandez and Mohamed Camara (still my personal favourite, did you take a look at him already?) were available for less than 20m just a few months ago.

Also, talking about Benfica's midfielders Florentino Luis is enjoying quite a good start of the season as well after finally geting a fair chance in their first team under Roger Schmidt. Caught my attention a few times I've watched him while on loan at Getafe last season as well. Not advocating we should sign him as I don't think he can really play as a lone DM but will be interesting to see how his career will progress anyway as I think he's one of those players who needed a bit more time (he turned 23 in August) to mature/develop and/or the right coach to believe in him to fully establish himself. Benfica was pretty much ready to give up on him as they've included buy options in his last two loans to Monaco and Getafe but now he has returned and convinced them enough to earn a contract renewal until 2027 signed just last week.

khaled_a_d said:

I would say the most important part is to forget about single pivot system. It's time is over and there is no one who can protect defense and help in build up at the same time playing a single pivot.
You mention Tchoumeni for example, but he has the same issues you mention about those players, and his team has to make switches and some "your turn, my turn" movements while other players take some of the burden from him.

Once you make that decision to evolve that style, it simply open things or us and many of the options simply don't look as bad.

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What big team plays with a double pivot? Bayern? City? Liverpool? Real?

Double pivot is another step at killing the attacking side of our game. Just like three at the back and other shit like that.

Let's just get Jose, park the bus and be done with.

malvolio said:

What big team plays with a double pivot? Bayern? City? Liverpool? Real?

Double pivot is another step at killing the attacking side of our game. Just like three at the back and other shit like that.

Let's just get Jose, park the bus and be done with.

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Offence wins games, defence wins Championships.
Our defence was pretty solid when we won all those titles.
Puyol, Mascherano, Marquez,Alves, even Alba and Pique.
We concede too many soft goals at the moment and I'd like to see us emphasise a more defensive, counter attacking style. I think alot of our players would do better in a counter attacking team. Time for some change. Everyone knows how we play and it's a massive concern when your biggest rival barely break a sweat beating you and you already know how they will play against you.

Barcilliant said:

Offence wins games, defence wins Championships.
Our defence was pretty solid when we won all those titles.
Puyol, Mascherano, Marquez,Alves, even Alba and Pique.
We concede too many soft goals at the moment and I'd like to see us emphasise a more defensive, counter attacking style. I think alot of our players would do better in a counter attacking team. Time for some change. Everyone knows how we play and it's a massive concern when your biggest rival barely break a sweat beating you and you already know how they will play against you.

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We didn't play a double pivot for that. We just had better defenders/in their prime. Just parking the bus with lots of defensive players isn't going to make us a better team. And it's not our style to park buses anyway, we are not good at doing it.

malvolio said:

We didn't play a double pivot for that. We just had better defenders/in their prime. Just parking the bus with lots of defensive players isn't going to make us a better team. And it's not our style to park buses anyway, we are not good at doing it.

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The most successful teams are the most balanced ones. The ones who know how to attack and park the bus when necessary. We can play only one way and that has resulted in only 5 cl. 4 if those were won by extremely talented teams. Only the Rijkaard team was slightly less talented and it still had greats like Ronnie, Eto and Puyol
If you want to play the Barca way and still win the cl you need a hugely talented team and a bit of luck.
At this rate we will need to wait 30 years before our next CL win.

Barcilliant said:

The most successful teams are the most balanced ones. The ones who know how to attack and park the bus when necessary. We can play only one way and that has resulted in only 5 cl. 4 if those were won by extremely talented teams. Only the Rijkaard team was slightly less talented and it still had greats like Ronnie, Eto and Puyol
If you want to play the Barca way and still win the cl you need a hugely talented team and a bit of luck.
At this rate we will need to wait 30 years before our next CL win.

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I didn't say we should play exactly the same, as we obviously lack the personnel. But double pivot when no successful team played that? And don't give me examples like a fluke Chelsea or Inter CL win parking buses.

There is tactical variation from time to time, of course. Managers can switch for a game or two, depending on opponent or injuries.

malvolio said:

What big team plays with a double pivot? Bayern? City? Liverpool? Real?

Double pivot is another step at killing the attacking side of our game. Just like three at the back and other shit like that.

Let's just get Jose, park the bus and be done with.

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Most of those teams don't use single pivot anymore.
And Bayern use double pivot a lot, and did it the most under flick and Jupp Heynckes.

Liverpool does it a lot with Thiago sitting deeper role, and sometimes Henderson too.
Real after Casamero use a less rigid system now, with players exchanging roles rather than exclusive single pivot.
City is the only obe,and even them used double pivot plenty of time.

And No, double pivot is niether more offensive or defensive game plan, it depends on how you execute it

khaled_a_d said:

Most of those teams don't use single pivot anymore.
And Bayern use double pivot a lot, and did it the most under flick and Jupp Heynckes.

Liverpool does it a lot with Thiago sitting deeper role, and sometimes Henderson too.
Real after Casamero use a less rigid system now, with players exchanging roles rather than exclusive single pivot.
City is the only obe,and even them used double pivot plenty of time.

And No, double pivot is niether more offensive or defensive game plan, it depends on how you execute it

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THIS

Barca plays 1 million times better without this turtle.

Hopefully he never plays for Barca again.

Devils said:

Hopefully he never plays for Barca again.

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Yep. Hoping for a winter move to Inter Miami.

His contract is up by next summer, right?

Skalman said:

His contract is up by next summer, right?

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Xavi wants him to sign an extension innit?

Another game Busquets benched, another easy win. 3-0 against Villarreal with him sitting on the bench.

Becoming a bit too strong of a correlation to ignore now. At the very least, we can say it does not make a difference if he plays or not.

Xavi made a mistake not fucking him off to Inter Miami when he wanted to go in the summer.