21 - Frenkie de Jong

catalinutzR80 said:

Ah yes good old Ivan ,, Lampard " Rakitic who was an elite medium-long distance shooter that managed to score an unheard 10 goals in around 150 games in his last 3 Barca seasons here.


Goalkeepers would often give up before seeing him shoot from 35 meters away because they knew they didn't have a chance in the first place.

Click to expand...

He was shit post wc 2018, thats a fact

BBZ8800 said:

What I dislike in a new generation of our midfielders who were raised ONLY to move the ball and pass, can you imagine Pedr/Frenkie ever taking a shot out of nowhere from this possession?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NofeAXFftLA

Or:

Or:

I just can't understand these new midfielders who can't shoot and don't have any attacking/killer instincts even if their life depended on it.
They won't shoot even from perfect positions, not to mention shooting from risky positions or pulling some shot/attacking move out of nowhere.

Click to expand...

Pedri tried to shoot more in Benfica game, including one from distance. He is still not good at this. De Jong, honestly, i don't even think i see him taking a shot outside the box. Not his strength either.

Kul_z said:

He was shit post wc 2018, thats a fact

Click to expand...

He declinced but not as bad as people thought. His form after Covid in 2019/20 is very good.

vegitot said:

He declinced but not as bad as people thought. His form after Covid in 2019/20 is very good.

Click to expand...

I think he was atrocious after wc 2018. Kinda ruined his legacy for many people in that period, people here were screaming he's the reason why we suck. Myself included. He had his days here and there but overall he was bad, him and busquets in pair were definition of turtle's.

Kul_z said:

I think he was atrocious after wc 2018. Kinda ruined his legacy for many people in that period, people here were screaming he's the reason why we suck. Myself included. He had his days here and there but overall he was bad, him and busquets in pair were definition of turtle's.

Click to expand...

People here also thought Messi is the problem, Suarez, Alba ,Busi, Pique... Literally anyone over 30 and Roberto.

Large part of Rakitic's downfall was he basically played every game for two years without a break. Then by the time 18/19 started he was pretty much running on fumes especially after the World Cup.

catalinutzr80 said:

ah yes good old ivan ,, lampard " rakitic who was an elite medium-long distance shooter that managed to score an unheard 10 goals in around 150 games in his last 3 barca seasons here.


Goalkeepers would often give up before seeing him shoot from 35 meters away because they knew they didn't have a chance in the first place.

Click to expand...

[mention=16942]bbz8800[/mention]

Kul_z said:

Tell me 10 better/ more consistent mfs of last decade:

Captain of sevilla side that won europa league in 2014, was a crucial player for them

2014/15 benched xavi, runned his lungs out for messi, scored in cl final.

Pretty frequently scored in el classico games, and always showed up.

His world cup 2018 was his peak, he sold his soul for that tournament. Modric was great but it was rakitic who pulled the strings, and those penaltys he took when he was cold as ice lifted the team spirit and you could already know that croatia would advance unlike modric choking.
I still cant believe that he isn't in barca legends section, because he is that. He was shit after wc 2018 but that doesnt change the fact that he played a crucial part in our side for years, and pretty well too.

Click to expand...

Tru

When it comes to Messi and CR7, BBZ goes - Current era has inflated stats, they played on super teams, their goals don't count as much

When it comes to Rakitic and his 5 goal a season average while at Barca - Look at Ivan "Frank Lampard" Rakitic. Like we're supposed to be impressed by this when Xavi averaged 9 goals a season during Pep's 4 seasons (in Pep's schoolboy midfielders never shoot offense no less).

Which is it, dawg?

The problem with making up narratives is that they seldom (very, very rarely) hold true across multiple arguments.

The only amazing feat of his that I can recall is that he is reverse balding.

catalinutzR80 said:

Ah yes good old Ivan ,, Lampard " Rakitic who was an elite medium-long distance shooter that managed to score an unheard 10 goals in around 150 games in his last 3 Barca seasons here.


Goalkeepers would often give up before seeing him shoot from 35 meters away because they knew they didn't have a chance in the first place.

Click to expand...

Let's put him in a comparison with awesome midfielders who were supposed to bench him and with whom Barca will fly once when Rakitic is gone.
La Liga + Champions league:
Rakitic 260 matches, 31 goals for Barca
Arthur 61 matches, 3 goals
Frenkie 90 matches, 5 goals
Pedri 48 matches, 4 goals

A player will score each xx matches:
8,3 Rakitic
12 Pedri
18 Frenkie
20,3 Arthur

Frenkie and Arthur on average bring 2 goals each over 38 league rounds (if they play every single match).

Also, look to whom these guys are scoring.
List of Frenkie's goals:
Valencia, Betis, Sociedad, Huesca, Elche

Arthur: Osasuna, Villareal, Eibar

Pedri: Betis, Bilbao, Levante

So:
1. new guys not only rarely shoot and score
2. but even when they score, that is rarely against a good team
So, when you sum it all: is it such a surprise that since we have these new guys (apart from Mess's decline and leaving) that midfield never scores in big matches and that we lost every single big game in the last 12-18 Months?

Yet, you always laugh to a guy who scored in a CL final, scored 2 crucial shootout 5th pens for Croatia on a World cup 2018, scored against Juve (twice), City, Tottenham, 4 times vs Real Madrid, 4 times vs Atletico, 2 time vs Barca, 3 times vs Sevilla.
He scored some really nice screamers in his time here which you probably won't ever see from this new gen of midfielders:

BBZ8800 said:

I just can't understand these new midfielders who can't shoot and don't have any attacking/killer instincts even if their life depended on it.
They won't shoot even from perfect positions, not to mention shooting from risky positions or pulling some shot/attacking move out of nowhere.

Click to expand...

I read once it is "analytics" thing. Statistically shooting out of the box is one of the worst plays for a team, worse than cross for example and teams/coaches/players are taught to avoid it most of the time.
If you are into basketball, it is sort of football's midrange.

khaled_a_d said:

I read once it is "analytics" thing. Statistically shooting out of the box is one of the worst plays for a team, worse than cross for example and teams/coaches/players are taught to avoid it most of the time.
If you are into basketball, it is sort of football's midrange.

Click to expand...

YEs,
that's the reason, and all top coaches like Pep, Tuchel, Klopp, Nagelsman etc instruct their players not to take a shot from outside the box

It's an archaic concept that BBZ is fixated with.
There are very good reasons a player should avoid taking a shot outside the box at least 95% of the time
It rarely goes in

Shooting out side the box does require some skills and power. None of current midfielder are close to Raki's shooting ability.

Even Koeman was frustrated last season when players didn't shoot when the team needed goals and there were enough space.

Lets not forget that Rakitic took a lot of long shots too. I remember countless times those lowly driven back spin shots that smacked against adboards on the left side of the goal.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Rakitic play as a 10 mostly throughout his career? It's only natural that he scores more goals than someone like Frenkie.