4 - Ronald Araújo

mc_lovin said:

I don't think people understand what Barca DNA is about and use the term as a simple excuse for our failed transfer strategy in the last 10 years.

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This. As if any of Turan, Gomes, Dembele, Coutinho or Griezmann have 'Barca DNA'.

malvolio said:

This. As if any of Turan, Gomes, Dembele, Coutinho or Griezmann have 'Barca DNA'.

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Dembele Griezmann, Firpo, Vidal, Paulinho, lukk de Jong, Braithgoat, Turan, Gomez, KPB, Rakitic...
What do these players have in common with Barca DNA?
We just sign flops, no matter their DNA..
That is our trademark!

JohnN said:

Dembele Griezmann, Firpo, Vidal, Paulinho, lukk de Jong, Braithgoat, Turan, Gomez, KPB, Rakitic...
What do these players have in common with Barca DNA?
We just sign flops, no matter their DNA..
That is our trademark!

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true, but rakitic wasn't a flop. he was actually one of the best buys we made.

malvolio said:

true, but rakitic wasn't a flop. he was actually one of the best buys we made.

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True, and he wasn't in the mold of Barca DNA. Which just further proves, "Barca DNA" isn't a problem. The stupid decisions we made, are the problem.

JohnN said:

Dembele Griezmann, Firpo, Vidal, Paulinho, lukk de Jong, Braithgoat, Turan, Gomez, KPB, Rakitic...
What do these players have in common with Barca DNA?
We just sign flops, no matter their DNA..
That is our trademark!

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Braithwaite was a panic buy because of the situation at hand, and he has done better than expected.
Most of these players have nothing to do with Barca DNA, but seems to have been brought in order to get away from it, yes. A few of them managed to perform decently well 'for themselves' but the tragic thing is what it did to the players that were there and who had Barca DNA, and got to take the blame in some peoples eyes for the worse results.

Bobo32 said:

Braithwaite was a panic buy because of the situation at hand, and he has done better than expected.
Most of these players have nothing to do with Barca DNA, but seems to have been brought in order to get away from it, yes. A few of them managed to perform decently well 'for themselves' but the tragic thing is what it did to the players that were there and who had Barca DNA, and got to take the blame in some peoples eyes for the worse results.

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better than expected? i can't remember a single time braithwaite has bailed us out in a game or has been anything but a number to fill in the first 11. maybe real sociedad at home this season.

malvolio said:

better than expected? i can't remember a single time braithwaite has bailed us out in a game or has been anything but a number to fill in the first 11. maybe real sociedad at home this season.

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He was worse than expected in a few of his games, he has had some stinkers, but overall he is more technically able than I expected.
I usually don't keep specific games in my head, but I remember him being a threat and very useful in one game against Madrid.
He was a panic buy when the window was closed, he wasn't bought to bail Barcelona out but to be a player of la liga class. Of course I'd prefer if Collado, Konrad or maybe Peque got the chance but that's another question.

It's not as straight cut as 'barca DNA targets are the problem and that's all we've gone for.' of course. It's that we seem to think if players have good technical abilities (all those players mentioned above showed good-great technical abilities except the forwards who were emergency signings) then we seem to think they have what it takes to fit in at barca. The sporting department seems to completely ignore other characteristics.

We've never bothered replacing Pique or Busquets because of the sporting department thinking their technical abilities trump any other qualities. Despite countless examples showing they've been past it for years.

Rory said:

We've never bothered replacing Pique or Busquets because of the sporting department thinking their technical abilities trump any other qualities. Despite countless examples showing they've been past it for years.

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I am not sure about this tbh.
I think FDJ was signed as Busquets replacement, and Lenglet was supposed to be an Umtiti future partner.
I think it is simply we failed with our choices badly

khaled_a_d said:

I am not sure about this tbh.
I think FDJ was signed as Busquets replacement, and Lenglet was supposed to be an Umtiti future partner.
I think it is simply we failed with our choices badly

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i also think that we tried, but we have been too stupid to do proper scouting and plain unlucky when going in the transfer market.

De Jong is brought here as a Busquest replacement, people expected him to play Busquest role (also formed with next Xavi aka Arthur to dominate Europe lol).
Lengle was pretty solid under EV but things change now.

khaled_a_d said:

I am not sure about this tbh.
I think FDJ was signed as Busquets replacement, and Lenglet was supposed to be an Umtiti future partner.
I think it is simply we failed with our choices badly

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Not sure as they're both lefties. I think Lenglet was bought as Umtiti's backup/competition for him. Maybe the club was already worried about Umtiti's knees back then but obviously didn't expect he'll never play a serious game for us again (if they could predict a future I'm sure they would never renew him and rather take 60m from United but ofc hindsight is always 20/20) after he renewed his contract. I'm still of the opinion if Umtiti would stay fit and keep up his level a lot of things in last few years could be different. Lenglet is imo still more than good enough for a 3rd CB/occasional starter but shouldn't be a full time starter, even less alongside Pique because they are just both too slow. They looked ok in their first season together but things went the wrong way after that and they were exposed more and more.

I think Umtiti's injury alongside Neymar leaving (and us panicly spending all that money and more on Dembele and Cou instead of being smart and buy 5-7 players - this would increase odds at least two or three of them would turn out good - and those who wouldn't would be easier to offload - we've sold 30-40m "flops" like Gomes and Semedo with not too big loss) is what ultimately set us back and things got worse when amigos (mostly Busi and Alba, can't really say the same about Suarez for example whose last extension was in December 2016 when he was still playing on a high level) got new 5-year deals when they were close to their thirties and some signs of decline were already evident.

I wonder if we could try Umtiti as DMC. ReDs the game well, decent on the ball but lost his pace. Surely not as slow as Busi.

Back in the Rijkaard days our DMC were former CBs like Marquez and Edmilson.

Just an idea.

Porque said:

I wonder if we could try Umtiti as DMC. ReDs the game well, decent on the ball but lost his pace. Surely not as slow as Busi.

Back in the Rijkaard days our DMC were former CBs like Marquez and Edmilson.

Just an idea.

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not sure if serious or trolling

Porque said:

I wonder if we could try Umtiti as DMC. ReDs the game well, decent on the ball but lost his pace. Surely not as slow as Busi.

Back in the Rijkaard days our DMC were former CBs like Marquez and Edmilson.

Just an idea.

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Not so far out there tbh. I like to come up with alternate positions for players but never thought about that one. I prefer more tiqui-taco-able pivotes, but if they're going that route it could be worth a try.