8 - Pedro Gonzalez "Pedri"

Richard.H said:

He still looks tired to me. He must be overwhelmed to play so many senior matches at that age.

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Bobo32 said:

This player is technically gifted, ambitious, and sometimes does come up with brilliant solutions.

I think he is often in the wrong place positionally, get's caught in tight situations, forced to play backwards, turns the wrong way and play alibi passes etc.

I have a hard time judging his potential, but think he should be played as one of the wingers in a 4-3-3 rather than as a midfielder.

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Bobo32 said:

The one I would compare him to is maybe Di Maria. A bit more composed and a bit less of a typical winger, but I still feel that he is a winger playing in the center.
He is tricky, good 1v1, works hard, combines well. But I don't see him having the vision of a midfielder, more of a winger (he sees the tactics better than the strategics, to put it in chess terms)

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Bobo32 said:

That's great, a good game, although he looked pretty tired there for a while.
Let's see how he develops, and what his status will be if he plays like now but is 24 rather than 18. If he gets to play more in the middle of the pitch he will surely change some habits and his vision, but I don't think he will ever play like Iniesta.

My comparison with Di Maria has made many forum members laugh. Di Maria was regarded as top 3 in the world for a while, just like Iniesta. I always prefered Iniesta obviously. He oozed of talent, painted with a large brush and an easy hand and his vision and timing was close to perfect. He had the "matador" aspect in him in that he invited the press in order to beat it with a dribble or a pass - this is something that Messi, Xavi, Busquets, Thiago and also Puig has, but I don't yet see in Pedri. Like Di Maria, I see him wanting to force the play more by attacking a defender, and he either succeeds or is forced to pass backwards or sideways. He is more direct, and more of a complementary player - a spark - than a player to build a team around, based on his style, I say.

I like Pedris long passes, and he has a tendency to find nice one-touch passes (don't know the english word). I also liked his pass to Messi in the end of last game, perfect timing. I don't see him being aware of three, four passing options at the same time however, and I often want him five meters differently positionally. He is young and might change my mind. I still like him already.

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fergus90 said:

Ultimately Koeman must bring another midfielder of quality if he has no intention of using Pjanic, Puig etc to allow Pedri to be used and developed responsibly.

Moriba isn't ready to be first sub every game just yet or starting when Pedri is out. Pedri is off form but like behindbrowneyes said above, the difference in their positioning, distribution and calmness on the ball was night and day.

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DonAK said:

Foden is the superior talent, but let's calm down a bit.

Pedri turned 18 years old this season. This is his first season at this level and he was outstanding in the first half of the season.

Foden will turn 21 in a few weeks and took his time for Pep to trust him to start games like this. A couple of year ago you had people claiming Foden had to leave City since he wasn't getting many chances to play.

Step-by-step.

Let's not be silly.

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hardyboy said:

You need to be special to become an absolute starter at the age of 18 for a club like Barca. Pedri is nothing special. He only does the basics right which is not enough. The state of out club is like this because of players like Pedri who have become absolute starters at such young age without proving shit. Players like Frankie De Jong should be absolute starters if u want to build a world class team and compete with the likes of City.

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