3 - Gerard Pique

Well he didn't play against Chile either. Crap ending to his otherwise solid season.

So then, swings and roundabouts.

Luckily we still have this guy in our defence.

Why search for a new 9 and pay millions of bucks when we have pique in the roster?

Sarcasm aside this guy must be more responsible and needs to be a leader like puyol. May be we should make him captain to see how he changes on the pitch. Those lapses of concentration will cost us trophies next season.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Tapatalk

We don't have any real captain in our squad... not good

iamrohith said:

Why search for a new 9 and pay millions of bucks when we have pique in the roster?

Sarcasm aside this guy must be more responsible and needs to be a leader like puyol. May be we should make him captain to see how he changes on the pitch. Those lapses of concentration will cost us trophies next season.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

He really didn't have any lapses last season. He really stepped up his game, but then that damn hip injury ruined everything.

Alarcón said:

We don't have any real captain in our squad... not good

Click to expand...

soon...

Riiiiight...

Yeah, I know he won't actually be a captain of Barca any time soon, but he is definately captain material, so maybe in a few years time...a man can dream!

I doubt he'll be a captain as long as there are players next to him who are either older, have played more games, or are homegrown. And considering that he's 22, German, came directly into the first team from Bundesliga, and currently has zero minutes for Barca, he's pretty much last in line for captaincy.

Stric said:

I doubt he'll be a captain as long as there are players next to him who are either older, have played more games, or are homegrown. And considering that he's 22, German, came directly into the first team from Bundesliga, and currently has zero minutes for Barca, he's pretty much last in line for captaincy.

Click to expand...

This.

He does have a sense of leadership in him which is great for the team IMO, but he will most likely never be the captain of Barcelona.

DonAK said:

This.

He does have a sense of leadership in him which is great for the team IMO, but he will most likely never be the captain of Barcelona.

Click to expand...

Only way I see him becoming captain is if he stays here for 10+ years. Which of course, he very well could do.

DonAK said:

This.

He does have a sense of leadership in him which is great for the team IMO, but he will most likely never be the captain of Barcelona.

Click to expand...

Why not? He's going from the ground up right now but with a good trajectory he's in the right range age/experience wise to be leading the next generation in the future at a certain point in time. He has the character for it.

In his first season all it'll take is a great attitude and consistent performances and/or gradual improvement (plus the occasional wonder-game where he bails us out) to make an impression on his teammates and the coach. After that he's settled in and gradually acts more vocal becoming one of our 'insiders', giving him an actual role in the dressing room. He does that for 2-3 years increasing his importance more and more along the way and then he'll be about 25/26 years old which is still pretty early in his career.

By then it's 4 years down the line total and he's theoretically an integral member of the team and the dressing room. Having experienced triumphant successes and tragic failures with his teammates he's built a fairly strong bond with them. Marc, being a pretty sentimental guy (shown by his dedication to Mönchengladbach) is self-sacrificial in attitude and has a dominant enough character to influence others. This is at a time where our bigger veterans (Iniesta, Masch, etc.) are close to retirement and playing less or have already left while other seasoned stars (Busi, Pique, Messi) don't have the profile of a captain. His tenure at the club is in the right transition period to be at his peak when the older generation is dying out and the younger generation doesn't have seniority to him.

At that point he's clocked in enough years to not be viewed as an outsider, rather an important inside member of the team. Sure he won't ever have the 'La Masia' label but there are many other more significant attributes to have for captaincy. The coach, whoever it is at that point (though I hope Lucho can be enough of a success to stay for a long time, tired of the managerial merry-go-round) won't have that bias towards the older golden generation that we do right now so MAtS should get a fair shot even if he isn't the oldest player in the squad. There might be some other obstacles (appreciation for Messi's abilities may one day faultily portray him as "captain material" just because he's our star) but it's certainly not out of the question that it'll happen.

Do you expect him to become the captain if there is a voting regime?

I can see Bartra(I see him becoming a WC CB in the future and staying for a very long time) coming out on top if it goes down to voting and he himself is quite young as well. You are right about that if he does well and stays many years then he will be viewed as a core member of the team and that some of the other players might not have the profile of a captain, but I honestly doubt that will stop them from becoming so and I hardly see the manager influencing the choices for the captaincy that much either to be honest.

So can he become the captain in the future? Yes, of course he can, but will he? I doubt it.