17 - Marc Casadó

[JamDav1982]

Frenkie clears Gavi and would be better than him in the freer role Pedri has now also.

This idea that Gavi is only second to Pedri and suffers as in same position is latest excuse.

Gavi has not been ahead of Frenkie by coaches when playing 433 either.

 

[Masetro10]

Then dont renew him...

Casado wont leave either and one of them has and will bring a lot more by staying.

I want Frenkie to stay

 

[Masetro10]

He has spoken about not really liking playing there and preferring deeper role. To date hasnt been nearly productive enough there.

He can prefer all he wants just like Kounde but if he has a spot it's going to be the 10 until we get a new coach because Frenkie and Pedri have to play.

 

[Messi983]

Could be the reason Deco just hired his friend from Portugal to help him.

Deco didn't hire Amaral to "help him", he's a new chief scout because the previous one didn't renew his contract.

 

[JamDav1982]

He can prefer all he wants just like Kounde but if he has a spot it's going to be the 10 until we get a new coach because Frenkie and Pedri have to play.

When he spoke about it I am sure he said it was conversations with Flick about him playing deeper as the AM role was not really suited.

He wont be as good at AM as Olmo, Fermin then have potential to play Raphinha there.

Only way could see FDJ, Pedri and Gavi together would be if they played both full backs higher up and Yamal comes narrower also and Yamal/Raph being more of the AMs with the three behind them more about dominating ball deeper and to help cover both FBs a bit more.

 

[Barcaman]

Deco didn't hire Amaral to "help him", he's a new chief scout because the previous one didn't renew his contract.

Which part of my post was wrong exactly? Deco hired his friend to help him. Literally.

 

[Messi983]

nope

 

[serghei]

He didnt have a great half a season though.

Had a good month or month and a half in and around October.

In August/Sept he played 4 of the 8 La Liga games and not v the better teams Barca faced then and was decent/good and played 1 CL game away to Monaco that Barca lost. Did his job well enough but nothing great.

Had a strong October then for most part he and team declined in November and December and was poor in January also.

Overall he was decent but this idea he had a great 6 months or half a season is not true. He and Pedri did not play all that well as a pair for majority of time they played together.

From coming from B team he did well and helped team but how well he did is being over played and team were faltering with midfield being part of that.

Peaked vs Madrid and Bayern and it was somewhat of a downfall since then for me. Don't know exactly the reason, maybe he got tired, not used to the pace, maybe lost confidence when he saw De Jong was back to full fitness, possibly both.

Flick lost a bit of confidence in him also when he saw most errors in midfield in that bad spell came from him. Two players had way less minutes since that period, Pena and Casado.

Midfield is a bit settled for me. Pedri, De Jong, Olmo, Gavi, Fermin, Casado in this order.

 

[JamDav1982]

Peaked vs Madrid and Bayern and it was somewhat of a downfall since then for me. Don't know exactly the reason, maybe he got tired, not used to the pace, maybe lost confidence when he saw De Jong was back to full fitness, possibly both.

Flick lost a bit of confidence in him also when he saw most errors in midfield in that bad spell came from him.

He fell off before FDJ was back to full fitness but maybe that also played part in poor 2025 but that is all part of being at a big club the competition.

Also it was his first season and there will be ups and downs but the point is to look at it realistically on how he played whereas some seem to think he was brilliant for 6 months or half a season when he wasnt.

It looked to me that teams got a bit wise to him and like Araujo they were doubling up on Pedri to allow Casado take the ball and mark the next pass while physically teams were dropping more and more balls into the area of Pedri and Casado and they are both very small to deal with that.

Casado and Pedri started 6 games together after the Supercopa.

Getafe - drawing 1-1.
Alaves drawing 0-0
Benfica Losing 3-1
R Sociead - Won 4-0. They were down to 10 men early.
Las Palmas - 2-0 away win.
Atletico - Losing 2-0

Pedri didnt play well in any of those games with Casado bar 10 men Sociedad and improved massively in the 4 games Casado went off and in three of them Barca turned round game to win.

Those two as a pair didnt work nearly as much as some folk make out.

 

[jamrock]

Haters gonna hate, he played as well as de jong did when he came back and that's fact.

As well in regular league games and as well in big games.

The loses we had in the league was also while yamal was out, but let's ignore that fact, as if de jong starting would have made a difference.

 

[jamrock]

He had a dip in form, like the entire team around the yamal injury, regain his form and then got injured.

Not the being all and end all, but note who's average match ratings he's higher than.

https://www.whoscored.com/teams/65/archive/spain-barcelona

They have the top 4 kind of right, get lewa outta there lol.

The fan boys just can't live with the fact that a kid for the 3rd division replaced there favourite player and the team didn't miss a beat, including big games against Madrid and Bayern.


So they have to pull him down, to lift up someone else, smh.

Give the kid his flowers, he was way more than decent, he was excellent.

Two things can be true as the same time, he could both have played excellent when given the chance and the Dutchie came back and played well too.

 

[JamDav1982]

De Jong was a step up when came back quite clearly and was a big reason why Barca turned the season around.

He didnt really regain form and if did was still nowhere near FDJ in and around those games.

Last game he played was still poor.

As said he had about one month of good form.

Was decent to good in August/Sept good in October and poor after that.

His bad form was for longer than any top form is the reality.

The argument 'the whole team was in bad form' doesnt really wash as the team were in 'bad form' for majority of time in 2025 when Pedri and Casado played together and improved dramatically with FDJ.

 

[jamrock]

Saddest part of his injury is if he wasn't and we had him to bring in as a sub, we would have more than likely beaten inter.

Because like he showed in the big games he has an eye for the pass, he would have created something or been in a good position defensively to minimize the chance of us conceding

His heart and worth ethic wouldn't have allowed us to fail.

 

[JamDav1982]

To be fair Gavi was absolutely awful when came on v Inter so maybe would have had a better chance.

FDJ was best midfielder on park by a long way as Inzaghi pointed out how impressed he was. Likes of Barella were atrociously bad.

The last CL game Casado started Barca were 3-1 down to Benfica and last game he started v Atletico Barca were 2-0 down before he went off having been beaten by Ateltico previously with Casado making an error.

Barca had a worse win % with Casado starting in first half of season but lets not let truth get in the way.

 

[Co0ter]

Casado was very good prior to the holiday break. Even when the team was struggling, he was overall playing well. That kid pressed and ran every second of every game, ontop of doing above average defensive work and finding some key passes. There were other players playing way worse than he was.

The team playing poorly overall or struggling due to Yamal is irrelevant to me. He played great towards the beginning of the season, whether we won, tied or lost.

He fell off after the holidays, then got nervy when De Jong came back and was playing exceptionally well. We definitely improved with Frenkie, he is our best midfielder by a large margin after Pedri. De Jong and Pedri are by far our best and most balanced pairing. Casado at the level he played prior to the hoidays isnt a player you let leave though. Keep them all, watch them train, keep who earned their place next season. He won't be worth much less next season than he would likely earn now anyway. 15mil, 20mil, 25mil etc won't make a difference to our finances.