19 - Lamine Yamal

[Temptation]

Dude is 17 and already 180 cm. I hope he doesnt grow more Cm no homo. Being tall will limit his Inside dribbling.

BBZ will love him more if he's taller though........

 

[vegitot]

Dude is 17 and already 180 cm. I hope he doesnt grow more Cm no homo. Being tall will limit his Inside dribbling.

He likely grows taller though. He of course will grow stronger physically too.

And if he moves to central position it will be fine.

 

[OVI9323]

You are dishonest.

I don't say "everyone will fail".
I tell you exactly why, among the first.

When Neymar came, 90% of fanbase thought that he will be Messi's hair. How we will win lots of CLs with him and how he'll win several BallonDOrs.

Some posters probably remember those debates, Barcaman and Flavia (was that her name?) had to lock and delete Neymar's topic.

I was saying from the day1 that Neymar is not "that guy" who will bring us more glory.
He had good skills, but something about his persona and a style of play was off.
His best season with 30-40 goals came when Lucho forced him to reduce clown tricks and play faster and more efficient.
And we won a CL.
In the next season, Neymar ignored advices, returned to his instincts (dribble more, slow down the play, doing unneeded tricks for no reason), and he has never returned to that good level from our treble season.
At Brazil and Psg, he suffered from the same problems and never won major titles and underachieved.

I still remember 2016 and 2017, and Barca chat during matches.
I used to count how many times Neymar touched the ball.
And one problem was evident back then:
1) Neymar asked for the ball too often.
2) and when he did get the ball, our action was finished 10 seconds later. He was always going "for the kill".
We would pass the ball around for 50-60 seconds and waiting for a hole in defense.
Then Neymar would get the ball, and you knew that the action is nearing the end.
He would either dribble past 3 players, shoot and score.
Or he would try to dribble past 3 opponents and would lose the ball.

So, my problem with that version of Neymar was: the whole team plays in one way and passing around patiently.
And then he gets the ball and his every touch needs to be "a hero-ball", either a goal or lost possession.

Of course, lots of fans replied back then: you don't get it. He is TRYING.
Other teammates are scared and he is the only one who is making things happen.

Well, ok.
On one hand, trying dribbles is good.
But if you try dribbles every single time when you touch the ball, then you are a low IQ.
You will become predictable after a few matches and you will bring more negative things to a team then you are bringing.

Imo, Neymar played in the same way later, especially at Psg where he turned the club into his private show when he dropped deeper and to the middle and tried to dribble past 4 opponents in every single action.

He would succeed here and there.
And naive fans would say: did you see it? He is amazing.

But on the other hand, he hogged the ball all the time and ruined 20 other actions.
So, in numbers, we could say:
1) with Neymar, he ruined 9 actions.
And scored 1 wonder goal.
2) without him, the whole team would either way scored 1 or 2 goals from those 10 actions, but through a teamplay and patient passing.

So, with players like Neymar, it may seem that he is elevating the team a lot.
But when you look at the stats, you see that the team gets the same results with or without him.

When he plays, we win 2:0.
He scores 1 goal and loses the ball 19 times.
When he doesn't play, we win 3:0, the whole team plays more freely, we move better, all teammates are included.

So, imo, players like Neymar can create an illusion of his huge impact to a team.
While in reality, a team is trading fluent teamplay for a one-man show where he is trying one trick for 20 times until he finally scores or dribbles past 3 players.

That was one of my main problems with Neymar (paired with his partying and annoying personality) = how he changes team's tactics from TikiTaka into a one man show.

Regarding that one-man show football: when that happens, that type of a player (like Neymar) will have awesome individual numbers.
But his team won't profit much, results wise.

And then fans often reply: Neymar had to do it all by himself because all of his teammates suck.

But the real question is: are his teammates really that bad?
Or he steals the show and then it looks as if other players are not trying at all?

Let's go back to Yamal from the last 10 days.
I guess you already know what I am trying to say: I called him Neymar vol2 yesterday during chat because he was showing traits of Neymar whom I passionately hated (due to his style of play).

During a majority of the match:
1. Yamal was taking the ball all the time (just like Neymar)
2. when he would take the ball, we would see a hero-ball football.
He would either try to score, try to dribble past 3 opponents or he would lose the ball
3. he wasn't passing to the left side where Raph and Fermin were waiting mostly alone

So, maybe I am seeing too much, but I have seen a lot of bad traits from Neymar in Yamal.

We could also argue that this style will increase Yamal's personal stats of goals and dribbles.
But a team won't profit too much.

Even yesterday in the extra time, the whole Inter team knew what will happen:
1) Yamal will cut in, dribble and shot
2) if Inter close him down, he will run towards byline and he'll cross
3) he won't pass to Eric on the right no matter what
4) he won't pass on the ground towards the left side of our attack

And the same question as with Neymar: is Yamal dribbling in every action because all other teammates are bad or because he suffers from Neymar's syndrome?

Some will say: Yamal created all of our chances.
Yes. Because he took every single ball into his hands (or feet) and didn't pass it to anyone else after that.

On the other hand, if Yamal was injured yesterday, I am sure that Olmo, Ferran, Raph, Pedri and Fermin would create a decent number of shots.
But in a different way.
Not from dribbling past 3 opponents in every action but from our classical teamplay and TikiTaka.

In the last 15 minutes, our tactics looked like Yamal-pendencia.
But it is questionable whether he took every single ball because everyone else is shit or because he was trying too hard and to some extent hurt the team with his Yamal-pendencia because it was so obvious what he will do in every action and Inter's players knew it in the end.

Even if I am right about this theory, he will still produce tons of goals and magic.
But it needs to be assesed whether we play better with Yamal-pendencia or when the whole team gets the ball equally.

2 lessons from the past:
1) during Messi, we were neutralized in Europe easily whever we turned into Messi-pendencia mode. Because, no matter how good Messi was, we were predictable and the opponents knew how to man-mark him with 2-3 players.
2) in 2003/04 when we hired Rijkaard and Ronaldinho, we also suffered from Ronaldinho-pendencia.
We got KO'd in Europe by Celtic, and Rijkaard later said that we needed to sign Etoo and Deco to remove the burden from Ronnie.
Why?
Because no matter how good Ronnie was, when he was a one-man show, European teams had an easy time to neutralize him with 2 markers.
Rijkaard said that this is why he bought Deco and Etoo.
If the opponents cut Ronnie from the game, then Deco will have more room to create from AM position.
And if two players are man marking Ronnie, then Etoo will have more room to score.

So, the point is: even with Messi or Ronaldinho, pendencia on one player don't work well in Europe.

And my "problem" with Yamal from the last few matches is:
1) he is forcing that Yamal-pendencia with his decisions
2) our team is rich with an attacking talent and there is no need for one player to turn the team into a one-man team.
Instead of trying to dribble past 3 all the time, Yamal could have passed to a free Eric, but he ignored him all the time.
Or he could have passed the ball to unmarked players on the left right away.
Instead of trying to dribble past 3 and passing (crossing) only when he is forced towards a byline.

Maybe some of you will understand now what bothers me about this "new" Yamal from the last few matches.
Taking the ball in every single action makes you predictable long term and it is hurting the team even though player's individual stats (especially dribbles stats and "wow" effect from the eye-test) might look good.

According to you, Dembele is currently a lot better than Yamal for a team then?

 

[mc_lovin]

Not gonna lie, I missed not reading walls of text from BBZ. Forum wasn't the same.

 

[snowy]

Dude is 17 and already 180 cm. I hope he doesnt grow more Cm no homo. Being tall will limit his Inside dribbling.

Chubby Sakamoto is 188 and still got perfect proprioceptor speed and coordination. Higher CoG will hamper him some but bro got perfect natural balance so won't be a huge prob 🤸

 

[snowy]

Got BBZ back 2 posting 🏋️

Another W 4 Yasmine! 😸

 

[BBZ8800]

BBZ will love him more if he's taller though........

Not anymore

I have been analyzing some numbers in the past few months and wingers have a way higher chance to succeed:
1) if they are 181-182 cm max, with an ideal height around 175-ish cm
2) if they are fast, of course
3) and youth plays a huge part in this maths.
In the last 15 years, since 433 and 4231 started to dominate the world, there is a huge shift in the footballing phylosophy and LW and RW are getting younger and younger.

In these new tactical systems, wingers are key players who run a lot, dribble a lot, close down a lot, shoot a lot.

And younger kids have perfect physical and mental traits for these positions:
1) they are brave and cocky, so they dribble a lot (they are more likely to "make things happen")
2) they are usually young, skinny, agile and explosive
3) they don't get as tired as 30 year olds

So, age 18-23 is actually a perfect age for wingers in today's football.

Science and stats say that human body is on it's prime in very early 20s for that position.
After that age, players lose some agility, they naturally gain more muscles and lose some pace.
But they also lose that "youthful spark" which makes them perfect wingers.
Stats say that after the age of 25, wingers try way less dribbles and longshots.
(Or: they do less unpredictable moves and start to play more with "head" which results in a safer play with more good passes, less lost possession, but also = they lose some "youthful magic")

For 2025, height is a needed skill only for a central forward, goalkeeper, 2 central defenders and pivots.

Wingers and central midfielders will be more agile and better with the ball if they are not too tall.

With fullbacks it is 50:50.
Some coaches want shorter and more agile fullbacks.
While EPL coaches turned lately to taller fullbacks who are also good in the air (Gvardiol, Walker).

So, no, I don't want Lamine to grow anymore.
But he'll probably get 2 cm in the next 3-4 years.

 

[Iniesta Ultra]

Kvara's taller and second best winger itw. Yamal will be fine long as we don't try to convert him to a 10.

 

[serghei]

Yamal does not fit the pattern of a player BBZ typically dislikes. He is not like Neymar so far.

Don't read too much in what he does off the field. Many world beaters were pretty arrogant.

 

[jamrock]

Just looking back at the two games, one of the best SF display in maybe 5 years if not more.

Sommer and the ref stopped him from dragging us to the final.

 

[KingLeo10]

One slight problem that he needs to work is that top right corner of goal curler that he likes to score is starting to become more expected/ predictable.

He needs to find a shot that targets the left side of the goal more or just work on variety of finishing.

Thinking back to it, Messi’s goal scoring arsenal was pretty ridiculous. Curlers to either side of net, low/ skid along the ground shots, chips, round the keeper, FKs.

 

[Nello]

One slight problem that he needs to work is that top right corner of goal curler that he likes to score is starting to become more expected/ predictable.

He needs to find a shot that targets the left side of the goal more or just work on variety of finishing.

Thinking back to it, Messi’s goal scoring arsenal was pretty ridiculous. Curlers to either side of net, low/ skid along the ground shots, chips, round the keeper, FKs.

Ironically I guess his 90th minute shot on the post is a good example

 

[DonAK]

Thing with Lamine is that he has this long-ass windup almost when he is taking a shot a lot of times.

The best players are able to get a great shot off almost instantly.

Messi scored a lot of goals off shots defenders couldn’t even react in time to block.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Just take notice that if Yamal scores that shot that hit the post, BBZ wouldn't crawl out of his mancave for another year. That's how much "content of knowledge" it takes for some ridiculous trolls/attention whores to flipflop, reappear from hiatus or continuously being absent. McJams another example.

 

[DonAK]

Don't read too much in what he does off the field. Many world beaters were pretty arrogant.

He doesn’t even do anything off the field tbf

And Neymar’s career only went downhill due to all the injuries in Paris.

It’s not like whatever he did in his free time affected his play or effectiveness at Barca.