2020/21 squad
- Thread starter FC433
- Start date
FC433
New member
^
I am not a big fan of three at the back. I have always said that modern football needs double-wide players to dominate and dedicate the game. I just thought it would be interesting to see what we can do with some of our players, and also because RK said that he might play three at the back at some point.
I am not a big fan of three at the back. I have always said that modern football needs double-wide players to dominate and dedicate the game. I just thought it would be interesting to see what we can do with some of our players, and also because RK said that he might play three at the back at some point.
FC433
New member
^
you could be right. I recall him saying that before our game against Celta. Unfortunately, I could not find the translation of the entire press; however, I found this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElTH9OR7nnc&t=754s check it out if you have the time and understand Spanish.
you could be right. I recall him saying that before our game against Celta. Unfortunately, I could not find the translation of the entire press; however, I found this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElTH9OR7nnc&t=754s check it out if you have the time and understand Spanish.
Birdy
Senior Member
It seems that all of Dembele, Tobido, Junior, and Rafinha will be staying put.
That's great news.
Apart from Rafinha, who has no place in the team, Dembele deserves to stay and see if he can make a year without injuries , and the other two deserve more chances which they will get at some point in the season
That's great news.
Apart from Rafinha, who has no place in the team, Dembele deserves to stay and see if he can make a year without injuries , and the other two deserve more chances which they will get at some point in the season
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
Market is over, we have 25 players in our squad including one registered in B team (Inaki Pena)
GK:MATS,Neto, Inaki
Defense: Dest,Roberto, Pique,Araujo ,Lenglet,Umtiti, Alba,Firpo
Midfield (including AM): FDJ,Busquets,Pjanic,Alena,Puig,Fernandez and Coutinho & Pedri
Attack: Fati,Dembele, Messi, Braithwaite, Griezmann, Trincao
Players who are 23 or younger: 11 (over 45% of outfield players)
Players who are 24-28: 6 (around 23% of outfield players)
Players who are 29-33: 8 (around 32% of outfield players)
Overall:
We have pretty old starting line up most likely, with 6 players starting who are 29 or older, OTOH we have very young bench that consists of high school kids.
Depth look good on paper, with crowded midfield so Puig/Alena/Fernandez will have difficult time in getting playing time ,CB is depleted considering Umtiti form and injury history.
In attack we lack quick wings with exception of Dembele who isn't highly rated by Koeman while Braithwaite is our only true striker in the squad.
Playmaking should be better this team with added natural passers like Coutinho/Pjanic/Pedri and promotion of Puig, Trincao is decent passer for a winger too. That said we will lack a player who can play with his back to goal. A very underrated trait in strikers.
Goals has the potential to be an issue with Messi losing a step and selling Suarez, Vidal and Rakitic was our best scoring midfielders for past few years (except last season for Raki) so that won't help. Coutinho should add some goals if he is back to form, and huge burden will be put on Ansu Fati. The team will need him to be a 250+ goal scorer this year which is huge to ask from a 17-18 years old player. FDJ and Pjanic could help a bit.
B team hopefuls:
Konrad De La Fuente is arguably the most well known talent from B team. He is a good winger who had a high developing curve in past couple of years.
Gustavo Maia: The Brazilian signing is an investment that most likely will see Marlon's fate but could he surprise us with couple of calls to 1st team?
Ilaix Moriba: Biggest La Masia midfield talent in years, which speaks volume about the kid. Not he typical La Masia player either IMO, a quick & strong young player who is fairly tall.
Ramos Mingo: The Argentenian CB has separated himself from rest of Barca B defensive players and is already gaining Koeman's trust to be with 1st team in match squads.
Alejandro Balde: A 17 years old quick LB with bright future.
With a very young and big squad already, it seems that only multiple injuries would give those kids a chance in 1st team.
Biggest questions:
-What is success for this year? Is it trophies? Or building a well oiled team and develop some youngsters?
-How good is Koeman as Barca coach? Had huge success with an Ajax team in his early coaching years, since then an underwhelming career for the coach who turned us down in 2003 thinking we were a sinking ship, just to come here 17 years later in our worst situation since 2003.
-What will the 100M+ players do? Griezmann,Coutinho and Dembele were all disappointments to the club, for various reasons. Griezmann was a hard worker but a bad fit, Coutinho form went down to the toilet and Dembele could neither develop or stay healthy. Leaving the club for its 3 biggest signings in the history debleated of attacking talent. Can at least one of the two become a difference maker?
-Messi? What can he do? where he fits? Will he announce he is leaving midway in the year?
-Is FDJ the player to build your midfield around? Or is he a workhorse with ball retention ability?
-What do we have from our young players? Is Araujo a future starting CB? Is Dest the RB of the future? Is Puig a talent we aren't fair with? What is Pedri timeline? Is Trincao a potential starter? Is Fati the truth?
GK:MATS,Neto, Inaki
Defense: Dest,Roberto, Pique,Araujo ,Lenglet,Umtiti, Alba,Firpo
Midfield (including AM): FDJ,Busquets,Pjanic,Alena,Puig,Fernandez and Coutinho & Pedri
Attack: Fati,Dembele, Messi, Braithwaite, Griezmann, Trincao
Players who are 23 or younger: 11 (over 45% of outfield players)
Players who are 24-28: 6 (around 23% of outfield players)
Players who are 29-33: 8 (around 32% of outfield players)
Overall:
We have pretty old starting line up most likely, with 6 players starting who are 29 or older, OTOH we have very young bench that consists of high school kids.
Depth look good on paper, with crowded midfield so Puig/Alena/Fernandez will have difficult time in getting playing time ,CB is depleted considering Umtiti form and injury history.
In attack we lack quick wings with exception of Dembele who isn't highly rated by Koeman while Braithwaite is our only true striker in the squad.
Playmaking should be better this team with added natural passers like Coutinho/Pjanic/Pedri and promotion of Puig, Trincao is decent passer for a winger too. That said we will lack a player who can play with his back to goal. A very underrated trait in strikers.
Goals has the potential to be an issue with Messi losing a step and selling Suarez, Vidal and Rakitic was our best scoring midfielders for past few years (except last season for Raki) so that won't help. Coutinho should add some goals if he is back to form, and huge burden will be put on Ansu Fati. The team will need him to be a 250+ goal scorer this year which is huge to ask from a 17-18 years old player. FDJ and Pjanic could help a bit.
B team hopefuls:
Konrad De La Fuente is arguably the most well known talent from B team. He is a good winger who had a high developing curve in past couple of years.
Gustavo Maia: The Brazilian signing is an investment that most likely will see Marlon's fate but could he surprise us with couple of calls to 1st team?
Ilaix Moriba: Biggest La Masia midfield talent in years, which speaks volume about the kid. Not he typical La Masia player either IMO, a quick & strong young player who is fairly tall.
Ramos Mingo: The Argentenian CB has separated himself from rest of Barca B defensive players and is already gaining Koeman's trust to be with 1st team in match squads.
Alejandro Balde: A 17 years old quick LB with bright future.
With a very young and big squad already, it seems that only multiple injuries would give those kids a chance in 1st team.
Biggest questions:
-What is success for this year? Is it trophies? Or building a well oiled team and develop some youngsters?
-How good is Koeman as Barca coach? Had huge success with an Ajax team in his early coaching years, since then an underwhelming career for the coach who turned us down in 2003 thinking we were a sinking ship, just to come here 17 years later in our worst situation since 2003.
-What will the 100M+ players do? Griezmann,Coutinho and Dembele were all disappointments to the club, for various reasons. Griezmann was a hard worker but a bad fit, Coutinho form went down to the toilet and Dembele could neither develop or stay healthy. Leaving the club for its 3 biggest signings in the history debleated of attacking talent. Can at least one of the two become a difference maker?
-Messi? What can he do? where he fits? Will he announce he is leaving midway in the year?
-Is FDJ the player to build your midfield around? Or is he a workhorse with ball retention ability?
-What do we have from our young players? Is Araujo a future starting CB? Is Dest the RB of the future? Is Puig a talent we aren't fair with? What is Pedri timeline? Is Trincao a potential starter? Is Fati the truth?
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@Khaled. Good post.
As you say, we have good depth but not enough players in the 23-28 prime age range. We're a mix of veterans and youngsters.
Look at the Subs in the Sevilla match.
-> Pedri (17)
-> Trincao (17)
-> Dest (19)
-> Pjanic (30)
Compare that with Sevilla
-> Munir (25)
-> En-Nesri (23)
-> Caros Fernandez (24)
-> Gudelj (28)
-> Oliver Torres (25)
With the double pivot, the best opportunity to break in the first team squad from B should be Ilaix. He is not really a traditional midfielder for a midfield 3 and could really flourish here. Only issue is we already have two 17 year olds in the squad.
As you say, we have good depth but not enough players in the 23-28 prime age range. We're a mix of veterans and youngsters.
Look at the Subs in the Sevilla match.
-> Pedri (17)
-> Trincao (17)
-> Dest (19)
-> Pjanic (30)
Compare that with Sevilla
-> Munir (25)
-> En-Nesri (23)
-> Caros Fernandez (24)
-> Gudelj (28)
-> Oliver Torres (25)
With the double pivot, the best opportunity to break in the first team squad from B should be Ilaix. He is not really a traditional midfielder for a midfield 3 and could really flourish here. Only issue is we already have two 17 year olds in the squad.
JohnN
Senior Member
I don't see the 4-2-3-1 as the solution to every game. If we need to revert to 4-3-3 we could see some of those midfielders get more minutes.
In my view:
- Success will be to compete for La Liga till the end (VAR will not help us in that regard and that is already evident) and reach final 8 in CL. Copa Del Ray would be a nice bonus.
- RK is a mystery and I cannot make any prediction about his tenure. I don't like some things like his attitude towards Puig, his insistence on Griezmann and lack of rotation from the get go.
- Our 100m signings are not on the same boat. Coutinho looks like he has turned a corner in this system. Griezmann remains uninteresting and Dembele remains a low IQ player with insane pace.
- Messi will not announce he is leaving midway through the season. He will have highs and lows due to his age, stamina and demanding schedule. We must rotate him this season.
- Frankie is not the player to build a team around but can be good in a well structured system. He has been playing bad this season.
- Araujo looks ready to get many minutes from Lenglet and Pique. He is better than them in many aspects.
- Dest looked good even at left back, so there is some hope there at least.
- Puig has been treated unfairly. He has a great talent but a bad physic. Perhaps he is not a great fit for Koeman's system. I doubt Pedri is better though and he got chances.
- Pedri.. I just cannot see what everyone else sees there, so I will not comment.
- Trincao looks like a slow Pedro kind of player.
- Fati is the best he can be at 17 but could go the Bojan way. It's kind of wrong to base our whole left flank on him.
From the rest:
- Umtiti is done. Could get Copa minutes if not injured, but will again be a non-factor.
- Busi will have ups and downs like Messi for the same reasons. He should be rotated often to maintain a good level of consistency. Still better than FDJ on his day, which is a rare occurrence.
- Lenglet will remain average to good depending on the game. He will always be slow though.
- Pique is still good but age will catch up to him too. He is slow too.
- Sergi, I hope, will be replaced by Dest in the starting line up. He does not offer that extra spice as a right back.
- Alba has a good engine so he will play most of the time and he is usually good apart from the occasional brain fart (e.g. keeping a ball that was going out in play and passing it at an opponent)
- Griezmann will never come through for us because he never was a top player to begin with. He needs a certain system to be good and he is not good enough to build a system around. Expectations will eat him as they did to Coutinho.
- Firpo, I don't particularly rate. Maybe he will get Copa minutes too and some starts against week opponents. Probably a non-factor.
- Pjanic I don't really know much about. Looks like Rakitic 2.0, which could be either really good or really bad.
- Alena, I haven't seen for a year or so, not sure what to make of him.
- Braithwaite is a meme level signing for Barcelona.
- Mats, Neto: If Neto doesn't choke in CL I would prefer him even if his distribution is not as good.
In my view:
- Success will be to compete for La Liga till the end (VAR will not help us in that regard and that is already evident) and reach final 8 in CL. Copa Del Ray would be a nice bonus.
- RK is a mystery and I cannot make any prediction about his tenure. I don't like some things like his attitude towards Puig, his insistence on Griezmann and lack of rotation from the get go.
- Our 100m signings are not on the same boat. Coutinho looks like he has turned a corner in this system. Griezmann remains uninteresting and Dembele remains a low IQ player with insane pace.
- Messi will not announce he is leaving midway through the season. He will have highs and lows due to his age, stamina and demanding schedule. We must rotate him this season.
- Frankie is not the player to build a team around but can be good in a well structured system. He has been playing bad this season.
- Araujo looks ready to get many minutes from Lenglet and Pique. He is better than them in many aspects.
- Dest looked good even at left back, so there is some hope there at least.
- Puig has been treated unfairly. He has a great talent but a bad physic. Perhaps he is not a great fit for Koeman's system. I doubt Pedri is better though and he got chances.
- Pedri.. I just cannot see what everyone else sees there, so I will not comment.
- Trincao looks like a slow Pedro kind of player.
- Fati is the best he can be at 17 but could go the Bojan way. It's kind of wrong to base our whole left flank on him.
From the rest:
- Umtiti is done. Could get Copa minutes if not injured, but will again be a non-factor.
- Busi will have ups and downs like Messi for the same reasons. He should be rotated often to maintain a good level of consistency. Still better than FDJ on his day, which is a rare occurrence.
- Lenglet will remain average to good depending on the game. He will always be slow though.
- Pique is still good but age will catch up to him too. He is slow too.
- Sergi, I hope, will be replaced by Dest in the starting line up. He does not offer that extra spice as a right back.
- Alba has a good engine so he will play most of the time and he is usually good apart from the occasional brain fart (e.g. keeping a ball that was going out in play and passing it at an opponent)
- Griezmann will never come through for us because he never was a top player to begin with. He needs a certain system to be good and he is not good enough to build a system around. Expectations will eat him as they did to Coutinho.
- Firpo, I don't particularly rate. Maybe he will get Copa minutes too and some starts against week opponents. Probably a non-factor.
- Pjanic I don't really know much about. Looks like Rakitic 2.0, which could be either really good or really bad.
- Alena, I haven't seen for a year or so, not sure what to make of him.
- Braithwaite is a meme level signing for Barcelona.
- Mats, Neto: If Neto doesn't choke in CL I would prefer him even if his distribution is not as good.
Messi983
Senior Member
Things are looking just like I've expected them with Pedri getting ahead of Dembele in the pecking order. But now with transfer window closed and him staying I believe Dembele will start to get more playing time as well as long as he stays fit (big question) and won't have disciplinary problems (being late on trainings). Dest is here as well and I think Koeman will trust him fast as he's really his only signing.
Other players will have to wait for their chance.
malvolio
Senior Member
excellent assessment. just two things you overlooked. we don't have a striker and we don't have goalscorers in the squad.
playing around with messi as designated ST only for him to mainly play AMC or 10 is going to cost us big time. false 9 works if we have scoring wingers or goals from midfield. only coutinho seems to provide something attacking wise.
i'm deliberately taking out fati from the conversation since he is very young and don't think he can keep up scoring like he did in the first games. younger players tend to start good and impress, but will eventually fizzle out. it's not a bad thing, but can't depend on him or put pressure.
griezmann was never a goal machine and in the last seasons he declined heavily in that department.
we had the same problems last year. suarez was injured and griezmann didn't substitute for him goal scoring wise.
for me, this is the worst squad we had since pre-ronaldinho era. just too many old, young and unproven, mediocre or forever injured players.
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So to sum up the squad. We have started cleaning but there's still work to do. I colour-marked the players how 'safe' I consider them at the moment for next season:
Green: will most likely have place in the squad, or be loaned out
Orange: Question mark, has plenty to prove if he wants to stay
Red: should be let go
ter Stegen
Neto
Inaki
Dest
Roberto
Pique
Araujo
Lenglet
Umtiti
Alba
Firpo
Frenkie
Busquets
Pjanic
Alena
Puig
Fernandes
Coutinho
Pedri
Fati
Dembele
Messi
Braithwaite
Griezmann
Trincao
As I see it, we need at least 1 CB and at least 1 LB, a CM and an attacker.
Green: will most likely have place in the squad, or be loaned out
Orange: Question mark, has plenty to prove if he wants to stay
Red: should be let go
ter Stegen
Neto
Inaki
Dest
Roberto
Pique
Araujo
Lenglet
Umtiti
Alba
Firpo
Frenkie
Busquets
Pjanic
Alena
Puig
Fernandes
Coutinho
Pedri
Fati
Dembele
Messi
Braithwaite
Griezmann
Trincao
As I see it, we need at least 1 CB and at least 1 LB, a CM and an attacker.
FinBarcelonafan
Well-known member
I think Neto is safe. In the end he is a backup.
Alba is safe. He has enough quality for this season and next. I doubt we will find anything better.
This should be Piques last season as a starter.
Firpo get rid of.
Busi get rid of.
Alena get rid of.
Coutinho safe based on small sample size.
Dembele get out unless he plays insane season.
Messi out(doubt he wants to stay anyway)
Braithwaite not eniugh quality to be trusted
Griezmann out
My opinion. I would go crazier.
Big overhaul of the roster is just starting.
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
I think we should stand put for the season, no need for changes.
Let's see what we have from this team first and then build on it.
For 2021 summer:
I would say Neto has nothing to prove, but we might sell him to erase his wage and get few millions for him. Since we are in financial troubles we will have to make some financial sacrifices
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