8 - Pedri

[FinBarcelonafan]

Somebody else pointed it out before on here... with this number of injuries almost any team will have shit options tbh. When all players are fit our squad depth is actually not that bad. But this is simply insane, I don't know if a single first team player has not sustained any injury this season.

The lack of squad from last season is costing us. Flick ran them so hard last season so now they are drop like flies.

Pedri was visibly struggling few games ago and yet Spain played in both mumbo jambo meaningless games. Same with Flick. He had to reduce Pedris minutes but he didn't.(In Flicks defense he had nobody else, Spain coach is just a dick and closet Madridista).

This injury isn't shocker. It was expected. The body got too tired. Same as Kounde last season.. Balde too, but he is fragile.

 

[Saladin]

Comparing him to Xavi is even more insane. Back in the days I used to browse through football geek forums where people were collecting all sorts of historic OPTA data of historic key footballers. Xavi in the 2010 World Cup came up as the player who created the most chances in a single World Cup only after Maradona 1986 if I remember correctly.

In 2008/2009 season Xavi had 31 assists for Barca as a central midfielder who collected the ball from the centerbacks and controlled the game. Anyone else with that final ball characteristic is usually a CAM like Özil, KdB, Fabregas etc. whose only purpose is to play the final ball without the burden of controlling the entire midfield.

Xavi - Stats 08/09

Player stats of Xavi (Karriereende) ➤ Goals ➤ Assists ➤ Matches played ➤ All performance data

www.transfermarkt.com

He was a unique midfielder who could play final and through balls at Messi level without being a pure CAM. Modric, as a comparison, never managed more than 12 assists in a single season in his entire career.

Just watch on Youtube Xavi's throughball assists in the Euro Cup 2008 final, Euro Cup 2012 final, 2010 CL final or the 09/10 away Clasico. I don't know of any other central midfielder like him. Game controlling CMs usually don't have final balls like that.

TESTIFY!

Xavi is my alltime CM, more influential than any other midfielder over so many years - he was so good that neither Spain nor Barca ever fully recovered from his absence - an entire system was built around him, but never did he stand out with the sole credit for it - he was the ultimate Barca deoxyribonucleic acid player.

 

[RedxMAK]

TESTIFY!

Xavi is my alltime CM, more influential than any other midfielder over so many years - he was so good that neither Spain nor Barca ever fully recovered from his absence - an entire system was built around him, but never did he stand out with the sole credit for it - he was the ultimate Barca deoxyribonucleic acid player.

I agree, Xavi was one of a kind. It’s a shame we’ll never have another Xavi in Barcelona…

 

[serghei]

No such DM exist right now or is available. Unless you're going for Rodri who has his own injury problems now.

Then a CM with good physical attributes and box to box quality.

Don't want to repeat it constantly, but there is a reason Spain didn't use Pedri and Olmo at the same time on the field.

 

[wisconsincule]

8 weeks?!?! We are fuuuuccked

 

[jamrock]

No Pedri
No gavi

My double prediction is looking in jeopardy those were 2 of my 5 keys.

 

[Temptation]

🚨 BREAKING: The news is not good for Pedri. His recovery time will be 6 to 7 weeks. He will miss at least eight matches, including Chelsea and Atléti.


— diarioas

 

[MonteCuler]

I thought it's just a muscle injury, why a whole fucking month

Casado and Frenkie gotta lock the fuck in. Else we are cooked

 

[Temptation]

Flick will have to adjust the system now. Not his principles of play but the tactical details.

 

[akaranzo]

This season is over, no ifs or buts about it anymore. Time to focus on other things than football this year. Wishing a good recovery for Pedri.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

This season is over, no ifs or buts about it anymore. Time to focus on other things than football this year. Wishing a good recovery for Pedri.

Yeah it's a struggle this season.

 

[Richard.H]

Will be VERY difficult to win any trophies with Pedri and Yamal not being fully fit. Seems like these players aren't built to play Flick system.

 

[jormatar]

This season is over, no ifs or buts about it anymore. Time to focus on other things than football this year. Wishing a good recovery for Pedri.

Nah it's not over. Winning LaLiga is going to be hard if certain subs like Casado, Olmo and Dro can't step it up with Lewa finding his rhythm and scoring like he used to. Garcia in goal will be a huge asset when he is back. But most importantly these injuries has to stop after Christmas break or it's definately going to be hard to keep up with Real. Then again let's see if Real's luck with injuries will hold up like it has so far. One injury to Mbappe and they are bound to lose some points. They are extremely dependant on him, more than we are dependant on Pedri and Lamine.

Luckily other competitions like UCL, CDR etc have playoff format later in the season so if we get our players healthy before Christmas we can still compete at those competitions with our best lineup. Then everything is up for grabs.

 

[ajnotkeith]

What on earth are they doing in training? Someone from our fitness staff clearly needs to be fired. The worst part is that the only top-tier teams that had a free summer are Barca and Liverpool. However, we now have much bigger issues than those teams that played in that ridiculous Club World Cup. This season is definitely going to be a disaster.

Pedri may just be brittle. We can't know for sure until he's managed at another club but it's obvious his physicality is poor. On top of being regularly injured he is frequently getting very tired during matches.

Ideally, he would be paired with midfielders who run much more than him, so he can save his energy for his work on the ball. In the last game he was with Frenkie and Fermin whose defensive work is quite limited and are not duel winning midfielders. There needs to be an anchor there who can break up play and pick up some defensive slack because that setup is unbalanced.