I've got to admit that Alexis is the most frustrating player I've ever watched because he can do something so great then slip and ruin everything, but he's still a very good player who gave his all for the team and rejected a big money offer from Man City to join us.
CL SF 2012. We could have won the Champions League that year, but Alexis missed chances, Cesc missed chances, Messi did so too and missed that penalty.
We won with Villa - Messi - Pedro
Why would Villa/Pedro - Messi - Alexis/Pedro be any less?
The team last season was better. Rakitic did well. Iniesta had problems initially in a new role, but settled down and started performing well in the 2nd half of the season. Xavi was at his best as an impact sub, rotation player when he was fresh and not burned out all the time.
Pique stepped up, so did Mascherano. Alba and Alves too. Bravo and ter Stegen did well in their respective competitions. We didn't have that many problems, with the system or individual players as back then and yet we were still very close from qualifying for a CL Final in 2012.
I didn't want to go that route, but ok.
Look, we are Barca.
Most of our players have an insane technical level.
Only extremely gifted players can play at Barca.
But there is another thing: IQ.
Extremely high IQ, extremely good understanding of football, movement, tactics, reading the game, understanding your teammates, making awesome decisions in miliseconds.
Sadly, Alexis is not smart enough for Barca, let's say it politely...
Yes, he can score an awesome goal in one second, but then he would slip in the next goal scoring opportunity or he would make 3 dumbest key decisions in a row.
I have told once:
-- Busi is extremely smart
-- Iniesta also
-- Xavi was an Einstein
-- Rakitic is smart enough
-- Messi is very smart
-- Neymar is smart enough, plus he can improve a lot, he is not dumb
-- Suarez is smart enough
-- Pique is smart
The only dumb player in Barca is Alba.
And he is a rocket scientist compared with Alexis.
Barca and our tactics is like launching a ship to space.
Everything needs to click perfectly and everyone needs to do their part of the job perfectly.
If something goes wrong, all employees need to find a new solution in a milisecond.
On the other hand, Alexis is a guy who has a lot of natural talent, but more or less nobody (not even him) knows what he will do with the ball in his feet in the next moment.
He was just lost in our (too complicated) schemes.
Sometimes I had a feeling that he doesn't understand at all what is happening around him, what is our plan, what our players are doing and what he is supposed to do.
Again, 99,9% of players are not "smart" enough for Barca also...
We require the highest level in everything.
Pedro was a rocket scientist compared to Alexis.
Alexis has much higher talent, especially in dribbling.
But Pedro is better at least in 3 things:
1. he is a much smarter player
2. he understands our system, he knew his job, and he knew what his teammates were doing
3. also, he could run with the ball more than 20 meters without tripping
But, Alexis is good enough (because of his natural talent) for teams who don't have as high standard as Barca and who don't have such a complicated (for IQ) system.
In Arsenal, he is the best or one of the best players.
And in Chile, he has a free role and he does what he wants. (even though again, it usually means that no one, not even him, knows what will happen in the next action. He just plays randomly, without too much planning or thinking. The opposite of Doctor Xavi, for example.)
More or less, that's it.
Alexis wasn't a player for Barca.
He doesn't fit and doesn't understand our system at all.
I apologize if my post sounds rude, but IQ is also a player's skill.
The same as pace, dribbling technique, lethal finishing, stamina, workrate etc.
You are good at some skills, and weaker in others.
For Barca, imo, you need to be a world class in tactical IQ and decisions, and in understanding our system perfectly.
