airmark:
Best defender in the world.

IKON360:

Shebi Chelsea get thread for this nairaland?

airmark:


Some barca fans need to be informed bro. They still believe Pique is the best in laliga. the world.

BykeLaByke:
“Rakitic said that you haven’t been signed for his position, so he doesn’t understand what the media is saying. Is that true?”

Frenkie: “I have been signed for one of the 3 midfield positions. We'll see what happens, I’m not going to say for what position I want to go for."

Argggh,Ivan Backitic don't want this smoke.

IKON360:

Frenkie should go for Busquets position, Barca's problem is very far from Rakitic

Hamid7:

Nay, he's actually one of our major problems

IKON360:

How is Rakitic a problem?

Hamid7:

His creativity is poor. Not just Rakitic, all our midfielders are poor at that.

IKON360:

Do you thought about it? All our midfielders have poor creativity. And for me I think Rakitic is the most imaginative. Arthur didn't have up to 3 assists this season, nor up to 3 goals. Vidal had more goals and assists than them. Busquets was to far from the opposition box to even have up to 6 shots by seasons end... So Rakitic isn't the problem, the whole midfielders have issues

Hamid7:

That makes Rakitic one of our problems. We need a playmaker in that midfield so Messi can concentrate on attack, the last one there was iniesta, since then, Barca have been blunt in midfield.

Hamid7:

That makes Rakitic one of our problems. We need a playmaker in that midfield so Messi can concentrate on attack, the last one there was iniesta, since then, Barca have been blunt in midfield.

IKON360:

Barcelona doesn't need new midfielders, Liverpool won UCL with 3 shots, 3 on target and 2 goals. What we need is finishing, we created enough chances in the 1st leg and 2nd leg against Liverpool and we scored just 3 goals. Finishing keeps letting us down, the midfielders if anybody should be changed is Busi, not because he is poor but cos he is old. I'd like us to sign players like maybe Ndombele or Ndidi or Idrissa Gueye, we have more than enough creative players, Coutinho, Messi are creative enough maybe if Rakitic and Arthur could be more creative, long passes, short through passes etc then we can gun again for UCL but we need to be finishing up chances.

IKON360:

Barcelona doesn't need new midfielders, Liverpool won UCL with 3 shots, 3 on target and 2 goals. What we need is finishing, we created enough chances in the 1st leg and 2nd leg against Liverpool and we scored just 3 goals. Finishing keeps letting us down, the midfielders if anybody should be changed is Busi, not because he is poor but cos he is old. I'd like us to sign players like maybe Ndombele or Ndidi or Idrissa Gueye, we have more than enough creative players, Coutinho, Messi are creative enough maybe if Rakitic and Arthur could be more creative, long passes, short through passes etc then we can gun again for UCL but we need to be finishing up chances.

GoTV:



Ozil is what Barça needs in the middle. He's known for his incredible assist. Forget the fact that he's not on top of his game at arsenal. I wish he can join barca

GoTV:



Ozil is what Barça needs in the middle. He's known for his incredible assist. Forget the fact that he's not on top of his game at arsenal. I wish he can join barca

patrickmuf:
No, Rakitic is not the problem. You can't have 2 attention full backs and expect Rakitic to function as an AMF especially when your DMF is not Kante or a much younger Busi.
You have Alba attacking on the one side and Sergi Roberto/Semedo doing same on the other side and still expect your CM to join the attack, that will be suicide. When Pep was at Barca, Abidal was the LB, he sat back for Alves to attack thus Iniesta on the LMF was free to also attack as an AMF.
At Liverpool where they have 2 flying fullbacks, they don't play with an out and out attacking midfielder because Robertson and Arnold need cover when they bombard forward.
At City, when ever Mendy players, Walker curtails his forays forward and it is so even when Zichenko starts. They have to be a balance. In Pep's season, Kolarov and Zabaleta were constantly pushing forward and it left gapping holes as De Bruyne and David Silva are not known for their defensive contributions, he corrected that mistake in his second season.
You can also check Hynckes Bayern team, with Alaba and Lahm as attacking wingbacks, he constantly had Martinez and Bastian Schweinsteiger sitting deep and Kroos in CM. When Pep took over at Bayern, for some reason, he opted to play Martinez as CB, a move that left them exposed to counter attacks.

I have highlighted all this scenarios to show you that Rakitic is not the problem rather the system/personnel...

Hamid7:

Rakitic doesn't have to be an attacking midfielder to be creative. That guy has no vision for passes, he either pass backwards or sideways. Side and back passes are for defensive midfielders when under pressure. Neither Xavi nor Iniesta you mentioned above was a visionless back passer. A good central midfielder can send the opposition defense into a frenzy with a pass.

Gentlewarrior1:
Most likely a joke

Hamid7:

Same Coutinho who has been poor all along is whom you call creative?.
Messi is playing as a winger, having a winger as your only creative player means you have only one threat to the opposition, if he is taken care of, the whole team becomes handicapped. A team that lack creative midfielder is actually weak. Non of either Arthur or Rakitic can string passes together in little spaces when they encounter a tight defense. Lots of creativity has to come from midfielders since they are not marked as much as the attackers and wingers. Busquets was bad all season. People only complained more about him after we lost to Liverpool.
And we need a new No9, Suarez is old already. If it were some other clubs, he could sit in the box and wait for passes, but Barca doesn't play the kind of foitball that favours that. Old players who can't not play at their best anymore should leave. Xavi and Iniesta left when age was telling on them.

Gentlewarrior1:
Like play like play its now our official jersey o

And it doesnt look so bad sha

patrickmuf:
Xavi and Iniesta didn't need to create that much, up front was Messi at his peak, Henry and Eto and other times, it was Villa and a very clinical Pedro who finished off chances created by Messi and Alves not so much from Xavi and Iniesta. Also, when it was Xavi and Iniesta, the back line was a lot more balanced with Abidal stay back while Alves bombed forward, now you have Alba and Semedo both bombing forward yet you want Rakitic to still assume an attacking role, have you also considered that Busquet is not the player he once was? At his peak, he gave Xavi and Iniesta the freedom to play and join the attack when necessary. You can't compare the set up and personnel then and now.

IKON360:

Coutinho was poor because of the added responsibility he had, wingers who track back and contribute efficiently in attack are those that have either been forced to learn or have the energy levels to do it eg Mane and Salah, Sterling and other Man City wingers. Coutinho was pampered, he is the 3rd most expensive player of all and Barca's most expensive, so he was basically pampered. So he played. If we can get a more energetic DM, Coutinho won't have to drop deep so much and he can contribute to more attacks.
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Dude Busquets was exceptional this season, don't even go there, my problem with Busquets is his lack of pace. And teams have to just target Busi's lack of pace, continue the same to Pique but with a better stringing of passes and you have scored. If Busi was faster we may not have conceded as much as we did. But aside that Busi is very good and selfless too. If Rakitic was giving back passes, Arthur was almost as bad. Rakitic was even better than Arthur, the midfielders I'd say were better than Rakitic were just Vidal and maybe Busi, nobody else.
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Check Messi's heat map on any site for this season, Messi operated from the right but he was never a winger, Messi's days as a winger have since ended. This season he was, Messi.

Hamid7:

Coutinho wasn't poor because of any additional responsibilities, the dude couldn't even pass well, was that due to additional responsibilities too?.
Teams target Busi because they knew he was our weak point just like liverpool attacked relentlessly via Alba's flank because they saw weakness on that left wing. Busquets can no longer provide cover for the defense and as CDM that's his primary responsibility, he failed in it, yet you think he was exceptional. That doesn't make sense.
If Messi operated from the right and still you say he isn't a winger, can you suggest any other name we can call him?
Barcelona have too many weak points because of old players who can't give their best. And you think Barca should keep them even after you agree that their old age was exploited by opposition players, Is that how to assemle a good team? (keeping old and weak players).

patrickmuf:
Xavi and Iniesta didn't need to create that much, up front was Messi at his peak, Henry and Eto and other times, it was Villa and a very clinical Pedro who finished off chances created by Messi and Alves not so much from Xavi and Iniesta. Also, when it was Xavi and Iniesta, the back line was a lot more balanced with Abidal stay back while Alves bombed forward, now you have Alba and Semedo both bombing forward yet you want Rakitic to still assume an attacking role, have you also considered that Busquet is not the player he once was? At his peak, he gave Xavi and Iniesta the freedom to play and join the attack when necessary. You can't compare the set up and personnel then and now.

Hamid7:

Was there any time in the past where Barca had unrepentant back passers?
There was Deco, Edmilson, Van Bommel, then came Rafael Marquez, Ronaldinho, Xavi, Iniesta even Yaya Toure, not all these players are attacking midfielders but none of them continually made back passes like timid 19 year old
Creativity is not a character of attacking midfielder only. An attacking midfielder is basically, a deep sitting striker with pace, acceleration and dribbling skills, even then, good passes have to com from the midfielders, without that, the attacking midfielder is useless. If Busquets isn't the player he was, does that warrant lack of creativity from all the midfielders. Do you realise the primary role of a C.midfielder is to find spaces and exploit them by making good passes to the appropriate player, this doesn't require that he attacks, he can choose to remain to prevent sudden counters. When did you becomevan Fc Barcelona fan?

IKON360:

We were just one goal away from qualifying against Liverpool, one goal. ONE GOAL... if we had scored that goal and qualified for the final and maybe won UCL, would you still complain all these your complaints?
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Did you watch Coutinho in Liverpool? Shey you know of all their other super forwards, Coutinho pressed the least; in Barca everybody must press unless you are a certain Messi. So I feel this pressing affected Coutinho's energy levels Coutinho is no Mane and if you watched some of our matches we may have counter and you will see Messi, Vidal and Suarez, no, Coutinho. If get a more energetic DM, maybe Coutinho won't have to press so much and then he could be more useful in matches...
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Busquests had a good season even if he wasn't in La Liga team of the season, Frenkie De Jong can play that DM well however what we need is creativity in the middle, more goal scorers from midfield and a deadly striker to complement Messi's creativity. Suarez scored harder goals than cheap goals, yet we kept creating easy to bury chances.
So for me if Rakitic is to be sold, then a midfielder like Pogba, Bernardo Silva or De Bruyne or even Erickson should be signed and then a more energetic DM like Idrissa Gueye or Ndidi or Ndombele and Griezman. However money is the problem

funkyjms:
Every d!ck is now a coach that knows Barca problem...
What a pity