Transfer Rumours V4

messixaviesta wrote:What's the big deal about Mehdi Benatia? One year back when he was at Udinese I can hardly remember a soul mention his name in our discussions and now he seems like the best thing since sliced bread. Is he the most improved player in the world during this last one year? Does Rudi Garcia deserve immense credit for this?

I am not totally sold. I didnt comment because I didnt gather enough game time watching him, but I got to say around half a dozen games. Apart from getting trounced by Juve (which was not his fault at all) I came away, not in awe but fairly impressed by his qualities.

I dont like that I never saw him in the CL or even Europa.

Mr Nick09 wrote:the effect of Garcia on benatia is like Simeone on Godin/miranda, or heynckes on Dante.

the main question mark is whether benatia will look as good in a high line, u can see how dante looked shaky in that set up compared to last season.

That's not really an apt comparison. Roma play quite the attacking brand of 4-3-3 football, no idea why people act like they are playing some sort of Catenaccio football that makes it easy for defenders to shine. Not that such a "system" existed anyway, Luiz looks like a clown even with 20 men in Chelsea's own box. Roma's style is actually remarkably similar to Barca, the most similar in Serie A, I don't know if that is Lucho's and Zeman's doing but they are the best possession team with 59 % on avg. They are nothing like Atletico's hardworking 4-4-2 high pressure defensive unit or Bayern's Martinez-Schweinsteiger midfield counterattacking team that bullied everyone physically. Dante and Boateng have never been top class defenders anyway. Dante gave the penalty away in the CL final for example, his clumsiness was apparent all the time. Boateng was warming City's bench. Benatia was also very good at Udinese already. Just no one watches Udinese.

No defender no matter how good ever gets talked about unless they play for a title challenger or CL team.

Benatia was great for Udinese for years, his performance levels hasn't changed. He's just playing for a higher profile club.

Of course there will be always doubts about a defender adapting to Barca but he's far from a one season wonder or someone who like Godin has is reputation purely based on Simeone's system.

Mr Nick09 wrote:the effect of Garcia on benatia is like Simeone on Godin/miranda, or heynckes on Dante.

the main question mark is whether benatia will look as good in a high line, u can see how dante looked shaky in that set up compared to last season.

I'm not entirely sure how much Dante's shakiness this season was down to the system and his having fundamental problems with it, tbh.

First of all, until our mini-meltdown this spring we had the best defensive record of all time in the league.

Then, the shakiness of our CBs conicided with games where our team didn't execute the pressing well, most memorably the home defeat against City where we stopped engaging after 2:0 up.

Plus he missed preseason and came back knackered from the Confed cup.

I mean you're probably right to some extent, there was some insecurity about him this season that seemed to stem from Pep's demands, but I'm not completely sure how much of this is an impression that might not be the whole picture.

I.e. not always when CBs look bad in a high line it's simply because they're not up to it.

watch it Fußball. I won't stand for people talking bad about Boateng.

My bad.

GOATeng.

lol ok. Anyway I shouldn't have complained. Your section, your opinion.

I see you're in a generous mood though, since the cup has passed from you of Luiz joining Barca.

Hapless_Hans wrote:I see you're in a generous mood though, since the cup has passed from you of Luiz joining Barca.

If you were rumoured to get Marquinhos AND Benatia you would also be in generous mood.

It feels like I'm an amputee who is about to receive new legs by some medical miracle.

Marquinhos is overrated i rather have bartra over him, considering he probably wont go for anything less then 20m.

Marquinhos is much better than Fartra and 3 years younger and if we can get him for a simple Alves + Song swap as it is rumoured I will be the happiest person on the planet as talents like that are easily worth € 30M+ in the current market. Plus we get rid of Song which is a bonus.

I wouldn't want him as the only purchase though. It has to be alongside another experienced defender (Benatia). Which would comply with the rumour about Lucho wanting 2 defenders and a tall fullback (Marquinhos can play fullback, too).

I will forgive Zubi for everything if he pulls off Benatia + Marquinhos.

Why is Marqinhos overrated? And even if he is, who cares. The question is he good..and if he is, why cant you have both him and Bartra?

Don't even know what all the Fartra fuss is all about. Whenever he steps in we look dogshit defensively. Since Pique's injury we have conceded twice as many goals per game after Bartra replaced him. Still ventures forward like a maniac, still gets pulled to wide positions even when Busquets yells at him to stop doing it, still commits costly errors. Won't even mention Bale, just look how he gets floored when Athletic Bilbao scored. Still looks like a stick. "But ... but ... but ... he is Catalan and cries whenever Barca lose a trophy. DAT heart. DAT new Puyol." GTFO

from what i've seen his year in PSG he was overrated not worth the money they are asking.
alves + song could go for 25m+ (alves 10 Song 15)

that's what almost benatia's fee? lol

Bartras job was to cover Alve's side because god knows why he never comes back along with cover the height due to mascherano shortage and buscuits shat air abilities..
give him a good partner and he will improve drastically.
also when we played Real Madrid all our natural centerbacks were injured, difference is Tata only wanted to risk Bartra and not Pique, and lastly Bartra gets all the blame for bale's goal when that was the alve's area and he was nowhere to be seen.

unless we get Marquinhos for 15m or less it'll be a bad buy even worse if we buy him first and our priority in a defense lessesn because our useless board will be satisfied with whichever centerback we get because we all know Benatia's fee will increase after the stupid 50m buy on david luiz and our board has turned into cheap buyers

I will not be satisfied if our 4 centerbacks for next two seasons will be (because of transfer ban)
Pique, Bartra, Mascherano, Marquinhos

messixaviesta wrote:What's the big deal about Mehdi Benatia? One year back when he was at Udinese I can hardly remember a soul mention his name in our discussions and now he seems like the best thing since sliced bread. Is he the most improved player in the world during this last one year? Does Rudi Garcia deserve immense credit for this?

He was part of the Udinese team that consistently made EL. Since he joined Roma they have gone from being the team that conceded the 2nd most amount of goals to being one of Europe's most defensively solid teams. The fact that no one talked about him a year ago doesn't reflect bad on him but extremely well on Sabatini. He is 100x the sporting director that Zubi is.

I wish this hype about Bartra ends sooner. even if that cost us trophy, i want Bartra to play every single game next season and show that he has no class.
He might not have started everygame this season but he had enough game times to show any little improvement. Why on earth you need a full season to prove does not make sense to me. And also that a la masia graduate can be be quite useless sometimes, some of us just cant accept it. That gave pedro 2 more season of a comfort life without paying anything in return.

I understand some are frustrated with recent events but Pedro gave nothing back in return??
wut?
he scored in the champions league final, and in many other cup games that mattered.
and this season he was the third best scorer.
now i'm not saying we shouldn't sell him because there are better options then him but your not really applying much reasoning to your post.

Bartra didn't have a horrible season, provided he could of played a lot more and preferably not injured
our backline as a whole is in shambles but some people love to forget the other half of the season and just think of the recent games (when he was injured but played anyways)

May be i have little exaggerated about Pedro, but really when did third best scoring mattered so much. I knew pedro's scoring stat would be coming as an argument but seriously If you count the number of goals and assist, who would say Messi had one of his worst seasons???
The guy posses no threat wherever you play him upfront, not great in assist and pretty bad in dribbling, dont have the pace so that you can use him in counter. he works and runs tirelessly towards defender forcing them release the ball- thats all he has got right now, correct me if i am wrong......
I would thank him for all his winning goals but would not mind to say he got the best treatment here just because he is a la masia graduate and wont get similar if he moves in other clubs....I can remeber Bojan got the similar praise and hype from many fans...

I'm ok with Marquinhos as long as he arrives for a reasonable price and he's automatically made a 2nd choice CB; with the board going out and buying another CB who would server as first choice next to Pique. Having Bartra and Marquinhos to serve as the back ups to Pique + whomever (Benatia?) sounds good to me.

But if he's going to cost us allot of coin, then I'd rather spend that on Laporte than him tbh. Laporte had a solid season and is also younger, and taller. Which means he might even still grow more; the kid has more upside imo (Not just cause of his height, but because of the great year he had helping Bilbao to the UCL)

people not seeing Bartra s quality.: facepalm

free_cat wrote:non catalan without patriotic bias not seeing that young catalan boy Bartra s quality.: facepalm

corrected for more accuracy

Bartra isn't good enough to be a starter for us. Dude can be great but when he's bad he's really bad. Even in his good games he has some bad moments, he's simply not elite level and we are an elite club. When I see him, he looks Villareal/Valencia level to me. That said I hope he proves me wrong someday. As I said, I would like to keep him as a 2nd choice CB, to fill in and prove him self

no one is saying he should start..
but he is a young talent and he is pretty much one of two that we only have (centerbacks)

Are the cuadrado rumors just typically transfer window bs ore are you guys really interested?

And would you give your own seal of approval for this signing? I'm Colombian and seeing him go to one of the biggest clubs in the world would be awesome.

i hope we dont get cuadrado, dont think he will do well at RB if the rumuours are true.

FalcaoPunch wrote:

And would you give your own seal of approval for this signing?

Nope, and it has nothing to do with his quality.

It just seems a completely unneeded move and my thoughts of it would be that we saw him, like him and simply want him regardless of how he fits or what our needs our.

I think we are obviously in a position where we need to really think about what we need and no matter his quality I dont understand how he could be it.

I would accept Cuadrado as a right wingback IF the other 3 in the backline are named Mathieu, Benatia and Pique which would allow to form a back 3 + Busquets dropping back. Pretty much like 10/11 with Abidal. Cuadrado is not exactly a defender but he can surely press tirelessly high up the pitch and that's how Alves defends 90 % of the time anyway.

If we are going to play Alba and Cuadrado and the centerback is some 20 year old like Marquinhos then we are *bleep*ed.