What to do about Bartra?

Bartra can no longer be considered young and at an age where he should be coming into his own, establishing himself, he seems no better than he was 3 years ago. I think the club, and most of all Luis Enrique, have failed to provide him with enough experience to develop. Last season he was the 4th choice DM and got a decent amount of minutes, this season he is 5th since Verm recovered and has barely featured. Barta supposedly requested a transfer in December precisely for this reason.

Rumors have it Mathieu is leaving the club at the end of the season. So what should we do about Barta?

As I see it we have several options:

1. Sell Mathieu and don't replace him, 4 CBs is enough for the club and for everyone to compete

2. Sell Mathieu and sign another young prospect, then sell Bartra. Bartra is not good enough for Barca.

3. Sell Mathieu and sing another experienced defender, and keep Bartra. Barta is still developing.

Personally I think experience is the most important thing for CBs, he needs to be playing 90 minutes every Sunday. He's never going to develop playing rondos, even if they are against Suarez, Messi and Neymar. I say let him go with a buyback option in 2 years. He's never going to become anything more than a part time player for Barca otherwise and he might still have a chance to develop into a solid CB.

4. do not sell Mathieu and sell Bartra - get another 5th backup CB from the youth in. Mathieu is solid against scrub teams.

1- Bench Mascherano and start Bartra who is superior in every possible way to all ohter barça CB except Piqué.

As this is not happening, sell Bartra to somewhere he is rightly valued and given a chance.

lol free, when are you going to finally give up?

Bartra is 'superior in everything to every CB' you have bar Piqué, but for some reason he never gets to play under any coach?

Hapless_Hans wrote:lol free, when are you going to finally give up?

Bartra is 'superior in everything to every CB' you have bar Piqué, but for some reason he never gets to play under any coach?

Coaches get it wrong too, he will prove it. Ok, he might not be better than Mascherano right now, because Mascherano has improved a lot this last two seasons, but he is definitely superior to Fartmalen and Malothieu.

Even if that were true LE doesn't agree, and his opinion is the important one. LE is not going anywhere, so his vermaelen fetish will stay here. Bartra won't develop into the player he could be under him.

Best to sell with buy back option IMO.

free_cat wrote:1- Bench Mascherano and start Bartra who is superior in every possible way to all ohter barça CB except Piqué.

As this is not happening, sell Bartra to somewhere he is rightly valued and given a chance.

I guess you know better than a treble-winning manager who sees him everyday in training. We're talking about a 26 years old who has less that 100 matches at professional level and that got schooled every time he faced an above average team. And your treble winning manager is not the only manager that saw that this guy is a scrub. When 4 managers keep him on the bench in order to rightfully play a superior footballer in Mascherano, it's clear that there is not anything fishy in him roding the sidelines. His peak-level is Athletic Bilbao/Sociedad at best.

You'll probably buy Laporte this summer and keep Mascherano and Mathieu as 3rd and 4th centre-backs.

Bartra hasn't gotten schooled though. He has regressed this last year, because he barely plays and is mistreated psicologically, so he obviously lacks confidence.

Sell mathieu and bartra get laporte or marquinhos and some under 20 year old random from south america who has potential to play for barca B

get a buy back option on bartra incase he lives up to potential + if we ever need a cb in the winter for injury related problems

free_cat wrote:Bartra hasn't gotten schooled though. He has regressed this last year, because he barely plays and is mistreated psicologically, so he obviously lacks confidence.

Bayern and Madrid in 2 consecutive years say nothing ?

He showed some potential, that is true. Perhaps, the club did not use him properly (when constantly complaining about CB issues since Puyol is gone FFS), but if he was supposed to be WC he should have shown up. He is simply not cut for Barca.

Valkyrja wrote:

free_cat wrote:Bartra hasn't gotten schooled though. He has regressed this last year, because he barely plays and is mistreated psicologically, so he obviously lacks confidence.

Bayern and Madrid in 2 consecutive years say nothing ?

Can you link any play where Bartra was "schooled" in those games?

I've read rumors that Mathieu, Vermalean and Bartra are all out the exit door this summer. Not sure at this point what bright prospect from the B team could possibly step up and get the Bartra role tbh. I'd rather keep Bartra as I don't think he's proven he is good enough to start, but I still think he's ok to be our 5th option in case of injuries; however if he wants to play regularly then by all means I understand him wanting to leave. If we sign one solid CB to replace the VERM/Mathieu exits plus Masch/Bartra/Pique I think we should be fine for a few more seasons until it's time to replace Masch (who might become 3rd string if we sign a solid CB in the following season or 2).

Why should we have a 5th choice CB at all? Clearly more than 4 generates a problem

I worded it wrong though - if Verm/Mathieu leave and Bartra stays he is no longer 5th choice (and a 5th CB is ok in case of emergency due to injuries/suspensions, should be a youngster from Barca B to be called up imo ala Bartra, Fontas before him etc).

Pique/Masch/New CB/Bartra would be the 4

free_cat wrote:

Valkyrja wrote:

free_cat wrote:Bartra hasn't gotten schooled though. He has regressed this last year, because he barely plays and is mistreated psicologically, so he obviously lacks confidence.

Bayern and Madrid in 2 consecutive years say nothing ?

Can you link any play where Bartra was "schooled" in those games?

Thought so.

free_cat wrote:

free_cat wrote:

Valkyrja wrote:

Bayern and Madrid in 2 consecutive years say nothing ?

Can you link any play where Bartra was "schooled" in those games?

Thought so.

Rumor has it Pep wants him for City

Rumor has it the press likes to link ex players with incoming managers because they are lazy.

More as we get it

We should probably sell him. He isnt going to get minutes here and he is in his mid twenties. He should be starting games regularly.
With the right coaching and the trust of the coaches, he might have turned into a very good CB for us. We will never know.

If he's ok riding the bench until he's 30 then I have no issue with him being our back up. If he was smart though he would try to move on and become a regular starter somewhere.

I honstley don't know of any bright prospect on our B team that could come in and fill his role as a back up, so for that reason I see no issue with him staying. Because as mentioned, rumor has it both Math/Verm are out this summer and will be replaced with a new CB.

Valkyrja wrote:

free_cat wrote:

free_cat wrote:

Can you link any play where Bartra was "schooled" in those games?

Thought so.

Outrun by one of the fastest players in the world while getting injured is getting schooled? Also, he scored and was one of our best players in that game.

After Villareal game, anyone who says Mathieu or Vermaelen are better than him has some kind of problem.