2016/17 Summer Transfer Rumours Mk. III

halamadrid2 wrote:Morata is wearing 21. Whoever created that should have paid attention to our shirt number allocations

So Morata is leaving too

Get your tinfoil hats on boys, we have lift off

Sissoko hype

any regular PL watcher can tell you how exactly bang average he is, not even Newcastles best player...Newcastle, as in team that got relegated and he's not there best player

jibers wrote:

Marcus Aurelius wrote:That's not hate,  it's fair criticism

In my opinion Rakitic hasn't been good enough throughout the entire course of the season. I rate him but he weakens our midfield and is not of the quality for a solid, irreplaceable starter like Busi for instance.

We will see if Gomes grows up to the task and becomes an important part of Lucho's jigsaw puzzle. I think he has more quality in him than Rakitic has, not sure if he's such a hard worker like the Croatian but definitely the technical abilities are there and imo they are superior to Rakitic's.

If we had signed someone like Ramsey then Rakitic would surely leave because the Welshman would be a great improvement

Thats what I think of Rakitic.

Right...give me MF names that would do a much better job than Rakitic in Luchos current system.

Unbelievable.

Gundogan, Ramsey, Verratti off the top of my head

Matuidi even. I could come up with more names later and I only list players that are within Barça's reach.

Marcus Aurelius wrote:

jibers wrote:

Marcus Aurelius wrote:That's not hate,  it's fair criticism

In my opinion Rakitic hasn't been good enough throughout the entire course of the season. I rate him but he weakens our midfield and is not of the quality for a solid, irreplaceable starter like Busi for instance.

We will see if Gomes grows up to the task and becomes an important part of Lucho's jigsaw puzzle. I think he has more quality in him than Rakitic has, not sure if he's such a hard worker like the Croatian but definitely the technical abilities are there and imo they are superior to Rakitic's.

If we had signed someone like Ramsey then Rakitic would surely leave because the Welshman would be a great improvement

Thats what I think of Rakitic.

Right...give me MF names that would do a much better job than Rakitic in Luchos current system.

Unbelievable.

Gundogan, Ramsey, Verratti off the top of my head

Matuidi even. I could come up with more names later and I only list players that are within Barça's reach.

So let me get this straight...you think the guy who is injured every 3 games is going to be good at covering the RB and Messi, tracking back almost all game to cover the centre and be expected to bring the ball forward?

Verratti? Matudui I can see but Verratti? Running all game? Another guy that is injury prone...you want him to run as much as Rakitic does every game. Matudui has never reached the level Rakitic reached at Sevilla in his life, even if he took ZMA and had his best dream, the level he would reach in his sleep would still not be there.

Ramsey and Matuidi No way

Gundogan and Verrati can't be better than him for this role. They should be compared to Busi actually.

rakitic is so underrated by many barca fans.

gomes was bought to prep him to take over iniestas place come 16/17 season

Rakitic is one of the best midfielders in the world. Period.

Rakitic confirmed today on Twitter that it wasn't his agent that said those comments about him leaving, and that he's happy and currently preparing himself for the new season (with the red/blue emoji). Dude's going nowhere.

windkick wrote:Rakitic confirmed today on Twitter that it wasn't his agent that said those comments about him leaving, and that he's happy and currently preparing himself for the new season (with the red/blue emoji). Dude's going nowhere.

Rakitic and his agent are clearly colluding, knowing damn well if he publicly requested a leave it would hurt both his image and the percentage his agent receives.

Either that or he's fishing for a wage increase.

Loyalty is dead boys

He's one of the most overrated players going tbh, sure he runs a lot but he'll ruin attacks more than he helps them.

People give Matuidi shit but Rakitic is no better in the creative department, Barca could easily improve on him.

overrated maybe by casuals, underrated by barca fans.

Rakitic isn't even playing in his best role.

He's a CAM and he's very good at carrying the ball forward. A counterattacking player.

He's restricted at Barca, but he still does a pretty good job. Who would you replace him with, that can do a similar role and be an upgrade?

Casciavit wrote:Rakitic isn't even playing in his best role.

He's a CAM and he's very good at carrying the ball forward. A counterattacking player.

He's restricted at Barca, but he still does a pretty good job. Who would you replace him with, that can do a similar role and be an upgrade?

Agree with that, as a CM he's vastly overrated though and there's many who are better than him. If he's so irreplaceable why did Barca get knocked out of the CL by Atletico?

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:He's one of the most overrated players going tbh, sure he runs a lot but he'll ruin attacks more than he helps them.

People give Matuidi shit but Rakitic is no better in the creative department, Barca could easily improve on him.

Rakitic no better than Matuidi in creating? Take a day off mole. When he has the ball it's usually wide right. He is right footed what is he going to create from that angle. it would be like criticising Iniesta as well fro not creating. Did you watch him at Sevilla? He is behind Messi who is the main creator for Barcelona. Whenever players make runs behind the defence and Rakitic has the ball he makes very good passes. The problem is he is rarely in a position to do so.

your blaming barca losing to atletico on rakitic?
i mean there are many factors as to why that happened lol

Sky: #Inter's meeting with #Candreva's agent was positive. They will try to close the deal now.

Donuts wrote:your blaming barca losing to atletico on rakitic?
i mean there are many factors as to why that happened lol

Yes because when the front 3 falls down, it's up to the midfield to help out and they never do.

If he's irreplaceable it means you can do no better and that clearly isn't the case.

Don't see why are you so shocked, Barca's midfield has issues and that's why they didn't win the CL last year. Ignoring that and thinking it's all ok is delusional.

All he basically does in this role is run for Messi, pass to Messi and get back in position lol. You seriously think there is nobody who would be more impactful in his role?

I completely disagree with Jibers that the players mentioned couldn't do what he does, it's such a small role and those players all have offensive and/or defensive advantages to Rakitic.

You seriously going to sit there and say that the midfield did all they could to help the front 3 when it mattered last year? because they clearly didn't.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

Casciavit wrote:Rakitic isn't even playing in his best role.

He's a CAM and he's very good at carrying the ball forward. A counterattacking player.

He's restricted at Barca, but he still does a pretty good job. Who would you replace him with, that can do a similar role and be an upgrade?

Agree with that, as a CM he's vastly overrated though and there's many who are better than him. If he's so irreplaceable why did Barca get knocked out of the CL by Atletico?

Tbf, Barca were at their worst moment in the season against Atletico. Their slump came at the wrong time and if they had faced any other time during the season, I'm positive they would have won.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

Donuts wrote:your blaming barca losing to atletico on rakitic?
i mean there are many factors as to why that happened lol

Yes because when the front 3 falls down, it's up to the midfield to help out and they never do.

If he's irreplaceable it means you can do no better and that clearly isn't the case.

Don't see why are you so shocked, Barca's midfield has issues and that's why they didn't win the CL last year. Ignoring that and thinking it's all ok is delusional.

All he basically does in this role is run for Messi, pass to Messi and get back in position lol. You seriously think there is nobody who would be more impact in his role?

I completely disagree with Jibers that the players mentioned couldn't do what he does, it's such a small role and those players all have offensive and/or defensive advantages to Rakitic.

You seriously going to sit there and say that the midfield did all they could to help the front 3 when it mattered last year? because they clearly didn't.

If any player should take the blame it should be Messi. He completely destabilised Barcelona and made it easy for Atletico to defend. Mole, how will Rakitic create if noone is making runs and there is a block there? What did Xavi do when Barcelona went through their bad spell against Atleti in the 13/14 season? Did he stop learning how to create? WHen Messi is central and Rakitic is forced wide and running diagonally in what position will he be in to make passes?

Barcelona killed Atleti in the games before when Messi was on the Right and Atleti had to tilt their defence to stop him, freeing up Suarez and Neymar and enabling more one vs ones. Messi central facing a flat block as well drilled as them he flopped as he usually does when he faces them like that. It's no surprise that Barcelonas 2 goals came from out wide. It's literally so easy to see but Messi wants to get as many touches of the ball as possible. He did the same thing against Madrid in thee 2 games and left Busquets facing so many counter attacks.

In that 4-0 win away, if Messi stayed on the bench Barcelona would have battered Madrid 4-0. Immediately Messi came on and went central, Barcelonas pressing structure crumbled and Madrid had 2 scoring chances.Literally like clockwork. I was just shaking my head. If Messi stayed out wide Barcelona would have walked that game because he would have created 2 vs 1 opportunists somewhere else or even had more one vs one opportunities. Instead he just ran into 4 players and because of that he drew Neymar inside which meant Atleti didn't even have to defend the channels which is, as you have stated before, the key to beating them.

And why did Messi suddenly decide to move back to the center? He never drifted inside in 14-15.

As for Rakitic Mole I thought he was a technically limited runner until the Bayern first leg in 14-15. He does a great job off the ball covering the right flank basically on his own but he also has the technical ability to pass through a press like Bayern's when necessary which was a big part of why Barca won that game. It's an extremely rare combination.

Cruijf wrote:And why did Messi suddenly decide to move back to the center? He never drifted inside in 14-15.

Either he wanted to touch the ball and be involved as much as possible, which I feel is what happened or Enrique told him to which I doubt. Messi does wtf he wants and rightly so 90% of the time. It was blatantly obvious to anyone that understands the game what was going on. And Messi was central in the start of 14/15 and only went right after that disgraceful loss to La Real irrc. Something he decided apparently, not Enrique.

regardless rakitic has been a good servent to our club, guy doesn't complain, does dirty work if we'd want to replace him it wouldn't be cheap..
pogba, 120m+
verrati, is unbuyable PSG wont sell

i don't think anyone said he is irreplaceable but to sell him would be dumb and a loss in finance. aka makes no sense in barca's point of view.

@Jibers Yeah I completely agree with your assessment me and Alex were discussing it after the second Clasico. I just don't understand why he'd change his way of playing when it was clearly working. He wasn't exactly being starved of service on the right either.

Man City back in for John Stones who can cost up to £51m - Mirror

RealGunner wrote:Man City back in for John Stones who can cost up to £51m - Mirror