football test

Yoles wanted to share us his thoughts about Barcelona needs for next season. As a public oriented blog we like to give the space for everyone. Thanks for Yoles for his first contribution. Dont be harsh on him ;)

Ever since I was a kid, the first thing I was doing in the morning during the summer was buying every sports magazine in the store near my home and the first page that I was reading (and most of the times the only one) was the football transfers page. Last year’s summer market was a bit disappointing for me, from one side we had great names moving but from another side all the action was dictated only by three clubs (Barca, Real and Man city). The main problem was that Man City and Real Madrid had created short-term distortion on the market and as a direct result of that the players price tags were pushed unreasonably high which created an impact on the transfer policies of every big European club. Barca however had reached its transfer goal, spending relatively not so much money (around 75 million Euros). This year we will probably spend more in order to bring few (probably two) big names to Nou Camp. This will be my analysis on the probable transfer scenarios at Nou Camp for the summer of 2010, so let get started:


The defense

From what we have seen this season it’s more than obvious that Marquez will leave the club. He past his best, slow movement, bad positioning, bad passes, worst offside traps…I also think that Dmytro is heading out. Don’t get me wrong, I think that everyone deserves a second chance but the Ukrainian was even worst then Rafa and from what I’ve seen from Hleb last season, Pep is not the kind of coaches who take that risk.

The only name that was been mention for a possible defensive singing is David Luiz. He is the biggest defensive talent in the world of football and he will no doubt be great for us but his price tag of 25-30 million Euros is probably too high for us.

To be honest I don’t think that there will be any defensive singings at least till August. The reason is simply evaluating what we have. Henrique, Caceres and Botia are coming back from loan plus Batra, Muniesa and Fontas are knocking on the first team door, so I think that Pep will probably test these guys this summer and decide which one he can use before making a transfer request.


The defensive midfield

Right now we have only two, Busquets and Yaya. Keita could probably get the job done in some matches but I consider him more as a marking midfielder, and I often wonder how would Pique play in that role but I don’t think that he has the necessary technique for that role plus we need him more in the back.

Let’s get back to our two guys Busi and Yaya. Yaya is great defensively, he has good marking, tackling, heading, positioning, long legs for one on ones, great physique, and solid technique but he is slowing our game dynamic, hold the ball too much, slow passing and he is not the guy that you like to hold the ball while the team is reorganizing under opposition pressure. Busi is far better in holding the ball, passing, dribbling. The game tempo is much faster with him but he’s making too many mistakes in the process. Maybe he has long legs for the one on ones but he is very weak physically, bad in the air, bad in the defense, immature in his decisions and often he looks like the spoiled kid in your neighborhood that nobody wants to play with.

The perfect singing in this department is without a doubt Mascherano. Amazing work rate and determination, has a great pace, rarely makes a wrong pass and there are games when he holds the Liverpool’s midfield by himself. Taking in consideration Liverpool’s situation at the moment we could probably sign him as we wanted last summer. Yet, what worries me is that all transfer talks about him in the news papers have gone cold, probably because we have enough money just for two world class players (left winger and Cecs).

Maybe a cheaper solution (10-12 million Euros) will be Veloso. I’ve seen this guys few times and I love his technique (passing, dribbling, long shots, crosses…), positioning, strength, tackling, intelligence, creativity but what worries me is his work rate and pace. He looks to static at times and uninterested (plus his haircut styles is too much C9 look-a-like for my taste  )

The midfield

In the midfield we have been blessed with two players who are out of this world, but cursed with not having adequate cover for them. So they have to play about 40+ games per season on the same level without injuries. Don’t get me wrong, Keita is doing a great job but he’s not Iniesta. Hleb as we all know is out of favor. From that point of view Fabregas will be an ideal singing. We will be able to rotate in the midfield so maintain the pace and the dynamic of our game or we can play Cesc and Xavi in the midfield and put Iniesta on the left flank as advanced playmaker. Cesc will also bring some long shot threat against our opponents. Let’s not forget that Xavi is 30 years old, so it’s reasonable that his performance will drop from season to season, and is there a better cover for him then Cesc? Even if Cesc is at the moment crossed by the loyalty that he has for his present club and the club that he loves and calls his home, I personally think that Cesc homecoming question is more “when” than “if”.

That’s the good side; now let’s take a look at the bad sides of bringing Fabregas:

- First, the high price tag (around 56 mil Euros), I guess that’s a high price to pay to bring home your long lost child,
- Secondly, if we bring Cesc then JDS will be the collateral damage, if we want “The next Xavi” to become “The new Xavi” we have to give this kid some time and space on the pitch,
- Third, as I’ve said above, we will be out of resources for singing quality defensive midfielder.


The attack

It’s more than clear that we need a replacement for Henry, a left winger (or inside forward if you will) who could play as a secondary striker or as a primary striker (when Ibra is benched). The list of names that we read over the past few weeks is big so let’s go name by name:

- Arshavin – for me it looks like this guy is offering himself to Barca more than Barca is really in for him. He’s great winger, but I hate his attitude (his recent statements sound ungrateful to Arsenal), he lacks stamina, easily get injured and can’t play as a striker.

- Balotelli – no thanks, Inter is an ideal club for him! Pep has faith in his potential but we have enough of our own talents.

- Van Persie – amazing player, creative, good finisher, good crosses, amazing vision, he uses both of his feet and can play as advanced forward but he gets injured a lot.

- Di Maria – one of my favorites, tremendous speed and technique, great vision… but too expensive, can’t play as forward and Real bought him this mourning 

- Rooney – yeah right…it’s easier to sign Kobe Bryant than this guy.

- Silva – yes I know he can’t play as a striker but he could be perfect back up plan for Fabregas, because he can cover the wings as well as the midfield, plus he is the type of players that can fit perfectly to Barca style. And he is far cheaper than Cesc.

- Villa – let me see now, he’s not a typical target man, he is more of a versatile RIGHT FOOTED forward who rarely spend much time inside the opponent’s penalty area but more tends to drift out to the flanks and drop deep to pick up the ball and run at defenders. He often spends more time on the LEFT channel and cut in to the middle…reminds you of anyone we might know??? He is just the perfect replacement for Henry (at least on papers anyway) and Pep –through rotation- can start him as a target man or in case Ibra got injured. One thing that I don’t like about this deal is sending Bojan away (Hleb is going away no matter what), but I have confidence in Laporta that he won’t allow in his last days as a President to make a mistake of losing another talent. So even if he sends Bojan to Valencia it will probably be on loan or he will make sure that in the contract a buy-out clause is included.

- Torres – He will probably leave Liverpool and from what we can read on the net Man City, Real and Barca are interested. So I got a bit confused, I mean Real will try to buy anyone who can sell few jerseys more. Man City will try to buy anyone who has scored a goal this season but… why us? We don’t need him, we got Ibra, we need Villa more on the flank while Torres is a typical target man we can’t use him as a wing.

So I started thinking (maybe more fantasizing) of the perfect summer scenario for our attack:

If this was an ideal world (which it isn’t) we spend our money on singing Villa and Fabregas. Then we sell Ibra to City (Mancini wants him badly since the first time he set a foot in Manchester), use those money (probably 45-50 million Euros), add few more millions (probably 10) and sign Torres too. We will have the best attack that the world of football has ever seen. But that’s not all. The most brilliant part of this plan is that if Valencia sells Villa they won’t sell Silva, and with Silva out of the transfer market and Villa and Torres playing for us we would eliminate 80% of Perez transfer whishes for the summer  .

Anyway this was just a joke, for the next season’s reinforcements I expect Barca to have a mix of world class players who’ll bring a new dimension to our style and some of the talents from our La Masia so we maintain our identity and still be the best club in the world.