FC Barcelona Blog: Barça Transfer Zone: Poll - Rating the new guys: Keita

Friday 22 August 2008

Poll - Rating the new guys: Keita

21 comments:

pep said...: You can vote once, the results will be announced tomorrow.

0 = it will be a total failure

...

10 = he'll be perfect for us; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: i voted him 4,i dont think he is the kind of midfielder we want and he showed that in the preseason ,we have xavi iniesta yaya and hleb who are superior to keita and for 15million we could have invest the money in another player(van der vaart?arshavin?hernanes?many better midfielders out there)

i wish he turns out to be better ,but seriusly i dont think he will get a starting position in the big games; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: i vote 10 without blinking an eye then !; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: 10; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: -5; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: I rated him 5, i think Toure is better and he is younger. 15 mill is too much for this player who is already 28. I think they could invested the money in a better and younger player...; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: we could have had a younger player to develop but we needed him now plus he works well with alves; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: i gave him 6 as he is good noy very good. Going foward Hleb, Xavi, Iniesta are all better and defending Yaya is Rock solid! But that doesnt mean he ios a poor player.; 22 August, 2008
Àlex said...: I gave him a 7
The guy is solid as a defensive midfielder, but Barca needs moreeeee!!
We are an attacking team! everyone has to be fast and versatile to fit in!!; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: Pep, dont you think it too early to judge the man, he didn't play a lot in the pre season
It would be more reasonable to vote on a player like Alves or even Pique as they've been on the pitch for a longer time now.
anyways your effort to get the fans more involved in the blog is really appreciated.
go a head dude,; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: 8

The jury is still out, but from what we saw in the Fiorentina match with him and Yaya teamed with Xavi, the midfield lockdown was astonishing. Every time Fiorentina tried to play the ball out, either Keita or Yaya came up to pressure the ball, forcing a play back to the keeper.

Keita is not a defensive mid in the truest sense of the word. He's best playing up, as he was at Sevilla. Anyone expecting him to be a like for like sub for Yaya will be disappointed. The best role for him is as we saw in Fiorentina, where it's Xavi most forward, then Keita slightly off Xavi, then Yaya as the true defensive mid.

He really can't be compared to anyone else on the side, though. This is true of most of our mids, though. Hleb is his own style, as is Iniesta. Xavi is always in the side, so I imagine that Keita will be a horse for courses.

He's probably most like Guardiola, for those who remember Pep from his playing days. Strong on defense, with an eye toward offense. He also has a very good shot.

As it stands, we have two of the best defensive mids in the world. It's pretty awesome.; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: Keita Tale, y is he the best transfer for barca this season?!

since the end of last season it was obvious for me that 2 players are a must for this team, RB and i was sure alvis will b a barca player next season, and another player, who?
A player that can rotate with Toure so yaya dont have to play even when his back is injured.
A player with strong physics, something defferent than the great xavi and talanted iniesta.
A player who can make the balance in midfield mix, the balance between technique and muscles.
A player who can be used in CL in away games BESIDE yaya, because thats what u need to snap (and not just compete) the CL, having keita and yaya as two towers in midfield, xavi&iniesta infront (messi free role + eto/henry as a striker), and when barca gain the ball, abidal act as a 3rd CB, giving alves the opportunity to go forward, iniesta moving to left flank so xavi,iniesta,messi,henry and alvis operate offensively without having deffensive conserns when they have two giants behind them closing space, and breaking any counter attack.
the answer was too perfect AND true!keita!
and to add to the joy, he is left footed...so beside yaya he seem like a second half.
and to add to the joy,he also have powerfull shoots, we all know how much barca suffered against teams that park their buss infront of their goal leaving no space, barca failed to get a target man to meet the crosses by headings, so one of the rare choices will be shooting from outside, having keita and toure,beside xavi is a mistile engine.
y havent he performed well yet?
first because he need to adapt, and secondly because u cant c his importance till u play against inter,man utd, leverpool, chelsea, bayern.....not against second class teams.

y the best transfer?well because when u judge a transfer u dont only measure potentials, but u analyse how much the player is needed+quality+price, and based on that i say that was the smartest equisition.
now for the previous comments i say..

Give me another name u can buy for 15M having half what keita can offer in his position (experience, relatively young and adapted to spanish league), for me the team can perform well without getting arshavine or anyone else(iniesta,henry,hleb can cover), but not with only one DM (yaya)-knowing that marquez is needed in CB thats not just risky but suicident.
finaly:
a 27 years old DM is considered as a young one, he can offer 5 more years on highest level. but talking about age, arshavine is 27+ years old, and for attacking midfielder(or a winger if u want) the life cycle is shorter, and for a player with his physics he cant survive on highest level after he turn 31, so if he needed 1 year to adapt, he will serve barca for about 3 years, and for 20M+annual salary arround 4M it means he will cost the team about 10M per year ,so for his position vs age vs uncertainty thats much more risky than keita, i dont mean that arshavine will b a disaster but its undoubltfully more expensive than keita, less needed than keita and more risky.
I give him 10, and for a reason.; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: kxeven I agree totaly with u, and sorry guys for long comment...but this is the player that i was so excited to know he joined barca, so i feel some people r not fair enough with him.; 22 August, 2008
cojonudo said...: I'm probably going to be alone in this statement but I feel if Keita is used "properly" he could turn out to be the best transfer of the summer.

At first glance I was hoping that he would fill a "Senna-like" role for the club and play more of a "holding" defensive position. But as Kxevin has so astutely pointed out Keita's is as more skilled offensive player than he's given credit for.

Keita can play more forward than Yaya and provide Xavi better "cover". Without Keita the "gap" between Xavi and Yaya on the pitch would have been too great. So Keita in essence can act like a buffer for Xavi allowing Pep to play Xavi further up in midfield while also allowing Xavi to play with a more agressive minded, offensive approach. With Keita slightly behind him Xavi shouldn't have to worry about tracking back defensively or losing the ball and worrying about a counter threat because if the opposition get's past Keita they then will have to ALSO get past Yaya and then face the likes of Puyol and Caceres/Marquez as the last line of defense.

We all witnessed from the Euro's, that when Xavi's given the freedom and space to roam and move further forward he becomes an even greater threat to the opposition.

This could be a GREAT tactical move on Pep's part, again provided he uses Keita in the proper way. Allowing Xavi to run the defense ragged will also make Messi and even greater threat because the defenses won't be able to close down Xavi and at the same time mark Messi effectively. With Xavi on the loose, Messi circling in on the right, Alves flying down the right and making deadly crosses and....Whew! we haven't even mentioned Eto'o nor Henry yet. If and I know it's a BIG "IF" everything comes together we could have a deadly attacking side. And just imagine what it would look like if we added a "true" left winger? we could be virtually unstoppable!; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: cojonudo u r not alone with the statement u wrote...for me,as i mentioned already, he is the best transfer...lets hope we r both right;); 22 August, 2008
pep said...: @ waleed:

you'll be able to vote on the other guys later this week, and you shouldn't give a "final judgment", just how you feel about the transfer now after what' you've seen in the pre-season or know about the player from the past.

And I plan to do the same poll after the season (maybe in mid-season too), so we can then compare and see which transfer has done better/worse than expected. I bet if you could have a poll on Yaya Touré before and after the 2007-2008 season, it would be clear that he did a lot better than most expected, for example.; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: I think a lot will depend on getting a left winger or not.

If they get a first class guy, there will be though opposition for the "Deco position", which is the place for which he has been bought initially like Guardiola mentioned. It would be between Hleb, Iniesta and Keita for that place then. And it's hard to predict if Keita will be able to deal with that, since he has probably been playing all games over the last seasons.

If there's no new signing, Iniesta and Hleb could also play on the left wing (together with Henry), which would give Keita more playing time. If he gets his chance to play like 5 games in a row, I think Keita could well grab his chance and become a key player soon.

It will certainly be a good team player and coincidence will decide if he can be more than that.

A 7 for me.; 22 August, 2008
Anonymous said...: well if its so Pep..
I'll give him 7 putting in mind his price, age and physicals I think that would be fair at least for now; 22 August, 2008
Unknown said...: I gave him a 7. I think his ball touch is way better than Yaya. I also think he will be a big asset bringing the ball up field. i always thought Yaya was a little slow. He is going to score more goals than Yaya.; 23 August, 2008
barca nike said...: I think he is a good player becuase last year with his shots were rocket and he played as a centeral midfielder in a 4-4-2 formation. But with Barca he is playing in a 4-3-3 which he is left in the defensive midfielder role. He is a very good signing because we need copotition in midfield. I give him a 7.; 23 August, 2008
Jnice said...: Charles?? Keita's touch is better than Yaya? How? Yaya has one of the best touches on the team. On some days Yaya is the best dribbler behind Messi, thats one thing you can never knock Yaya on. You can say Keita is more physical but to say Keita has a better touch than Yaya is ridiculous. You may need to watch more games.; 23 August, 2008

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