Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Barcelona will sign a top centre forward this summer.
The four names on the list managed by the club are (in order of preference: Inter Milan forward Ibrahimovich (27), Atlético Madrid forward Forlán (30), Valencia forward Villa (27) and Lyon forward Benzema (21).
This transfer will go through no matter what could happen with Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o this summer. With the Africa cup and the World cup coming up, the technical staff thinks it's anyhow needed to sign another first class striker.
While Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola prefers Ibrahimovic, Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain would like the Forlán option more. Barcelona would already have a verbal agreement with Villa (read more here) and Benzema would have changed his mind about staying at Lyon for another season and would have been offered to Barcelona.
(image: tuttosport)
Read more:
Benzema is still an option for Barcelona
Barcelona willing to pay Forlan's buyout clause
Guardiola asks Barcelona to sign Ibrahimovic
Thursday, 4 June 2009
1 Ibrahimovic - 2 Forlan - 3 Villa - 4 Benzema
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64 comments:
Mundo Deportivo says Ribery is the first priority signing of the summer. Bayern slapped a 40m euro valuation and are giving us the pole position because of our good relations. They have an offer from Chelsea and Man U is stepping up interest in light of Florentino's pursuit of CR7.
Of those strikers listed, Ibra/Villa/Benzema make the most sense. Forlan is good, but he is also 30. In striker years, he gives you one (maybe two at most) good seasons.
If we do sign a big time CF and also keep Eto'o, Pep will need all of his man managing skills (especially if he brings in Ibra). Ibra and Eto'o in the same team is frightening on a couple of levels...1. Immense talent 2. Immense personality.
I don't know if even Barca is big enough for that.
That is so stupid- Zlatan is an lazy, arrogant, selfish egomanic bum
and would destroy the whole team- WE NEED TO GET BENZEMA, damned! He is the future all the others will soon be past!
I wouldn't really mind if we signed any of these players, well i don't like Benzema that much.
Anyway isn't the Africa Cup only for two months? I don't understand why w would NEED to sign any of theses for very much money.
We could move in Henry to the center, and why not give more playing time to Bojan?
If we sell Eto'o which i hope we don't i understand if we sign one of these guys.
Anyways im new here even though ive been reading this blog for a long time :)
// Barca o Mort
That mthrfckr doesn't deserve to wear Barca shirt...where they got this picture anyway??
The pic is photoshopped. :)
i wouldnt have forlan as a preference, the other strikers listed are great and would love to see any one of those 3 at barca. but not forlan.
I prefer Benzema, but if we count on Bojan, we should sign Ibra or Villa. In this case, Ibra is better while Villa is less risky in terms of mentality. Both are good. But I would be very disappointed if we signed Forlan, who failed in ManU + is too old + Villa/Ibra are better imho.
Well the clubs has said today they we count on Bojan for next season. So my guess is that we are not going to sign any more 21 year old strikers
David Villa, David Villa!
That man can't fail in Barcelona. Can play on the flank to.
Transfer of Ribery imo should be the priority irrespective of whether we get a new striker o now. Becouse Messi can play at the centre as well and Eto'o iof not sold , we ll hav plenty of options.
But Ribery is Gold and seehm him at any other club is painful :(
He can bring in a new dimension on the left attack and that is what we need.
Hey, I don't understand why everyone says Zlatan is egoistic. One said Zlatan is egoistic, an now everyone says it.
Some say, we need benzema, but do you know why Coupet left Lyon ???
Because he coundn't stand anymore the behavour of Karim.
Many people are happy with the altitude of Eto'o by playing on the wing for tactical reasons. Whell Zlatan could perform better in that situation because he has more quality.
Txiki is soooo stupid. I will be very happy when he leaves. I am sure he was also responsible for 17m Caceres and 15m Hleb.
benzema is not good enoough.
Oh yeah we'll be so happy when the man that helped get us 3 league titles and 2 champions leagues in what is arguably the most successful era in barcelona history leaves.
ribery + ibra = unbelievably successful transfer season. it doesn't even matter if we have to let Henry and Eto'o go to get those two talents.
ribery alone = successful transfer if no one leaves.
ibra alone = unsuccessful transfer, because either eto'o stays and that's difficult to manage, or he leaves and we still don't have the depth i'd want.
to criticize txiki soooo stupid!! caceres hasn't had the chance and may well turn out to be a great buy, hleb was making good headway before he got injured. txiki brought us R10, deco, eto'o, alves, pique, van bommel etc the list goes on!
i trust him and pep, but do have major doubts about ibra, could utterly destroy the great team spirit we have, definietly seems to be more of a galaticos RM player. don't think forlan is really a serious option. get dzenko or llorente and buy aguero as big name, then all angles covered.
ibra - ok if you sell eto'o
forlan or villa - are not the strong CF we're looking for..
benzema - ok, but then no ribery cause then bojan needs to grow in henry's position.. is maybe a gamble but it could be possible to keep him and eto'o happy in one team..
The rumours about Ibra seem to be spreading as they did last season. Most of it may be credited to the player and his agent as are the claims that he is the best player in the world.
People argue that we need Zlatan to help crush the bus, yada, yada, yada.
The truth is teams always park the bus against Barça and it has been especially evident in the latter half of this season.
And in spite of this we have had the best season in Spanish history relying completely on ball skill, passing and movement and teamwork. Eto'o drops deep, Henry fills his space, defenders readjust, space opens up for the Iniesta OR Eto'o moves to the right, Messis links with the midfield and opens up space for Henry. This is beautiful, it is a rejection of football's reliance on strength and physical presence. For me, this is a step forward, an advancement to build on rather than step back from. Why would we want to change this?
We have had the most successful phase in Barça's history playing like this and Eto'o has been the spearhead of the attack. Ibrahimovic will at most be a return to the Kluivert era, where in spite of having Figo and Rivaldo we were ever dependent on Kluivert's tempermental presence.
Eto'o is vital to Barça's style of play. Keep him !!!
I will have nightmares about that picture. Horrible, truly horrible!
Please, get Villa!
Respected Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague has today declared that Chelsea have lodged an unsuccessful €43 million bid for Valencia's in-demand striker David Villa.
Those who think villa will be cheap think again. he may cost as much as zlatan
sell him
buy pato
I'm cool with everyone except Forlan. He's a good enough player, but he is too old in my opinion. I don't think he will become better than he is right now.
What ever we do I really hope we don't have 2 worldclass strikers like Eto'o and Benzi/Villa/Zlatan + Bojan. Bojan wouldn't get any playing time.
LETS GIVE BOJAN MORE TIME ON THE PITCH! :D
Marc4Barca look at this pic our dream come true!!! IBRA the best striker in the WORLD!! and who says no is a complete idiot XD
Marc4Barca and Amir - cristiano ronaldo is a better player than zlatan ibrahimovic, so why dont we just go and buy him? ill tell you why, because barcelona is a TEAM and there is no place for egos here. ibra is the second biggest crybaby diver in the world after ronaldive. he may be absolutely brilliant, but he is going to come here and screw up the dressing room atmosphere and make unreasonable demands, no siree, i would rather keep eto'o and promote gai assulin, than buy him. plus, zlatan is ridiculously expensive and i think for that sort of money, we could get a left back, left winger and striker.
we dont have to look at the quality of the player, we must also see how he is going to fit in. ibrahimovic is NOT barca material. and please dont come up with that tosh of "but we dont know how he will fit in, so we should give him a chance". no, that sort of money CANNOT be wasted. thanks but no thanks, ibrahimovic can go and screw up dressing rooms anywhere he wants, but i dont want the guy at the camp nou.
looks nice in that jersyey.we will welcome u zlatan.
Anurag - anti ibra u don't understand shit i bet u don't watch italian league ibra is one of the best TEAM players in the world!! etoo has a lot of ego and R10 had one and that didn't screw up anything ! the only thing that is problematic is his prise !! if IBRACADBRA would shine in barca i want u to buy me a ticket for next season's champions league final bet for it?? (i'm joking)
ibrahimovic has huge ego but thats outside the field and i like that(every striker should have ego or else he wouldnt be a striker ,the more ego the better the player...see eto).in the game he is a worker,we kinda need a player like him but i prefer benzema mainly because he is young.
pls do not compare Ibra with Ronaldo. Ibra isn't a showboaster nor a diver and we are comfortable wit anythin else. and about the price of the player, u would pay 35 mil for Forlan but not 45 mil for Ibra???? come on. u think Villa is cheap? equally costly but he is as gud as Eto. keep Eto instead if we plan to buy Villa.
P.S : Ibra looks nice in the jersey!
"Txiki is soooo stupid. I will be very happy when he leaves. I am sure he was also responsible for 17m Caceres and 15m Hleb."
you forgot dani and pique.
my first choise is forlan. gime 2 seasons at a good price and then step aside for the prodigious bojan.
Ibra is awesome but he doesn't run enough, he will never accept the winger role like Eto'o does, he will never do the dirty work like splitting defenses without complaining, he wont run into good positions he will only ask for the ball and he does not track back! As an individual player, he probably is the best Striker in the world and he does fit into certain teams perfectly like he does with Inter but with FC Barcelona, I just not convinced it would work because barca never builds their team around one player. And to Amir: Nobody is an idiot if they prefer one Striker over YOUR favorite player.
And you can find a lot of players who can break the buss better than Zlatan.
We need to sign Villa for a tactical reason. Look how we turned Henry from a top class striker, to a top class winger, who can switch it to the center mid game. This is exactly what we need to do if we are to sell either Henry or Eto'o. Than in the future I can see Bojan doing the same, because from the games he has played recently on the left wing, he has been great. He is very good at crossing the ball, and can play this years Henry role perfectly. I do not know if Ibra could do the same. Forlan is a bit old but is the best of the four at the moment. And Benzema said he wanted to join Madrid earlier this year, so I wouldn't want him. He is the worst choice of the four.
The problem with Forlan is that we would buy him intending to use him for 1 or 2 seasons but his price evaluation currently will be too high for such a deal to be worthwhile.
ibra is an extremely technial forward in a bruisers body... his superb technique and ability to control and hold the ball and make things happen for others is what samuel offers us and a bit more... on the physicality front there is not contest zlatan wil definitely be more useful that eto'o against the bus...
The only place i see eto'o surpass zlatan is scrappiness and using his speed to beat defenders and run onto through balls. He may be jsut as fast as eto'o but he just doesnt use his speed in the same way. As for work ethic believe me pep will straighten that out. Remember how much Henry used to complain "i've never run so much in my career!" then he started scoring goals and shut up, aha!!!
Eto'o is great but as he ages the attributes that fit so well with out system are deteriorating...we should cut our losses.
Zlatan for me is perfect because he is an anomaly he is built like dzeko but can move like villa and that is what makes him our BEST option. He brings variety and flare to our game but also a physical side.
Ideally: I saw IBRA + RIBERY (Eto'o out, Henry stays as back up and bojan can go on loan.) Once henry returns a bojan can fill in for for both ibra and ribery at the LF and CF spots...
In reality we will probably only get ibra or ribery and ibra seems more likely cuz ribery is on everyones list.
this is everything i dremed of, my favorite striker in the barcelona shirt.
kamikaze although we did break the bus on spanish teams, it is much different against the english as proven by manu of last year and chelsea this year and liverpool 2yrs, i was more than happy to see manu play actual football in the final rather than taking the defensive approach and everyone here knows if manu had done a chelsea we would not have had such a smooth final, we may have even lost it. u could say barca were forced to defend more than usual. eto scored the goal i am happy for him and i can't take away what he has done but i look at will happen next year and not what has happened, manu will not open up again, chelsea will use the same tactic and liver always defend and even so italian teams would adopt the style of chelsea just for barca? u want to know why, cause it frustrated barca they made barca look foolish in the second leg and we were helped by the ref, so tell me kamikaze what was eto doing during the whole match, where was eto against manu last season when they closed up. where was eto when he played against liver 3yrs ago. i remember what eto told pep during the betis match "bring on messi and i will score" he did score but if it takes messi to play for him to score in tough matches then he is not as good as we think. zlatan will spearhead barca to another la liga and cl title no matter who real sign and what teams in cl throw at us. ribery zlatan messi frontline is what i want to see.
Marc4barca!!!u r right.i support u only.my dream frontline:
ribery-ibra-messi
or
ribery-villa-messi
Mark
David silva is going to madrid,we need RIBERY so much
mark
my dream frontline remains messi---villa---ribery. with henry and bojan subs, bojan NOT leaving on loan. amir, there is no need to question my knowledge of football, because i have never questioned zlatan's skill. all i have said is he is a misfit in barca who will do more harm than good. you say R10 and eto'o had egos, but zlatan is worse, he wont even adjust to any change in tactics made by guardiola. of course i am hoping i am proved absolutely wrong and ibra fits in perfectly and we win 6 trophies next season, but thats too expensive a chance to take.
and lol, that pic is outdated anyway, if anything, he should have been shown wearing the new jersey so we know exactly what he would look like
It is different against English teams but we did succeed and what I am saying is that if we can do it without a tall centre-forward why shouldn't we carry on with that ?
Do you think parking the bus is that easy? What if we slip through one goal as we did against Man U? How many times are you going to see a goal such as the one Essien scored which allowed Chelsea to stay put at the back? In fact, imo, Man U had the same idea, score an early goal THEN park the bus. How did that work for them?
Defending and attacking are both important aspects of the game. No team can survive by utlising only one.
Where was Eto'o last season? Where was Ibrahimovic last season or this season or the season before that? If he is going to break the bus then you believe he is going to do so by operating in isolation, by producing something special against a horde of defenders.
Well, why cant he do that at Inter? Dont they pass the ball to him often enough? Why hasn't he scored of the setpieces? Why hasn't he made a difference? Well?
The truth of the matter is Ibrahimovic is going to do nothing more than degrade Barça's game. Bring it closer to the level of the English teams. We can start operating like Liverpool with Torres.
If he scores a goal against parked buses and tough opposition it is unlikely to be something that Eto'o, Bojan, Henry or Bodipo could not have done.
The whole point of my argument is that Barça achieve all their goals by the use of teamwork, ball skill and intelligent movement. All the players work for each other. We have one crack in Messi but in the big games, his role is not to magically produce a goal out of nowhere rather to make an effective contribution in sync with the rest of the team. So if we do not ask this of Messi (and we shouldn't) why should we bring in Zlatan and ask this of him?
If we just need someone to head in crosses we could buy any tall forward or use Henry.
Read this article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jun/04/defensive-forwards-barcelona-liverpool-manchester-united
It is not pro-Eto'o or anything like that but it says a bit about the tactical evolution of teams using Barça as an example. And tell me after reading it that Ibrahimovic is going to allow us to operate in the same way.
Ribery-Zlatan-Messi would obviously be the dream forward line and would completely destroy any defense but there is a big risk with changing two of you regular forwards. They might not work well together and even if they did, it would probably take a while for them to do so. I doubt that Ribery and Zlatan would get that natural connection that Messi and Alves got. The Messi-Alves connection usually takes years to build. They haven't even played in La Liga yet. Plus, thats two more players that don't have a Spanish citizenship. They are two expensive also. I wouldn't mid selling 4-5 youth players.
lol i think we need to stop arguing coz goal.com is saying the deal will go through in 24 hours and ibrahimovic will be a barca player. all i can hope is amir and marc are proved right and i am proved wrong. if that is the case, i will never have been happier about being proved wrong.
moratti's in town..
having dinner w/ laporta and im guessing its not small talk ;)
thats the news of the day.
Keep in mind that this is not solely a footballing decision. There's a lot of other stuff involved, finances, agents, politics, sponsorship, advertising. Being fans we're only exposed to a fraction of all the things involved when a transfer happens.
kamikaze...I think you are missing my point...ibra's phyiscal attributes allow him to be the target man if we need him to be...but he has WAY more to offer than that and in fact that is really not his style of play at all. IBRA has awesome skill and technique.
You are talking about ibra as if he is a trezeguet/abedayor type of player which he is not at all...I admit I haven't watch a ton of inter games this year but from what I have seenof him this year and more so in the past he has the whole bag of tricks...
I think you all should look through these if you have nothing better to do,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4GzhB40laM&NR=1
Part 1 through 14.. 15 or something, alot material showing all of his qualities.
umm parking the bus is that easy, what is so hard about putting 10men behind the ball? we slip through 1 goal? u make it seem like manu were defending, reality check they weren't. now u ask "How many times are you going to see a goal such as the one Essien scored which allowed Chelsea to stay put at the back?" well lets see, 2 out of 2 is a rather good odds and lets not forget liver scored two at the camp nou when we went infront. let me ask you this question now kamikaze, how many times will u see a goal like iniesta's come from barca and even so chelsea had 2 clear penalty calls, they had more shots on target than we did, all with counter attacking with malouda and long balls through the middle. it seems u really don't know anything about ibra other than his ego, i'm going to tell u straight that is ur only argument, nothing else comes from u about zlatan other than ego this and he going to hurt barca, do you know zlatan personally, do u follow his lifestyle, are u stalker? how can u tell how he will react with other players, layoff such foolish talk, these ego people u people talking about have won their leagues. the guy admitted he is never one to stay at one club for long, the guy said ballon d'or is a waste, the guy wants to join barca for the same reason henry joined, to win cl. eto said being at barca is just business, none of u freaked over this comment, u agreed with him, yet u questioned zlatan's reasons for being what he is.
once again u cannot compare inter with barcelona, so stop. eto has the best service in the world, zlatan does not, eto requires a total of 3 touches to properly control a ball, zlatan needs one, eto has no long shot zlatan does, eto has no abiltiy in the air zlatan does, eto runs around non stop WOW that is so amazing no one else can do it, eto has speed and poaching ability that is all, that is all one needs to play at barca in la liga but not in cl. i'm kind of shocked u would even degrade barca service to that of cambiasso and muntari. watch some more matches and see zlatan knows how to drift to the left and he brings the ball out of midfield when the team is struggling. ronaldo and vidic scored headers cause they got good service, they didn't score in cl finals cause the service was poor. get what i'm saying, good service+tall technically gifted players= goals. what eto cannot do is shrug off two defenders and cross a ball.
henry has never been known to be a great header of the ball, so scrap that and zlatan isn't any other tall forward, zlatan can dribble, shoot from distance and hold up play like none other he is in a class of his own on striking. u show me an article of englisg teams and tactics, if u haven't realized barca plays nothing but 4-3-3 and 4-3-1-2(which is basically a 4-3-3 with messi playing behind the forwards) and for the last time, if pep thought a defending forward is what barca wants then he would keep eto or sign tevez. ibra will join barca and i will be bringing the wagon for u to jump on and i will be accepting apologies also.
marc4baca- amen brotha...that's what i've been trying to say...just less convincingly. I've been on that bandwagon since last summer. Also, look at how eto'o changed his comments from mid-year to when he started realizing we could win the treble. just a job to please let me stay...
The only thing I will say is that eto'o's running around like a madman really does help us out defensively. It allows our midfield to compress the other team and win the ball back immediately which is largely responsible for why we can maintain 60-70% possession and why we are definitely less vulnerable on the counterattack than a team who constantly attacks should be...
However, I have no doubt that Ibra will work for the teamm you are absolutely right, he wants to CL and will do anything he can to get it.
The only other suitable option for me is benzema...but I really think ibra will be magical for us lets just hope he doesn't take as long to adapt as henry did!!!!
What do you want people to say? Nobody's doubting Ibra's talent. When you have an attacking force that's working so well, bringing someone new in will always cause anxiety in the fans. Transfers are always a risk, sometimes the risk is worth taking. We'll see in time if this is the right move, and it's not even a done deal yet.
I don't get your constant dismissal of Eto'o's abilities though. Even with fantastic service, he still scored a lot of goals. We wouldn't have broken all kinds of scoring records if our striker wasn't a good finisher. Like I said before, for all the chances he's misses, he creates a lot of chances by being the workhorse that he is. That's an important quality you're completely dismissing.
The one point you're absolutely wrong on is that we don't need defensive, ball hawking abilities in our #9. We do. That's our style, we press up the pitch. It'd be a pretty ineffective press if Messi and Henry are running all over the place and our #9 isn't. Look at Manchester United when Berbatov is on. Tevez and Rooney look like chickens with their heads cut off because Berbatov isn't providing the same pressure, defenders have a much easier time when that happens. It's not like we have a bruising back line, winning the ball higher up on the pitch is very important.
Again, I'm not saying Ibrahimovic isn't super talented. I just have some concerns. Ibra's probably always been the best player on his team. How will he adjust to having a guy who demands all the attention, namely Messi? You brought up a good point sometimes he thirsts for service at Inter. When he does get a chance sometimes he'd rather take on 3 or 4 defenders than slide the pass. When Messi's winning all the individual awards will Ibra make the simple pass to Messi or try to take on his man and score himself? And again that's not necessarily a bad thing. Striving to be the best is what makes these guys so good, but when you have multiple guys demanding the ball it's always a concern. That's the same reason why I was in favor of Ronaldinho leaving because I always considered him a ball-stopper, and having both him and Messi in the same lineup just didn't work for me. Lastly, when Eto'o said Barca is just business I certainly wasn't happy about that. But I took it as him letting us know he's still upset about trying to sell him last summer.
All that said. I hope we get him for a good price. Personally I think Eto'o + 30 is a bit too expensive. Plus that's a lot of pressure if Eto'o ends up having a good season next year there'll be nonstop comparisons about the 2 players and discussions of whether or not we got ripped off on the deal. If we can get him for ~40 + clauses, and then sell Eto'o for about 23. Eto'o + 17 is a lot more digestable for me.
btw I do appreciate Eto'o and everything he has done for this club and I rate him very highly as a player. I just think its time to switch things up a bit. It is also evident to me that he is in decline, he is still excellent but he will only go downhill from here.
What would you all be saying had he not scored that toe poke in the final??? Very different story, I bet. I'm just saying look at the season objectively. Eto'o was good early on but gradually got worse as the season went on. I think Messi, Iniesta, Yaya, Xavi, Alves, Valdes, Puyol, Pique and YES HENRY too were all more important to our team this year.
Besides, Henry has fulfilled his CL goal and I think he be ready to fulfill more a back up Larsson role for us next season. I just can't see eto'o resigning himself to being 2nd fiddle for us. Eto'o thanks but its team we parted ways...
What is so hard about parking a bus ? What is so hard about kicking a ball into a net? Any ole granny could do it.
2 out of 2 is of course incredibly better odds than 1 out of 1 ?
How many chances did we have in the first leg (I counted at least 3 clear cut chances)? Didn't Chelsea park the bus then ?
Fine, tell me how exactly is Zlatan going to help us against parked buses?
A crazy triple flip somesault back heel the answer?
If I say Zlatan is not going to move out of position, not going to fight for possession, not going to act as a foil (read create space) for Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Henry you could reply by addressing the core issue of his ego. But irrespective of what the reason is, the fact is , he wont.
I asked if Barça produce so many easy goal scoring chances for Eto'o than why do we need a 70 mill striker to do the same? Obviously all Zlatan supporters expect something exceptional. So that is what we are going to depend on then?
The skills we need are speed, movement, adaptability, humility, and intelligence. We have Eto'o, who has helped us win only 2 CL, 3 Liga and 1 Copa. Lets just thrash that, his contribution was negligible anyway, right? Lets pay 70 mill and use Eto'o as a makeweight for Zlatan. No small time striker worth 5-15 mill who can head the ball will do for us.
We have to break the bank for someone who for all his glorious skills adds nothing to the team than some aerial ability and takes away from it the some of the most important features that contributed to this season's success.
How bout this deal...
Eto'o + $35 = Maxwell + Ibra??
kamikaze...there must be something that guardiola sees in zlatan for him to be pushing this move. Remember Laporta is a staunch supporter of Eto'o. It really seems like Guardiola is pushing this transfer and surely our success this year had a least a little bit to do with Pep's vision. In my opinion Eto'o being a "foil" and dropping to the right was an excellent tactical move by Pep because Eto'o simply wasn't creating enough danger, placing messi in the middle did...he had to find a way to make Eto'o effective and he did!! Don't misconstrue that with Eto'o being the glue that holds out system together. Eto'o has been as much a part of the good as he has been a part of the bad for us.
Scano, teams were getting the hang of stopping Messi from the right as early as the Lyon pre-quaterfinal first leg. The move was to facilitate a more effective role for Messi.
I hold on to the notion of Barça playing with a hybrid of 3 interchanging wing-attackers cum strikers (total football) rather than a single centre forward formation.
kamikaze: agreed, i understand how you see messi's swtich that way...
Stopping messi meant double and triple teaming him...yes it did slow/stop him. Its arguable that teams could do that because they valued the threat of messi far greater than anything eto'o could produce. To me this says (keeping in mind that this a team effort and that I too am a proponent of total football)... eto'o is more dependent on messi than messi is on eto'o to create chances/danger
Dragging messi into the middle created chaos in the middle of the pitch allowing us to our width more...I guess eto'o was not creating the same chaos or attention from opponent defense...
Furthermore, I feel that Ibra is more capable if interchanging roles of the 3 in front better than eto'o given ibras dribbing ability and incisiveness.
Ibra was an ajax player who developed in their 4-3-3 total football system... Rinus Michels created total football...Cruyff just adopted these ideas and took them to Barca and we have mixed this with our own catalan playing style with great effect...
That is why I think ibra will work well he is not a goal-poaching number 9, in some ways i see his positioning and style more similar to henry than that of henry. With Ibra I believe or at least hope...it will enhance our total football not take away from it.
ps...maxwell was an ajax guy too so he understands our system pretty well...
Most players would feel challenged to create the sort of chaos that Messi does.
When Eto'o plays in the centre, he incorporates a fwd and backward movement which draws the centre back out of position and creates space for Henry and Messi. I get irritated on these occasions when Eto'o insists on collecting the ball and takes an age to redistribute it. The point is that everyone wants to be involved to the greatest possible extent, to show their skills with ball. It has taken an age and many wheelings and dealings to put the shackles on Eto'o and restrain him to the role most suited and effective for the team.
Do we really want to start another project which might be even harder now with Ibrahimovic and for 70 mill and after discarding Eto'o?
Also, under Rijkaard Eto'o's role was different and his skill different, he had an incredibly quick turn and shot. I dont think Eto'o has lost that ability. I think he has focussed more on fitness this season and might work to regain his ball skills next season.
I hope we see Maxwell at Barça.
Kamikaze - I see your point absolutely.
I just think we at two ends of the spectrum. I think you are in the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Surely our system is anything but broken and in fact very very good. I on the other hand would not want to dwell on the success of this season and would like to be a bit risky and forward moving. We saw the complacency after our last CL win and we trusted the players to regain their hunger and they let us down a few seasons ago (seems like forever). This is a very different group and I don't see this being as much of a problem for us, especially with the big differences b/w Pep's and Rijkaard's motivation/coaching styles.
I just think we should take some calculated risks and this is one position I think we should gamble on. I really hope it works out too.
I won't lie, I really really got frustrated watching Eto'o in the second half of our season and I became a bit disillusioned with him. Taking that into consideration, I still feel like a new striker is the right move. And of the choices available Ibra is #1
Also, going out and getting ibra is not a reaction to the madidrista galactico policy I genuinely just think we need a crack signing this summer to keep the squad competitive.
Tuttosport is saying that we're going to swap Eto'o + Yaya + cash for Ibrahimovic. Goal.com reports we're considering swapping Abidal + cash for Mascherano.
the Mascherano rumor comes from Sport. The reasoning is the African Cup of Nations.
Scano, so we agree to disagree then?
James, that is news !
Eto'o, fine I can understand? Yaya? I think he would probably make a better Centre forward than both Eto'o and Ibra, besides also a better midfielder and defender. There is life before and after the African Nations Cup.
haha yes, sounds good, kamikaze... I think I am beating a dead horse here.
Any deal involving Yaya I do not support.
Ibra is being severely overpriced if Eto'o+ Yaya is still not enough for inter
I think we can get ibra for 55 or Eto'o + 25.
Yaya for me is worth at least 30 in this market.
I wouldn't mind switching Abidal + Keita for Masch...but I think we will actually lose a dimension to our midfield without Keita. Keita can play box to box Masch is purely a DMF. Keita definitely earned us some points and saved us this season with his forward surges.
I love the excitement of the summer transfer window, its almost as much fun as the actual season!!!
moratti and laporta said no swap deal. so it seems it will have to be straight forward cash or just leave the player alone, pep wants zlatan, laporta wants to keep eto and txiki is stuck in the middle. personally if i had a choice to choose zlatan, eto or both i would go with both.
kamikaze just to let u know i have nothing against u and i'm not looking to make enemies but plz watch some games of zlatan and see he does more than u think. the interchanging with messi and eto is perhaps your strongest point but like scano said eto is not serious enough threat on the wings and he does spend forver on the ball before making a decision on what to do, he loves the ball to played through to him where he only haves to run on to it and shoot, anything other than that and eto becomes useless infront the box. i agree back then eto used to turn and shoot like no other but he has lost it, he is weak with his back towards goal. goal.com authors said if eto go to inter he will need need an excellent midfield to supply him which proves two of my points, eto is not a complete forward and relies to heavenly on messi and xavi and zlatan does not have any support whatsoever. some did mention some of your points in his attitude but i am willing to go with that risk which isn't that big anyways, i don't know zlatan in that way, i don't any footballer personally so i never make an argument about their personality, that's why i defended ronaldo in the cb. never the less ronaldo has changed and has become more of team player so for all who think zlatan is the world's most selfish player, try and think positive that he can change. remember henry was the guy at arsenal that wanted the ball to feet cause he was the heart of the team, he changed didn't he. be clam and follow pep on his decision. i do believe zlatan will struggle for like the first quarter of the season but he will eventually understand and fit in the squad. i don't think he is dumb to think he will come barca and be a bigger star than messi.
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