Thursday 20 August 2009

Maxwell on Camp Nou debut

Barcelona left back defender Maxwell made his debut at the Camp Nou in yesterday's friendly game against Manchester City and shared his thoughts with the club's official media:

"Every day, I feel better, I'm trying to do what the coach is asking me. The atmosphere in the group is fantastic and this makes thing easy.

We've played with quality players from the youth academy. It's a good thing for everyone that the youth players get the chance to play and they're doing really well. Zlatan? He is a great player, he's being looked at by everyone because of his quality. We expect a lot of him and I'm sure he'll do great."

read more post-match reactions here:
Guardiola - Ibrahimovic - Fontàs - Jonathan

14 comments:

mario ch said...

played a good first half

Anonymous said...

I didn't know he was right footed! I would have preferred if he was left footed so he could cross with his left instead.

Anonymous said...

Gai isn't ready. He is too weak.

Jeffren I dont like that much. Loan him out.

Pedro will stay so doesn't matter, but I think he is abit limited. Pedro and Bojan doesn't strike fear in the opposition.

Thiago was very good. I have always said that Thiago is a much bigger talent than Gai. He showed it again today. He is ready to play for the senior team.

Dos Santos was very good. He has a good distance shot, which is very needed in this team, and he is clever and has nice close ball control and passing. Him and Thiago occupy the same spot on the midfield, but I think they can fight it out between them. They both are good enough for this team.

Muniesa was solid, but wasn't tested much.

Fontas was good. He is stronger and taller than Muniesa, but Muniesa is probably the closest to being 4th central defender behind Rafa, Pique and Puyi.

Montoya wasn't convincing. Petrov scored on his side on the counterattack.

Overall, we dominated possession completely, played well, especially second half. It was another game with the English bus. In the first half, Yaya was very good, I like his offensive qualities alot. But the front three of Jeffren-Bojan-Pedro was weak. There wasn't much end-product in the first half.

krankuba said...

good summery, anon :)

maxwell was excellent too... noone beated him on the left.

groga said...

Maxwell was very aware of his defensive task yesterday. Don't forget at a certain moment he played with Montoya, Fontas, Bartra at the back, four 18-19 year old guys! He did ok, want to see him with the big guys.

Anonymous said...

Player ratings (1-10):

Pinto: 5. OK. Couldn't do anything with the goal. Didn't have much to do.

Montoya: 3. Too raw. Petrov scored on his side. Wasn't very active in offense. Isn't ready, but he is young, and should play with the B team, he might be good for the first team in 1-2 years.

Fontas: 7. Solid display. Strong in the tackle. Good physique.

Puyol: 7. Good. Some mixups with Montoya on the goal, it is down to lack of playing time together.

Maxwell: 8. Always giving options in attack, and control in defence. He will be really good once he gels with his team mates.

Busquets: 7. Controlled the game well from the middle, with nice tackles and ball winning. Solid passing.

Gudjohnsen: 4. Didn't do much. Was static and abit slow. Should have gone on more runs inside the box to create danger.

Yaya: 9. Great. Always a danger in the offensive role. Good passing, great dribbling. He was on another level than the rest of the players in the first half.

Jeffren. 5. Fair. Tried alot, had some nice dribblings and runs, but didn't create the necessary danger.

Bojan: 5. Wanted alot, but got bullied by the strong centre halves of City. Weak.

Pedro: 6. Showed good runs and some better play than Jeffren. But in the end, there was not much end-product.

pep said...

Good analysis, Anony. Can I put this up on the blog? Under which nickname can I do that?

Anonymous said...

Oh, it was only the first half players. I will give ratings to the second half players now, under nickname: BarcaKeith

Andréssibraviqué said...

LOL Pep, you are toooo cool man... Cheers :)

BarcaKeith said...

Second half:

Dani Alves: 8. Big improvement over Montoya, as would be expected of course. Constantly giving options on the right, great engine in the terrible heat (40C++).

Pique: 7. Solid passing. Didn't have anything else to do basically as the ball was on the City half all the time.

Henrique: 7. Same as Pique

Muniesa: 7. Wasn't the offensive threat as Maxwell, but did his job in an unusual position for him. Shows great promise.

Keita: Showed good ballwinning in the middle, and we were not affected by Busquets being taken off.

Thiago: 8. A great performance. Creative, smart choices, good vision, great ball control. He was on another level in the midfield which totally dominated City. Do we need Cesc?

Dos Santos: 8. A strong performance. Good physique combined with very good ball control, smart passing and a dangerous shot. Unlucky to hit the crossbar from outside the area. Difficult for the City players to get a hold of him. Do we need Cesc?

Gai: 6. Showed some good runs, but was a few sizes too small on this level. He still has junior player written all over him, we will have to see in the next couple of years if he is ready to play regularly for us.

Zlatan: 7. Lacked match fitness and haven't played with the team until now. It clearly showed as his movements was sometimes off and the understanding with the team mates wasn't there yet, but the combinations with Messi shows great promise and he managed to get into several good goal scoring positions which is very positive. Didn't convert them though, which he will once he gels and gets up his match fitness.

Messi: 8. A danger from the right, the good ol' Messi, fast, dribbling, always a threat.

BarcaKeith said...

Keita: 7. Was the rating that was omitted.

deco said...

I think the goal was Puyol fault, not montoya.

Mayby he was injured, but otherwise it was offside.

-----------------------------
Thiago and Jonathan showed they can be good subs.

Gai only need to strenghten his muscles, like Iniesta and Messi got, he need more body

pep said...

Ok, thanks BarcaKeith!

pep said...

By the way, if you want to do his after every game, you can mail us at:

fcbtransfers [at] yahoo [dot] com

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