Adriano vs Alba

I see a lot of people are pissed off at Alba. Some of them are defending him. Who is better in your opinion (provided that both are fit)?

For me Adriano is a more balanced player (attack and defense wise) and adds one thing that this team lacks a lot - shooting from outside the box.

Alba is good at fast overlaps but he lacks confidence in defense. Especially when paired with Alves (who IMO is far superior even if some say he has declined) the defense suffers as both like to venture forward. Also, I noticed that because of that Alves does not really attack that much when Alba is on the pitch. So we sacrifice our best fullback going forward for speed that we rarely use.

So in general Adriano > Alba

I think everyone knows Adriano is better.

I think it's a little unfair comparison..
if we had a RB in a mold of Abidal who is more defensive and had Alba, he would shine more, but instead we have Dani Alves who is good defensively but always in the halfway line when a team counters.

Alba is better offensively, Adriano defensively so yeah Adriano is better when we play with Dani Alves.

Adriano is also a glass cannon, if he lasts more then 5 games in a row it's a miracle.

Why is it unfair? Have you seen how Alves plays with Alba vs Adriano. Alves does not make half as much runs/overlaps when he plays with Alba and we still suffer defensively.

To me Alba might seam better offensively, but Adriano's impact is higher (aka. he saved our asses couple of times with those stunners) while keeping the back more stable.

Is Alba even better in attack?

Where are the overlaps now? We dont have targets for him (or anyone) to cross to so thats out.

What exactly does he do in attack? Pedro plays quite wide on the left, so the space to overlap exists less...its the underlap which is on, something Adriano does and does very well.

Perhaps that changes when Neymar returns to the left.

Overall as a player, Adriano is superior. Guessed it before Alba came and see nothing to change my mind.

More trustworthy, a better passer, better in tight spaces therefore less likely to panic-hoof, a better defender, can use both feet, can shoot, almost as fast and doesnt stop defending to ask for a foul.

Not a special player by any means, not Abidal, but a superior player to Alba.

I wouldn't say Adriano is better, but I very much perfer him when Alves is playing. Two full backs with such an attacking mindset... it doesn't work very well. I would only play Alba when alves is not playing and vs. medium/lower opposition at our stadium.

Adriano is a better defender than Alba and has that great long range shot on him attacking wise. Alba had boundless energy, great overlapping, good cross, and he is a bit like Mascherano: he plays at the limit and this cost him at times, but most of the time he is doing good defending. But that's a big problem. I think he can improve his defending, but his problems are mostly tactical and mental, while Mascherano can't never be a good CB because of his lack of height (and at that age...).

Adriano.....
why? he has the killer instinct. Defensively fragile ?? may be still not as exposed as it often meant to be.

Alba -no. does not matter who play on the other side. I highly doubt playing with Abidal would have made people praising him. His job is his to do.....A player like abidal would just look him less erroneous. then again why even we bring this issue is not quite clear to me. We did not buy him when we had abidal.
Also being a fullback how can you be so afraid of defending. And the only thing i liked (infact i was really happy we bought him for this) was his overlapping runs whch as Francise mentioned we did not see for long....then no point to play him over a fit adriano.

Adriano is an even worse defender than Alba, make no mistake just because he doesn't play too many big games and it isn't regularly highlighted. Alba is at least "there" when he gets owned here and there. Adriano is strolling around and letting the left centerback do his job. Watch the Robben goal in Camp Nou or how Walcott raped him. No awareness for things going on behind his back. Nevermind that he's injured 593 times in a season. Good squad player though and I'd start him against PTB teams for his lange range shot. That's about it.

In an ideal world we would have bought Mathieu instead of Alba.

Its Adriano's fault Walcott is faster than him?

leftback performance vs Bayern....Adriano the one you want to question? Really?

Fußball wrote:Adriano is an even worse defender than Alba, make no mistake just because he doesn't play too many big games and it isn't regularly highlighted. Alba is at least "there" when he gets owned here and there. Adriano is strolling around and letting the left centerback do his job. Watch the Robben goal in Camp Nou or how Walcott raped him. No awareness for things going on behind his back. Nevermind that he's injured 593 times in a season. Good squad player though and I'd start him against PTB teams for his lange range shot. That's about it.

In an ideal world we would have bought Mathieu instead of Alba.

So you needed to go back to bayern match to find fault of Adriano?? that says it all   
And since when long range shot became a solution for PTB

Fußball wrote:Adriano is an even worse defender than Alba, make no mistake just because he doesn't play too many big games and it isn't regularly highlighted. Alba is at least "there" when he gets owned here and there. Adriano is strolling around and letting the left centerback do his job. Watch the Robben goal in Camp Nou or how Walcott raped him. No awareness for things going on behind his back. Nevermind that he's injured 593 times in a season. Good squad player though and I'd start him against PTB teams for his lange range shot. That's about it.

In an ideal world we would have bought Mathieu instead of Alba.

what..?

You bring up Adriano vs Walcott.

Yet, if we just go back to the Valencia game a month ago...what side did every goal come from?

You can bring up Adriano v. Walcott and you can say that Adriano doesn't play the big games. He doesn't, perhaps he would get owned more. But what we can observe is that not only does Alba get owned in the big games, and no disrespect to Valencia here, but he gets destroyed against the likes of Valencia players, too. It's not just the games against the likes of Bayern and Arsenal.

Meanwhile, Adriano typically does fairly well. You can't have the "big games" point against Adriano when he doesn't play those games and does better against the opposition that he plays than Alba does.

Stop this nonsense. I mentioned that Robben goal because it was the worst piece of defending I've ever seen, not because it was the only opponent he struggled against. Adriano even struggled against Zaragoza last season. Guy completely switches off at times as if he would play an offside trap and leaves his marker free. In a fashion like "maybe if I go away from him he will also go away." Don't make me go through the material and gif all his nonsense.

Also Alba doesn't struggle against Valencia. Last season in the Mestalla he was amazing. MOTM performance even. Last time against Valencia the entire team switched off all of a sudden. This includes Busquets who had his worst game in a Barca shirt, Valdes who brainfarted hard, Alves who got outjumped by the smallest player in La Liga etc.

Noone is going to be bothering searching through youtube clips of errors, many probably arent on because they didnt result in a goal...but if there ever was a highlight films of errors, Adriano's would last like 3 minutes...Alba like 10 minutes.

There is no need for gifs and all, I think it should be agreeable to everyone here that Adriano is a superior defender. I'm not saying Adriano is Abidal or anything, but Adriano is decent at it and he's better than the crap defender Alba is.

I struggle to think of what Alba does right other than being fast and overlapping.

The Franchise wrote:Noone is going to be bothering searching through youtube clips of errors, many probably arent on because they didnt result in a goal...but if there ever was a highlight films of errors, Adriano's would last like 3 minutes...Alba like 10 minutes.

Considering that Alba is playing 20 times the minutes Adriano is playing that's probably about right and highlights how shit Adriano is.

CBarca wrote:There is no need for gifs and all, I think it should be agreeable to everyone here that Adriano is a superior defender. I'm not saying Adriano is Abidal or anything, but Adriano is decent at it and he's better than the crap defender Alba is.

I struggle to think of what Alba does right other than being fast and overlapping.

lmao Go back to the Milan game last season. Prevented a certain goal from Bojan and sealed the quarter final ticket with an amazing sprint towards the end. Had the most interceptions against City from any player on the pitch, including a vital interception where Negredo would have been clear on goal. Didn't set a foot wrong (did Navas play? I don't remember).

"Fast and overlapping". Pls stahp. His linkup play with Iniesta and generally amazing performances during the Euros must have escaped you.



Abidal was awful for most of his Barca career btw. His offensive game in particular was criticized a lot. Robben took him apart in a game in which Barca totally dominated (yes, he managed to be FOTM in a 6-2 victory ). Shortly after he got sent off against Chelsea. 09/10 he missed most of the season injured. Didn't make much of a difference replacing him with Maxwell, won 2-0 in the Bernabeu anyway with a complete makeshift defense. Only stepped it up in his 30s. In 10/11 he played his best ever season. Shortly after he suffered cancer and managed to come back and lift the CL trophy. That's where the fond memories come from. He wasn't that Maldini-esque rock people portray him as now. Couldn't deal with Özil at all in 11/12. Won't even talk about his adaptation problems prior to Pep.

Alba was at best average vs City. Are we watching the same game?

I would use my own words, but when people can say it better and save me the work:

Dani wrote:Forgot to speak on that, thats true. That's one of my biggest problems with his game..maybe even more than defence. He has an aura of failure and fear all around him, its ingrained in his game.

His passes look unsure, he is very quick to go long when pressured and we didnt see it today, but its common place in big games to lose the ball, proceed to dive, fake injury and not get up and help when its clear he isnt getting that call.

Danyjr wrote:I didn't like Alba one bit, I mean compared to Abidal he really is turd. He passed the ball back like a grenade at all times and didn't want to take any responsibility all game. Also choked every time he was under pressure, which luckily for him City didn't press him for long periods. But I'm looking down the road and I see it happening in the future...

Both are right. Alba looks scared anytime someone attacks him- he never looks in control. He's always trying to get back into position and often dwells too long on the ball. Against City he didn't offer what he actually can offer in an overlapping threat, and whenever he was pressured (and here's the big one), his favorite move was to bring the ball back Barca's way a couple steps, turn around, and kick it at the opposing player hoping either to get a throw-in or a ball hoofed up into a position somewhere where he's not.

And yes, Navas did play. He won a header over Alba, headed it to Silva, got a return ball, and then Alba stepped off enough to allow Navas to put in a great cross that Negredo should have done better with. Ala then also allowed City's best chance with 10 men by not sticking close enough to Zabaleta who then layed it off for Silva to volley. Actually, City's two best chances came from Alba now that I think about it.

This guy....smh

Do you say ANYTHING remotely accurate?

The fact you mentioned the Chelsea game he got sent off for nothing as some kind of mark against Abidal says it all.

I completely disagree that Adriano is a better passer than Alba. Alba is great with his one-twos with Iniesta, Adriano frequently makes awful passing decisions in the final third (I vividly remember this in one of the games against Arsenal).

That being said Alba is worse when Dani is also on the pitch and it really pisses me off when he throws himself to the ground to ask for a card, especially when the opposing team is still attacking while he's on the ground or when we're less than 10 minutes from the end and we really need a goal. Just time wasting then.

A lot better defenders than even Abidal have been ripped apart by Walcott....

You act as if he's some sort of scrub.

Adriano is a much defender and its not even close, Alba can't defend not one little bit.... everytime someone approaches him they get the better of him. I have never not once seen Alba do something positive in defense.

Also this thing that Alba is seen as some sort of offensive juggernaut is absolute bollocks.... hes good at one thing and thats making overlapping runs which are useless most of the time in Barca's set up.

He's basically a faster and more expensive version of Montoya.

Both are Catalan and both are nowhere near good enough for a team who wishes to win things.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I completely disagree that Adriano is a better passer than Alba. Alba is great with his one-twos with Iniesta, Adriano frequently makes awful passing decisions in the final third (I vividly remember this in one of the games against Arsenal).

That being said Alba is worse when Dani is also on the pitch and it really pisses me off when he throws himself to the ground to ask for a card, especially when the opposing team is still attacking while he's on the ground or when we're less than 10 minutes from the end and we really need a goal. Just time wasting then.

Not under pressure. Adriano is half decent under pressure and if he can't pass it off, he's able to hold off the player with strength and his body and hopefully get a decent pass off. Like I said, Alba panics and retreats back into Barca's current half, then tries to turn around and either kick it into the pressure for a throw-in or a hoof. He did so several times in the Man City game and I remember one was a total failure and launched a Man City attack.

Fußball wrote:

Abidal was awful for most of his Barca career btw. His offensive game in particular was criticized a lot. Robben took him apart in a game in which Barca totally dominated (yes, he managed to be FOTM in a 6-2 victory ). Shortly after he got sent off against Chelsea. 09/10 he missed most of the season injured. Didn't make much of a difference replacing him with Maxwell, won 2-0 in the Bernabeu anyway with a complete makeshift defense. Only stepped it up in his 30s. In 10/11 he played his best ever season. Shortly after he suffered cancer and managed to come back and lift the CL trophy. That's where the fond memories come from. He wasn't that Maldini-esque rock people portray him as now. Couldn't deal with Özil at all in 11/12. Won't even talk about his adaptation problems prior to Pep.

Now you are trolling ofcourse (which you are good at no doubt)...... Trying to defend Alba, you need to write a para on how worse abidal was. rather spend time on re watching City game where you found Alba did not have a step wrong. And you say Navas had bad game due to Alba  wtach the game again before trolling....

Both are defensively poor in my opinion and frankly don't have the composure of someone like Abidal when pressed but I voted for Adriano because he has more tricks up his play than Alba.

Why do we still want to wank to his Euro 2012 performances? He's a one trick pony and that tournament was the perfect evidence to that. Against a team that won't allow him to make any overlapping runs he is as useful as a dildo in a room full of Dany Juniors.

Yes Alba is a more accurate passer...probably cause he wants to get rid of the ball at all times. He is also quicker than Adriano. He'll do well as a wing back in 3-5-2 but for 4-3-3 I would even have Luke Shaw over him

I need to emphasise that for me Adriano is still a backup player. Even ignoring his frequent injuries which won't allow him to be a starter, he has a lot of flaws to start for a top team like Barcelona.

Fußball wrote:Guy completely switches off at times as if he would play an offside trap and leaves his marker free. In a fashion like "maybe if I go away from him he will also go away."

Took him exactly 1 game to showcase this amazing ability. Second Sociedad goal:





As per usual this section keeps bashing the same players (Fabregas, Alba, Mascherano) with the same repetetive bollocks arguments ("Alba ... blablabla ... only overlapping ... blablabla") no matter what. Glad I'm the only one who sees the light. Otherwise this would be a miserable place.