Spanish Midfielders Competition

Those barca midfielders would be pushed too wide covering the wingbacks for that to work.
You haven't an alrounder like herrera to make it happen, Busquets isn't half mobile enaugh to cover the ground. The midfield is yet again too conjested with messi replacing Cesc as the one too many extra body.
This barca side doesn't  press to the required standard anymore to make it work. You need a certain Spanish doctor to bridge the difference..

Tomwin Lannister wrote:Man uniteds £500,000,000 war chest combined with the Adidas mega deal and the LVG wishlist hasn't exactly gone down to well so far.

Atm they have spains 16th choice midfielder, a 10 year old left back making more than the President of the United states, and Young staking a claim as the go-to left wing back.

Herrera at the moment is one of the best Spanish midfielders, but VDB is too stubborn to see that

Valkyrja wrote:

Tomwin Lannister wrote:Man uniteds £500,000,000 war chest combined with the Adidas mega deal and the LVG wishlist hasn't exactly gone down to well so far.

Atm they have spains 16th choice midfielder, a 10 year old left back making more than the President of the United states, and Young staking a claim as the go-to left wing back.

Herrera at the moment is one of the best Spanish midfielders, but VDB is too stubborn to see that

Who is he better than? Koke, Thiago, Cesc, Iniesta, Busquets or Javi Martinez?

he is as good as Koke or thiago. Cesc and Iniesta in their natural roles are a class above, and Javi and Busquests play different role.

There is nothing between Thiago, Koke and Ander, 0.

hype is a filthy thing

Bayern were rampant when Thiago was fit, went to shit without him even in BL.

Hipster hate is a filthy thing.

Speaking of hype I don't remember too many people singing Herreras praises before he went to Man U. In fact I barely remember reading his name at all in the last few years.

Thiago is 10x the player of Herrera and Koke put together ffs

Mr Nick09 wrote:he is as good as thiago

There is nothing between Thiago and Ander, 0.

hype is a filthy thing

Thiago is miles ahead of Ander and it's laughable you're even attempting to compare the two.

Koke is admittedly somewhat more of a debate although he was easily better last season. Helping ATLETICO of all teams to a League title and a CL final as well as having the 2nd most assists in Europe is no easy task.

Except Ander has been performing consistently and lights out for Athletic since 2011 while Thiago before Bayern was merely a prospect spoken about with a handful of good performances and Koke was unassuming before 1 and a half season ago, even then possessing nowhere near the influence Ander has had for Athletic tactically and footballing wise.

The Thiago hype is justified yet that is where it ends considering he has done *bleep* all in his career.

Same people who think Koke matches up to Ander considering Ander was one of the best midfielders in La Liga last season.

Unneccessary to call Ander just hype considering how many performances he's racked up and in dire situations.

Bayern were rampant against bundesfodder, lol gee me a break.

Mole, you are the ultimate "tell me in which BIG game he has performed" guy. Well, thiago did nothing awe inspiring against top competition last season.

His talent is undeniable, his abilities are obvious. His performances against the big teams, not.

Ander game at the San Mames last season vs madrid is better than anything Thiago did last season.

Thiago is more hype and people inflating his potential than an actual elite performer. a bit like Pogba in some ways.

noone called Ander 'just hype', on the contrary I think Nicks point was that other players like Koke and Thiago got the hype while Ander is on their level yet gets no hype.
This is changing now though lol, so let's see how he does at United, shall we.
As for Thiago, he needs to stay injury free, then we can see if he can live up to his promise.

They struggled even against BL scrubs without him.

But meh you're just doing the usual overhyping of Lol Liga players when no one talks about them.

Hipstering at its finest

CBarca wrote:Thiago is 10x the player of Herrera and Koke put together ffs

that's of course nonsense. You can't just claim potential, at some point you have to look at what players actually do.
Thiago has basically just played a handful of games for us, and also not many for you lol (else his release fee wouldn't have shrunk like that after all).
That's why the comparisons are more or less nonsensical. Thiago CANNOT be the player that those two are as he has not actually played consistently.
If he stays injury free for a season or two I'm pretty confident he'll start to rack up performance that will make him a better player. If.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:They struggled even against BL scrubs without him.

But meh you're just doing the usual overhyping of Lol Liga players when no one talks about them.

Hipstering at its finest

I really am not. I recall telling you that when you were overhyping Kroos after the arsenal trashing. there are midfielders across europe who have the same quality, but some play for smaller clubs and arent as known.

Bayern struggled without Thiago? that hardly proves anything. if he is the player that interprets best the ideas pep is trying to implement, ideas he grew up with, it's only normal the team functions better when he plays.

And i saw some of those games, he was excellent in some. But him beating on some bundesfodder is not what i am going to use to compare him with other elite young midfielders.

When Ander does well in EPL, i can only predict the way people will overhype him. No he is that good already...

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:They struggled even against BL scrubs without him.

But meh you're just doing the usual overhyping of Lol Liga players when no one talks about them.

Hipstering at its finest

That's not really true though lol. We didnt struggle at all up to the point we won the league, Thiago or no Thiago, then we struggled everywhere.
That Thiago was injured at that point certainly didn't help, you're right.
But that was a completely different dynamic, unrelated to any single player.

And Nick, if you dismiss Bundesliga games as real games, which is a bit ignorant tbh, then at least you have to see that Thiago played only one 'big' game, where he was underwhelming, which was the last group game against City.
Only that this wasn't a big game at all, as our players stopped giving a *bleep* at that point.

that Kroos isn't valued by Guardiola is such a stupid thing to say lol

Kroos has been performing at that level for 3 years, I wasn't hyping him based on that Arsenal game it was a continuation of a lot of things.

Right from when he dominated Madrid in the CL semis before they lost to Chelsea in the final till now.

Not my fault, no one else was paying attention. And no there isn't a lot of players on his level.

I am not dismissing them, every game count, but i just am not going to use a game he had vs hamburg of last season to rate him.

My point was that performance wise, he isnt any different than what i have seen from Ander or koke last season. Regardless of age of anything like that. They are the same level of performers to me, obviously with different skillsets. Koke, Ander and Thiago are all quite a bit different.

any regular La Liga watcher was saying last year when we were linked to him how he was a hidden gem, he then went on to have another fantastic season at Bilbao.

not going to dump on Thiago or Koke, both fantastic players and we all know i desperately wanted Thiago at United, but at the same time was also devastated when we bottled the Herrera deal last summer too...would be glad to have any of the 3 and we got one.

going to be a revelation in the PL this season, will be him and Ramsey and Yaya best CM's in the league this year

He's not even in my Top 5 CM's.

Mr Nick09 wrote:I am not dismissing them, every game count, but i just am not going to use a game he had vs hamburg of last season to rate him.

My point was that performance wise, he isnt any different than what i have seen from Ander or koke last season. Regardless of age of anything like that. They are the same level of performers to me, obviously with different skillsets. Koke, Ander and Thiago are all quite a bit different.

Well I don't disagree, but it wasn't just Hamburg you know

Gil wrote:He's not even in my Top 5 CM's.

Gil, seriously, who gives a *bleep* about "your" top 5 Cms

Gtfo I for one subscribe to Gils 'top 5' newsletters.

Gil wrote:He's not even in my Top 5 CM's.

because you only rate scrubs  

gives my list credibility tbh

Hapless_Hans wrote:that Kroos isn't valued by Guardiola is such a stupid thing to say lol

No, it's the truth. Thiago is Pep's lovechild who will play every game when fit. Alongside him you need a defensive pivot. Which only leaves room for 1 of Kroos or Schweinsteiger. He went with Schweinsteiger. Otherwise he would have made an effort to keep Kroos, convinced the board that he's crucial to his plans and they would've paid up. Instead in one of his interviews some 6 months ago when asked about Kroos his response was something like: "Football is a fast business, players come and go." Do you know what his response was in 2011 when similar rumours about Thiago wanting away (because of Cesc's arrival) surfaced and Thiago's father was making noise? "I trust Thiago more than his father."

RealGunner wrote:Transfer rumours thread.

Dang.