Whats wrong with Umtiti exactly his injury? Overall I like him and hoped he would become a regular for us for years ahead actually I thought he recovered and just trying force his way into the team fighting for the place with Lenglet.

His career is probably over because of an ongoing injury. That's what is wrong with him.

He has the same injury that forced Puyol to retire. He’s really stubborn and doesn’t want surgery. Thing is had he got surgery at the start of the season he would be in recovery stage by now

Oh dear That is devastating news... since I had hope he could become like Pique's successor kind of thing. I guess we can always buy someone to do that, but our club has proven so unsuccessful in getting top CBs (remember Mascherano, and the biggest CB flop in history cant spell his name, etc.), this is worrying.

How happy are u guys with Lenglet?

Barcelona and Ajax exploring a collaboration link between them. They understand football in similar ways and, during the final stages of negotiating a deal for Frenkie de Jong, the idea arose of exploring an official collaboration between the two teams.

The idea of reading a collaboration is about Barça having priority to sign players that come through at Ajax while they will enjoy loans from Barcelona which will help them greatly in the Dutch league.

Barcelona believe they can seal the signing of Matthijs de Ligt within a month. The club have offered around 60 million euros plus variables for the Dutchman and a five year contract on similar numbers to that which they gave his friend and team-mate Frenkie de Jong. [sport]

The MDL rumors get stronger. Seems we will wrap him up very soon. Thats great news. Club seems concerned with Umtiti and might offload him.
Overall, I like the way squad is shaping up for the future. We have made very good long term investments for the squad. Only area left is striker. Admittedly the toughest job. Suarez is an all time great striker and the striker market right now is bare.

You need wingers still IMHO. Coutinho is not a winger and Dembélé has one good match followed by two poor matches and an injury.

We dont need wingers, atleast not till Messi is here. It is abundantly clear that we cant play 4-3-3 with Messi and that we will play 4-4-2 for the foreseeable future. So why do we need wingers.
Given the 4-4-2 and the tendancy Messi has to float to the right, we need a RM. Rakitic curretnly does that. We have a winger on the other side and that is Dembele. There is no one better on the market right now.

Given Messi and the 4-4-2, our squad is as close to complete as possible. Barring the striker. And no Jovic isnt that guy. It takes an elite player to play as the striker for us. He should enable Messi while scoring goals. And I dont see anyone doing that.

As long as Messi is here we just need a new CF provided Dembele stays fit and isnt injured every 4 games.

This summer I'm hoping we sell Coutinho, buy a LB, CF and another quality CM/AM.

Also possibly sell Umtiti and buy De Ligt but thats optional.

And buy a backup for Semedo to distance Roberto from defence and use him as a sub in midfield if not sell him altogether.

Forget about Dembélé. He ain't good enough and he's injured. Just cause he's had a few better matches than Coutinho who has been terrible as a winger doesn't mean he's been anything but ordinary. He has speed and a fake shot skill which is going to be found out sooner or later by opponents. His touch is poor and his decision making is appalling for a footballer.

You said similar stuff about Neymar, that he's gonna flop already from the beginning etc etc.

Dembele is fine, he just needs to fully recover and stay fit. Top talent. Probably no one better at this age.

I said that before Neymar joined. And I knew he wouldn't flop this badly, just that expectations were unreal from a guy joining from a grade Z Brazilian club.

On the other hand I've had 1.5 seasons to watch Dembélé and he hasn't done anything of note. No better at this age? Maybe at turnovers

He's about the same level as Mbappe. And everyone blows their load on the ninja turtle.

Be consistent.

dembele is about the same level as Mbappe? if dembele had 10% of mbappe football IQ he would be a top 5 player lol, not even close.

Dembele has a lot of physical ability, but like Nick says, his football intelligence seems relatively low, from what I can tell. I can't think of another player who gives away possession as often as he does and gets away with it without consequence. If Lyon had been a better counter-attacking side, you'd been fked over by his turnovers. He's about to turn 22. Aren't there any players around that age who has a high level of physical ability, as well as the ability to make fairly sensible decisions when in possession of the ball?

This stuff about Dembélé 'lacking football intelligence' is absolute, utter nonsense. Kid is a risky player, and an impulsive player. But it's not unintelligent by default to make risky decisions, especially not in a team that has a focus on safety, what with Rakitic, Artur, Vidal, Roberto, and Busquets playing behind him

Hapless_Hans wrote:This stuff about Dembélé 'lacking football intelligence' is absolute, utter nonsense. Kid is a risky player, and an impulsive player. But it's not unintelligent by default to make risky decisions, especially not in a team that has a focus on safety, what with Rakitic, Artur, Vidal, Roberto, and Busquets playing behind him

Exactly lol, besides he barely goes a game without scoring or assisting a goal.

He's significantly more impactful than most of the players this forum fawns over.

I don't want to have to keep defending him but real life isn't a YouTube video, impact is way more important than any of the decision making or overall play criticisms.

You can all keep criticising him if you want, but he'll keep actually impacting games way more than your favourite player.

-------

http://www.goallegacy.net/viewtopic.forum?t=42051