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18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Then we need another defender..

Dani Alves, Puyol, Marquez, Henrique & Piqué aren't enough to fill three positions in the back. Marquez has a pretty serious injury every year, Puyol isn't getting any younger & Henrique may need to adapt (+ could be "kicked" out if Barca sign another non-EU player like keirrison and take him in the first team)

We can't count on Milito & some youngsters, in my opinion.

20 July 2009 at 01:10  

fcbee said...

We have Touré too, who has a perfect back-up in midfield (Busquets). And Abidal, who has now stronger opposition on the left. So I don't see the problem. caceres didn't play anyway, so it's not as if we lose something. Muniesa seems quite ready too for some minor league games.

20 July 2009 at 01:12  

Anonymous said...

We don't even have enough depth in midfield, let alone have our starting DM cover for CB. Caceres didn't play much last year, that's precisely why we had to rely on Yaya to play CB, it was far from ideal. We got away with it once, it doesn't mean we should rely on it.

Don't forget there's ACN next year, so our only cover for Xavi/Iniesta, Keita, and our starting DM, Yaya could both be missing major time. The people talking about Yaya covering for CB are the same ones talking about Marquez and Pique covering for DM when we don't even have enough CBs.

LB is fine, Abidal can provide a bit of depth now in center like you said, but with Puyi covering RB, we need one more guy in defense. Now that guy could be Henrique, but there's no guarantee.

Look at Juvey. They have 2 full time LBs, 2 full time RBs, with a guy on either side able to cover center. Chiellini/Cannavaro/Legrottaglie in center and they still want Caceres for depth. This is not including their reserve players who come up to provide depth. They're also in fewer competitions next year.

We have the same left side depth, same center depth, one less rb, and even with Henrique we've one less rb than them.

We're talking about using our midfield to cover for our defense when we have a 5 man midfield of Keita/Yaya/Xavi/Iniesta/Busquets and Iniesta has to cover LW and Yaya/Keita are off to ACN.

Juvey has a midfield of Melo/Zanetti/Marchisio/Camoranesi/Poulsen/Sissoko/Diego/Tiago/Almiron and none of them have to cover forward or back positions. In fact they have 5 forwards for 2 spots so Giovinco has to be pushed back to midfield.

It's amazing how little depth we have.

20 July 2009 at 01:47  

Ramzi said...

Juventus Coach is the perfect guy to teach caceres more defense. it will be perfect, if not including buying option.

20 July 2009 at 01:53  

groga said...

I don't think he really needs to learn to defend. He learns to attack.

That's the big problem with Caceres: Guardiola wants centre-backs who can start the attack from behind and he can't do that. Henrique is a better option in that perspective.

I hope he goes to Juve, proves his worth as defender there, so we can sell him for a fair price to an Italian club next summer.

20 July 2009 at 01:57  

Anonymous said...

This would be a good deal

Loan Caceres to Juve & maybe even Henrique: didn't see him play a lot, so hard to estimate his talent..

Sign Carvalho from chelsea (not expensive)
Loan Poulsen (knows the league, won't mind being back-up, imo talented enough to be back-up)
Sign Ribery: AM & LW (Bayern will never sell him to RM so maybe we get a chance at a lower price, because they might not want an unhappy player).

20 July 2009 at 02:05  

Ramzi said...

Actually gorga, if you watch his international games, he is good going forward. what he lack is calmless and concenrtation in defence. Thats something he can learn at juventus. They will not teach him offence for sure :)

20 July 2009 at 02:07  

groga said...

It's not about going forward, Ramzi. That's not really the task of Barcelona's centre-backs in 95% of the games.

It's about the passing game, building up from behind. Which he hasn't been able to adapt to last year and I actually think he never will. As long as Guardiola will be our coach, he won't get a chance in the centre. At the best, he could be some back-up for left back.

One-on-one in defense he's perfect, so he'll be great at Juve for sure. Therefore my hope that he'll shine at Juve, which gives us the chance to get some decent fee after this season.

20 July 2009 at 02:22  

Random Juve Fan said...

@ Ramzi, Juve used to be a traditionally defensive team, but remember, we scored more goals than Barca did at Stamford Bridge.

20 July 2009 at 02:35  

groga said...

One game doesn't mean a lot, RJF. And you can be a defensive team and still score more goals than Barça. Guess Chelsea was less defensive that day than when they played against us...

20 July 2009 at 02:37  

Ramzi said...

Liverpool scored more goals against Chelsea as well:)

Liverpool less defensive than Barca? Nah...

20 July 2009 at 02:52  

blaugrana_uk said...

henrique has a german passport as he has german ancestry so will not take up a non eu spot?? i read somewhere that keirrison has a italian passport??

20 July 2009 at 02:56  

refter said...

I was also surprised by how weak Caceres was in his passing, very shaky, very uncertain. Guess that's why he didn't get chances of Guardiola, even when we had a lack of centre-backs.

Now the question would be: why did they sign him in the first place because I already saw this after watching him play for 15 minutes. Let's hope Henrique proves to be better, otherwise you could have paid over 25 millions for two centre-back flops.

20 July 2009 at 03:15  

Anonymous said...

I don't think Henrique has a German passport and I don't think Keirrison has an Italian passport. Thiago Alcantara is the one with an Italian passport because he was born while his dad played football there.

Our non-EU spots are being taken by Caceres and Hleb. If Caceres or Hleb leaves we can take on both Henrique and Keirrison but likely one of them (Keirrison) will be loaned out anyway.

Yaya doesn't not count as non-EU because of the Kolpak ruling or something like that.

20 July 2009 at 03:18  

SJP said...

whats the kolpak ruling?

20 July 2009 at 06:35  

Byronic said...

The Kolpak ruling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolpak_ruling

20 July 2009 at 08:03  

tero said...

I doubt caceres gets much playing time...but if there is a possibility to make Juve to play him regularly?

20 July 2009 at 08:42  

Anonymous said...

Guys, I'm a Juventus fan and I'm curious about whether Caceres is right-footed or left. We'll obviously need him at LB or RB rather than in the center, and I'd like to know more about him. Thanks!

PS. I think we're trying to get him on loan with the option to buy him on a predetermined fee.

23 July 2009 at 20:12  

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