El Clasico

I honestly cant believe what im reading. This season so far before last night i'd have said Rakitic and Roberto especially had been playing better than him. Roberto started the season playing class at right-back then more in midfield, carrying the ball and creating chances. Last season was his worst season probably since he came on the scene, benched a lot and a lot of times not even used as a sub and barely managing any goals or assists. Rafinha had even been playing a lot although nothing special, Rakitic didnt do that great either, Xavi was ok but even then with none of the other centre-mids at their best Iniesta never played any better than any of them and was proabably worse than Rakitic and Xavi.

Last night was by far the best i've seen him in atleast 2 years(although to be fair it was one of if not maybe even his best ever performance). Hopefully a sign of a return to better form.

 

I don't think it is.

From 2007-2013 id have had him in any team, last 2 seasons he just never played well enough even this season so far too, in his peak years he'd perform maybe not as good as last night but not far off it every now and again atleast once a month. But thats his first real good game this season and he probably only had 2/3 games like that last season too when before we were used to seeing him like that 10-15 times a season.

 

Aye, was defo * last season...

[ame]http://youtu.be/ej0CDyvCpDM[/ame]

 

Id bet very few if any Barcelona fans would have had Iniesta in their top 5 best players last season, would honestly be suprised if any actually did as Messi, Suarez, Neymar were all better then Dani Alves had a good comeback to form and would have been in amongst it and probably Mascherano who was great as well and Busquets, so he was probably their 7th at best player last season - the Iniesta we knew would rarely have dropped to 7th best in the world never mind his own club.

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-BXS292Ugk[/ame]

To say Rakitic wasn't very good last season either is madness. Having watched 90% of all Barcelona games, some in person, they were a joy to watch!

 

I never said he wasn't very good as in he was *, I meant he never played as well as youd have hoped compared to him at Sevilla where he was a machine and a driving force and their best player for me, none of the Barcelona centre-mids played that well for me last season. Rafinha played a lot, possibly about the same as Rakitic and Iniesta and didnt really do any worse than them despite not even playing that good himself, Xavi id have said was their best centre-mid last season again even though he only played about as much as those other 3 none of them really tied down their spot as number 1 or number 2 all 4 of them were underwhelming I thought, probably the centre-mids and Alba were the poorest players. With Alves, Pique, Busquets, Suarez, Neymar and Messi as the best.

 

Madness, they won a treble and bossed pretty much every midfield battle they came up against which allowed the front 3 to go do their stuff! You don't do that if you're having an average season. Iniesta was out injured a good few times last season aswell, a reason why Rafinha played as much as he did. The first choice when fit in major games was always Busquets, Iniesta and Rakitic. I don't think anyone expected Rakitic to play the way he did at Sevilla at Barcelona, they are different styles, but he was excellent and fitted in well!

 

I still dont think Rakitic has come on to that good a game at Barca, if Iniesta and Roberto are in form I think he will drop out.

I think they try to use Rakitic like the way they used Keita a few years ago, as legs in midfield to help defensively but also get forward but Keita I think done it better, had a bit more class, scored more goals and defended better too.

Roberto is a different style again but he has been class this season and it would be hard to drop him.

 

It annoys me when anyone says he's "underrated".

He's rated as on the best in the world and has been by 99% of football fans for over 5 years now.

 

Not none of the midfield. Busquets was as good as ever, also Mascherano filled in there excellently quite a few times.

Centre-mids I said talking about Rafinha, Iniesta, Rakitic and Xavi who seemed to share about as much game time as each other, maybe Rakitic playing the most. Xavi despite not being as good as his best was still probably the best of the 4, so that'd obviously point to them not playing as well as we've seen usually from Barcelona.

 

What it seems to me is that you're saying none of them were playing at their peak, from what we've seen of them previously, despite them still playing very well.

Am I right?

 

Aye

 

Not the biggest fan of Barca but what a performance that was last night, sensational stuff.

Neymar or Suarez should be crowned best player in the world going on the last few months.

 

Iniesta is at his peak and has been for the last calendar year. He's never been a goalscorer, or even one who assists. His job has always been to link Busquets to the attack, and he's been doing that wonderfully. He was injured a bit last year and was subbed to keep him fresh, but I think ILTC might be the only one in the world who thinks that Xavi was better. I vividly remember his run against PSG and articles afterward stating how he was leading Barca and was playing at the top of his game.

If this isn't somebody at their peak then I don't know what is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcQy7rWcZ8U

 

Iniesta has been far from average - ridiculous statement to make. Suarez is the worthy winner of World Player of the Year, he has been different class

 

Neymar has been that tiny bit better imo.