Barcelona or Real Madrid quality?

coentrao is a typical Mou player...portuguese speaking and v versatile in the positions he can play with a consistent level ...

thats the type of utility player, Mou has always liked

comment by Culty Legends (U2123) posted 5 hours, 24 minutes ago

Do I sense sarcasm?
---

Not at all. Great idea to put forward, the comedy value of some of the comments is fantastic.

Players good enough to play for R. Madrid or Barça is one thing, but 'walk' into the team is a completely different proposal. Not even the striker with the best goals per minute ratio in Europe can secure a starting place at R.Madrid, so how can anyone think that all of those strikers mentioned would walk into the team.

Similarly, Barça's CB pairing has the most successful in the world for the past 3 years - so although you could talk about future replacements for Puyol, to think that Pep would automatically make someone else a starter ahead of either is ludicrous.

Sure, LB at Barça could be strengthened, but as renoog said, Abidal can double up as CB when needed, he's not that easy to replace. Can anyone seriously think Abidal would choose to move away from Hernández at the far post to go and cover the no-man's-land behind him, like Baines did at the weekend? That was an absolute beginner's mistake.

DM - so what if a DM can dribble better than Busquets? At Barça it's all about simplicity in that position and passing the ball out safely. Mascherano was considered one of if not the best DM in the PL, yet for Barça he's played mostly at CB to cover for Puyol's and Pique's injuries and/or suspensions.

Silva's in fantastic form, but so's Kaká, who edged Europe's best passer for the last 2-3 seasons out of the starting team. Would Silva get the nod? Maybe, but not that easily.

Valdés, the eternal suspect keeper, is ahead of Reina in the Spain team and has just broken Barça's all-time record for minutes without conceding a goal. Would Reina's distribution be that much use when Barça never has their keeper play a long ball out?

R.Madrid's CB's might be under suspicion, but Ramos has stood in for Carvalho for the past 6 games and Madrid have conceded just once.

Arteta's apparently suited to Barça's style, only there are at least 7 or 8 Spanish midfielders who could perform his role better than him, and 4 of them are at Barcelona already.

Who ahead of Pedro? Barça just spent €40M on Alexis Sánchez and up until his injury, he was starting some games, but not all ... and even their kid Cuenca who's just been brought up from Barça B has done fantastically well. Again, there might be players who'd compete for that spot, but I can't see any who'd automatically be preferred without question.

The bottom line is that there are only 3 or 4 players at either club who could walk into their own starting 11, and that's based on years of performances, not on a good streak of form.

"I think that was the original point, you tool."

So you are agreeing then that without RVP Arsenal are an average team?

P.S. no need for name calling i assume you are older than 6?

I also found it interesting that some users pointed out Villa as Barça's weak link in attack.

That more or less sums it up for you.

Top scorer at the Euros and World Cup, all-time top scorer for Spain, scored a beauty in the Champions League final, every team accolade possible and 10 consecutive seasons scoring at least 20 clubs goals.

Can you imagine the media hype if an English player produced those numbers? Not one single player in England can boast anything remotely close to that.

To reflect on those 10 straight seasons scoring more than 20 club goals, in comparison, RvP has had 2 20-plus seasons and Rooney has had 3, despite both having played years and years for 2 of the PL's and Europe's top sides.

So, Barça's weak link eh.

Great centre forward...

Not sure about putting him on the wing...

Great midfield behind him for Spain...

Great midfield behind him for Spain...
---

...but not so great at Sporting or Zaragoza, and very good at Valencia, but not quite world-beating...

I prefer him in the middle too, but still, 23 goals in his first season there after an entire career as a striker isn't that bad.

Guardiola's looked for versatility - CBs shifting to FBs, FBs playing as CBs, DMs at CB, strikers as wingers, wingers as strikers, and Villa's shown that capacity to adapt.

So, would Rooney or RvP do a better job out on the wing and hence 'walk' into Villa's starting place, when not even Villa, with his consistently excellent career, is ensured a starting place? And if we're talking main striker/false 9, then wouldn't they have to walk in ahead of Messi?

Rooney and RVP have both played on the wing, not sure how much in RVP's case but Rooneys had a decent amount out there...

I also think Rooney and RVPs strengths are less to do with finishing than Villa's are, they are better creative players..

I don't nessecarily agree with the term 'walk' into, it implies that the replacements are far far better... which obviously they are not. IMO they are better suited to the wing role though...

I agree, indeed that could be subject to debate.
I do think Henry in his pomp (not his Barça version) could've walked into that role, but I don't think I could consider any current PL player an 'walk-in' first choice right now.

I would agree with that, I choose to ignore the 'walk-in' part otherwise I simply wouldn't have had anything to say...