Lassana Diarra

redmeister said:
He's better than that. Lass is a fantastic player who has had a very strange career. I think he's in the top 10 CM's in the world, yet he's seen as a squad player by most. I think it's because he's never really been a good fit for any of the clubs he's joined. Also having to retire from international football hasn't helped his profile. He needs to sign for a big club that actually need a CM player. In the past he's never done that.

He's got so much more to his game than he's credited for. He's fast, he's aggressive, he's got incredible balance, is a brilliant dribbler and his passing is way better than people think. In my opinion he'd be a started in every team in the Prem.

It's a crazy world when Porto want £30 million for Moutinho, yet we could buy Lass for £5 million. M'Vila is a slow version, without the dribbling and low centre of gravity and we'd have to pay around £15 million for him.

For some reason he isn't that highly rated, but I can't understand why any of our fans wouldn't want a player with the pace, tenacity, skill and determination this guy has in our team:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeWuHvbe6sM
Click to expand...

There's never been any doubt over his ability. From what I've read, it's mentality is what has lead him to move from one club to another rather than stamp his authority over the midfield of a big club and establish himself as a top drawer player.

I don't think it's question of "good fit" at all. Why can't he displace Khedira? He's got more natural ability. But Khedira is disciplined and seems to have the right attitude.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
There's never been any doubt over his ability. From what I've read, it's mentality is what has lead him to move from one club to another rather than stamp his authority over the midfield of a big club and establish himself as a top drawer player.

I don't think it's question of "good fit" at all. Why can't he displace Khedira? He's got more natural ability. But Khedira is disciplined and seems to have the right attitude.
Click to expand...


Hardly. Khedira is far better player imo.
 
redmeister said:
He's better than that. Lass is a fantastic player who has had a very strange career. I think he's in the top 10 CM's in the world, yet he's seen as a squad player by most. I think it's because he's never really been a good fit for any of the clubs he's joined. Also having to retire from international football hasn't helped his profile. He needs to sign for a big club that actually need a CM player. In the past he's never done that.

He's got so much more to his game than he's credited for. He's fast, he's aggressive, he's got incredible balance, is a brilliant dribbler and his passing is way better than people think. In my opinion he'd be a started in every team in the Prem.

It's a crazy world when Porto want £30 million for Moutinho, yet we could buy Lass for £5 million. M'Vila is a slow version, without the dribbling and low centre of gravity and we'd have to pay around £15 million for him.

For some reason he isn't that highly rated, but I can't understand why any of our fans wouldn't want a player with the pace, tenacity, skill and determination this guy has in our team:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeWuHvbe6sM
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head:

Khedira
Alonso
Modric
Iniesta
Xavi
Busquets
Fabregas
Song
Mascherano
Schweinsteiger
Javi Martinez
Pirlo
Yaya Toure
Ramires
Lampard
Gerrard
Wilshere
Carrick
Scholes (though he's not the player he was)

I'm sure I've forgotten someone but those players are comfortably better than Diarra IMO. There's a reason Real have spunked all that money on Modric.
 
Diarra is good, gets a bit overrated imo. He would be a great option to have but I can't see it really. His fee might be cheap but he wouldn't be. Personally I would rather have Carrick starting and for the majority of games we should be fine with clev/ando playing next to Carrick, not to mention we should be giving them as much game time as possible. So that leaves Diarra as the alternative for Carrick and maybe coming in next to him for tough games. I doubt he'd be happy with that, he wants to be a regular and like I said with his wages I doubt we'd want him as a squad player. I know he's been to Arsenal already and it didn't work out but he'd be a great Song replacement for them.
 
Brophs said:
Off the top of my head:

Khedira - maybe
Alonso - yes
Modric - remains to be seen if he can reach the same level of unparalleled mediocrity in Spain as he did in england
Iniesta - yes
Xavi - yes
Busquets - don't rate him
Fabregas - hateful little bastard, but yes
Song - probably
Mascherano - is now a CB, doesn't count
Schweinsteiger - yes
Javi Martinez - remains to be seen, has a lot left to prove
Pirlo - yes
Yaya Toure - yes
Ramires - similar level of ability
Lampard - catch yourself on, he ceased to exist 3 years ago
Gerrard - see above
Wilshere - see Martinez
Carrick - different player, similar level of ability
Scholes (though he's not the player he was) not anymore

I'm sure I've forgotten someone but those players are comfortably better than Diarra IMO. There's a reason Real have spunked all that money on Modric.
Click to expand...


Revised with my own views.
 
Rating Carrick as on level with Diarra, Modric and Busquets worse than both, Martinez 'remains to be seen' and Khedira as 'maybe' tells me all I need to know.

TDon69 knows absolutely nothing about central midfielders.
 
TDon69 said:
Because I hate him, he's a water carrier, with no outstanding skill, ability or flair, yet people talk about him being the best in the world. He has the easiest job on football and is made to look a lot better than he is. He does a similar job to Carrick, whom I rate more highly.
Click to expand...

There must be a course you can take or something to understand football. Please look into it before posting your opinions on this board again.
 
TDon69 said:
Because I hate him, he's a water carrier, with no outstanding skill, ability or flair, yet people talk about him being the best in the world. He has the easiest job on football and is made to look a lot better than he is. He does a similar job to Carrick, whom I rate more highly.
Click to expand...

He is far more than a water carrier. Very good on the ball
 
B19 said:
Rating Carrick as on level with Diarra, Modric and Busquets worse than both, Martinez 'remains to be seen' and Khedira as 'maybe' tells me all I need to know.

TDon69 knows absolutely nothing about central midfielders.
Click to expand...

The others may be better but Diarra is not a better midfielder than Carrick imo.
 
TDon69 said:
Modric is good for about 15-20 games a season and is absolutely anonymous against big teams. Not that insane.
Click to expand...

You're talking about Spurs in general. Watch Modric's consistency for a better club now. hes excellent.
 
Acceptable level? His touch and vision is fantastic. Easily better than Carrick. He'd walk into our midfield.
 
Rating a good player doesn't mean your professing an undying love.I mostly hate the Barca players but I know a good player when I see one.
A key figure for Barca and Spain is not a good footballer, what the hell am I thinking ?
 
kouroux said:
It's all relative TD.You're admitting he's a good player therefore in some instances you must rate him
Click to expand...

Fair enough. I don't rate him as highly as most people do, but I'm not completely daft he is a good player. IMO he's not a great player, nor does he have fantastic vision or passing.

Would he be so highly rated if he didn't play for Barcelona? I don't think so.
Would he be as effective if you took him out if that midfield and put him in a lesser one? I don't think so.

Is he a match winner or a game changer, or the type of player that will grab the game by the scruff of the neck, when things are going badly and dictate the tempo? Not for me.

Could you replace him with any accomplished midfielder without detracting from the team. Id say yeah.
 
TDon69 said:
Fair enough. I don't rate him as highly as most people do, but I'm not completely daft he is a good player. IMO he's not a great player, nor does he have fantastic vision or passing.

Would he be so highly rated if he didn't play for Barcelona? I don't think so.Would he be as effective if you took him out if that midfield and put him in a lesser one? I don't think so.
Is he a match winner or a game changer, or the type of player that will grab the game by the scruff of the neck, when things are going badly and dictate the tempo? Not for me.

Could you replace him with any accomplished midfielder without detracting from the team. Id say yeah.
Click to expand...

His career would follow a similar path to Yaya Toure's if he left Barcelona.

Put simply, it's to the detriment of the team if he tries to orchestrate moves with Xavi, Cesc and Iniesta around him. But from the few moments he does venture forward you can see he's absolutely capable of it.
 
Busquets is better for barca than Toure ever was. And Toure waltzed into the premiership as the best midfielder in the league.

Nobody's carrying anyone in Barca's midfield. They are all simply among the very best midfielders in the world.
 
TDon69 said:
Modric is good for about 15-20 games a season and is absolutely anonymous against big teams. Not that insane.
Click to expand...

Such a dumb thing to say. Why do fans insist on using such ridiculous hyperbole? Last time we played Spurs, he had more touches than all but 2 of our players and created 6 chances! I doubt many, if any, player in the league created so many chances against us in a single game last season, yet I often read crap about him being anonymous against big teams. Our fans just don't watch players from other teams closely, in the same way other fans don't watch our players closely and talk utter crap about them.

This year everyone will go on about how Modric has improved under Mourinho, but it will be such bullshit. It's just he'll finally be getting the recognition he deserves, after people actually start watching him on a weekly basis.
 
TDon69 said:
Fair enough. I don't rate him as highly as most people do, but I'm not completely daft he is a good player. IMO he's not a great player, nor does he have fantastic vision or passing.

Would he be so highly rated if he didn't play for Barcelona? I don't think so.
Would he be as effective if you took him out if that midfield and put him in a lesser one? I don't think so.

Is he a match winner or a game changer, or the type of player that will grab the game by the scruff of the neck, when things are going badly and dictate the tempo? Not for me.

Could you replace him with any accomplished midfielder without detracting from the team. Id say yeah.
Click to expand...

So far we can only go with facts as the rest is speculation.Facts are that Busquets has been an important player for Barca since 2008 and Spain a little later than that.
A player doesn't have to be a "game changer, or the type of player that will grab the game by the scruff of the neck, when things are going badly and dictate the tempo" to be great and vital one.
There must be a reason as to why Guardiola was in awe of him in some interviews about him.
 
Because he is just that good at playing the role of a DM. He sits and breaks up play, hes got better vision for a pass than people give him credit for and he is extremely calm in possession. Not to mention he has an unearthly ability to just keep winning fouls in the middle of the park.

Disruptive little cheating bollix (on the pitch) but feck me he is a talented player.
 
TDon69 said:
Because I hate him, he's a water carrier, with no outstanding skill, ability or flair, yet people talk about him being the best in the world. He has the easiest job on football and is made to look a lot better than he is. He does a similar job to Carrick, whom I rate more highly.
Click to expand...

We are all entitled to our opinions, even if they are wrong ;-)

Seriously though, Busquets has to be one of the best one touch passers in world football, and has a positional and tactical awareness that few others can match.
 
B19 said:
Busquets is better for barca than Toure ever was. And Toure waltzed into the premiership as the best midfielder in the league.

Nobody's carrying anyone in Barca's midfield. They are all simply among the very best midfielders in the world.
Click to expand...

Toure was nowhere near the level he's at now, at Barcelona. There have been plenty of examples of players switching leagues and then taking it by storm, it says absolutely nothing about the actual strength of the leagues they used to ply their trade in or the teams they used to play for.
 
Lassana Diarra is nothing more than a quicker, less stupid and slightly more cultured version of Lee Cattermole.

I suppose he looks good on YouTube running around making feisty tackles, though.

He's a decent player and is probably about Spurs's level but anyone thinking he's top 10 is having a laugh. Remember that he's only ever established himself at Portsmouth.

I'd rate him a lot more if his first instinct wasn't to launch himself into a tackle before thinking.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.