Do wonder with the financial situation Barca found themselves in, they really needed to gamble on his intense playing time to push for silverware to lessen the financial burden. Its gone horribly wrong regardless. He was a joy to watch that season for club and country.
Pedri | Barcelona player
- Thread starter Damien
- Start date
Are there any players who've gone through phases like this and eventually managed to shake it off?
I can think of a bunch of players who suffered many injuries early on but still had great careers like Robben, Coman, etc. but they were still sidelined very often. Maybe he and Barca need to accept that he won't be a 40+ matches a season player
I can think of a bunch of players who suffered many injuries early on but still had great careers like Robben, Coman, etc. but they were still sidelined very often. Maybe he and Barca need to accept that he won't be a 40+ matches a season player
Messi.
Such a shame for the lad. I don't rate him as much as some others do here, but he's clearly Barcelona's most gifted player and they're really squeezing him too hard or not giving him the right treatment/rest. I hope they learn that lesson and apply to Yamal. Nice and easy does it-
Interesting comparison, sort of checks out.
- Messi in his first seasons -- 05/06 he missed 18 games; 06/07 he missed 19; 07/08 he missed 15. After that he was fine for a while.
- Pedri: 21/22 was 41(!) games missed; 22/23 was 16; and 23/24 is 15* and counting.
Pedri's seem slightly more significant. Also, Messi's had some slight variation. Pedri's seem to almost all be hamstring related.
Pedri: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/pedri/verletzungen/spieler/683840
Messi: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/lionel-messi/verletzungen/spieler/28003
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I think we might have to just accept him as a Verratti/Thiago level player. A phenomenal midfielder who may have some continued periods of around 9-18 months here and there in his mid to late 20s where he can stay fit, otherwise you're just happy when you get to see him on the pitch for games
I mean some of it is his fault too. I remember barcelona and people close to him begging him not to play at the olympics after the euros, but he chose to go. Barcelona then gave him extra time off to recover, and he showed up for training a week early anyways because he was bored on holidays...
You overrule kids. Doesn't matter what's coming out of his mouth, if he has people with his best interests at heart, they guide him and tolerate temper tantrums along the way. Even if he's coming in for training, you hope they were doing the lightest of work with him - enough to absolve them in this debacle.
Was absolute lunacy at the time, stated as such throughout this thread in 2021 by myself and many others because it was obvious it would end in tears; how the hell are those handling him justifying this? Herp derping it on him would also be farcical; kids are inherently stupid and naive for the most part, which is why guidance is paramount.
Basically, where we are now is likely where we would be now, leaving him to his own devices.
Wingers and forwards are typically easier to bring through young, and you'll often see them out there more commonly than midfielders, and it's nearly always muscle strains and hammies with them.
I think the perpetual movement of midfield is harder to navigate young, personally. Clean contact, explosive speed and sporadic outtages typify the young forward who's debuting well before the norm.
Gerrard and Giggs the first that come to mind for me. Both teen prodigies that had repeated muscle injuries in their early years but ended up reasonably robust.
That is insane, let alone for a young player.
On the one hand I agree with you, but also, he's still an adult and a professional player, you can't treat him like a little kid. What happens if you put your foot down and he takes it badly? Would you risk alienating him?
This is more down to him and the people close to him than the anyone else imo
What he was allowed to do was criminal in terms of short-termism and whether it is club or people around him, the handling was so appalling people were speaking out before he got to those peak numbers in a season. It would never have been allowed to happen under the watch of other managers and there has to be someone pulling the plug on such foolishness. It doesn’t matter the sport - great handlers are just vital. It’s not about being a little kid, it’s about teens being what they generally are unless mature way beyond their years. Even full grown men in the game don’t work to their own benefit in terms of lying to coaches or trying to power through things they shouldn’t, and even there, great handlers step in and take over.
Typically, youngsters will want to play every game and have no real clue about a bunch of things that can be working to their detriment whilst doing so. Pedri was stepping into the wilds of the unknown - the full-blown adult game, against grown men, playing at full intensity at an output even those same adults know is foolhardy to do; the potential for breakdown was so obvious even amateurs and the uninitiated could see the obvious folly. Pedri was also built like a boy, and whilst that’s no particular tell, you could look at him and think his constitution was not that of those freaks like a James Milner who had that square, grafters construct that might suggest he was built to be put through the rigour of hard labour some how, some way even as a teen. Those they call man-boys, whose body has that accelerated development that belies their age by a long shot. Even then, I’m not sure the like of Rooney and Milner were churning out games at Pedri’s age to that same obscene degree because it would still be more irresponsible than not to do so, given their ages and even in spite of their builds.
You know what? This subject actually angers me, so much so I did a quick Google, which has shortened what was about to be a rant of my own. I put in “the overplaying of Pedri” turns out it’s a widely talked about subject both past and present tense. At the same time we were talking about it here, seemingly articles like this were being written. I’d encourage a read, sums up a lot of what I was going to go on to say, and also covers what I already said in the prior post. There really aren’t many teenagers I’d hand keys over to on their own destiny; it’ll almost invariably end up with them crashing the proverbial Bugatti into a wall, as one might expect. Their skills or even body might say one thing, but common sense, or any kind of sense isn’t up there in the stakes for most at that age, or even into their mid 20’s.
Gerrard
The worst bit is that they're going to repeat the same mistakes with Yamal as well.
Did they do this to Thiago?
No as they still had xavi and Iniesta back then.
This is starting to look a lot like what happened to Ousmane Dembele. It's a shame, Pedri is probably my favorite CM to watch.
He said he'd shave his head if Spain won the Euros. Look at this piss poor effort.
He can feck off. Ban him from competitive matches until he takes the rest off.
Pussy!
Games gone.
Not even close to shaving. You have to go the full way. That’s still way too much hair. Coward.
Wtf. That's just getting a haircut you plum.
Somebody take a Bic to the lad's head already.
Considering his contribution to the Euros win, a half-shave will suffice.
His injury and the subsequent performance from Olmo throughout the rest of the tournament is probably what won it for you guys though. So a full shave it is.
Bottled it. It'd grow back in a week, it's not exactly a commitment.
Every time I open this thread it annoys me.
Shithouse, dugusting.
Ban him.
Ban him.
Agreed, and let me add that Pedri ought to send his medal to Kroos, too
His new haircut from another angle.