People keep saying Messi and asuarez are 31. It's not as if they are going to fall off a cliff. Dembele and Malcom both need to play.
Malcom in the middle (actually, more of an inverted winger) | Barca player | Barca v Roma 1st August
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Not really, he was better throughout the year than he was at the WC. He just has more help with Croatia. His defensive ability was the main reason Iniesta was still able to play as often as he did, he was doing the job of two midfielders at once for most of the season. Playing in a midfield 2 made his job harder, not easier.
It was the best season of his career and it should only get better given he’ll have Coutinho playing in midfield consistently next season. He’s been the most underrated player in the world for the past few seasons, as complete of a midfielder as anyone. He’s not a classic Barcelona midfielder with excellent ball retention but he’s been a fantastic player for them.
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They can rest one of Messi and Suarez and play both Malcom and Dembele at the same time. The likes of Alcacer and Deulofeu had too many minutes this past season.
Messi is going to rest more next season, they needed a bit more of creativity upfront so this makes sense.
Indeed. They need to play because Suarez and Messi can't do all by themselves at their age.
35m is a steal in this market. Why are we watching other teams snap all the talented players while we had no one for our RW for the last 5-6 years? That's farce. Let's try to get a 30 year old average guy for 65 m instead. Yay!
He's coming from France and will have to step up drastically to be a success at Barca. They are signing him for depth. It wasn't long ago he looked to be signing for Everton!
Have people seen enough of him on here to suggest he should be signing for UTD instead?
Have people seen enough of him on here to suggest he should be signing for UTD instead?
He was also seriously linked with Bayern Munich a while ago. Arsenal and Tottenham too. Roma wanted him and now he's gone to Barca. I'm sure he'd be a lot better choice on our RW than Lingard or Mata.
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He might be more of a proper wide player than those two, but any better? I presume you’ve seen a lot of him and know this? UTD shouldn’t be in a position where they are taking punts on players.
Read that Roma want to make an appeal against Bordeaux.
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Barcelona play Roma on 1st August so that'll be tasty.
Of course Malcom would be a better fit for RW and has a higher ceiling point than both Mata & Lingard who are more of an AM than RWs. You don't need to watch every single minute of Malcom to know that. And not signing anyone for a position for years and playing other players who is not natural there year in year out is also a punt in itself. And a costly one. We already saw that in the last couple of years. At this moment in time the market is not full of proven quality and you have to take risks on players or endure mediocrity further. We know what we're gonna get with Mata & Lingard on RW and that's not good enough. So, signing an upcoming young talent for a fairly good price might be a good idea.
It's only an useless friendly, tbh. Besides, the players don't give a feck about the fact Malcom joined Barca instead of Roma.
Transfer rumours suggest he's being offered to Chelsea. Might be a decent option on the right for us.
Not good enough yet. Shouldn't have gone to Barca.
Never was good enough for Barca. Roma had the last laugh with this one.
He's a bit slow.
Been unfortunate with a few injuries, looked good in pre season for them.
Too early to tell who had the last laugh. He is just 21 (will be 22 in feb).
His agents shopping him around now, after they pushed him to barcelona out of pettiness 
Among the talks of who's having the last laugh it would definitely be his agents if they manage to get a fee every 6 months.His agents shopping him around now, after they pushed him to barcelona out of pettiness
I actually think Malcom is a good player, Barcelona's just overly stocked for forwards. Lets not forget that not long ago the Catalan press were being briefed that Dembele might be pushed out.
I am struggling to understand the Barcelona transfer strategy. Why did the Barca board buy Malcom when they already had Coutinho, Dembele, Suarez and Messi? Pure overkill. Malcom's a good player but he's not as good as any of those players (at least not when Suarez is still able to show his best stuff), so why spend the cash?
I am struggling to understand the Barcelona transfer strategy. Why did the Barca board buy Malcom when they already had Coutinho, Dembele, Suarez and Messi? Pure overkill. Malcom's a good player but he's not as good as any of those players (at least not when Suarez is still able to show his best stuff), so why spend the cash?
You look at his build, he can turn on a dime and you're shocked how slow off the mark he is. I thought he'd be like Douglas Costa.
Roma would have been more his level.
Good player but wrong move so early on for him
There doesn't seem to be much of a strategy, getting Malcom, Dembele, and Coutinho recently didn't make much sense at all. They made some good deals this January as far as getting players on a Bosman deal, but even the Rabiot one makes very little sense that could turn into a headache for them later.
Malcom hasn't set the world on fire since coming to Barcelona and his development is going to suffer as a result because he's not on the talent level of a Dembele or Coutinho IMO.
Oh yeah, i'm laughing at the situation, not at his agents. 'Sides, it's barcelona. I will laugh at them though at least if they are to sell him at a big loss
Looks more of a Reese than Malcolm
Transferred to...Zenit.
Should have gone to Roma.
Indeed. He didn't get more than two La Liga starts as a right sided "inverted winger". 1 goal and 1 assist in 2 starts. That includes an opposition in Villareal who were particularly inspired.
In the Copa Del Rey game against Real Madrid he was the best player on the pitch.
Messi 24 La Liga starts on the right, Dembele 6.
Zenit fans protested the acquisition of Malcolm's Barcelona midfielder. On the fan sector of the St. Petersburg club at the match with Krasnodar (0-0, second half), a banner “Thank you to the leadership for loyalty to traditions” appeared. Earlier, the Landskron fan group came out with the manifesto “Selection 12”, which called on the leadership not to acquire black players.
Can't Zenit say "anyone who think we should not sign a player because of their race, please send us your season ticket details so we can see how strong this support would be for this" and then stadium ban them all?
WTF was his agent and advisors doing? How did they let this move to the notoriously racist Russian team go through?
Surely a good agent would have forewarned him that he would get that kind of reception if he went there.
Unbelievable stuff.
Surely a good agent would have forewarned him that he would get that kind of reception if he went there.
Unbelievable stuff.
If they had any bottle they would. Only way to stamp out wankers is by hardline action such as what you mentioned
The agent could have told him to not focus much on the racism, get your money while you can
I preferred the TV show to what I've seen of the player!
Should have come to England to revive his career. Zenit of all clubs..
We could've got him for the RW & Ndombélé for CM with Maguire fee nearly. I'm sure we'd have been a much better & balanced side with those additions than we're with Maguire.
Absolutely shameful and unacceptable.
Bottom of the barrel. Worst club in the world?
Bottom of the barrel. Worst club in the world?