I think he is more of a Cazorla/David Silva than either Xavi or Iniesta. As he is already much more of a penetrating dribbler than Xavi, while ofcourse he isn't Iniesta, nobody is. Iniesta was arguably the best dribbler not named Messi in past decade and more.
Pedri | Barcelona player
- Thread starter Damien
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I kind of agree with you. Defensively, however, Pedri is much more intense than either of those two players. He and Gavi, despite how talented they are, work really hard on the pitch. I wouldn't swap any of them for a player like Neymar.
Carzola was pretty good defensively at different points in his career.
Not disagreeing with you about trading them for Neymar, but he's a hard-worker himself, no doubt about it.
Yeah,
Yeah, I see him as more of a controller as well. But the thing is he's a deceptively good dribbler. You can't get the ball off him.
Midfielder of the decade 
Since the decline of Xavi and Iniesta yours has been comfortably the best midfield in the world, and particularly Modric has been incredible and very close to best player in the world in terms of influencing games and making the team play, all the while you won UCLs for fun. Don't think you can complain, can you?Midfielder of the decade
He’s just one of those central midfielders who just knows how to play with the ball. It’s effortless. Hoping that ten Hag gets us one of these types at some point for midfield.
The most terrifying quality is that he also just knows how to play without the ball
Why is it Spain manages to produce these type of players more than anywhere?
You have Camavinga, Tchouameni, and Valverde. No need to be envious of any other club's young midfield talents I reckon!Midfielder of the decade
Barca have incredibly found Xavi(Gavi) and Iniesta (Pedri) all over again. All that's missing us unearthing a Busquets....
Footballing culture and training.
He’s incredible. I’d want a player like this instead of Bellingham if possible, who I’m not totally convinced by yet. That said, I’m not sure if we’d get a player like this who is of superior quality to Jude. We won’t get Pedri or Gavi after all. But in terms of style, I’d pick Pedri over Jude any day.
My favorite non United player. I think the first time I saw him was when he was 17 or something like that, and I was just in awe of how good this kid was. It all seems to come so natural to him.
I would guess something to do with how training is done over there and what is coached to the players. It's not like it's restricted to the top clubs, even the smaller spanish clubs play really technically sound football. The technical level and football intelligence of the players in La Liga is higher than any of the other leagues IMO
Of all the young midfielders, Pedro is clearly the best, for me. Technically he’s close to perfect, his decision making is extremely good, and he’s very good without the ball.
Actually I think both are rather similar to Iniesta than Xavi. Pedri is extremely close while Gavi dribbles even more and less about controlling the midfield. But yes, a decade down the road and they might be similarly accomllished.
I agree with this sentiment. I think our next [major] step to return to being a tier 1 team is to be able to take the game to our biggest opponents; to win possession and midfield battles through time on the ball and forcing the ball to stay in certain zones of the pitch. Whilst our recent wins against Liverpool and Arsenal were admirable, they were short-term plaster wins that long term shouldn't be our main plan of action in these games. Player in the ilk of Pedri are the type of profile this team is massively missing, and what I hope ten Hag starts targeting next.
I'm not super convinced by Bellingham, personally, but that's just an aside. Clearly very talented, but I don't like the idea of a 100m+ valuated midfielder being a jack of all trades. I need some specialism in my teams.
I'm with you on this, I know a lot of fans fancy Bellingham but I don't see him as the profile to target. The De Jong, Pedri types those who are specialist in possession is what we require. We have Zidane Iqbal who I'm hoping once given an opportunity would seize it, but if not so then someone else with a similar profile. For now Eriksen is doing a good job and Bruno is adapting.
This sounds like utter bollocks but Pedri has a face of someone who looks like he’s going to be world class. Some players you can just tell from their looks. He looks like he’s going to be a poster boy legend.
Yeah, it does sounds like utter bollocks.
Spoken like a true Real Madrid fan!
Spoken like a true Real Madrid fan!
No.
He looks like a second driver for a major Formula One team
So true!!
Musiala better.
Very good, just needs to learn when to inject pace into the game. That was something Iniesta excelled at who he looks eerily similar to. A bit of experience and he'll be a monster, probably.
No doubt he'll go onto be a good player, but yet to see what the hype is all about. Its funny because people are talking about Bellingham being overrated but I know who I'd much prefer in my team.
Pedri is incredible. Can’t believe how young he is and how scary his prime is going to be
Seems like he got another long term injury, looked serious by the way he was crying.
Feel bad for the kid as it seems his career is going to end before it even begins properly.
Feel bad for the kid as it seems his career is going to end before it even begins properly.
Overplayed and burnt out?
You could argue he was overplayed earlier on but Barca haven't tried to rush him back this season but he still seems to keep getting recurring muscular/hamstring injuries. Just the 12 starts this season and you've got to think there's a real worry that one of the best young midfield talents we've seen off late will be completely wasted.
Possibly, didn't he play the most games out of any top league player just a few seasons ago?
He played 72 games during the 2022-21 season and was incredibly stupidly overplayed even by Spain that summer after he'd had a really long season with Barca. Since that summer, he's had 8-9 different injuries and already missed 70 matches.
He's already cooked. The most obvious and predictable outcome there ever was. Disgraceful and negligent from those that handled him. Ruined the most promising midfield talent potentially of his entire generation.
Barca should be really worried about how they handle their youngsters. They burnt Ansu Fati and Pedri is not looking any better. I know Gavi's injury wasn't due to overplaying him but still. They're producing gems but they're burning them.
In a sense i do understand why they did it as they got incredibly close to making the final but on the other hand might have ruined the long term centerpieces of their midfield.
Doesn’t help that Barcelona is lacking in depth and his other partners in de jong and gavi can be quite injury prone themselves as well.
I'd like to think there's still hope for him having a long and fruitful career given the right medical treatment and game management, would be a shame to lose him so soon.