Baraja. Help wanted.

Baraja? after this EC he has come down in popularity quite a bit, as he was the most obvious failure in the first two games, could do nothing on the 3rd coming in as an unexplainable sub. Real Madrid also has him on their list, from quite a while. With Albelda in Valencia he made the most solid midfield of the league and of the UEFA Cup. On paper, he is very good, but I am starting to believe that he is a bit overrated.

He is an attacking midfielder that is all power and will. The mistake is to think what Saez though of him, that he was Beckenbauer. He scores goals too, all by pushing foward like a train. In my opinion though, the problem is in thinking that he provides so much stability, as his strenght gives the impression that he defends well, it has turned out that he does not so. He depends fully on an Albelda type next to him, somebody who never moves from his back and does all the dirty work. This is because he is not a creative type in attack, his passes are nothing to scream about, and he only works out in situations of advantage, when the opponent leaves holes. Valencia is a counter attacking team, and they have creative midfielders like Aimar for when the game is not a counter attacking one (the opponents are defending). In those situations, as in this EC, Baraja truly sucks. I know that many won't agree with me, but I do believe there are plenty better in Spain. Baraja is a good complement though, in Arsenal he would have a Vieira, creative players up front (Henry, Reyes, etc...), but you cannot leave him to take the weight of the team on his back, he is not that type of player. This is what happened to Spain, Albelda was there doing his job, but Baraja had no creative midfield ahead of him. Against Greece he came out like he was going to win the EC by himself, played an amazing 15 minutes, being all over the field, then he dissappeared from view as he got tired quickly. He can't do that type of job. What happened was that many crititized Albelda for not cooperating in the attack. Albelda has never in his life done that!, he stays behind and defends, and always well. This time, since Baraja could not do it (Spain was not Valencia, our Aimar, Valeron was in the bench, and even Vicente was set to defend), Albelda took some blame for not doing what is not supposed to do. The real loser in the end though, has been Baraja. If for some reason Arsenal wants a fast, power midfielder, who is not very creative on the ball and who is well covered behind and in front of him, he is your man. He should be only a bridge in the midfield to take the ball to the creative players, and many times will push forward so much that he will leave the season having scored quite a few times, but don't think he is a star player.

 

I don't want to bother with a detailed analysis, but i strongly feel that Baraja will achieve nothing at Arsenal. He is not too different from Gilberto Silva, in that they are neither truly creative attacking midfielders nor truly hardworking defensive ones. I'm someone who believes in a fixed role for everyone in the team. I thought Baraja was more defensive actually, but he ended being stuck in between the extremes of attack and defense, and accomplishing neither. Baraja is not going to get any better, in my most humble opinion, Arsenal will regret signing him if they do.