Bojan Still Has A Lot To Learn

Im not worried about young Bojan.If he was playing for any other team then i might be a little worried. If there is one thing Barca excel at it is developing young "talents" into world class players. We have everything in place to make sure that Bojan develops in a proper, timely fashion. I have no doubt that he will be one of our future stars because his natural talent is there for all too see. Maybe he is not as versatile as we would like, so maybe he cannot be played as a winger so to speak. As a center forward though, can you pick a better 18 year old number 9 in Europe's elite? I think not. We will see the best of him in 2-3 years when he has some REAL experience and gains some much needed strength.....till then i sincerely hope the fans and the critics are patient with him. It would be very disturbing to ever hear the fans boo him, but i dont think they will.

I remember not too long ago people were saying that a young Iniesta couldn't cut it.....not enough strength, too fancy with no end product, blah blah....well look at him now, one of the best players in the world IMO.

I think Messi being the absolute wonderkid that he is has made it very hard for other youngsters to evolve at a realistic pace. They are expected to be able to handle the pressures of playing at the highest level of European football at a young age. There are no other players in world football who were as good as Messi at his age and I doubt you will see the anything like him for a long time. The closest is probably Aguerro but even he didnt become a serious player till he was a few years older than Messi. Bojan just turned 18 and it is a surprise to some that he has "a lot to learn"? Of course he still has a lot to learn, he has barely started his career as a professional football player! Mark my words, 3-4 years and Bojan/Messi will be one of the most feared striker partnerships in world football.

I just hope that spoiled fans who expect him to be "world class" overnight dont ruin him!

its just d begining, i hope he's protected well

It wasnt really his fault for putting up a lacklustre performance on the right wing. Pep should have learned from watching all the games last year where placing eto'o or bojan on the right did not work at all.They are forwards meant to shoot the ball not be left with a situation where they resort to cross the ball to make a decent contribution to the attack.

I guess since he had to wait for a long time to get his first start in the league this season, there was more pressure on him to display a good performance.

Its true when performing for a juggernaut like Barcelona, one might forget that bojan is barely an adult. There is still a lot of maturing to be done and there is plenty of time. It is no surprise that Barcelona has the best youth system in the world ( puyol and xavi = legendary) so imagine Bojan down the road at the adult age of 21...............and still, even that age will just be the tip of the iceberg.

I just hope he doesnt make the same mistake gio did. Poor fellow left from barcelona to tottenham (what?!) for more playtime, but that decision just turned around to slap him in the face when tottenham went nuts and bought a lot of players. Things got worse when juande ramos got sacked, effectively reducing gio's oppurtunity to achieve his complete potential. Bojan has immense talent and potential but the only thing that can turn this coal into a diamond is the teams trust and co-operation, which we all know is totally a possibility considering the likes of Messi, xavi, iniesta and puyol to name a few.

I agree with hilal about Iniesta. When I first saw him play, I really despised his tendency to hog the ball and do things by himself but now I salivate whenever I witness him dribbling and creating havoc on the pitch especially with his wisdom of knowing the right plan of execution. That wisdom is acheived only through time and patience and I am definite that the coaches and players in Barcelona will assure Bojan of that.

Bojan is a great 2nd/3rd string centre forward for our team. He is hard on himself, which is a good thing, so he will continue to work hard.

What Bojan really needs is a good mentor from the team to give him advice about how to focus, how to handle pressure, and how to learn from things.

Hopefully someone on the team (even someone like henry) can do that for him.

Yes, I believe that he is under good mentorship. Pep said he will speak with him and encourage him. I feeled absolutely frustrated when I saw him in such bad mood when he was replaced! For God sake, man, just keep your head up, in 1-2 year you will be superstar, for sure.

He will learn,but his problem now is the position,another thing that affects most players is the fact that the want to prove they are good,just go into the pitch and play your very best,dont try to impress anyone,thats why i like samuel eto'o,he plays his best,and scores when the time comes,you must not score in all matches,but with time he will become a better forward.

YOU PEOPLE MAKE ME SICK!!!

One bad game and all of sudden most of you have turned into "football directors", trading, dealing and making hedges on almost your entire team.

GET A GRIP!!!

This is football and any team can win or lose on any given day. It doesn't mean that Bojan's departure is should be imminent; it doesn't mean that Guddy is a bad footballer;it doesn't mean that Valdes is a bad keeper;It doesn't mean that Henry lacks footbalistic intelligence; it doesn't mean that Keita is unable to play fast football; it doesn't mean that we can't win by a margin bigger than one goal without Messi...This is absolutely ridiculous.

Getafe is not a bad team at all and it simply took us time to reach our speed of play and by the time we did it was too late since we lacked the finesse on our final touches. Well, so what? We drew a game we "could" (not "should", anyone who knows anything about football knows that "should" is the wrong verb in any competitive context)have won but we played above par football and we cannot ignore that fact. Our "should" mentality is what hurts us the most since that is the most dangerous attitude a competitor can have. Granted Pique made a mistake but has anyone taken the time to look at Manu's goal and comment eon it...Jeez it was a great opportunistic goal...doesn't he deserve your respect as a footballer?

Well said Diatus....sometimes i feel the fans are the biggest threat to this team!

Hey Diatus - I don't think anyone here has said half the things you are suggesting. I wrote the article because it is obvious that Bojan is suffering a drop in form, people are talking about it, and I wanted to look at the reasons. I don't think anyone wants to get rid of Bojan we can all see the talent he has.

Diatus - I now see you posted your comment after the match report. I still think most people defend Bojan with the only suggestions being a possible loan move which I have to agree could be a good solution to get him more match practice and experience.

Shouldnt really come off as a surprise. Considering the prestige of Barcelona, fans will always behave that way. Yes we all understand that football is a very unpredictable sport but still the fans demand more. Anybody hear any sort of cheering after the game was done? No...it was dead silent.

Fans and the media always complain and whine, which is why Bojan shouldnt really care what they say as long as he has the coach and team's support.

Look at Valdes, he himself stated that he doesnt give a damn about the opinions of people who are not goalies or have no clue about goal keeping.

When happy the fans sing praises of players, when unhappy they whine and complain. Thats part of the game. Players need to be professionals and know when to listen to these words and when to let them fly over their heads without any effect.

Nic, I read the article and I agree with the idea of finding more playing time for him. It is obvious that your article is a good, fact-based and solution driven piece. I like it and I respect its solution driven approach.

My comments are not directed at you or your ideas about getting him more playing time, although I think that he is young enough and loves Barcelona enough to get his playing time and keep his form with the B-team: in short we do not need to loan him out to anyone because returns are not always a given. He is someone we should hold on to and 'coach well' from the bench, not find a door out because he is pouting on the bench or because he's had one bad game. There are plenty of wonderful people on the team who could mentor him and Pep should step up to the plate and be a "coach" to this talent (and he might already be doing that!).In other words, the team, the fans and the whole Barca culture has this bad habit of building up players too soon and when they falter a little bit then they come down hard on them. That is wrong and it has been clear for those who observed the game last year that he "STILL HAS A LOT TO LEARN". Remember the game last year against either Huelva, Betis or Valladolid when Valdes made a side dish to him, after making a great save on a counterattack, Bojan was pressured and showed his youth and lack of experience right then and there. His loss of the ball resulted in an immediate goal. My point with this example is that, it has been clear that he "STILL HAS A LOT TO LEARN" but we fail in our expectations of grandeur right out of the craddle.
In addition, most of the post game comments were so negative that you are left wondering if these so-called "experts" on this forum actually watch the game or are busy doing something else when the game is on. For example, Henry brought us an enormous breath of fresh air when he came in yet some on the post game comments section found a way to just rip into him for no valid reason...

We need to be patient with Bojan, his talent is undeniable, but he needs time to grow and develop his instincts. Sure footballers have off days, I mean they cannot always perform 100% all the time they aren't machines.

Bojan needs his space and must be well supported and nutured into one of the best centre forwards, and that needs time.

So to all those on his case be patient, the end product will come in 2-3 years.

Bojan is one of my favourite Barça players . I am also impressed with other young players like Pedro, Buchetts and Jeffern ( whatever happened to him?) .
I don't know about Sanchez though !!

wow, people really got a bit touchy about the bojan comments last weekend. but id really like to clarify something, i never once said bojan wasnt a good player with talent nor did i ever suggest he should leave the club in any shape or form. all i said is that i have my doubts over his professional future. is dont think there is anything extreme about that.

firstly, i think his size is a hurdle. he is 18 and will grow more, but he isnt going to change that much i dont rate, and frankly i feel players that lack physical presence are struggling more and more in the game. messi may be small but he is blessed with unbelievable skills and pace, but he bulked up a lot too.

otherwise, i dont see how he will fit into a team where right now Etoo is the number one striker, at only 27 (or so), and that isnt going to change. add to that, barcelona and many fans here are obsessed about signing benzema. so tell me if barca sign benzema, who is almost as young as bojan, where bojan fits in then? frankly, if barca continue to play a 4-3-3, with only one true center forward, then i have doubts over him getting enough playing time with etoo and maybe benzema in his way. and i dont feel he will ever adapt to the wing, playres are naturally good at positions and usually only excel in their natural preference.

many players do fantastic in the youth levels and then struggle in professional football. one that comes to find most is portillo, who broke all raul's youth records. it may not be a great example, seeing madrid have not nutured their own playres in many yeras, but it has some relevance.

so really, people got upset about comments, maybe mine, but all i did was raise my doubts about bojan in the long term. i really dont think thats very out of line at all. maybe i did lose sight of his young age a bit, and i do want him to achieve his promise. obviously only time will tell.

Yeah he still has a lot to learn but he'll just get better and better I mean he's 18 and look how good he is!!

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