Adrien Rabiot wants to join Barcelona in the summer
The PSG midfielder has been linked with Barcelona for the past few months.
Adrien Rabiot’s contract at PSG runs out at the end of the season, so he is naturally attracting interest from across Europe, including Barcelona, due to his experience and ability. The 23-year-old has been a mainstay for the Parisian side since 2013, which is impressive considering the amount of money they have spent on transfers in that period as well as how few youth graduates have been able to do the same.
According to Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona appear to have been successful in their pursuit of him because they are his favoured destination and they will start negotiations once they are able to legally in January. However, PSG are desperately trying to get him to sign a new contract with the club as they don’t want to see a key player leave for free, especially to Barcelona who they don’t have a good relationship with due to past dealings.
His arrival could cause issues though due to the number of senior midfielders at the club who will be competing for playing time. The club currently has Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic, Arthur Melo, Arturo Vidal, Rafinha, Denis Suarez, Carles Alena and Sergi Samper while Philippe Coutinho was originally intended to play there and could revert back. Rafinha, Samper and Suarez could end up leaving in the summer, but Frenkie de Jong has been heavily linked with the club. Riqui Puig and Oriol Busquets are both close to breaking through into the first team as well.
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Matthijs de Ligt is believed to be Barcelona’s main target from Ajax which could see them lose out on de Jong, but the club would still have a large number of midfielders regardless if they bring in Rabiot. The French international can play as either a defensive or central midfielder, which makes him a versatile option as well as a potentially useful tool for the team if he is able to successfully adapt to the club’s style.
The first choice midfield three is currently Sergio Busquets, Ivan Rakitic and Arthur Melo. Rabiot is likely to want consistent first team football if he is to join the club, which means one of these three’s place is under threat. The Croatian seems the likely candidate due to the other two being archetypal Barcelona midfielders, whereas, he is more of an all-round player. Busquets is the wrong side of 30, but he is still more than good enough to be a regular especially for the big games. Keeping him fresh is key for the team so Rabiot could potentially be rotated in for him.
Ball retention is one of Rabiot’s best qualities which allows him to dictate the tempo of games along with Marco Verratti, who was once linked with Barcelona. In the league, he has averaged 93.3% pass accuracy and is slightly less effective in the Champions League with 90.4%, per Whoscored. He isn’t often the player making the defence-splitting pass, though, with an average of 0.4 and 0.3 key passes per game respectively for the two competitions.
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The 23-year-old is comfortable receiving the ball in deep positions so he is effective at coming up with build-up solutions. There is quite a bit of difference in quality between La Liga and Ligue 1, which means it could take him a while to get used to having less time on the ball as well as more effective pressing traps from the opposition, but he has the necessary skillset to succeed.