5 potential replacements for Ivan Rakitic at Barcelona
#4 Marco Verrati
A few years back almost every club was behind PSG’s Verrati as an ideal defensive midfielder. But with the likes of Kante,Ndidi and Casemiro coming up the ranks,the Verrati hype has come down.
He has been on Barcelona’s radar for quite some time, and was rumored to have almost agreed to the club’s offer last season, but little has changed as Verrati remains with the French side.
His play-making abilities have attracted a lot of attention from a number of clubs with PSG set to offload players to balance the sheets. A technically gifted midfielder, he is one of those players with an extremely low center of gravity, and can unconditionally perform in any given situation.
Verrati is a team player and involves in every attack making a lot of diagnol passes and sometimes cutting straight through defences. He can be compared to a defensive version of Thomas Muller finding pockets of space and exploiting it. He still has to develop to reach top-class level as his prime years are numbering and will be a perfect replacement for Rakitic
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#3 Sergej Milinkovic Savic
Undoubtedly the most complete midfielder in the world, Milinkovic-Savic is well-bulit, competitive, and intelligent playmaker.
He can play as a central midfielder with the ability to attacking or defensive position,depending on formation. His versatility will be something Barcelona will be looking at,especially with Bayern finding success under Hansi Flick with a flexible system.
Sergej is worth around €100milllion and is being chased by every big Premier League club and with Lazio set to miss out on Serie A title,now would be a good time to make a move.
His style of play is what Barcelona needs, as he is a sensible playmaker, just like Rakitic, who can switch his role depending totally on the situation.
Right from his inter-plays to his through balls, Barca’s forwards can benefit. In addition, him playing the role of an attacking midfielder could relieve Lionel Messi from coming back to collect the ball, and allow the Argentine play an aggressive role.