Hernanes

[Muniesa]

Chiellini would be a bomb. Can play as LB as well

[Hawk]

pftt...

hernanes is a deep-lying midfield playmaker – like pirlo. lately, sao paulo have played him as the 'traditional #10' with him playing higher up the field rather than play him more deeper (inside his own-half) where he likes to seek the ball to start the attack – as a result hes struggled and his form has dipped, a coincidence? nope..

at the olympics, his performances for brazil was average at best, looking nervous and not demanding the ball likes he does for his club side. in the semi-final he was eaten alive by mascherano and gago(lol). he has yet to be be called up for brazil since.

can he make the step up from SA football to europe (at barca)…? methinks he’ll need at least a season to adapt.

if you were to compare him to a brazilian player (past or present) – its rai - not kaka.

an article spot on about him -

Anderson Hernanes de Carvalho Andrade Lima – simply Hernanes to his mum – has shown sufficient promise to be hailed as Brazilian football’s ‘next big thing’. Quite some accolade, given the oceans of talent swilling around the grand old country. Thankfully, due to his preferred role as a deep-lying creative midfielder, the 23-year-old will side-step the unfortunate comparisons with the likes of Pele, Garrincha or even Ronaldo, which up-and-coming Brazilian starlets routinely face.

One unavoidable comparison is often drawn, however. Right now, Kaká belongs to Jesus and to AC Milan (in that order). At the birth of his galactic career though, the one-time Manchester City target honed his inimitable skills at São Paulo; the club where Hernanes now occupies the role of creator-in-chief.

In reality, though, there aren’t all that many similarities between the two products of the Morumbi. While Kaká has made his name as a thrusting attacking midfielder or support striker, with unmatchable pace, power and composure, his successor is a player more in the mould of, say, Cesc Fabregas or Brazil’s USA 94 star Rai. In Hernanes, the requisite technical excellence of a Brazilian playmaker is allied to great mobility, vision and impressive ease on the ball with either foot.

South American football expert Tim Vickery reckons “there’s no one better in Brazilian football at the moment.” By way of confirmation, the young midfield maestro was named the Premio Craque do Brasileirao (domestic player of the year) and The Times’ no.1 ‘rising talent in football’ in 2008.

Wednesday evening’s entertaining Copa Libertadores clash with Independiente Medellín of Colombia showcased Hernanes’ exemplary talents. Throughout the close-fought game, the São Paulo no.10 was a constant thorn in the side of the visiting underdogs. With an upright, compact style, his shimmies, step-overs and surges earned a number of free-kicks and kept his opposite number fully engaged throughout.

At 5ft 11, he’s hardly a giant by modern football’s exacting standards, yet – like Cesc – Hernanes was seemingly born with the authority to direct a game with abundant simplicity and awareness. He’s not afraid to shoot either – a number of mid-to-long-range efforts (with both feet) troubled Independiente’s Paraguyan ‘keeper Aldo Bobadilla and the folks in Row Z alternately. Allied to the honest endeavours of omnipresent midfield partner Jean, Hernanes ensured that the flow of the game remained towards the Colombians’ goal.

The frustrating immobility of ex-international striker Washington, however, rendered much of São Paulo’s attacking efforts in vain. In fact the three-times continental champions looked likely to slip to a shock defeat before striker Borges scored this frankly ridiculous equaliser deep in to stoppage time: http://tinyurl.com/dhs567 (0:46 onwards). Muricy Ramalho’s team begin their quest for a fourth successive league title in May and they hope their brightest star (reportedly contracted until 2012) will remain at the hub of their challenge.

Already an Olympic bronze medallist – a tournament at which Brazil’s under-23s (plus Ronaldinho et al) were outclassed by Argentina and he came up short in the midfield battle with Real Madrid’s Fernando Gago – Hernanes has so far earned only a solitary senior international cap. The Seleção has, of late, lacked players to dictate the action from central midfield; instead relying on the prosaic toil of Gilberto Silva and Wolfsburg’s Josué.

A vacancy is certainly there to be filled at the heart of the world’s favourite team. To fully establish himself in Dunga’s plans for the 2010 World Cup, however, it’s fair to assume that the boy from Recife might now be entertaining thoughts of a move to Europe.

For every Brazilian success story among the habitual mass migration upon the opening of a European transfer window, there have been as many failures - abject or relative - who limp home with tail fixed firmly between legs. One such chastened returnee was Hernanes’ Olympic team cohort Thiago Silva, who flopped spectacularly with both FC Porto and then Dynamo Moscow. Yet, the versatile defender has since resurrected his career back home at Fluminense; impressing enough to encourage Milan to shell out €10m for his services.

He’ll be eligible to play for the rossoneri in July. Speculation is building that Hernanes might follow on Thiago Silva’s coat-tails to the San Siro as a potential successor to Andrea Pirlo – though surely the sublimely gifted Italian has much left to give, particularly at a club which has come to see itself as safe-haven for declining veterans. It’s the club where where Kaká was a near-immediate success upon his arrival from the Morumbi. It’s the club, too, where fledgling talents such as Patrick Vieira and, more recently, Yoann Gourcuff have slipped off the radar, only to resurface spectacularly elsewhere.

A move to Italy is far from a done deal. Barcelona is another possible destination – but with a league of exhilarating midfield stars already present at Camp Nou it would be a brave move for Hernanes to make in a World Cup year. For all the excitement about his obvious talent, there are still areas in his game which could be improved and honed to perfection upon a switch to a club at Europe’s top table. The hunt for Hernanes’ signature begins, in earnest, this summer

http://www.footballingworld.com/2009/02 ... rope-0220/

[Emilfu]

Moutinho is long forgotten by now, seeing that he played a shitty season, from what i know atleast.
He is considered to be amongst the favourites to join Everton this summer.

[Mythical Revolution]

The thing with this player is amongst others his versatility.

Over time, he could without a question be our new left forward.

Hernanes is a future keymember in my eyes, I would simply hate if another team signed him before us.

I don't need why do we need anyone on the left. Our formation is best suited if we play with strikers with Messi behind them. It is better for our offense, and incidentally for our defense as well. In a 1-2 setup, Messi is allowed all the freedom in the world to escape marking, exploit the weakness of the opposition's defense and capitalize on the huge holes created by our 2 CF. With 2 CF instead of one, we would have a better chance at turning all the service the service that we get and all the scoring chances that we produce into actual goals. Our defense would be bolstered as well, as our CF would be able to track back without leaving a gap in the center. Granted we will lose breadth on the wings but with good attacking service from our fullbacks (Alves;hopefully Zhirkov), Messi, and CF who are comfortable shifting to the wings either to create space or escape marking we would probably end up loosing nothing at all and gain a lot more by adopting a 1-2 formation, which is why an additional ST/WF is not needed.

I really could not disagree wit you more.

I mean, we've just had the best season in the history of the club. I simply dont understand, why you want us to change formations. Your formation though, does have potential. But it wont work, as Messi cant play 60 games a season, what would you do without him?


Please have the economic situation in mind, in another thread you want us to buy Pato, Benzema, Chiellini, Zhirkov and Lahm etc. I simply dont get it

Let me break it down, Pato and Benzema is most likely not ready to be the heirtakers to Samuel Eto'o. Both of them however, incredible talents. And they would both propably be ready for the "throne" in just a few years. But not now.

In my eyes Zhirkov is WAY to offensive, and should we sign him, it would most likely lead to a katastrophic season, as we would sell our defensive completely having only 2 real defenders and to extremely offensive backs.

As for Chiellini I do agree that he would be a usefull signing, however I dont think he is interested in joining Barcelona. Secondly I think that our money could be spend better on another position, and another player.

First off, I don't want us to sign Pato, Benzema, Chiellini, Zhirkov and Lahm. So I would appreciate if you don't put words in my mouth. I was simply stating possible candidates for the CF and LB position. Now I mentioned that we should sign Benzema & Pato only if providing that we offload Eto'o and that Pato is available. I mentioned Chiellini as a possible replacement for Puyol, but was firmly against signing any CB this year. As for LB, I made it clear that it was either Lahm or Zhirkov, not both and with Lahm seemingly destined to stay at Bayern then I was rooting for Zhirkov. We already have a defensive LB in Abidal, and I think having the 2 faces of the same coin gives us more options tactically and more cover in case of injuries.

I'm not suggesting radical change in our formation, I'm merely suggesting that we should opt for a 1-2 trident instead of a 2-1. Incidentally, it's in a 2-1 formation that you would see Messi playing more games not less. In a 1-2 formation, you can easily replace Messi with Hernanes; not to mention that Messi would be actually positioned in the best position to play his best and wreak more havoc than he would in a 2-1 formation.

[Emilfu]

Im aware that you dont want to buy all of the players. I never ment to suggest otherwise..

As for the lineup, I really cant imagine us playing without Messi on the Right wing.

In my eyes Messi's absolute best position is the one he is playing right now, on the right wing.
Guess we dont agree eh.

Either way, I think its going to be a VERY exciting season we're going into.

Atleast it looks like were getting a lot more competition for the championship

[Mythical Revolution]

Im aware that you dont want to buy all of the players. I never ment to suggest otherwise..

As for the lineup, I really cant imagine us playing without Messi on the Right wing.

In my eyes Messi's absolute best position is the one he is playing right now, on the right wing.
Guess we dont agree eh.

Either way, I think its going to be a VERY exciting season we're going into.

Atleast it looks like were getting a lot more competition for the championship

Well, that's the beauty of a 1-2 formation, because it gives Messi free reign to position himself, while still preventing any effective man marking on him.

[Emilfu]

I still prefer the lineup we've used the previous season.

Amongst others because a LOT of the points we got this season, was due to the incredible understanding between Lionel Messi, and Daniel Alves.

If we move Leo to a central position, they wont be able to have the same understanding between them.

[Mythical Revolution]

I still prefer the lineup we've used the previous season.

Amongst others because a LOT of the points we got this season, was due to the incredible understanding between Lionel Messi, and Daniel Alves.

If we move Leo to a central position, they wont be able to have the same understanding between them.

I'm not planning on moving him to the center either! On paper, you will seem him positioned in the center behind the 2 strikers. But on the pitch he would be given the complete freedom to play all over the field, and my guess is 70-80% of it would be spend on either wing.

If you recall, in the CLF Eto'o scored his goal from the right while Messi scored his from the center. In a 2-1 attacking trident, you can have that kind of movement but at the expense of leaving voids whenever that happens. So when Messi moves to the center, your wing is weakened and you are left with no striker in the middle. In a 1-2 formation, Messi would be creating voids with every displacement he makes, except that it would be in the opponents defense not us; not bound by a fixed position from the start, whether he is playing in the center or on the wings he wouldn't be leaving any gaps but rather exploiting them. dito for the strikers, who could easily move to the wings or backtrack without worrying about having no goal poacher in the center; not to mention that we would have a much better conversion rate for the endless scoring chances we create; having 2 strikers instead of one.

[maniaFCB]

I like Mythical's placement of Messi. Very similar to the withdrawn striker role he played in the Bernabeau and CL final. I don't think that should be a regular formation though, seems to work wonders as a surprise tactic of sorts.

[Mythical Revolution]

I like Mythical's placement of Messi. Very similar to the withdrawn striker role he played in the Bernabeau and CL final. I don't think that should be a regular formation though, seems to work wonders as a surprise tactic of sorts.

Now that it's been successful, I don't think that it will surprise anyone anymore. Maybe it would've worked if we still had FR, the other manager would've not taken it seriously as he would've figured, rightly so, that Rijkaard pulled it out by mistake
The only thing that I have against it, is that it's a hard formation to play with. You need a lot of stamina, a lot of intelligent movement off the ball and a lot of understanding between the players. But I think the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks: a more optimal use of Messi, better scoring chances conversion rate, impracticality of man marking, better backtracking, a more suited formation for counterattacks. Clearly we would be better off, both offensively and defensively; it worked wonders for Spain and Milan (even with their possession less game) and I think that it would be even better suited to our possession game.

[Emilfu]

Seems Hernanes is determined on leaving Brazil for Europe this summer. The Brazilian club should be extremely willing, on letting him go for a small sum of 10 Million €.

Milan are considered to be favourites on signing him though.

[url]http://www.goal.com/en/news/10/italy/2009/07/15/1384413/ac-milan-target-hernanes-is-available-for-10m-report
[/url]

[maniaFCB]

I'd prefer Hernanes to Keirrsion. Reminds me of Deco.

[Hawk]

10mil? meh.. we offered something like 12mil for him last year and they rejected it (asking for 20-24mil)

[IndoCulé]

I'd prefer Hernanes to Keirrsion. Reminds me of Deco.

Of course. Keirrison is a striker.

[Emilfu]

Personally I dont understand why we dont sign this young lad, as fast as possible.

He can play on most of the midfield spots, even the defensive midfield.

And could be aquired for a "small" fee of 10 million €