Video: Pedri’s highlights vs Juventus show plenty of similarities to a Barcelona legend | OneFootball

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·29 October 2020

Video: Pedri’s highlights vs Juventus show plenty of similarities to a Barcelona legend

Article image:Video: Pedri’s highlights vs Juventus show plenty of similarities to a Barcelona legend

It’s vitally important that talented young players retain their own identity rather than trying to become a clone of a legendary player, because they will inevitably end up looking like a flawed imitation at best.

That doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with seeing a lot of similarities with former greats, and there is a lot of Andres Iniesta in Pedri’s performance vs Juventus last night:


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17 year old Pedri nice touches Vs. Juventus from r/soccer

Pictures from BT Sport

Pedri is clearly a very elegant player to watch – he never looks hurried or harassed, while he’s similar to Iniesta with his talent to play on the half turn and he’s always got a first touch or a little flick that will take the ball away from his marker.

His running style is also interesting because he never looks like he’s truly sprinting, but he must have a good turn of pace if he’s leaving guys like Cuadrado for dead too.

Ivan Rakitic did a good job for years but Barca never truly found a way to replace Xavi and Iniesta in the midfield, so it does look positive where they have youngsters like de Jong, Pedri and Puig who at least look like they can be smart midfielders with the technical skills to keep the ball moving.

Pedri is never going to be identical to someone like Iniesta, but the signs suggest he could do a very similar job in the midfield for years to come.

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