Today we stop to examine the case of Ibrahim Afellay, midfielder for FC Barcelona who will be competing with the Netherlands at Euro 2012, which starts today. Newcastle has been named alongside other Premier League sides as a possible destination for Afellay, who is reportedly available for £6 million.
I sat down with Luis Mazariegos, who writes for SBN's fantastic FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes, to pick his brain about Afellay. I hope you'll find his responses as informative as I did. A big thanks to Luis for providing his insight on this player.
First off, what is your overall impression of Ibrahim Afellay? If you had to pick 1 or 2 characteristics to define his game, what would they be?
He is very versatile, two-footed, and has very good technique. He has a pretty good burst of speed, and this is accentuated by the fact that he is quite a good dribbler which makes him even more dangerous. Those are perhaps his main strengths. He is also known for having a good long shot and accurate passing. His crossing is fine but perhaps not world-class for a wide player. He is not very good defensively but hopefully he won't be called to do that too often. Despite being fairly tall, 5'11", I don't think I've ever seen him win aerial battles. His goal return for Barcelona isn't very good, but that's partially because of the role he's been given.
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