Could Gareth Bale be the left sided Dani Alves?

I've wondered this since Barcelona where linked with Bale last season. Before I go any further i'm not saying Bale would be as good as Alves, just a similar type of player on the left.

Bale started as a left back so will have decent defensive skills (despite the massive Spurs non winning streak with Bale at the start of his Spurs career)
Bale has a pretty good delivery on him, shown this many times.
At full speed no one can seem to catch him. This is key for Alves when he starts 20 yards deeper than the opposition defence and makes the run in behind for a diagonal pass. Could Bale create the same effect on the left?

The only thing that would worry me about Bale is whether he has the stamina and determination to get back and defend like Alves does.

Would Barcelona be even interested in this type of the player or are they just happy to have an Abidal and have a defensive player on the left to make up for Alves being so attacking?


I'm only speaking theoretically, this probably wont happen. I'm just interested about;

A) How Bale would do playing as a left wing back constantly now he has improved his game significantly (he did a pretty good job for Spurs away at Stoke)
B) If he'd be able to create the same type of attacking outlet that Alves does on the right for Barcelona

Shut the fuck up.

No. Marcelo or Jordi Alba would be the closest. (Jordi Alba has been heavily linked with Barca)

I've seen the Alba link. Bale has the physical edge over both of them and a better delivery than Marcelo, obviously both outdo Bale on the defensive side. And Alba has the fact he is Spanish on his side.

Bale isn't the same player. I think the way he plays now he would be restricted in a left back position. He roams around the pitch and has lots of stamina.

They won't buy Bale anyway, too expensive for them.......they're linked to Alba as Theo said.

Lux wrote:Bale isn't the same player. I think the way he plays now he would be restricted in a left back position. He roams around the pitch and has lots of stamina.

They won't buy Bale anyway, too expensive for them.......they're linked to Alba as Theo said.

When you look at the pace and power of him though, he could definately perform a similar type of role to Alves providing he has the stamina to do so. He would also be able to perform a role of a cutting in full back. Playing with a true winger and Bale behind him making darting runs inside between the full back and centre back.



Edit - I did say Bale would be no where near the level Alves is, doesn't mean Bale couldn't perform a similar role.

Dani Alves is amazingly underrated, Bale couldn't do what he does.

Gylfi wrote:I've seen the Alba link. Bale has the physical edge over both of them and a better delivery than Marcelo, obviously both outdo Bale on the defensive side. And Alba has the fact he is Spanish on his side.

He has a better burst of speed, not too sure on if he has the fitness for the pressurizing off the ball. Marcelo doesn't really need to cross so its not something I'd compare them both on.

The burst of speed is one of the things I said. He can be pretty devastating when he is 1 on 1 with a full back, can you imagine if he started 20 yards deeper and got to full speed running onto a diagonal through ball. Just like with Alves, it would be virtually impossible to defend it. It would only really be possible by stopping the passer / intercepting the diagonal through ball (which is harder especially if it's through the air)

Even if you had a left sided Dani Alves, if you were Barcelona you wouldn't play both of them. They'd get screwed on the counter.

ResurrectionRooney wrote:Even if you had a left sided Dani Alves, if you were Barcelona you wouldn't play both of them. They'd get screwed on the counter.

False. Barca is an all out attacking team with no tactics and no good defenders.

Against the better teams I imagine they'd go back to the attacking one side / not so attacking other side shape. Against smaller teams that put 10 men behind the ball it would be useful.

Not many teams park the bus against Barca as you would think, there's only a select few that do.

I didn't mean park the bus, that would mean they had little, if any intention to attack. A lot of teams try to get men behind the ball when defending, not all teams press as a team. If Alves got injured they'd have the option to play the same but on the other side.

Bale is overrated. Abidal is better and Dani Alves is far better.

I think you kind of missed the point, or didn't read the first post. Bale is clearly better than Abidal going forwards.

Gylfi wrote:I think you kind of missed the point, or didn't read the first post. Bale is clearly better than Abidal going forwards.

Abidal isn't bad going forward. Abidal is better defensively though. With Alves already providing that attacking side, the left side needs to be a bit more defensive.

For big games, yes. For smaller games, probably not. It would just offer an extra attacking outlet. That isn't really the point though, I was questioning whether Bale could play a similar role to Alves'. Not necessarily as well as him, but good enough and possibly more effective than his current position.

They have already switched to a ridiculous 3-4-3 formation for other games. There is no room for Bale.

Gylfi wrote:For big games, yes. For smaller games, probably not. It would just offer an extra attacking outlet. That isn't really the point though, I was questioning whether Bale could play a similar role to Alves'. Not necessarily as well as him, but good enough and possibly more effective than his current position.

Sure, he can do it. But there are better options out there for Barca. I don't see him moving to Barca.

Barcelona where interested last year, probably put off by the price. If Harry leaves in the summer and a new manager wants money to spend, Bale could be for sale. Spurs generally have to sell to buy unless something is going to change with that policy.

I don't think that Bale is as defensively capable as Dani Alves. Also, Bale's dribbling ability would be massively restricted if he were to play as a left wing back. His attacking game mainly revolves around taking on his man in order to open up either a crossing or a shooting opportunity. Alves doesn't play anything like that for Barcelona. I don't think Bale would be satisfied with just the objective of making overlapping runs before putting in the cross. He enjoys having the ball at his feet and he's quite effective with it.

He'd have to work on his defensive side alot. He's really not overly good at it.

Plus as Lux said, you'd be stifling him in attack, which he's shown he's fucking brilliant at whether he's on the left, rig or going through the centre.

Dani Alves has more assists than Bale will in his life.

He isn't enough of a wank stain to be the left sided Dani Alves

kyro7 wrote:Dani Alves has more assists than Bale will in his life.

Dani Alves has boobs?