LeeRomeno
Active member
This season is remarkable for many things, but there is something I have never witnessed before. Coach being blamed for injuries for players because they play too much (Iniesta), but also if they play too less (Semedo). What makes it even stranger is the fact that both have had totally acceptable gametime, medical team has given them green light and both injuries are clearly not about playing too much or too less, but typical for footballers, who constantly accelerate and put pressure on the muscles during games.
Just hilarious.
Just hilarious.
henias
New member
People keep saying we dont have quality, ever since Dembele was injured. Dembele isn't injured now, but somehow he decides he isnt gonna improve especially after his injury. We bought Coutinho, Dembele and Mina and still "we dont have quality". Even if without our recent signings, our squad is still well better than the likes of Palmas, and it's unrealisitc to say we would struggle.
Playing and risking an injured Pique, overplaying Roberto, knowing Iniesta is very injury prone and his minutes not spread out properly, rested only one game after Chelsea, shouldnt play too much at the Canary Islands, and then had to face Atletico. Previous occasions were the same, Valencia and then Espanyol at their home, both consecutively full 90 mins one after another and he is lucky to be not be injured during that hectic period. And people are still saying Dembele is rested so much because probably he is injury prone or "not good enough". Then it doesnt make sense, since Iniesta doesnt even rest like Dembele does.
If Dembele isn't good enough, how come Paulinho and the rest are somehow good enough? From what I know Paulinho has put up some of the worst performances over the past month. He has come on as starter, to a sub, and Vidal has went from starter, a sub, and now out of the squad? And he'll probably will get to start again the next few weeks. Yet players like Denis, Deulofeu, Semedo and Mina are dropped faster than you can imagine after a single bad performance. If you want to argue, Denis and Semedo were pretty good at the start, so why they arent given "faith or patience" like they did with Suarez. Again, inconsistencies that doesnt add up.
For me Coutinho has already well fitted at the LM position and did very well at RM ytd even though that wasnt his preferred position and it would be another excuse to say Coutinho "will be integrated next season". Dembele could have been well integrated over the past few games but didnt do so, because 3 players are ahead of him, but none of them seemed to put up a convincing performance from last year till the recent few months.
Call me a Gomes hater, but when did he manage to solidly make an impact ever since last season? Provided absolutely zero defensively, terrible pressing, his mental state was not even on the same level as other squad members, he doesnt even seem to understand the system and was just passing any o how and screwing up every chance we get. This type of player somehow is a good fit for Barca and be deserves the luxury of utmost patience, maybe give him 3 seasons or more to see more improvements because his fans believe he will. Yet Dembele only played odd 7 games and when other fans think he can improve more, they are thought as being unreasonable and delusional. And immediately draw the conclusion he is no fit for Barca.
The manager gets cover-up for every bad decision he makes, even very well knowing these justifications ironically contradict with some of his actions. It doesnt make heads or tails and it is terribly bizarre. There's simply zero consistency to the theories or criteria he has, and it's always "maybe the manager thinks this, maybe the players this or that", let's be honest, all these bullshit have been proven to be wrong with every decision he makes the coming week. And now fans resort to using "next season, next season we will integrate, next season we will play better football".
I'm not saying the coach have to win the treble, but at least keep our players well prepared for competitions and to use them more wisely across the competitons. We made signings? Use them. We have last season players? Use them as well. Use them more in league games when we have the league cushion, since he prioritises Copa as well. Many times we wasted our key players in league games we end up drawing or simply just putting a lazy lethargic performance. We have energy in 22-24 a player squad and it would be shooting urself in the foot not to make use of them against opponents sitting deep in relegation.
We were actually playing well attacking football even with Deulofeu at that time, against the weaker teams and it worked very well. All of a sudden, when we tried to accomodate the inept players in a defensive formation, we start to draw against Celta, almost drew against Villareal if not for Messi Suarez, struggled with Getafe, Espanyol and recently a massive number of draws in the past few games. The last two games came only from Messi's free kicks.
If we create our own fear then it will only get bigger when opponents know we're timid. Against Atletico, we were dominant in every way possible and Atletico was timid. If we can put this type of performances, I dont see why we are always having that mental obstacle "every opponent will beat us 5-0 if we don't park the bus, and we will be prone to counters against every one of them."
People will defend the manager his bizarre decisions just beacuse he is "undefeated". The effects negliegence of young players and talents will only show up more and more as the seasons go on, but people will keep giving him a cushion to fall on when things doesnt go well. Even if we manage to get Arthur, Griezmann, if he fails to make any use out of them, players will be blamed for "not being good enough" and that we have to keep spending every inch perfect signing formula for the manager to succeed. Think about it, if so many talents seem to "fail" than maybe it's time to look closer. We already made significantly better signings than last season. From what I see, manager will be defended in many years to come as long as he wins the league. But in terms of his short vision and planning, we might have a trouble when Madrid starts to freshen up. And more and new excuses will evolve and come along the way.
Playing and risking an injured Pique, overplaying Roberto, knowing Iniesta is very injury prone and his minutes not spread out properly, rested only one game after Chelsea, shouldnt play too much at the Canary Islands, and then had to face Atletico. Previous occasions were the same, Valencia and then Espanyol at their home, both consecutively full 90 mins one after another and he is lucky to be not be injured during that hectic period. And people are still saying Dembele is rested so much because probably he is injury prone or "not good enough". Then it doesnt make sense, since Iniesta doesnt even rest like Dembele does.
If Dembele isn't good enough, how come Paulinho and the rest are somehow good enough? From what I know Paulinho has put up some of the worst performances over the past month. He has come on as starter, to a sub, and Vidal has went from starter, a sub, and now out of the squad? And he'll probably will get to start again the next few weeks. Yet players like Denis, Deulofeu, Semedo and Mina are dropped faster than you can imagine after a single bad performance. If you want to argue, Denis and Semedo were pretty good at the start, so why they arent given "faith or patience" like they did with Suarez. Again, inconsistencies that doesnt add up.
For me Coutinho has already well fitted at the LM position and did very well at RM ytd even though that wasnt his preferred position and it would be another excuse to say Coutinho "will be integrated next season". Dembele could have been well integrated over the past few games but didnt do so, because 3 players are ahead of him, but none of them seemed to put up a convincing performance from last year till the recent few months.
Call me a Gomes hater, but when did he manage to solidly make an impact ever since last season? Provided absolutely zero defensively, terrible pressing, his mental state was not even on the same level as other squad members, he doesnt even seem to understand the system and was just passing any o how and screwing up every chance we get. This type of player somehow is a good fit for Barca and be deserves the luxury of utmost patience, maybe give him 3 seasons or more to see more improvements because his fans believe he will. Yet Dembele only played odd 7 games and when other fans think he can improve more, they are thought as being unreasonable and delusional. And immediately draw the conclusion he is no fit for Barca.
The manager gets cover-up for every bad decision he makes, even very well knowing these justifications ironically contradict with some of his actions. It doesnt make heads or tails and it is terribly bizarre. There's simply zero consistency to the theories or criteria he has, and it's always "maybe the manager thinks this, maybe the players this or that", let's be honest, all these bullshit have been proven to be wrong with every decision he makes the coming week. And now fans resort to using "next season, next season we will integrate, next season we will play better football".
I'm not saying the coach have to win the treble, but at least keep our players well prepared for competitions and to use them more wisely across the competitons. We made signings? Use them. We have last season players? Use them as well. Use them more in league games when we have the league cushion, since he prioritises Copa as well. Many times we wasted our key players in league games we end up drawing or simply just putting a lazy lethargic performance. We have energy in 22-24 a player squad and it would be shooting urself in the foot not to make use of them against opponents sitting deep in relegation.
We were actually playing well attacking football even with Deulofeu at that time, against the weaker teams and it worked very well. All of a sudden, when we tried to accomodate the inept players in a defensive formation, we start to draw against Celta, almost drew against Villareal if not for Messi Suarez, struggled with Getafe, Espanyol and recently a massive number of draws in the past few games. The last two games came only from Messi's free kicks.
If we create our own fear then it will only get bigger when opponents know we're timid. Against Atletico, we were dominant in every way possible and Atletico was timid. If we can put this type of performances, I dont see why we are always having that mental obstacle "every opponent will beat us 5-0 if we don't park the bus, and we will be prone to counters against every one of them."
People will defend the manager his bizarre decisions just beacuse he is "undefeated". The effects negliegence of young players and talents will only show up more and more as the seasons go on, but people will keep giving him a cushion to fall on when things doesnt go well. Even if we manage to get Arthur, Griezmann, if he fails to make any use out of them, players will be blamed for "not being good enough" and that we have to keep spending every inch perfect signing formula for the manager to succeed. Think about it, if so many talents seem to "fail" than maybe it's time to look closer. We already made significantly better signings than last season. From what I see, manager will be defended in many years to come as long as he wins the league. But in terms of his short vision and planning, we might have a trouble when Madrid starts to freshen up. And more and new excuses will evolve and come along the way.
Cule4life
The Culest
All of his defenders sound like Mourinho fanboys "But....but.... we are winning". Well if winning with shit on a stick football is ok why don't we hire Mou then, the master of parking the bus. You guys are ready to ditch our philosophy to avoid criticizing the manager. Then we as a club have lost the right to criticize clubs for parking the bus against us. Whats the diff between us and small clubs then who park the bus because their budget is less than 1/10th of ours.
Playing for a 1-0 win is playing with fire. Our team is not built for that. And it's not even just one game. The whole season we've had to put up with utter dross on the pitch. Valverde always waits for Messi to bail him out. Against Atletico hardly any chance was created.
Playing for a 1-0 win is playing with fire. Our team is not built for that. And it's not even just one game. The whole season we've had to put up with utter dross on the pitch. Valverde always waits for Messi to bail him out. Against Atletico hardly any chance was created.
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because of him Iniesta will be absent from 3 to 4 weeks.
https://twitter.com/ActualiteBarca/status/970405593302355968?s=19
https://twitter.com/ActualiteBarca/status/970405593302355968?s=19
Nothanks
New member
our philosophy? have you ever watched us play pre ronaldinho? before cruyff?
when you say our philosophy do you mean how guardiola and cruyff as managers organized the team?
because that is not our WHOLE history just part of it
nor are we playing park the buss tactics lol idk how you can even compare a team that puts 10 outfield players in their own half 70% of the game to our setup when our CBs are pushing the halfway line...
when you say our philosophy do you mean how guardiola and cruyff as managers organized the team?
because that is not our WHOLE history just part of it
nor are we playing park the buss tactics lol idk how you can even compare a team that puts 10 outfield players in their own half 70% of the game to our setup when our CBs are pushing the halfway line...
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Richard.H
Senior Member
No Iniesta and Pique is very worrisome moving further into the CL. I do believe we will go through against Chelsea since they have been absolute 
this season, but not so sure how we will do against the likes of City, RM, or Bayern without those leaders in midfield and defense.
this season, but not so sure how we will do against the likes of City, RM, or Bayern without those leaders in midfield and defense.
vlad
New member
because of him barcelona is running away with the legaue, is in copa del rey final and have good result for return match vs chelsea
semedo hardly played and got injuried, before him dembele also, is that valverde fault also?
henias
New member
No Iniesta and Pique is very worrisome moving further into the CL. I do believe we will go through against Chelsea since they have been absolute
Risk these two, you'll risk get the worst scenario possible. And it happened. No 2 ways abt it.
Neymessi
Active member
This debate of winning over playing well is pointless. Because its not like EV has choosen one of them.
Let me try and break it down. Playing well means more chances of winning meaning more chances of trophies. There is a good chance EV is just making bad decisions all around and we aren't playing well because of that but are getting results. And in that case this cannot be a sustainable strategy in the long term. Sooner or later we will be found out like this. If someone remembers the start of the tata season, we were really amazing, but got found out till the end of the season ending trophyless.
With the form real and atletico are in, winning the league really isn't THAT tough as it used to be before. Now before a lot of zealots quote me and say wow you are going to such lengths to belittle EV that now you say Liga is shit, shut the fuck up. The league is always a joy to win and I will be happy again if we win it and its no small trophy but a manager with faults can still manage to win league in the current scenario. His man management and lineups haven't been bad recently but for the whole season. His tactics I will have to say have looked good but there still have been a lot of games where we have played dire.
So if we win a domestic double or even just la liga by playing really good, losing out to bayern/real/city in semis by a narrow margin in the process, I won't mind, and I don't think most who are criticising him right now would. Because chances would be that we were just unlucky this time and in the next few seasons there is high chance we will accomplish something. But if we play mediocre and win a domestic double, fail to go past even r16 and people are mislead by that, then in the next few seasons we won't be lucky again and will be found out.
I am not saying anything about EV right now. I have his good things and bad things listed in my mind for this season and it will be only after the season ends when I will judge him entirely. But this talk of us already having 2 trophies and hence EV being an automatically great coach is just flawed.
Let me try and break it down. Playing well means more chances of winning meaning more chances of trophies. There is a good chance EV is just making bad decisions all around and we aren't playing well because of that but are getting results. And in that case this cannot be a sustainable strategy in the long term. Sooner or later we will be found out like this. If someone remembers the start of the tata season, we were really amazing, but got found out till the end of the season ending trophyless.
With the form real and atletico are in, winning the league really isn't THAT tough as it used to be before. Now before a lot of zealots quote me and say wow you are going to such lengths to belittle EV that now you say Liga is shit, shut the fuck up. The league is always a joy to win and I will be happy again if we win it and its no small trophy but a manager with faults can still manage to win league in the current scenario. His man management and lineups haven't been bad recently but for the whole season. His tactics I will have to say have looked good but there still have been a lot of games where we have played dire.
So if we win a domestic double or even just la liga by playing really good, losing out to bayern/real/city in semis by a narrow margin in the process, I won't mind, and I don't think most who are criticising him right now would. Because chances would be that we were just unlucky this time and in the next few seasons there is high chance we will accomplish something. But if we play mediocre and win a domestic double, fail to go past even r16 and people are mislead by that, then in the next few seasons we won't be lucky again and will be found out.
I am not saying anything about EV right now. I have his good things and bad things listed in my mind for this season and it will be only after the season ends when I will judge him entirely. But this talk of us already having 2 trophies and hence EV being an automatically great coach is just flawed.
Lelouch vi Britannia
Banned
12-13 too. Played like crap, with questionable decisions being made week in week out (desperately needed signings not made, injured Xavi being run into the ground and out of form Fabregas playing almost every game while Thiago sat on the bench) but it all got swept under the rug by the results. Got brutally found out in the CL knockouts. Sure we won La Liga with 100 points but that was really just a consolation prize after Bayern battered us, especially when you consider that we were never going to lose it with Madrid imploding like they did. Everyone was calling it the end of an era despite the league win, and rightfully so. Who gives a shit whether we won La Liga with 90 points or 100 when we just received our greatest CL defeat ever? And to rub salt in the wound, we lost Thiago for peanuts that summer. To this day we still haven't managed to get that long term Xavi replacement.
Now compare that to let's say 14-15. Had a rough start and Lucho did make some boneheaded decisions even then (still think it was a mistake not making mats a clear number 1 from the start, for instance), and we didn't have dat amazing leeg rekord in January, in fact we were 4 points behind Madrid, but once we clicked, we were unstoppable, played great football and managed to turn up when it actually mattered. Where we were struggling against the likes of Milan and getting obliterated by Bayern 2 years earlier, we were now battering Man City (jesus christ how the hell did that only end 3-1 on aggregate, 30-1 would have been a more accurate reflection of that tie), PSG and Bayern. Our league stats weren't as good as in 12-13 or this season but anyone with half a brain can tell that that was an infinitely superior team, even without the trophies. Except we actually did get the trophies, all of them. CL included when 2 years earlier we were obsessing over MUH 100 POINTS while getting violated by Bayern. And let me tell you, it felt so much better to beat that Madrid team to the league by 2 points than it did to beat the one of Mourinho's last season by 15. Wasn't Pep's Barca but still managed to win a treble playing great football.
Now not every season can be 14-15 but we did some things very right that season that we haven't since. Peak at the correct time, rest players that need it so they're fresh when they need to be (Xavi then, Iniesta now), play good attacking football while still being solid defensively, focus on what matters rather than league stats and streaks. Oh yeah, and PLAY YOUR BEST FREAKING PLAYERS THAT YOU JUST SPENT 200M ON. I'm wondering if Valverde would have benched Neymar for Pedro back then. Or maybe Suarez because he wasn't "integrated" enough? Would probably have completely shafted mats too
This season is starting to give me some very scary flashbacks to the 12-13 one tbh. Xavi/Iniesta overplayed, Thiago/Dembele neglected etc... really hope I'm wrong.
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Neymessi
Active member
We had a healthy enough lead in the league to rest him there and make him stay 100% for wars that matterred.
And no, fatigue does have a good relation with chances to get injured. Its common sense and a horrible argument from your side to think otherwise. Training doesn't put that much stress on players than a real match. Thats why you have way more injuries in real matches than in training while the matches last for way lesser than a training day and there are way more training days than actual matches.
MagIX
Senior Member
Not because our name is Barcelona it means that we are unbeatable.
As said, at the beginning of the season (even more when Neymar left and and again even more when RM trashed us) no one would have bet 1 euro on us....and look where we are now.
The departure of Neymar took us by surprise, we were unprepared for this, he messed up our plans..... and he made prices rise absurdly
We had bad luck with Dembele injured for months, important months that would have allowed him to be integrated into the team, step by step, and build a team with him
We could buy Coutinho only in January (injured for 3 weeks), not easy to integrate a player in the middole of the season....
Having regard to all this, not bad where we are now, well done Barca !
You mentiond Bayern and MCity.... yes, it would be very difficult, probably they are better than us, but anyway not sure we would lose (but for sure we won't be trashed and umiliated with a 4-0 or 3-0, PSG and Juve), we are less spectacular but more solid.
The dream team with Dembele and Coutinho is for the next saison. But honestly i do no know if that team will work...
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