11 - Ousmane Dembélé - V1

[xXKonan]

Just watched the game right now, really nice game from him.
As expected he is adapting more and more well in the team, still hopefull that he will get more confidence in dribbling his man.

Going by his interview a couple of weeks ago one of the things he talked about is him trying to learn not to lose the ball to much.

I'm thinking he's trying to find that balance in dribbling his man and not losing the ball so carelessly. Today it looked like he was being more careful when it comes to dribbling so he doesn't lose the ball.

 

[The Great One]

Quite happy with his last two games. More of that please Dembele. The games were not perfect but if he was like that at the start we would have had more Laurence with him.

 

[MessiCam]

Could you explain this a bit? What shitty tactics? What makes you think it's not up to our old, slow midfield?

I will. The midfield being overrun last year wasn’t due to the age or slowness of the midfield. A 28 year old Busquets and 29 year old Rakitić is not old by any stretch of the imagination. And Iniesta was 32 but injured too often... To put into perspective Man City has 2 32 year olds and a 27 year old playing in a 3 man midfield. The problem was that Messi, and this has been discussed to death all over the internet, was abandoning his right wing post which meant Rakitić had to cover for him. Leaving the team with 2 CM’s

Dembele was here today. Vs. Chelsea also. Did we play 433?

Why not?

Played 4-4-2 in both games.

 

[Joan]

I will. The midfield being overrun last year wasn’t due to the age or slowness of the midfield. A 28 year old Busquets and 29 year old Rakitić is not old by any stretch of the imagination. And Iniesta was 32 but injured too often... To put into perspective Man City has 2 32 year olds and a 27 year old playing in a 3 man midfield. The problem was that Messi, and this has been discussed to death all over the internet, was abandoning his right wing post which meant Rakitić had to cover for him. Leaving the team with 2 CM’s.

Fine. Thank you. Rakitić wasn't able to cover and it didn't work. BUT, wouldn't we have something similar on the left if Suarez was played there?
If our attack is Coutinho - Messi - Dembele then go for it. Midfield could work. But playing one of them (Messi, Suarez) out of central position takes covering which, imo, our midfield is not capable of (due to their speed, age etc.).

Is leaving one of them out of the team an option?

 

[MessiCam]

Fine. Thank you. Rakitić wasn't able to cover and it didn't work. BUT, wouldn't we have something similar on the left if Suarez was played there?
If our attack is Coutinho - Messi - Dembele then go for it. Midfield could work. But playing one of them (Messi, Suarez) out of central position takes covering which, imo, our midfield is not capable of (due to their speed, age etc.).

Is leaving one of them out of the team an option?

Suárez doesn't abandon his position like Messi does. He doesn't feel the need to get on the ball at every opportunity and as such won't drag a midfielder to cover the full back... Look at his positioning in the Girona game.

Lol... As a side note. Every single La Liga game we lost (Celta, Deportivo and Malaga) last season except 1 featured Gomes, Denis and Arda as starters in a midfield 3 over Rakitic or Iniesta.

In Gomes case it was the same in the Champions League. Man City, PSG.

Edit: Personally, for team balance I would sit Suárez on the bench without a shadow of a doubt. He, like Paco, offers nothing in terms of build up and as of recently even defends less than Messi.

Coutinho - Messi - Dembélé is enough firepower up front as evidenced yesterday in the first half. But that's just me.

 

[henias]

Suárez doesn't abandon his position like Messi does. He doesn't feel the need to get on the ball at every opportunity and as such won't drag a midfielder to cover the full back... Look at his positioning in the Girona game.

Lol... As a side note. Every single La Liga game we lost (Celta, Deportivo and Malaga) last season except 1 featured Gomes, Denis and Arda as starters in a midfield 3 over Rakitic or Iniesta.

In Gomes case it was the same in the Champions League. Man City, PSG.

Edit: Personally, for team balance I would sit Suárez on the bench without a shadow of a doubt. He, like Paco, offers nothing in terms of build up and as of recently even defends less than Messi.

Coutinho - Messi - Dembélé is enough firepower up front as evidenced yesterday in the first half. But that's just me.

Same. Coutinho were playing almost like a LW and Paco was literally as useless as he was just getting in the way of shots.

 

[Co0ter]

Barca basically stopped in the second half it was completely obvious to how the approach changed.

I'm sorry, but how is that an excuse or a proper way of going about the match? So you're saying it's okay to start getting dominated by the opponent second half because you are ahead 2-0....? It was obvious, I agree. That doesn't make it smart, or acceptable.

Bilbao had quite a few chances; even if one of them went in...the game would have gone about very differently. The fact that you rely on our success this season as any sort of reasoning behind how we played in that second half is disturbing. We got dominated. Plain and simple. They were all over us, and our midfield was gone, defeated. Our offense saw very little of the ball and our defense not only had a difficult time clearing it, period, but finding an outlet pass on top of it. You need to recognize that this is precisely why we had a difficult time vs top opposition in the Champion's League the last few seasons. Our midfield just lost the battle. We are continuing to lose that battle or tie vs any team that is able to do so- that being high pressure and speed through the middle.

 

[Messi983]

We lost balance in 2nd half because Bilbao subbed on Itturaspe instead of Benat so they had more workhorses.

 

[The Great One]

Only people on here would complain about a 2-0 win.

You know it's hard to keep up an intense game for the full 90 minutes yeah? Look at Real Madrid vs Barcelona in our 3-0 win Madrid were the better side for the first half but tired out and we managed to demolish them in the second half

 

[MessiCam]

I'm sorry, but how is that an excuse or a proper way of going about the match? So you're saying it's okay to start getting dominated by the opponent second half because you are ahead 2-0....? It was obvious, I agree. That doesn't make it smart, or acceptable.

Bilbao had quite a few chances; even if one of them went in...the game would have gone about very differently. The fact that you rely on our success this season as any sort of reasoning behind how we played in that second half is disturbing. We got dominated. Plain and simple. They were all over us, and our midfield was gone, defeated. Our offense saw very little of the ball and our defense not only had a difficult time clearing it, period, but finding an outlet pass on top of it. You need to recognize that this is precisely why we had a difficult time vs top opposition in the Champion's League the last few seasons. Our midfield just lost the battle. We are continuing to lose that battle or tie vs any team that is able to do so- that being high pressure and speed through the middle.

It wasn't obvious that we stepped off the gas either. This has been an ongoing trend all season and it happened in the game at San Mames too. People are resorting to all sorts of mental gymnastics to explain the substandard performances. Alaves, Espanyol, Getafe, Eibar, Las Palmas, both Chelsea games and now the Bilbao game leave a lot to be desired.

We were just outplayed... If we stepped off and consciously decided to sit back there wouldn't have been a need for Iniesta who is offensively orientated. Gomes, as bad as he is, would have been the better choice then but it was evident that he needed Iniesta to regain control of the midfield battle so he took off his winger instead of Paco only to bring on another winger 10 minutes later. What was that all about?

 

[Joan]

We lost balance in 2nd half because Bilbao subbed on Itturaspe instead of Benat so they had more workhorses.

 

[FC B]

Neymar is better

Certianly wasn't better in his first season, Dembele is also much younger and has all the time in the world to become a much better fit here than Moneymar has ever been.

 

[Cule4life]

We lost balance in 2nd half because Bilbao subbed on Itturaspe instead of Benat so they had more workhorses.

:bbz:

 

[xXKonan]

 

[FCBfan22]

Dembouz: "I'm still in the Champions League and you're not."