Lliga: FC Barcelona - Elche 3-0

BerkeleyBernie

Senior Member
It is crazy that we are dominating matches with 10 men and no xavi. Hope this carries to big games too.

Excellent performance, but, to be fair, Elche posed no attacking threat. Barça has rarely had a problem "dominating," the question has always been whether the team can also score goals while denying the other team the ball.
 
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beautifulgame

Guest
Excellent performance, but, to be fair, Elche posed no attacking threat. Barça has rarely had a problem "dominating," the question has always been whether the team can also score goals while denying the other team the ball.


so pretty much the object of the game?
 

BerkeleyBernie

Senior Member
- Xavi benched for the whole match as well is also a sign of the change Lucho has done, no longer does Xavi have a free ride on the field spraying side passes.

:lol: And what did his "replacement" Rakitic do? Sprayed mostly side passes. This is an example of projection of your desires over what actually happened. Working against 10 men defending well behind the ball is always going to have a lot of side passing, a function of the situation, not the specific player.

Xavi is superfluous in a game like this, where there is no pressure. What Rakitic offers above Xavi in this sort of game is more aggressive defending and regaining possession, and an outside shot threat.

The "midfielder" responsible for nearly all the forward passes was Messi, with Iniesta accounting for most of the rest.

You also left out the most important changes:
1) mobile Messi. Whatever instructions Messi had from Lucho, they worked. Without Messi's work rate today, the result could well be in question.
2) Alves not sending in crosses by default (and short corners). This in part has to do with a mobile Messi, as Alves always prefers to work 1-2 passes with him, if he is close enough. But Lucho also looks to have reverted to short corners again. The overall result is that Barça possession doesn't end in a fruitless cross or corner kick as it often did last season. The ball is recirculated for a better chance at attack.

At the present time, the attack is still Messi-centric- which he did brilliantly, but it does bring up how Barça will attack if he is not available. I don't think we will fully know what this Barça looks like until we see Suarez integrated. With Messi bossing as a midfielder and Suarez finishing the chances Messi creates, I think we will see the true nature of this Barça.
 

BerkeleyBernie

Senior Member
so pretty much the object of the game?

Way to take the quote out of context (as well as being incorrect- it's the object of Barça's tactics, but hardly universal. Most teams do *not* defend primarily through possession). iamrohith was amazed how Barça dominated with 10 men. I was simply pointing out that domination (of possession) has never been a problem, and that Elche's complete lack of attack can't be taken as representative of other teams who are more likely to hit Barça effectively on the counter. And as far as offence, it is still (at this point) Messi-centric, which is always a worry. So today Barça was dominant in possession (as usual), but it was pretty much Messi who was dominant in attack.
 

KingMessi

SiempreBlaugrana
Way to take the quote out of context (as well as being incorrect- it's the object of Barça's tactics, but hardly universal. Most teams do *not* defend primarily through possession). iamrohith was amazed how Barça dominated with 10 men. I was simply pointing out that domination (of possession) has never been a problem, and that Elche's complete lack of attack can't be taken as representative of other teams who are more likely to hit Barça effectively on the counter. And as far as offence, it is still (at this point) Messi-centric, which is always a worry. So today Barça was dominant in possession (as usual), but it was pretty much Messi who was dominant in attack.

What did you expect with Neymar and Suarez unavailable? :p
 

BerkeleyBernie

Senior Member
What did you expect with Neymar and Suarez unavailable? :p

Well, I don't think Neymar would have made much of a difference- might have won a few free kicks over in Munir's position. Suarez is the missing piece, if Messi continues in this more attacking midfielder role.
 

Cule4life

The Culest
Tito was a good coach. Tata wasn't all bad, but his methodology and tactics weren't always spot on. Bartra is good, but I'm sure Lucho has his reasons not to start him today.

Disagree. Messi won us the league. His tactics were passing the ball to messi.

Anyway im glad Masch is suspended. Just wait for him to be bullied by better attackers and on set pieces and all the ppl saying he's a better CB than Bartra will go into hiding again.

Anyway glad Munir did well. Seems like a lifetime ago since the last time our youth got chances like these

If he's not good enough to displace Mascherano he should have been sold and immediately replaced by another CB. Instead of chasing pipe dreams in Cuadrado and Reus and Koke we could have gone after another decent CB, which apparently Bartra is not, because Mascherano is appalling when played there. Has one good performance for every five that see him making at least two massive mistakes.

Word
 
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pszczudlo

New member
I've not seen Messi in such shape for moths. That was the King in his prime. Barely lost a ball. Everything was so easy for him, drribiling opponents easily. Yesterday he run and made so many sprints that I was really amazed how great he might be. Luckily he hasn't lost it. If Lucho keeps on helping Messi to be the Real King as he's been for over 5 years that will be the best signing ever.

Could you imagine Messi being accompanied with Suarez and Neymar. This messi with 2 amazing players as neymer and suarez are?
 
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linetty

Guest
Tw Josh McEachran (Vitesse, on loan from Chelsea): "Barca got 10 men but keeping it like they have 12 against Elche!" [@jmceachran20]
 

MagIX

Senior Member
Maybe if we play always in 10, our opponents do not always play tactically with 11 defenders in 25m: our main problem.
Interesting to see what happened when our opponent changed this tactic….with a little bit open space in front we have been devastating.
Not easy in front for Messi banging against a wall in every match… and still be able to score a mountain of goals. If Messi was playing for a team which plays on counterattack like RM, he would score 200 goals pro season.
 

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