Yerry Mina

I said it was a gamble to let Masche go and replace him with a young defender. Now the game has come to play Mina and check if that risk will pay off.

te amo barca said:

BBZ just doesn't rate Copa because of how frequently we win it these days. Recency bias.

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I have wrote this a lot of times, but let's do it again.
Historically, in 60s, 70s and 80s, teams in 1st divisons played only a league championship.
We didn't have a champions league back then. We had Champions cup, where only 1 club per country played.
We had Uefa cup with 1-2 clubs per country.
And Cup winners cup.

But, there were few "problems".
Leagues usually had only 16 teams back then.
For example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961–62_La_Liga
So, a 1st div team played 30 matches per season.
In Champions cup, you played 9 matches max (with a final), and there was no group stage.
There were no spanish supercups, european supercups, world club championships, confederations cups and similar.
Players and clubs in general played way less matches.

And then, an average 1st division team, let's say 8th placed team, who wasn't playing Champions cup or Uefa cup, played only 30 league matches per season.
So, FA's invented national cups to add more action and more matches into a calendar (to create some action and some matches on Wednesdays).

And back then, in 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, a cup made sense because it was the 2nd most important competition for majority of teams.
And teams, FAs and fans cared about a cup back then.

But then, over decades, a lot of things changed in football, for example:
1. leagues started to have 18 teams and later 20 teams, which means 38 league matches instead of 30 league matches.
That is 8 matchdays more, or 2 Months of football more.
2. Champions cup turned into a Champions league with insane level of sponsors, money and fans. And they added a group stage.
Also, in late 90s and early 00s, Uefa even introduced 2 group stages.
So, it was: 6 matches + 6 matches + knockout phase.
Now, imagine a change from 70s or 80s where teams had 30 league matches and a few cup matches, and a champions cup with 1 team per country.
Into=leagues with 38 matches per season, CDR, plus Champions league with 4-5 teams from Spain/England/Italy, with 2 group stages in one moment.

4th placed team from Spain usually didn't play in Europe in 60s or 70s, and suddenly 4th placed teams started to play in a CL.
3. also, Uefa cancelled Cup winners cup in late 90s, because nobody cared for that competition.

And now, again, for an average fan, a cup was important for 4th and 5th placed teams in 60s or 80s, when their team played ONLY La Liga and a CDR.
But in 90s, suddenly teams like Sevilla, Atletico, Valencia, Deportivo started to play CL every season.
And as mentioned, La liga started to have 38 matches.
So, a season changed from:
1. 30 La liga matches and a few CDR matches= usually 35-40 matches per season
2. into: 38 league matches + 10-15 CL matches + Cdr matches = usually around 60 matches per season

Since La liga is the main competiton and a CL was extremely rich and popular, CDR started to be less popular than in 60s-90s.
And around 90s, a lot of big teams started to neglect cup competitions (not only in Spain, but all around Europe).
Also, Tv stations and fans also started to care way less for cup competitions. (Now, don't watch this with Barca's eyes. Try to look with the eyes of other teams like Dortmund, Roma, Lazio, Lyon, Arsenal etc).

And then, some "smarter" teams realized that they won't have strength to play in 3 competitions every year, and they decided to "throw away" the least important competition.
There were comments from lots of European coaches how they are resting key players in cup matches, until semifinal.
And if they lose in cup, not too much harm done.

This is why some teams (like Real) play with 120% in a CL (rich, famous, popular) and with 100% in La Liga.
And why they don't give a shit about CDR.

Then you have Barca, who has some strange fetish on CDR and trebles and we play with 100% both in La Liga, CDR and CL which often cost us in a CL in March and April.

Also, if you think that cup is an important competition for an average football fan, you need to step out of Barca's bubble.
We, guys who write here, usually watch 38 league matches per season, 10 Cdr matches and ALL CL matches.
So, we are not "normal" football fans.
We are addicts.

An average football fan will watch some CL matches, some La liga matches and probably 0-1 CDR matches.

A test:
1. who won Seria A last season? we all know the answer
2. on the other hand, who played in Italian Cup final? I don't have a clue

3. who won French league last season? we all know
4. who played in a Cup final? I have no idea. Probably Psg and... someone.

5. Who won EPL? We all know.
6. Who played FA cup final? Lol, I don't know and I don't care. I think that I haven't watched a FA cup match for 10 years.

Die hard football fans watch all matches and CDR matters to them.
But then, that is 1% of football fans.
Other football fans with less free time, watch only CL knockout matches, some El Classicos and big games in EPL and that's it.
A random football fan doesn't watch Barcelona-Alaves in a CDR or Everton-Tottenham in FA Semis (or whatever).

The reality is that a CDR, or ANY cup competition in Europe (except maybe FA cup for English fans) is not interesting for majority of fans, roughly since 2000'.

This is why I would like to play CDR with Gomes, Denis, Paulinho, Mina, Semedo, Digne and all squad players.
And then, in 1/2s or 1/4 at worst, we can start to use Messi and some starters.
This is what 90% of big teams in Europe are doing (check the lineup of Chelsea in latest cup matches, lol).
Chelsea sucks in EPL, so if cups are important to them, they would play with 120% motivation, right?
But no. They are playing with squad players and going all in in a CL and EPL.
The same is with Real.
Again, they lost La Liga.
If a cup is SO IMPORTANT for them, they would play with 200% in a CDR to "save" the season, right?
But no. They played half arsed as always and they will just go all in a CL.
CDR trophy or a KO in 1/4 is more or less of the same importance for them. Ok, it is always better to win it then not, but they won't have sleepless nights over a CDR KO.

Unlike us and our fans.
I would dare to say that Barca is a team who cares the most about a cup in a continental part of Europe.
I have no idea why is that happening.

My guess is still that it has something with politics: Catalonia is not Spain and everything, and we fell so proud when we "steal" King's trophy from RM and Spanish clubs.
Other than politics, I can't understand why would we care about CDR so much, in 2018, when a world of football has changed so much and when the level of importance of certain trophies has changed so much compared to a 20th century.

BBZ8800 said:

I have wrote this a lot of times, but let's do it again.

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Let's not.

Barca approach the cup as just about any other clubs do.

On their own the cup doesnt mean all that much so will rarely be used to salvage a season for a club but add it to the league or also the CL and doubles/trebles show dominance.

No one thinks the cup last season salvaged Barcas season any more than it would any other club.

[MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION]

BBZ has a point about spending energy but I disagree on Copa being irrelevant. You can see it in every final that has been played how much it meant for the winners.

Barcaman said:

You can see it in every final that has been played how much it meant for the winners.

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How can you tell?

I think Copa is a case of where the players value it more and more as they come closer to winning it.
Ofcourse the final is going to be intense because you are just 1 game away of winning a prize.
But don't think players will feel too bad about not winning it if they get knocked out in Quarter-Final for example.

Going back to Khaled's post on a weak bench during the 2015/16 season and at some point our bench in one of the games was like.

Bench Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Douglas, Bartra, Mascherano, Adriano, Gumbau, Munir #fcblive

For all the complaining we do, our bench certainly has come along way since then.

xXKonan said:

Douglas

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This still makes me shake my head in disbelief

Injured Pique playing through the pain and risking further injury during the most crucial part of the season is a better option for Valverde than playing Mina.

R.I.P Mina's career.

Ousmane Dembélé said:

Injured Pique playing through the pain and risking further injury during the most crucial part of the season is a better option for Valverde than playing Mina.

R.I.P Mina's career.

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He will play on Sunday.

FCBfan22 said:

He will play on Sunday.

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There is literally no option other than Mina on Sunday. Umtiti suspended and Verm hurt, Pique probably won't play either since the match isn't that important so it will likely be Mina-Digne or Mina-Busi as the CBs.

If Valverde rated Mina he should start tonight.

Who would have guessed, Mina doesn't play. Again.

But it's okay. Surely he'll play on Sunday! Lol

Couldn't see much in 10 mins but I was pleasantly surprised by his pace for a player his size the few times he showed it.

God Serena said:

Who would have guessed, Mina doesn't play. Again.

But it's okay. Surely he'll play on Sunday! Lol

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I think he will play on Sunday indeed.