Lliga | Round 17: Villarreal - FC Barcelona 1-1

Altomonte

New member
Suarez had only one real chance but his shot went straight at GK (who had a good game). Neymar was 1 on 1 with GK who saved, then had a great chance after 1:0 but could only shoot straight at GK with no power. Another long range strike went wide - not a bad effort.
Messi had a good header, hit the upright, and had another shot that was blocked by the hand of a defender - clear penalty.
On a good day all 3 could have scored at least one goal. Today only Messi did.
But Villarreal could also have scored 1 or 2 more goals.
The way we defended the counterattack that led to the goal was awful: Busquets gave up, did not try to come back, Piqué hesitated - was afraid to be outrun, and only Neymar was trying hard to defend the final shot - but did not make it in time.
We have a problem with fast and athletic forwards, our defenders don't keep up.
Our fastest defenders are probably Umtiti, Alba and Mathieu - but none of them played today.
Finally, there seems to be a lack of fight, of commitment to get a win.
Watching Barça games it always takes 60 minutes before you get a feeling that the team seriously cares about scoring a goal.
Players may have lost respect for the coach. For sure, he does not motivate them enough.
 

snowy

New member
Suarez had only one real chance but his shot went straight at GK (who had a good game). Neymar was 1 on 1 with GK who saved, then had a great chance after 1:0 but could only shoot straight at GK with no power. Another long range strike went wide - not a bad effort.
Messi had a good header, hit the upright, and had another shot that was blocked by the hand of a defender - clear penalty.
On a good day all 3 could have scored at least one goal. Today only Messi did.
But Villarreal could also have scored 1 or 2 more goals.
The way we defended the counterattack that led to the goal was awful: Busquets gave up, did not try to come back, Piqué hesitated - was afraid to be outrun, and only Neymar was trying hard to defend the final shot - but did not make it in time.
We have a problem with fast and athletic forwards, our defenders don't keep up.
Our fastest defenders are probably Umtiti, Alba and Mathieu - but none of them played today.
Finally, there seems to be a lack of fight, of commitment to get a win.
Watching Barça games it always takes 60 minutes before you get a feeling that the team seriously cares about scoring a goal.
Players may have lost respect for the coach. For sure, he does not motivate them enough.

yeah ney was so close to successfully defending the 1st goal. He made a similar move at the 90 min mark and this time, succeeded with his sliding interception. Good radar on sensing threat and he had the necessary mph in defense. Unfortunately lacked the required ooomph in his goal attempts.

Motivation wise, I thought Busi actually had his head in the game. Suarez, despite not scoring, looked hungry for the net. Digne played with confidence and had the boosters on in the first half. Hope they were just unlucky or off, if it's a Lucho respect thing, than that's way more serious.
 

mssarm

Member
The problems with today's game:
1. Playing Gomes instead of Denis, Arda or Rafinha
2. Not playing 3-4-3. Should have started with Umtiti, Masche and Pique in the back
3.Not going wide, Messi still was in the center and Villareal was easily defending the center because there was almost nothing happening on wings.
Looks like the fight that Barca management started with Tebas is damaging us, because for the second game in the row we are not getting the penalties called. I bet Pique is pretty soon is going to have tax audit after today's gesture at Tebas. We always blame Barto for not having balls to address unfair treatment by referees, but it looks like now we are in trouble for club management's confrontation with La Liga.
 

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
This team should still do better despite those decisions. We are simply not playing well enough as a team, it's individual performances and almost all of them from Messi and Iniesta dragging us through games.

No doubt we're not getting obvious calls though. Shameful stuff. But the way this team is playing and getting exposed defensively and not able to create anything significant, even against relatively easier teams than Villarreal away, is just mindblowing considering the players we have.

Notice how every team is playing the same way now? Pressuring high up, but also leaving a gap in the midfield while keeping a deeper defensive line? You know why? Our defensive transition is awful and we concede so many more chances than we usually would. And since our midfield play is nonexistent, teams aren't worrying about losing that midfield battle by pressuring high up the pitch so they keep a deep defensive line at the same time so we struggle at creating chances.

1. They can pressure us into making mistakes, not knowing how to play out, players too far apart, being man-marked(Busi in particular)

2. So we cannot just counter them into oblivion, because they keep players behind and not too far from the goal.

That's literally how every capable team is playing us and getting away with it. All our good performances have come from individual performances where Messi and Iniesta have created something out of nothing. Where we have scored out of nothing.
 

mssarm

Member
Every coaching style has expiration day: that's what happened with Rijkard, Pep and now Lucho. Probably that was the case with Cruyff when he was sacked. From our coaches Pep was the only one who bailed before it got embarrassing. I don't see how sacking Lucho will help the team perform better. No self-respecting coach will come to Barca in the middle of season. The positive side of this kerfuffle however, is the sporting director has enough time to find a new coach. The press already throwing the names of 3 main candidates: Velverde, Koeman and Pochettino. As for the rest of the season we should take it game to game and hope it will be a trophy at the end or it will like last season of Rijkard.
 

FinBarcelonafan

Well-known member
Every coaching style has expiration day: that's what happened with Rijkard, Pep and now Lucho. Probably that was the case with Cruyff when he was sacked. From our coaches Pep was the only one who bailed before it got embarrassing. I don't see how sacking Lucho will help the team perform better. No self-respecting coach will come to Barca in the middle of season. The positive side of this kerfuffle however, is the sporting director has enough time to find a new coach. The press already throwing the names of 3 main candidates: Velverde, Koeman and Pochettino. As for the rest of the season we should take it game to game and hope it will be a trophy at the end or it will like last season of Rijkard.

Pep lost vs Bayern 7-0 or was it some other season? He knew his time had come..
 

vlad

New member
Pep lost vs Bayern 7-0 or was it some other season? He knew his time had come..

no, it was season after pep left barca, tito vilanova was spending half of the season in hospital and jordi roura took barca, its was just hard season because tito´s problem and still they won the legaue quite easly.
 

Morten

Senior Member
Pep lost vs Bayern 7-0 or was it some other season? He knew his time had come..

No, i think that was the season were Barca didnt really have a coach. Lost pretty much every big game the entire season, won the league with 100 points, somehow. Pathetic, really, how the small teams couldnt get points from Barca that year, considering the weaknesses they had.
 

FinBarcelonafan

Well-known member
no, it was season after pep left barca, tito vilanova was spending half of the season in hospital and jordi roura took barca, its was just hard season because tito´s problem and still they won the legaue quite easly.

Aah damn. you're right. I totally forgot about that one. I thought it was Pep's last.
 

ATLBarcaFan

Senior Member
Team is terrible right now, teams have a formula to beat us and we can't figure out how to counter it. Just awful to see, what a shame.
 

El Barcelona

Active member
The formula is easy. Just press like a mad men when we build up from the back. Every time we lose points they use this tactics.
 

Co0ter

Senior Member
Team is terrible right now, teams have a formula to beat us and we can't figure out how to counter it. Just awful to see, what a shame.

This is what happens when you bring in midfielders who's roles are supposed to be pressing/working hard to win the ball back for the forwards to create....yet, you bring in all slow, not very athletic players to do the job....while they simultaneously aren't creative players either and also being played out of position.

Yea, seems like Lucho got finally found out for all his terrible decisions since MSN isn't carrying him anymore.
 

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