JamDav1982
Senior Member
Great point well made.
Great point well made.
El Gato
Villarato!
LMAO
FCBfan22
Senior Member
If Valverde had no intention of playing Dembele today, he should've gotten at least 60 minutes against Las Palmas. Semedo was also ditched for a period of time, before coming back with a great performance against Girona and got injured. I'm sure that Paulinho would start today, if he hadn't produced a complete shitshow against Las Palmas.
I can somehow understand that Mina is out, since he is our 4th CB and he signed up for that. But there is no excuse why Pique is playing/is on the bench while injured during the games like Girona at home and Las Palmas away.
Valverde has managed to make some matchups that were easy for us in the past, pretty hard (Celta at home). But on the other hand he won us some that we haven't won in years (Anoeta). He has shown that he can play an attractive style of football, like last week against Girona. But I think he still neeeds to work out how to play certain opponents, defensively or Barca style.
I also want to beat Chelski but imagine the horror of facing a rampant Bayern , Liverpool , ManCity etc
JamDav1982
Senior Member
He may well have had intention of playing him depending on how the game went.
Semedo has played around 25-30 times and started about 20 he has not been ditched.
There is an obvious reason why Pique is playing as he thinks they need him and Pique played well today in a game Atletico barely had a chance.
None of those players have been ditched completely.
El Gato
Villarato!
Rotation only works if the players a) show confidence in knowing what they're doing, b) applies himself in training and c) doesn't put your single game plan at risk. One of these elements breaks down, seemingly illogical decisions take place. Look at Madrid this year. You don't throw a guy out there for the sake of strength management. Not when you're top of the league trying to do everything perfect to remain top.
FCBfan22
Senior Member
I'm not speaking about Pique today. I know that he is great in big games. I'm speaking about the Girona match, where he could've easily played Vermaelen.
JamDav1982
Senior Member
He did take Pique off early and it doesnt seem to be affecting him negatively.
Well , considering that you've made yourself into such a laughing stock with your ridiculous defending of Valverde , I'd probably keep my head down for a while - if I were you
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JamDav1982
Senior Member
Well , considering that you've made yourself into such a laughing stock with your ridiculous defending of Valverde , I'd probably keep my head down for a while - if I were you
Good point well made again.
To be fair you should know what a laughing stock is.
Givenchy
Senior Member
Why no Dembele starting vs Las Palmas? Why no Dembele today (with Chelsea in mind we'll need his speed as were slow as fuck so getting him in sync with the team should be important right)?
Why did Iniesta play vs Las Palmas when we have a fit, CL tied Coutinho? isn't that why we bought him now instead of the summer?
Why is Iniesta at 33, playing 2 games in 3 days?
His treatment of Dembele and especially Semedo is pathetic, Yerry Mina also doesn't get a look in.. if Ernesto doesn't rate him why waste a fucking passport spot on him.
At the start of the season he got away with this shit because our expectations were so low but now we actually have players fit he's still reverting to Mourinho style football, its like watching United
he must have some gay love affair or something with Paulinho and Gomes to keep giving them chances, he was pretty ruthless with Deulofeu and Denis but these 2 clowns continue to get game time ahead of our 120m+ signing
/rant
Why did Iniesta play vs Las Palmas when we have a fit, CL tied Coutinho? isn't that why we bought him now instead of the summer?
Why is Iniesta at 33, playing 2 games in 3 days?
His treatment of Dembele and especially Semedo is pathetic, Yerry Mina also doesn't get a look in.. if Ernesto doesn't rate him why waste a fucking passport spot on him.
At the start of the season he got away with this shit because our expectations were so low but now we actually have players fit he's still reverting to Mourinho style football, its like watching United
he must have some gay love affair or something with Paulinho and Gomes to keep giving them chances, he was pretty ruthless with Deulofeu and Denis but these 2 clowns continue to get game time ahead of our 120m+ signing
/rant
serghei
Senior Member
Season is long. Fluctuations can happen. We kept the lead in the end which is what matters. It was a great season overall, with some great periods, some good ones, and a bad couple of months. Madrid had a shit first half of the season and paid the price in the end, even though looking back, they shouldn't have lost at home to Atletico (0-1) with Zidane in charge.
Maybe. However, Madrid have been having issues in the league, maintaining the same consistency after winning it the season before. 2 league titles in almost 10 years is bad. There was always a question mark about Madrid winning 2 back to back La Ligas, because it hasn't happened in a long time. Barca have been doing much better in the league and this is a fact that goes beyond Valverde, it has become more like the club's way of approaching the season. Let's not forget that we've won the league last season too almost, under one of our worst seasons in La Liga in quite a while.
We've lost La Liga last season because we screwed up too many times vs the small teams. It was unlikely that this season it was going to happen again. Instead, it's Madrid that is showing this type of weakness, which is very costly in a league campaign. Again, this is a general pattern, outside the influence of Valverde/Zidane, and has happened a lot in the last decade under different managers. Madrid have been more consistent in CL (premiere Cup competition), Barca have been more consistent in La Liga (premiere League type competition).
Barcelona has been thought to be 'done' after 2012 with Pep. But then won the league with 100pts. Then again in 2014 after Tata, and won the treble with Lucho. The again last season they were done, and now are on the course of another double. You'd say people should have learned by now that a team filled with world class players, most of them among the best in their positions, can't be done by losing Neymar.
Many times people have written off Barcelona after a difficult season, only for the team to bounce back. Under 3 different managers mind you. So, here is me saying Valverde isn't doing anything that hasn't been done before.
Clasico or not Supercup is in preseason where players are after a period of not playing any competitive matches. We've won the Supercopa and dominated Madrid in 2011-12, but clearly lost the league afterwards after a poor season. One of the reasons not everyone is going to panic if the performances in the Supercup aren't as expected.
Didn't give enough game time to the new signings, and instead overplayed the older players. Even since Coutinho's been fit, Iniesta's played a lot, and it's no coincidence that he's gotten injured.
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You're not helping things
You realise that you're outnumbered 50:1 ...... detractors : admirers ??
JamDav1982
Senior Member
You're not helping things
You realise that you're outnumbered 50:1 ...... detractors : admirers ??
Made up ratio.
Poor point badly made.
When likes of you disagree then I know on right track.
Thanks.
serghei
Senior Member
It's been a trade-off actually. Valverde has improved areas in the team by weakening others. It's not like he's improved the defense while he kept our attacking play at very high levels. He's improved the defense by attacking less, and by taking less risks with our passing. Which has affected the number of chances created. You can see that we struggle more to create chances and we're winning more games by 1 or max. 2 goals difference.
It's all about the CL for me to see if this approach is paying off big time or not, because we've won the double before playing offensive football. So we don't need to be sacrificing our style at all to win domestically. But this pragmatic approach should see us do better in CL since Atletico and Juventus have been making CL finals a lot in recent years with it. But it's up to Valverde to make sure that his defense will hold up against the big boys in CL like Simeone's or Allegri's have done.
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