Ernesto Valverde - V1

FinBarcelonafan

Well-known member
lol real madrid created more chances than us in every season and won 1 league title in 6 years.

The only explanation for this is that they aren't clinical enough or that their defence concedes a lot of goals.

Messi loses interest after 3-0. That's when Ronaldo starts to gain interest. Easy goals are his favourite.

Quite often we could have trashed the opponent more than we did.
 

BusiTheKing

Senior Member
My expectations for any season is feeling like we at least have a shot at the CL. This year, looking at some of these teams and how well they play together, I don't see that we do. Even Tottenham. The way a team like Tottenham link up in attack, multiple players running at once, playing off eachother, playing in triangles. Constant one-two's.

We have much more talent but none of the spirit. We're slow. We're predictable. Literally only one player runs at a time and that run is usually half-hearted. All our attacks follow the same pattern. We play it out of harms way and move it comfortably around. Then we move up slowly and steady. Then we wait patiently for the opponent to settle. Then we start moving it from side to side and one of three things happen:

1) while half the team is standing still, Suarez makes a run in the box looking for a drop ball in typically from Messi or Iniesta. Everyone spots the run practically before he starts it because nothing else is happening. Because we literally don't have any other prospects, the ball will be played to Suarez even though it looks hopeless from the start. Ball gets intercepted or runs over the line.

2. We play it over the wings. The fullback gets a little space and puts in a cross. Just from the look of it, we can already tell before the cross reaches the area that it's not gonna lead to anything. Typically, we have 5 or 6 players in and around the box but not one of them tries to get in a position and compete for the ball. Everyone is sorta just standing around except Suarez who for some reason typically makes an effort to actually run backwards out of the danger area.

3) the attack is so stale and static that everybody agrees only Messi can do something about it. The ball is moved around for a while until Messi gets it in with a little space. He has the ball for approximately half a second before 4 players is surrounding him. He either plays it on, tries to dribble and fails or ever so rarely does something magic and saves our ass.
 
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Stoichkov1

New member
My expectations for any season is feeling like we at least have a shot at the CL. This year, looking at some of these teams and how well they play together, I don't see that we do. Even Tottenham. The way a team like Tottenham link up in attack, multiple players running at once, playing off eachother, playing in triangles. Constant one-two's.

We have much more talent but none of the spirit. We're slow. We're predictable. Literally only one player runs at a time and that run is usually half-hearted. All our attacks follow the same pattern. We play it out of harms way and move it comfortably around. Then we move up slowly and steady. Then we wait patiently for the opponent to settle. Then we start moving it from side to side and one of three things happen:

1) while half the team is standing still, Suarez makes a run in the box looking for a drop ball in typically from Messi or Iniesta. Everyone spots the run practically before he starts it because nothing else is happening. Because we literally don't have any other prospects, the ball will be played to Suarez even though it looks hopeless from the start. Ball gets intercepted or runs over the line.

2. We play it over the wings. The fullback gets a little space and puts in a cross. Just from the look of it, we can already tell before the cross reaches the area that it's not gonna lead to anything. Typically, we have 5 or 6 players in and around the box but not one of them tries to get in a position and compete for the ball. Everyone is sorta just standing around except Suarez who for some reason typically makes an effort to actually run backwards out of the danger area.

3) the attack is so stale and static that everybody agrees only Messi can do something about it. The ball is moved around for a while until Messi gets it in with a little space. He has the ball for approximately half a second before 4 players is surrounding him. He either plays it on, tries to dribble and fails or ever so rarely does something magic and saves our ass.

A strong defence is usually enough to have a shot at the CL.

Atletico who are absolutely awful at creating chances could have won 2 CL in 3 years.
 

BusiTheKing

Senior Member
A strong defence is usually enough to have a shot at the CL.

Atletico who are absolutely awful at creating chances could have won 2 CL in 3 years.

But the thing is, when Atletico attack, they actually go for it. Everyone works together at the same time even if it's just for 5 or 10 second periods, because that's really as long as it takes anyway. Our attacks aren't more dangerous because we build them up so carefully. We still end up at status quo faced with an organized defense. Plus the way that they rely on their defense to win them games require a totally different level of spirit than we possess. In those two years they have shown so much more heart than us.

I agree, though, that our defense is much stronger than in previous years and that it's a very good place to start.
 

Aryagorn

Improvin' Perfection!!
Not trur at all, both players score the sMe amount of opening goals, equalizers etc.

How can that be true when Leo stops running at 2-0, 3-0 while CR7 goes out on a goal scoring marathon during those circumstances but still has a similar total number of goals as Messi?
 
Wonder if we should switch to a 4-2-3-1, at least as an offensive plan B when we need goals:

--------Busquets-Rakitic---------------
Dembele--------Messi--------------Coutinho/Iniesta
------------------Suarez----------------

Can't happen until Dembele regains some kind of form though.

Seen some people here advocate for 4-3-3 but then you either have to put Messi on the right (where he doesn't want to be) or put Suarez on the wing.
 
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Birdy

Senior Member
Wonder if we should switch to a 4-2-3-1, at least as an offensive plan B when we need goals:

--------Busquets-Rakitic---------------
Dembele--------Messi--------------Coutinho/Iniesta
------------------Suarez----------------

Can't happen until Dembele regains some kind of form though.

Seen some people here advocate for 4-3-3 but then you either have to put Messi on the right (where he doesn't want to be) or put Suarez on the wing.

I think that's what is exactly in EV's mind for next season, replacing Suarez with Griezman, and Raki with a new player (Arthur or someone else?)
 

Aryagorn

Improvin' Perfection!!
Wonder if we should switch to a 4-2-3-1, at least as an offensive plan B when we need goals:

--------Busquets-Rakitic---------------
Dembele--------Messi--------------Coutinho/Iniesta
------------------Suarez----------------

Can't happen until Dembele regains some kind of form though.

Seen some people here advocate for 4-3-3 but then you either have to put Messi on the right (where he doesn't want to be) or put Suarez on the wing.

Looks like 4-3-3 is not on cards anymore. Especially cause our record signing would not be used to his full potential in that setup, nor does Suarez (as Leo would not go back to wings anymore)
 

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