He should read a book called "the power of now".
He should read a book called "the power of now".
Ursegor
World Champion
We were poor mainly because Iniesta played injured and Busquets picked up something too and Dembélé despite his goal did not provide much going forward either. Fit Iniesta and a 4 man midfield and we do not lose control like that.
Chelsea also have a special formation with that 3 man backline. Willian, Hazard, Kanté, Fabregas, Alonso, Moses is pretty much a 6 man midfield vs. our 3 where Iniesta is also injured.
No worries here. We'll win the treble.
Chelsea also have a special formation with that 3 man backline. Willian, Hazard, Kanté, Fabregas, Alonso, Moses is pretty much a 6 man midfield vs. our 3 where Iniesta is also injured.
No worries here. We'll win the treble.
Obiaseti
New member
I'm glad he fielded a more attacking lineup to start the game. I feel like this season has gone too quickly with too many changes to our squad (Neymar, Masche, Dembele, Coutinho, Paulinho etc) that maybe I should cut him some slack regarding the style of play. He seems to be a pragmatic manager but that might just be because of the circumstances. It's too late to experiment too much now. I do hope however that he implements a more fluid attacking style next season. He has shown that he can get results and is possibly a good man manager as well. Now with regards to coaching a style of play and adding his imprint to our positioning/movement and chance creation I haven't seen much this season. This either means that it's because of the personel changes at inconvenient times this season or he doesn't have much to add in terms of playstyle. I sincerely hope it's the former and that next season we will see more fluidity from the team.
El Gato
Villarato!
Nope. You're not. Stop shitting the bed. Your lack of conceding isn't due to magical luck. You're the most balanced team of the lot. Only Madrid and maybe Pep may know what to do against you.
serghei said:
Not even gonna You know better than this.
serghei said:
Again, no.
Only real concern here is fitness, but that is not an issue of 1 or 2 old players or 3-4 overplayed ones. Something's up with a general regime and tactics that require you to concede possession more. Players aren't used to it. Doesn't mean you'll lose anything if you score when you gotta score.
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khaled_a_d
Senior Member
We were 1-0 up after 3 minutes, tbf it is normal that we sit back
The bad thing is our midfield not being able to move the ball much, which is more on player today than him. even defenders settled many times with just clearing the ball. Iniesta while still producing some amazing moments wasn't able to provide enough control, when Raki and Busquets were able to hold the ball things were better. Dembele did almost nothing in build up either.
Well, RM didn't face the best in 2016 until the final and won it.
Luck plays a factor, when you have easier opponent it will require -in many cases- less effort physically and mentally from the team to win it, which will help to rest the team a bit in bust April.
Horatio
You're welcome
We already established in another discussion that even though Chelsea is fifth, they are definitely not the fifth strongest. They are far better than Man U for example.
Coach that lost the dressing room or not, this Chelsea is still strong.
te amo barca
Blaugrana al vent
Despite the result this was quite a concerning display. I hope that we slowed down instinctively after being 2-0 up because there was almost no gameplay from us after that. Given that, I feel that EV can take on any opponent in the quarters. The most dangerous ones for me are Man City and Bayern because of their form, managers and quality of the players. Liverpool can cause us problems with their pressing too, the rest I am confident against.
We really gained defensive stability when Paulinho and Gomes came on. It may be wrong to say based on one game, but a 4-4-2 with both Iniesta and Dembele might not work that well. Not against the top teams at least.
We really gained defensive stability when Paulinho and Gomes came on. It may be wrong to say based on one game, but a 4-4-2 with both Iniesta and Dembele might not work that well. Not against the top teams at least.
Blaugrana Bull
HiiiPoWeR
Teams that park the bus win 3:0 all the time in CL and lead their leagues without getting defeated and with most goals scored I heard.
I am not happy with all of Valverde's decisions but some in here are overexaggerating everything so damn much.
"If they had Messi, they would trash us." "It is just sitting back and get the ball to Messi in attack."
What kind of bullshit is that? I expect our coach to use the best player in history well and fact is he plays for us. So where is the point in creating random scenarios where he plays for the other team? And I see many other things in attack that have nothing to do with Messi. He provides the sparks, yes. But if we would fully rely on Messi with the work rate he has, we would not do shit.
I am not happy with all of Valverde's decisions but some in here are overexaggerating everything so damn much.
"If they had Messi, they would trash us." "It is just sitting back and get the ball to Messi in attack."
What kind of bullshit is that? I expect our coach to use the best player in history well and fact is he plays for us. So where is the point in creating random scenarios where he plays for the other team? And I see many other things in attack that have nothing to do with Messi. He provides the sparks, yes. But if we would fully rely on Messi with the work rate he has, we would not do shit.
Devils
Senior Member
^^^
Chainsaw
Killahead
Lol some people just love to whine and take whatever it is to do that. This Barca squad lacks enough quality to play the way some people want in here. I mean look at the subs last night: Paulinho, Gomes, and Vidal! The biggest names in the team are all in their 30s. Look at how much Pep had to spend at City to play the way he wants. Some people need to adjust their expectations. Barca's two biggest signings this season happened so late. One had no pre season and lost many months of football because of that and injuries, and the other arrived in the middle of the season and can't participate in the CL.Valverde had to cope with only Mighty Paulinho and an aging squad which lacks depth and enough quality to play the attractive flawless football some expect. And yet many people here cant take a break from bitching about everything!
LeeRomeno
Active member
Yea yea, you would not have a forum without the whiners, I get it.
i_bleed_blaugrana
Senior Member
I’m just not sure what you guys are seeing here that you don’t like, considering what he has to work with. As far as complaining about the formation, tonight it was only a 4-4-2 off the ball, elsewise it was the false 9.
Dembele showed a lot for me. Held his position well, gave us width offensively and marked Alonso well. Obviously his goal was huge but I think overall, he played very well. Conte’s formation makes it really hard to find space and he did well considering he had 2 to 3 players to go through.
EV is pragmatic. Without Coutinho in particular, it makes sense to play more defensive. But he’s adaptable, flexible and has really balanced this team to, when in full flow, be frustrating to break down and difficult to stop. We’ve played two of the most defensive, yet dangerous counter attacking teams in Europe and beat both of them by more than 3 goals over the two legs. Teams that caused us a lot more problems in the past. If he had a bench, particular in MF, that was more technical, we probably wouldn’t sit as deep as we do at times. But really only Busi, Iniesta, Coutinho and Aleñá are technical enough to play in tight spaces and have the vision to play splitting through balls that make ultra-possession styles more effective. Considering one of them is a DM, one is cup tied and the other is 20, it doesn’t make sense to setup players who are going to fail executing that style.
What I like the most about EV is he lets the player profile dictate his tactics more, the exact opposite of say Pep, who forces players into his system. When he starts attacking players, he sets the team up in an attacking formation. But overall, most of our senior MFs are defense oriented when compared to other players who have played there in the past so to get the best results, we play more defensive.
He’s a bit like Lucho in the sense that they don’t necessarily follow the Cruyffian template, he’s just much more organized than Lucho’s 7 men behind the ball and whatever going forward.
I think it’s a good approach for what we have now, so for that much, I’m pleased with EV and don’t see reason for the criticism he’s getting here. I do share some aspects of his critics though because I do doubt the longevity of what he’s doing here. Not sure if these tactics will work so well say this time next season and I’d like us to go back to our Cruyffist roots because I think going back to that sort of football is what will keep us competitive post-Messi. I want a manager who understands that and can set those foundations now, while we still have him.
For this season though, I think only City and maybe Bayern could match what EV has built but Messi has the psychological edge on them both because of the way he emasculated them both last time he played them. And with him in this sort of form, it seems like it’s our turn again, finally.
Dembele showed a lot for me. Held his position well, gave us width offensively and marked Alonso well. Obviously his goal was huge but I think overall, he played very well. Conte’s formation makes it really hard to find space and he did well considering he had 2 to 3 players to go through.
EV is pragmatic. Without Coutinho in particular, it makes sense to play more defensive. But he’s adaptable, flexible and has really balanced this team to, when in full flow, be frustrating to break down and difficult to stop. We’ve played two of the most defensive, yet dangerous counter attacking teams in Europe and beat both of them by more than 3 goals over the two legs. Teams that caused us a lot more problems in the past. If he had a bench, particular in MF, that was more technical, we probably wouldn’t sit as deep as we do at times. But really only Busi, Iniesta, Coutinho and Aleñá are technical enough to play in tight spaces and have the vision to play splitting through balls that make ultra-possession styles more effective. Considering one of them is a DM, one is cup tied and the other is 20, it doesn’t make sense to setup players who are going to fail executing that style.
What I like the most about EV is he lets the player profile dictate his tactics more, the exact opposite of say Pep, who forces players into his system. When he starts attacking players, he sets the team up in an attacking formation. But overall, most of our senior MFs are defense oriented when compared to other players who have played there in the past so to get the best results, we play more defensive.
He’s a bit like Lucho in the sense that they don’t necessarily follow the Cruyffian template, he’s just much more organized than Lucho’s 7 men behind the ball and whatever going forward.
I think it’s a good approach for what we have now, so for that much, I’m pleased with EV and don’t see reason for the criticism he’s getting here. I do share some aspects of his critics though because I do doubt the longevity of what he’s doing here. Not sure if these tactics will work so well say this time next season and I’d like us to go back to our Cruyffist roots because I think going back to that sort of football is what will keep us competitive post-Messi. I want a manager who understands that and can set those foundations now, while we still have him.
For this season though, I think only City and maybe Bayern could match what EV has built but Messi has the psychological edge on them both because of the way he emasculated them both last time he played them. And with him in this sort of form, it seems like it’s our turn again, finally.
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serghei
Senior Member
Better be so, because the way we defended is not good enough to stop the better attacking team from scoring.
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