Ernesto Valverde - V1

Who's excited about next season?

Stoichkov1 said:

The only clear chances they had were Alonso's freekick and Rudiger header when the match was already over. A freekick can't be considered a defensive mistake of course.

They had half chances with two Alonso shots that were brilliantly blocked by Dembélé and Piqué.

Did you see how many shots Juve's defence conceded against Tottenham? And Juve's defence is considered the best in the world with Atletico's.

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Alonso had a great chance but Stegen blocked it, Dembele had a great tackle with Alonso again open. The same Alonso was 1 vs 1 with Stegen and could have scored but went down trying to win a penalty. Those (and some others too) are chances we conceded, it doesn't matter Chelsea didn't always make a great attempt at goal. Chelsea's inability to speculate our mistakes doesn't mean we played great and didn't make them at all.

They had several situations where better teams would've scored goals. That's the point. Juve were lucky to go through now that you mention it.

henias said:

RM was utter shite and didnt press at all. Still hardly the best display. Against Atletico, Las Palmas, it was absolutely horrendous. Or shud I say 4231. It's just way too narrow. I just dont like Suarez being isolated upfront. Busquets and Rakitic is practically useless where their control and vision has come to play because everything is just too narrow. They were completely overrun yesterday and EV panicked. We are better off playing Paulinho and Gomes in a 4231.

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RM was probably than early version of Juve, who were bad themselves, at least RM tried harder at their home.

khaled_a_d said:

Our best display was against RM and we played 442. our best patch of games this season was with 442. So what is your point again?



You are answering your question yourself.

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How old is Coutinho?

We have a younger midfield than City and yet ours is old.

serghei said:

Alonso had a great chance but Stegen blocked it, Dembele had a great tackle with Alonso again open. The same Alonso was 1 vs 1 with Stegen and could have scored but went down trying to win a penalty. Those (and some others too) are chances we conceded, it doesn't matter Chelsea didn't always make a great attempt at goal. Chelsea's inability to speculate our mistakes doesn't mean we played great and didn't make them at all.

They had several situations where better teams would've scored goals. That's the point.

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Yes, but my point is that against opponents of this quality it's almost impossible to don't concede chances.

Juve's defence probably conceded more chances against Tottenham than we did yesterday.

khaled_a_d said:

RM was probably than early version of Juve, who were bad themselves, at least RM tried harder at their home.

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They werent as defensive as Juventus were and left alot of spaces and even allowed Rakitic to casually run in space.

Origami said:

Who's excited about next season?

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Not me - at least not as long as Scrubverde is at the helm. We need a tactical and structural overhaul from top to bottom of this club. I'm thinking something along the lines of MessiCam as coach, Henias as assistant and Jombi as chief scout.

khaled_a_d said:

Our best display was against RM and we played 442. our best patch of games this season was with 442. So what is your point again?



You are answering your question yourself.

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We did not dominate Madrid at all. They were clearly the better team in the first half. Then we scored the counter goal and they had a player sent off for thinking he’s a goalkeeper. The rest is history as they say.

I will admit that we controlled that game without the ball though.

The Juventus game was just dominance and control all round.

Trickykid said:

Not me - at least not as long as Scrubverde is at the helm. We need a tactical and structural overhaul from top to bottom of this club. I'm thinking something along the lines of MessiCam as coach, Henias as assistant and Jombi as chief scout.

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Thanks but no thanks. I’m merely an observer. One that has watched Barça for a very long time.

I express my opinion and argue my points. Much the same as everybody else on this forum.

Would be amazing if we could get an easier opponent in the QF. I have a feeling that if we make the semis this team can kick into another gear for those games, being so damn close to the title.

Trickykid said:

Not me - at least not as long as Scrubverde is at the helm. We need a tactical and structural overhaul from top to bottom of this club. I'm thinking something along the lines of MessiCam as coach, Henias as assistant and Jombi as chief scout.

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Look, this is a discussion and forum for a reason. If you cant handle it or deal with the negative or the ugly side of things, and have to resort to your passive aggressiveness then go ahead. I have highlighted the positives of the games, which is the faith in Dembele and am very flattered by the scoreline.

We still lack alot of control despite using Busquets and Iniesta and EV obviously knew something was wrong and subbed Paulinho in early. And it's not the first time. Messi as false 9 and Iniesta and Busquets in their natural positions still looks more comfortable for them as they arent defensive midfielders. Busquets even got injured and he took alot of hit, defending those physical players. What's worse is he found it really hard to maintain possession and every pass ends up at a Chelsea player.

The game against Juventus was still better suited for our style and still gives alot of dominance which our technical players are good at. They can defend yes, but its not their forte, we generally still go attacking with these players. And then defend the lead with workhorses. And 433 gives them alot of width and options to pass to and maintain possession, especially with Messi dropping deep as a false nine. 4231 in my opinion is still too narrow for them to establish any sort of midfield control.

But I guess many people just cant deal with constructive feedbacks, if you have to stoop down to these levels then by all means.

RM didn't press us? Sorry? They were pressing like hell in the 1st half and were tired in the 2nd. We had full control of the match off the ball.

Also, Juve game was good, control and some chances, Messi goals... still they had a lot of chances and more shots on the goal than us.

As long as we win, everything is fine I guess...

Joan Laporta said:

RM didn't press us? Sorry? They were pressing like hell in the 1st half and were tired in the 2nd. We had full control of the match off the ball.

Also, Juve game was good, control and some chances, Messi goals... still they had a lot of chances and more shots on the goal than us.

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What chances? Every shot ends up an easy save for Stegen and they were just spamming long shots. Didnt look threatening one bit.

henias said:

What chances? Every shot ends up an easy save for Stegen and they were just spamming long shots. Didnt look threatening one bit.

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https://youtu.be/oVQD0j9IHf0

Highlights, there certainly looked threatening. Since when are all long shots discarded?
Also, more prone to counters.