Lliga | Round 25: FC Barcelona - Girona FC 6-1

I'm not that disappointed with the domestic double tbh. We lost last year's La Liga due to stupid rotations and I don't want that the same happens again. Of course, our lead is comfortable but I can understand why Valverde is preferring the safe way.

I never really saw a chance of winning the CL this year. This season is more one of a rebuilding phase imo. I'm sure we'll see a totally different Barça next season once Coutinho and Dembélé are settled and integrated. This year we'll have to try to win it with the "old guard".

Maybe my way of looking at things will change once we've overcome Chelsea (which is not a safe bet). The next 3 La Liga games are crucial and if we succeed there (2 wins) and have at least a draw vs Atlético I'm pretty sure Valverde will change his mind and start rotating more in La Liga.

Let's wait for tonights line-up. I expect Dembélé and Coutinho to start. Hope Semedo gets a start too. Would rest Piqué since he seems to have issues. We can trust Vermaelen but you'll never know with Piqué being the Catalan we all know probably wants to start in the derby.

behindbrowneyes said:

I'm not that disappointed with the domestic double tbh. We lost last year's La Liga due to stupid rotations and I don't want that the same happens again. Of course, our lead is comfortable but I can understand why Valverde is preferring the safe way.

I never really saw a chance of winning the CL this year. This season is more one of a rebuilding phase imo. I'm sure we'll see a totally different Barça next season once Coutinho and Dembélé are settled and integrated. This year we'll have to try to win it with the "old guard".

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I share this view. We should never forget where we came from(referring to pre-season)

i'm just waiting to see roberto as rb again and semedo on bench

behindbrowneyes said:

I'm not that disappointed with the domestic double tbh. We lost last year's La Liga due to stupid rotations and I don't want that the same happens again. Of course, our lead is comfortable but I can understand why Valverde is preferring the safe way.

I never really saw a chance of winning the CL this year. This season is more one of a rebuilding phase imo. I'm sure we'll see a totally different Barça next season once Coutinho and Dembélé are settled and integrated. This year we'll have to try to win it with the "old guard".

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Nah. Playing old guards constantly isnt going to be effective either. They need rest and we still have half a season to last. Problem why Atletico Madrid and the likes could catch up because we are constantly burning our squad. Luckily the two Madrid's had a bad start. Need to have more priotisation and planning in the league, going gung ho in all matches would be equally risky, contrary to what people think as "safe".

Still need to shake things up a little and rest crucial players like Busquets, Alba, Rakitic, Suarez and even Messi, and especially Iniesta and try more attacking combinations and development. Our players. We still have Paco, Vidal who arent all that bad, could start them in easy league games. Not everything revolves around our best players and we still need to use them more wisely, even if its for a double or not. Just in case we manage to beat Chelsea then we need a serious backup plan and a step ahead planning. Messi and Iniesta has world cup commitments as well. They would need plenty of rest regardless.

henias said:

Nah. Playing old guards constantly isnt going to be effective either. They need rest and we still have half a season to last. Problem why Atletico Madrid and the likes could catch up because we are constantly burning our squad. Luckily the two Madrid's had a bad start. Need to have more priotisation and planning in the league, going gung ho in all matches would be equally risky, contrary to what people think as "safe".

Still need to shake things up a little and rest crucial players like Busquets, Alba, Rakitic, Suarez and even Messi, and especially Iniesta and try more attacking combinations and development. Our players. We still have Paco, Vidal who arent all that bad, could start them in easy league games. Not everything revolves around our best players and we still need to use them more wisely, even if its for a double or not. Just in case we manage to beat Chelsea then we need a serious backup plan and a step ahead planning. Messi and Iniesta has world cup commitments as well. They would need plenty of rest regardless.

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You'll agree that it is not that easy and very important to have the right mixture of resting players while rotating. It becomes crazy when you make changes in the line-up with 5 or 6 players like Lucho did sometimes. So you can give rest to 2-3 players every game and probably take some others off earlier which wasn't the case recently since the score was very close in the last games.

In the end we play vs Girona who are 8th in the league and imo the smaller teams have become better in the last few years. It has become very rare that the team hammers an opponent with 4 or 5 goals. We can rest Iniesta easily because Cou is class. No problem. We'll need to give Dembélé some match practice so the obvious thing is that Paulinho will get rested due to the position he plays in. Now you'll have one spot left. Paco is not in the squad so Suárez won't get rest. I'd agree that key players need more rest but as you can see it is not that easy. Not sure about Leo since he runs way less than the rest of the team.

Valverde could've rested some players last weekend, but it was an obvious choice to give our Gala XI some practice together before the crucial game in London. March and April are the crucial months in CL so I expect Valverde to start rotating more in the next few weeks. It is hard to find the right mixture and Valverde is not used to the burden of playing in 3 competitions till the end.

ronniecro said:

i'm just waiting to see roberto as rb again and semedo on bench

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My brain hurts If Roberto starts RB. Semedo needs some starts. Put Roberto to midfield, If he needs to play. Paulinho/Rakitic can take a day off and Iniesta..

Well, I hope that he rests 3-4 players from the first team tonight. One of them should be Iniesta.

henias said:

Nah. Playing old guards constantly isnt going to be effective either. They need rest and we still have half a season to last. Problem why Atletico Madrid and the likes could catch up because we are constantly burning our squad. Luckily the two Madrid's had a bad start. Need to have more priotisation and planning in the league, going gung ho in all matches would be equally risky, contrary to what people think as "safe".

Still need to shake things up a little and rest crucial players like Busquets, Alba, Rakitic, Suarez and even Messi, and especially Iniesta and try more attacking combinations and development. Our players. We still have Paco, Vidal who arent all that bad, could start them in easy league games. Not everything revolves around our best players and we still need to use them more wisely, even if its for a double or not. Just in case we manage to beat Chelsea then we need a serious backup plan and a step ahead planning. Messi and Iniesta has world cup commitments as well. They would need plenty of rest regardless.

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It looks like Madrids are finding their game. Atletico seems to win every game and Real is finding more momentum every game they play. League is not finished, unless we beat Atletico home and draw Real home.

We are in the worst form of the 3 teams.

Alba and Suarez are one yellow card away from suspension, I expect them trying to get that card tonight to get cleared before Atletico. If they won't then EV will probably rest them against Las Palmas.

FinBarcelonafan said:

It looks like Madrids are finding their game. Atletico seems to win every game and Real is finding more momentum every game they play. League is not finished, unless we beat Atletico home and draw Real home.

We are in the worst form of the 3 teams.

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Exactly because we didnt use the league cushion to our advantage. Constantly burning the XI in both Copa and league, and now we hit a slump and bad form, while Madrid is re-energised, gave zero fuck about Copa, and they are back in form. Atletico Madrid are also back to winning ways.

Now we dug our own graves because we will have a more hectic schedule second half of the season and imagine how we are we to face the two Madrids again, considering the form and fatugue we have.

Just no clear priotisation or whatever at the start, now EV will try even harder to bring back the winning results by playing the old guards even more plus bench players are not experienced enough. Also if we ain't scoring by a large margin, he wont sub early or at all.

It doesn't work that way. Not only do we not get back results, we will find it harder to find the form we had at the start and will be crumbling at our own demise.

Need to loosen things up and must be step ahead of the others, not just by wanting to get results but being able to survive and last till the end of the season.

The regular starting eleven has not been constantly used in the league or the copa.

Wtf Pique starting again. He didn't even train normally yesterday due to his knee problems.

Love it.

xXKonan said:

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Nice lineup