La Liga 2018/19

serghei said:

But their attack doesn't have better players than us. Their players perform better because they are better prepared and better managed for the big games by Klopp.

Lol, if you take Liverpool and Barcelona player for player position for position, maybe only Vand Dijk plays instead of Pique. Maybe 2 other players max. But that's it. It would be 8 Barcelona players and 3 Liverpool players tops. But it's perfectly normal for a weaker team to perform better than a team filled with stars when they are better managed.

Stegen is better than their Keeper.
Alba is better than Robertson.
Umtiti is better than Matip, or Klavan or Lovren.
Busi is better than Henderson.
Rakitic is better than Milner.
Messi is better than Salah.
Suarez is better or at least on par with Firmino
Coutinho is better than Mane
Arthur is better than Wijnaaldum.
Semedo/Roberto is probably better than Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Our team si better than their team on almost every position. But they gel better than us and are more of a team simply because they are much better managed in the big games by Klopp, in comparison with how we play under Valverde.

It's crazy to suggest Liverpool have better players than us. Absolutely nuts. Is that why they haven't won a big title in ages? While we win a big title almost every season?

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khaled_a_d said:

Coutinho didn't in CL last year (this year we are doing better so far than them)
Salah and Messi were equal quality last year (Salah might actually been better)
Firmino is way better than Suarez
Mane is way better than Dembele
So their frontline who actually performed very close to prime MSN level or better in CL was way ahead of us last year.

Defense? VVD is better than Umtiti who was shit second half of the year (whether health or contract talks)
Lovren was on par with Pique
Alba is better Robertson
Trent Alexander-Arnold is better than anyone we have.

Our midfield is better on paper, but older and can't run, for Klopp game with their immense pressure or any other coach who will make pressure on opponent- this liverpool midfield is much better for him than Barca static midfield, especially for CL
So no, it isn't crazy at all, what I see is rating player based on their names rather than based on their actual production on pitch, ignoring the age of our squad and how many players has declined.

I honestly rate current Barca as our worst squads since 2008 squad. I have been saying this before the start of the season, people were happy with shiny young guys like Malcom and Arthur (and they are good signings) but the board and Abidal didn't address huge holes in this squad and still pretend that our starting line up which has 6 outfield players aged 29-31 will continue performing like they are in their mid twenties.

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Wolfe said:

It's equally sad to see the perennial disrespect for guys like Milner that are rated below guys like Rakitić despite having a seemingly better season than anybody out of Barca midfield last year. Even Hendo is talked about as if he's miles behind Busquets. Which he isn't, not anymore. Sad.

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serghei said:

Liverpool finished 4th in the league last year and won zero titles, even if they made the CL final. Barcelona won the double and almost went undefeated in La Liga and Rakitic made the World Cup final. Why would Milner be rated higher than Rakitic? It doesn't make any sense. Rakitic is a better player than Milner.

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Wolfe said:

More assists, more versatility, plays left back, better defender, kills everyone else on stamina levels at Liverpool. Better asset in almost every way than the current and washed-up mediocrity served up at Barcelona individually. Not one of Barca's midfielders have aged gracefully. And then you go and use titles as a shield. Geebus.

And no I haven't said Henderson is better than Busquets. I said he's not miles behind. As if it's a ridiculous thing to compare the two.

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serghei said:

You have built yourself quite an alternate reality I must say. One that doesn't have anything to do with reality. It's actually impressive. Busquets is a level above Henderson, and Rakitic is a better player than Milner. Comfortably.

Only Van Dijk would make the cut at Barcelona for the first 11 from Liverpool's team. Almost all Barca's first 11 players would walk in Liverpool's team. It's no disrespect for Milner and Henderson to say players like Busquets and Rakitic are better than them btw.

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Wolfe said:

Fair enough. I don't buy it. If someone asked me to pick between Raki and Milner solely based on individual merit after last season I would choose the latter. Nothing more nothing less.

Busquets is so good these days he gets washed by the English even in a direct meeting so tough for me to sympathise with that track of thought.

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serghei said:

Busquets is not as good as he was, but is still a top player. Carvajal had a shit season last year, doesn't mean he's not a top player anymore. Would be pretty crazy to say Arnold is a better RB than Carvajal.

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serghei said:

You're actually talking about performances, not quality. A better more valuable player can perform worse than a lesser player. Liverpool played better than us in CL last year, so that is why they made the final. But they absolutely do not have better player than us except for Van Dijk who would start for us instead of Pique.

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khaled_a_d said:

You are actually attributing decline in stamina, speed, reflexes to coach? because they are having better performance because of those. You are ignoring the age factor.
In fact, you sound a lot like EV when he talks about Alena and other youth player.

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serghei said:

You have built yourself quite an alternate reality I must say. One that doesn't have anything to do with reality. It's actually impressive. Busquets is a level above Henderson, and Rakitic is a better player than Milner. Comfortably.

Only Van Dijk would make the cut at Barcelona for the first 11 from Liverpool's team. Almost all Barca's first 11 players would walk in Liverpool's team. It's no disrespect for Milner and Henderson to say players like Busquets and Rakitic are better than them btw.

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serghei said:

It's not the age mostly. It's lack of good management. We didn't lose vs Roma because of age. It was poor planning and poor coaching. If you don't see that we can't agree on the subject.

Roma schooled us with 35 years old De Rossi dominating our midfield, 32 years old Dzeko dominating our defense, and with 32 years old Kolarov, 31 years old Fazio, 30 years old Nainggolan surpassing us in intensity. A team full of 'old men'. In reality there's not much difference between a 28 years old player and a 31 years old player, physically speaking. Conditioning and making sure you arrive at the best physical form possible for the games you want is the job of the coaching and fitness staff.

So we weren't schooled by Roma because we have an old team, but because our manager did a crappy job, and our players couldn't show up on the night. It's amazing how many people downgrade our team to make Valverde look better. Man is a rookie in big pressure games and it showed in CL where he basically did a shitty job preparing what should have been a rather comfortable advance in the CL semis. He froze and panicked and Roma seized the moment. Simple as that.

Hopefully he learned his lesson and grows a pair this season.

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serghei said:

It's not the age mostly. It's lack of good management. We didn't lose vs Roma because of age. It was poor planning and poor coaching. If you don't see that we can't agree on the subject.

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khaled_a_d said:

You keep mentioning Roma game to warrant your argument, even with great management we would have been beaten by Liverpool in the next stage.
The argument isn't whether we could have beaten Roma or not, the argument is do we have a squad to win CL or not.
Simple answer is we don't, and age is huge reason for it, Roma squad isn't even as old as ours by any mean. And Roma don't have squad to win CL anyway.

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