Barca draws Real Madrid in Copa semifinals

Jakabor

Active member
I fail to see your point. How's this hyping anybody? How's Semedo meant to be 'just fine' when he's proved for 2 years he can be a liability? Pointing out that Vinicius is fearless and his stuff worked against any team isn't saying it'll automatically work against Barcelona, though it DOES mean they can't ignore him just because he's young.

Dembele for sure will need taking care of, but he's likely to play on the left and Carvajal should be OK, he's been solid this year.

By that logic you can't ignore any player, but that's not the point. Most attackers have something that works. Vinicius isn't special or unique in that regard - especially given the opposition he has faced. The point is Vinicius hasn't done nothing to demand that he should be man marked by Vidal or any other player for that matter. He isn't special or accomplished enough to warrant that. Again, that's Messi territory.
No one has said he should be ignored, but ffs stop overhyping your own players saying they should put a player on him like he is some sort of world beater.

Dembele is more dangerous, so if anything he should be given extra attention. He has been on fire the last couple months. But even Dembele shouldn't been given that much respect - that's reserved for a player like Messi.

Also, Semedo hasn't been a anything but good this season, so your assesment of him is nothing but belly-aching. His speed in defense has been very valuable to Barca. He'll be just fine against Madrid's youngster.
 

El Gato

Villarato!
[MENTION=19646]Jakabor[/MENTION]

Uhh.. the main thing Vinicius has going for him is that he's better than people think he is whenever he steps up against them. He's a new threat, nobody knows what his favourite habits are and is constantly being underestimated. There are bad games, there are poor shots, but on the whole his big strength is lack of stage fright and making good decisions nearly all the time. Watch him tear your RB and Pique a new one if that's the approach they take against him. Same thing happened when Asensio was left alone in front of the box 20 metres away.

Dembele is dangerous sure, but our defenders individually are better than yours and they cover for each other. Something Pique and his senior mates don't do reliably enough. His thing is beating people 1 on 1 and nobody being able to catch up. Varane isn't a yesterday's idiot to not know how to play against his NT teammate.

Also doesn't really matter how Semedo has been either when you have Roberto pretty clearly winning that spot.

PS: What's this notion that if you give somebody a man marking job that it's some Messi status player you're up against? Even Madrid have stopped doing it since they got burnt by some bad player decisions (Kovacić). Vidal will definitely have the responsibility if he plays against Vini. EV would be silly not to do anything about it.
 
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Morten

Senior Member
And we are out, cant beat Barcelona over two matches.
I only hope we drag you guys down, make you tired, so you are knocked out of the CL, dont have much faith in Atletico being up for it in the league.
 

PhilS

Active member
Well, the upside is that we have better rotation options (except at LB):

CB: Pique, Lenglet, Vermaelen, Murillo, Todibo
FB: Bob, Semedo, Alba
CDM: Busi, Raki, (Bob)
CM: Arthur, Alena, Vidal, Raki, (Coutinho)
Wings: Messi, Dembele, Coutinho, Malcom
ST: Suarez, Boateng, (Messi)

Now it's up to Valverde to make most of it.

Much better depth than last year, we now have several reserves who play at a very high level. The problem is that not all of these rotation options that you list have shown they deserve to be trusted.

The risky or suicidal rotation options, in order of scariness:
Tobido Tough to throw him into any counting game, with zero experience with this team.
Boatang I can't see him playing at all unless Suarez gets injured. When Suarez needs rest, play Coutinho Messi Dembele.
Malcom Why would he get any minutes when you have Messi, Dembele and Coutinho available for two spots? Not good enough.
Vermaelen Has looked rusty, I hope he can get some playing time and get back to his level from Spring of 2018
Murillo Has looked fine, but this may have involved good luck in limited playing time
 

LondonBarca

New member
Both teams have tough schedules, but this is the price you pay for competing on multiple fronts

We're much better than Real this season, we'll be booking another place in the final. No worries!
 

weloveyuner

Member
Fuck! Now we'll have to try. I was hoping we could rest our starters and focus on the real competition, you know, the Champions League!
 

serghei

Senior Member
Not worried about our upcoming schedule.

Rotate a bit against Valencia then go with the best lineup vs RM and in Bilbao. There are 4 days between those games and then a full week of rest with a home game against Valladolid before a trip to Lyon. Then again 5 days before we go to Pizjuan.

Hopefully we can get a good advantage in first game of Copa but most important is not to concede.

Considering our scoring form on Bernabeu, I'd say a win makes us favorites no matter the score.
 

Jakabor

Active member
[MENTION=19646]Jakabor[/MENTION]

Uhh.. the main thing Vinicius has going for him is that he's better than people think he is whenever he steps up against them. He's a new threat, nobody knows what his favourite habits are and is constantly being underestimated. There are bad games, there are poor shots, but on the whole his big strength is lack of stage fright and making good decisions nearly all the time. Watch him tear your RB and Pique a new one if that's the approach they take against him. Same thing happened when Asensio was left alone in front of the box 20 metres away.

Dembele is dangerous sure, but our defenders individually are better than yours and they cover for each other. Something Pique and his senior mates don't do reliably enough. His thing is beating people 1 on 1 and nobody being able to catch up. Varane isn't a yesterday's idiot to not know how to play against his NT teammate.

Also doesn't really matter how Semedo has been either when you have Roberto pretty clearly winning that spot.

PS: What's this notion that if you give somebody a man marking job that it's some Messi status player you're up against? Even Madrid have stopped doing it since they got burnt by some bad player decisions (Kovacić). Vidal will definitely have the responsibility if he plays against Vini. EV would be silly not to do anything about it.


Is he better than people think he is? That's a good one. If anything he is actually worse than what people think he is. He is a talented, young player, but there are a lot of talented young players in the world. But because he plays for Madrid the media and fans start to believe he is more than that. He isn't. He could be, but right now he isn't.
He wasn'tr really impressive in the Clasico apart from a few good actions, such as the pre-assist to Benzema. In fact, Semedo did start at the RB in the match and was more impressive compared to Vinicius, who you foolishly thought should be man marked by Vidal. Did just fine without that nonsense I think.

Dembele will likely tear your defense apart with Messi in the next Clasico. If anyone deserves to be hyped based on the last couple months it's Dembele. Not Vinicius. Dembele has clearly been better, but as you know the Madrid media/hype machine is in full force.

And now some idiot is comparing Vinicius to an all time great player like Messi. Don't tell me you're this stupid too, Wolfe.

https://www.marca.com/futbol/real-madrid/2019/02/07/5c5c3866e2704e21948b46ee.html
 

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