Thiago Alcantara

Yannik

Senior Member
While a Bayern team with Thiago looking pretty on the ball gets torn to shreds by Real virtually every time they meet.

That has been more of a theme.

I don't know what "torn to shreds" means in this case, but it was 3-3 after 180mins and the game went to OT. Thiago never played any other fixture vs Real at Bayern. in both encozunters neither team was also considerably taller or shorter than the other.
 

Yannik

Senior Member
We weren't really killed, Real had 2 good chances(Benzema header and Ronaldo shot) and Barca had 2(Paulinho header and Paulinho shot). It's true that Real was winning all the duels vs our players and we couldn't get past the midfield line but we defended brilliantly.

I agree that the defending was decent, but Real hands down the team more likely to score in that first half and it could've easily been over had they found their flow with an opnener.
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
I don't know what "torn to shreds" means in this case, but it was 3-3 after 180mins and the game went to OT. Thiago never played any other fixture vs Real at Bayern. in both encozunters neither team was also considerably taller or shorter than the other.

You are obsessed with height.
 

Yannik

Senior Member
You are obsessed with height.

Not at all. BBZ is writing a dissertion about height in CL games and how he'd start Rakitic or Paulinho over Thiago/Griezmann/Coutinho etc vs Bayern, PSG, Real, Juve etc and I'm here arguing how irrelevant it really is.
 
Last edited:

BBZ8800

Senior Member
Not at all. BBZ is writing a dissertion about height in CL games and how he'd start Rakitic or Paulinho over Thiago/Griezmann/Coutinho etc vs Bayern, PSG, Real, Juve etc and I'm here arguing how irrelevant it really is.

About height and strength, it is not about winning headers in midfield, lol.
It is about every single duel in attack and defense.

Do you know that feeling when Denis Suarez is trying to defend and players are running "through him" as if he doesn't exist at all?
Or when he tries to dribble and he is dispossesed on a slightest touch?

This is where physical strength and pace help.
I am not talking about headers.

For the last 20 years, whenever we lost in a CL, on 90% of occassions my personal impression was: oh, we were again outplayed on strength. The opponents neutralized our technical skills with their good defending and better physique and outplayed us in attack on counters, physical strength and pace, even though we were superior in a technical area.

On the other hand, when we face a technical team, we will win in 95% of cases.
I don't remember have we ever lost in a Cl against technical teams like Arsenal, Dortmund, Porto, Ajax, Roma, French teams who plays too technical and too attacking.

So, if we face a team who is way weaker than us, for example in La liga, we will win easily, due to technical skills.
If we face a top CL technical team, who isn't physically strong, we will always win.

But, if we'll face teams like Am, Juve, Bayern, or even Man Utd, Liverpool or Chelsea fron the past, our success rate drops to 33-50%.
And whenever we are knocked out, in 90% of cases in the last 20 years, I had a feeling that I was watching the same match over and over.
1. Either the opponents totally outplay and outrun us in midfield like Juve 2017, Psg 2017, Am in 2014 and 2016, or like Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Utd in Rijkaard's era.
2. Or the opponents park the bus, and since we are onedimensional and we can score only with feet, it is somewhat easy to stop us

And Barca played more or less the same way for 20-30 years.
And the same story was repeating all the time.
We are good in a group stage, and against Arsenal, Leverkusen, Shakhtar and Porto.
But whenever we faced physically aggressive teams that also have decent technical skills, we were in huge problems.
Players like Xavi and Iniesta were falling down on their asses and losing duels in midfield like 13 years old children.

And now some of you will reply:
Wtf are you talking about?
We had the best success ever with Xavi-Iniesta!

Well:
1. For the beginning, we'll never have Xavi-Iniesta again
2. Xavi-Iniesta alone weren't that successfull before we had prime Messi to save us in every single match
3. Xavi actually won only 2 Cls in his 16-17 years here. Which to some extent shows that Xavi ALONE wasn't a winning factor for Cls.
In 2006 we won a Cl when Xavi was injured in winter and spring and we played with Edmilson-Deco-Van Bommel/Motta.
Who knows, if Xavi was fit, maybe we wouldn't have won it because we would have played with too soft Xavi-Deco duo
In 2015, Xavi didn't play too much.

To some extent, it is hard to say that we won Cls because of Xavi-Iniesta.
We won them mostly because of Messi.
Why?
Because we always had Xavi-Iniesta type of midfielders, and we never managed to win Cls.
So, Xavi-Iniesta midfielders without Messi never managed to win us Cls.
In fact, we were outplayed and pushed off easily every single year in a Cl.

And again, I am not saying: let's buy 3 Rakitics.
But you need some muscles and pace.

If anyone wants to bet with me: there is no chance that Pep's City will win a Cl.
Because they will lose to some physical team eventually and their attackers are short and weak, aka they don't have a plan B like Real.

Even Liverpool without Coutinho will have more chances to win a Cl than Pep's teams.

But anyway, some of you would like to try the same thing for 100th time: let's play with weak and technical midfielders. And let's play with short, pacey, technical attackers like Aguero and Jesus.

That will bring a beautiful football against crappy league opponents, but surely won't bring Cl titles.

Oh, and 442 with Raki, Paulinho, Iniesta, Busi has higher chances to win a Cl than Pep's outdated style.
But let's wait and see.
 
Last edited:

Trickykid

New member
If anyone wants to bet with me: there is no chance that Pep's City will win a Cl.
Because they will lose to some physical team eventually and their attackers are short and weak, aka they don't have a plan B like Real.

Even Liverpool without Coutinho will have more chances to win a Cl than Pep's teams.

Considering how hard it actually is and how much luck you need along the way to win the ChL, those odds are pretty bad tbh. Could we even them out a bit and make the bet on whether they make a ChL final instead?
 

Thiago10

New member
Oh, and 442 with Raki, Paulinho, Iniesta, Busi has higher chances to win a Cl than Pep's outdated style.
But let's wait and see.

I don't agree at all. We are nowhere near being favorites to win the CL, unlike Man City and PSG, teams who don't rely on length/phsyique. Since the game against RM, people seem to have forgotten, but we were actually mediocre this season, winning without shining. I don't expect that to be enough to win the CL. Besides, I don't understand your logic about Man City and their "outdated" style. What makes you think that style wouldn't work in the CL, if it does in the PL? Actually it more than just "works", they're absolutely destroying the league... You're saying they don't stand a chance against physical teams, but do you realise that the most physical teams actually play in the PL?
 

jamrock

Senior Member
Could it simply be that we lose too these sides, because they are simply better than those small sides in la liga and the Arsenal's and durtmonds, would it be that something as simple as that is the answer, shocker.

Or are we expected to win every game we play not to me too mention if we should check those stats that bbz love to use so much I'm pretty sure out regard against the "physical sides" like psg, Chelsea, inter, Madrid back in the day ate either 50/50 are we have the advantage records wise.

We lost to inter because we traveled by bus and I remember seeing somewhere that the entire team ran less than there seasons average that game, which shows how jaded we were, yet we we're still 1 in correct bojan goal away for 3 straight finals.

We lose to Chelsea because Messi messed a pk and so on.
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
Peps Man City can definitely win it and they have elements of power in their side anyway.

Not having enough pace/power in a side is a weakness shown for just about every club ever bar maybe Peps Barca.

But that doesnt mean you give up on technical players etc it just means you need to strike the right balance.
 

jamrock

Senior Member
The outdated style that's walking aWay with the epl title, a league that as so many big quality physical teams in it. Lol

Winning the CL is done on the margins, so anything can happen and the fact that we have a Messi in our team means we are never out of anything until the fat last sings, add saurez and iniest to that who could just roll back the years for a few key games, both of them. Then we can literally beat anyone

But as a team & manager city are better than us right now
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
The outdated style that's walking aWay with the epl title, a league that as so many big quality physical teams in it. Lol

Winning the CL is done on the margins, so anything can happen and the fact that we have a Messi in our team means we are never out of anything until the fat last sings, add saurez and iniest to that who could just roll back the years for a few key games, both of them. Then we can literally beat anyone

But as a team & manager city are better than us right now

City have been lacking a bit recently.

Could just be winning too easily but not been all that amazing in recent weeks but they have shown the level they can play at and are rightly one of the favs.

BBZ you should just take as much money as you can and lay them to win it if that sure.

Even then it is no great prediction that any teams wont win it.

Will you take a bet of City going further than any team you chose BBZ?
 

jamrock

Senior Member
Man for man with dembele back in the team for paulinho we probably, no definitely have a better team than city too, so it won't be a suprise if we go further than city since we have the better players in more areas of the pitch.

The only place city have better players than us is RB and central midfield.
 

Home of Barca Fans

Top