João Laporta

Teams were facing for the 1st time in modern era that kind of systematic pressing. They didn't know what to do.
Nowadays its ABC that you have to face pressing and counter-pressing, teams know what to do.

Looking at Sevilla's players from the time reactions when pressed:
I mean LOL, they were like toddlers toe walking compared to teams in 2020 when facing pressing

Birdy said:

Teams were facing for the 1st time in modern era that kind of systematic pressing. They didn't know what to do.
Nowadays its ABC that you have to face pressing and counter-pressing, teams know what to do.

Looking at Sevilla's players from the time reactions when pressed:
I mean LOL, they were like toddlers toe walking compared to teams in 2020 when facing pressing

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Starting to think you are genuinely averse to the possibility of anything else other than the narrow world view that you've conjured up. A world where football progresses linearly over calendar time, irrespective of players or other contextual factors.

The level of the pressing shown in that video would handle the Bayern and Liverpool and City of today without much difficulty at all. We had some of the best players of all time and one of the best managers of all time at the same time. This isn't a case of 50s RM and 70s Bayern not being up to the fitness level of modern football. In 2011, modern football was already here and well established. Just as one metric, we were averaging 112-115 KM a game in the CL KOs in 2010-2011, which is as good as and most of the time more than what the top teams average today.

KingLeo10 said:

Starting to think you are genuinely averse to the possibility of anything else other than the narrow world view that you've conjured up. A world where football progresses linearly over calendar time, irrespective of players or other contextual factors.

The level of the pressing shown in that video would handle the Bayern and Liverpool and City of today without much difficulty at all. We had some of the best players of all time and one of the best managers of all time at the same time. This isn't a case of 50s RM and 70s Bayern not being up to the fitness level of modern football. In 2011, modern football was already here and well established. Just as one metric, we were averaging 112-115 KM a game in the CL KOs in 2010-2011, which is as good as and most of the time more than what the top teams average today.

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It's laugahbe to think that Pep's Barca will not handle modern day teams) They ll piss on them with ease,back then they were much more challenging teams for Barca,but they still pissed on them.It will be a rout if Barca of Pep will play today,like boys vs men.

SmilerBam said:

It's laugahbe to think that Pep's Barca will not handle modern day teams) They ll piss on them with ease,back then they were much more challenging teams for Barca,but they still pissed on them.It will be a rout if Barca of Pep will play today,like boys vs men.

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exactly. it was the perfect team for that system. we had a legendary midfield, with telepathic understanding. today's livepool or bayern would be chasing the ball all game.

malvolio said:

exactly. it was the perfect team for that system. we had a legendary midfield, with telepathic understanding. today's livepool or bayern would be chasing the ball all game.

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Surely.That team had a lot of incredible matches, but for me the reference match is the 5-0 against Real Madrid at the Camp Nou.We absolutely pulverized a team that contained Ronaldo at his peak,Benzema,Xabi Alonso,Ramos,Pepe,Casillas etc.With Mourinho in his peak as coach.That Madrid would win La Liga with a minimum 20 points more in the current era.So yeah.What incredible times.Pity Barto came and destroyed everything.

Catalan Trump.

KingLeo10 said:

The level of the pressing shown in that video would handle the Bayern and Liverpool and City of today without much difficulty at all. We had some of the best players of all time and one of the best managers of all time at the same time. This isn't a case of 50s RM and 70s Bayern not being up to the fitness level of modern football. In 2011, modern football was already here and well established. Just as one metric, we were averaging 112-115 KM a game in the CL KOs in 2010-2011, which is as good as and most of the time more than what the top teams average today.

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Actually the one with narrow world view will be you, who see things out of historical context and emotionally colored.
And all the purists above who think Pep's Barca will piss off any team today.
Pep's Barca was great only within historical context.
Pep himself has changed a lot to address the change in the sport itself.
If you think that any team is invincible if traveled in time to the future, then you haven't understood the sport.

And frankly it's disrespectful to Pep and to that great team to think of them in this distorted idolized and idealized way.

And LOL, no pep's barca could not handle any of the current teams you mention.
Again, like I said above, look at Sevilla players reactions to the pressing: they did not know what to do, and they were losing possession in an erratic panic.
Nothing to do with how teams today are prepared to face pressing

You talk about missing the historical context, but at the same time you intentionally miss the fact that Pep had some of the best players ever in one squad at the time. Obviously, he can't do the same things today with mediocre by those standarts ManCity so he's forced to adjust his tactics accordingly.

Gnidrologist said:

You talk about missing the historical context, but at the same time you intentionally miss the fact that Pep had some of the best players ever in one squad at the time. Obviously, he can't do the same things today with mediocre by those standarts ManCity so he's forced to adjust his tactics accordingly.

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Did I just like a post from Ginny?

Richard.H said:

Did I just like a post from Ginny?

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Gniddy's football takes are pretty based, I agree with him 90%-95% of the time.

Daaaaaaaaw.

https://twitter.com/HagridFCB/status/1367140015671635968

This is what I have big concerns about.

He can't say he knows how the market works when he's been out of the game for over 11 years. It's totally changed from when he was last in charge. You're not getting players like Eto'o, Ronaldinho and Henry for the kind of prices he did back then. You're pretty much paying 40m for an average defender these days.... and 60m plus for a decent midfielder. You're paying over 100m for a world-class player. Also, he stated, "in case we need to improve". We clearly need improving, so he must think our squad is already competitive otherwise he wouldn't have said that. We may do okay against a poor La Liga this season, but we're miles behind the big teams in Europe.

There is FFP now. There are COVID restrictions. You have to overpay for the best players now. He didn't have to deal with FFP, COVID or an inflated market back then. He also didn't have a massive wage bill back then. He had the likes of Messi, Iniesta and Valdes coming through, whose wages were small. He had the likes of Puyol and Xavi on decent wages for being great players. Back then, the big-name players didn't demand 300k a week plus.

He's being very vague and hyping up his case. But in reality, he isn't going to sign any big players. His transfers will be loan or free transfers. He most likely has to sell, loan or release players before he can actually bring in any free transfers.

He keeps saying he can't name the players he wants in case it increases their price, but he won't have much or any money to spend in the summer in the first place. I guess he has to hype up that part because nobody likes to hear you can only sign free transfers.

I don't know. I think it's going to end up in a disaster. He won't get fortunate again with the youth players, in the transfer market or with getting another Pep out of nowhere. Regardless, whoever is coming in is going to do terrible for the first 2 to 3 years because of the debt and the wage bill. They have to pay back 266m by June 30th and another 160m by the end of the year. That's a total of 426m euros by the end of the year. Not to mention, we're still over the salary cap for La Liga.

The GOAT returns.... this Sunday.

Twitter statement putting his faith on the players, and on Koeman and his staff...

More and more indications that Laporta will put his faith on Koeman

Birdy said:

Twitter statement putting his faith on the players, and on Koeman and his staff...

More and more indications that Laporta will put his faith on Koeman

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Koeman is guaranteed to stay on no matter what. They can't afford to sack him and then replace him with another manager. They don't want to lock a new manager into a new contract if it goes wrong. We'd have to sack him and pay him off.

Sacking Koeman would cost us millions.... millions we can't afford to lose at the moment because of our debt. Koeman is a decent enough manager to stay on for another year. Basically, the little money we do have has to be used in other areas.