Jordi Alba

Agreed. There is no LB avaliable that would be an upgrade to Alba.

At the moment he is not the problem, it is our formation. Its kinda sad really since the 3-4-3 seems better. I do think he can play as left center back against easier teams. It gives us more firepower in offence. Against top teams im not too sure, but he deserves the chance to try. Maybe we can somehow integrate him into our midfield in the future but its hard to say.

I just hope we dont sell him now before we try to integrate him again. He helped the club alot the last years.

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Alba is getting alot of undeserved criticism here, first of all, the left wing is not as good without him as we've seen when Mathieu or Digne play (not knocking Digne). Plus, he saved us multiple times from brain farts.

Now, yeah, he's stupid for those comments considering Lucho got a strong personality and won't sweep those comments under the rug and ignore them so we're potentially looking at a Vidal case here, where he'll throw him on the bench for quite a time.

Quite frankly, I dont want Alba to leave us as I dont see Digne as a starter and the market is already dire of RBs and LBs who can play in Barca. Last point, I think if given a serious run of games the 4-2-3-1 can suit us and I think Busquets is quite intelligent to play in a double pivot just needs to be given the time to adapt.

I don't think Alba will leave us.
I understand that this is a difficult situation for him, but he just needs to be calm. Vidal got injured and Bob isn't happy (understandable) for getting exposed as RB. As this position was our biggest weakness with top teams fucking us there, it was the right decision to switch to 3 at the back. Alba is paying for mistakes on the transfer market now, but this is football. It is a team sport and sometimes you find yourself on the bench out of tactical reasons.

Decent assist. Seemed confident

Didn't play well today. and his crosses were disappointing as usual.

xXKonan said:

Didn't play well today. and his crosses were disappointing as usual.

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Barely noticed him to be honest. He must be little bit down, because he is not getting playing time.

Don't know how much effect his complaining has to do with the loss... I feel like Lucho felt hard pressed to play him even if that meant going back to 4-3-3, which is clearly one of the many bad decisions Lucho took today...

Nothing against Alba as a player, just that right now the team is working better in a system where he doesn't fit...

He could have easily played him in 3-4-3 formation. When I saw the lineup I actually thought it was a 3-4-3. We had 3 cbs on the pitch and Alba and Denis could have played on the wings.

evilhita666 said:

Don't know how much effect his complaining has to do with the loss... I feel like Lucho felt hard pressed to play him even if that meant going back to 4-3-3, which is clearly one of the many bad decisions Lucho took today...

Nothing against Alba as a player, just that right now the team is working better in a system where he doesn't fit...

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The comments he made during the international break makes it feel like Lucho, is trying to shoe horn in Alba in some way whether it be in the 3-4-3 (Back LCB) or reverting back to a 4-3-3 like Granada and today.

When we played Sevilla, back on Wednesday and when Digne was getting ready to come on the Camera panned to Alba and he looked like he was sulking. His comments came at the wrong time of the season when things are heating up in terms of the CL and League for us and it just makes the whole thing uneasy.

We aren't playing the 4-3-3 anymore because we don't have the Midfielders and a RB to utilize it. Lucho decided to switch to the 3-4-3/3-3-1-3 because of it, Jordi is simply not tall enough to play as a LCB in the big games where he would easily get dominated in the air. Lucho has no intention of using him as a Winger or as a LM, so he's stuck on the bench with Digne who I feel the most bad for.

The whole thing just annoys the hell out of me. it comes off as us trying to keep him happy at the expense of our performances. I'm not fully blaming Alba for all our problems but I just feel like his comments he made just couldn't have come at a worst time.

It's hard to judge players individually at this point as long as that cluelss of a manager is sitting on the bench.

He's probably mad right now. Just hope he won't say anything else to the press.

He should be playing more. He's one of the few left in the team with a winning mentality.

Looked motivated tonight and played ok imo.
Not sure if he'll play on Wednesday as I'd rather have 3-4-3 back.

Is he injured ?? I think he probably had a run in with Lucho.

jairzinho said:

Is he injured ??

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He's just in Lucho's Sin Bin for whatever reason.