CL | 1/8 Finals: FC Barcelona - Chelsea 4-1 agg.

FinBarcelonafan · Feb 14, 2018

BruceWayne11 said:
I have a feeling they'll change something up for CL. Barca have been too predictable lately, so I think we'll see a more dynamic play. Hopefully it results in a couple of away goals and a clean sheet. Should go through anyway.

from what I have seen so far from Valverde. He seems to be very conservative vs teams AWAY. Look at our results in CL for example. He thinks 0-0 is good result away and we can always finish enemy in our home field. That seems to be his philosophy so far. He is fine with draws.

But I have to admit, It's been working so far.. Although It doesn't look as good as winnig 0-3 away or crushing your opponent 0-5 away like Liverpool today.

BruceWayne11 · Feb 14, 2018

FinBarcelonafan said:
from what I have seen so far from Valverde. He seems to be very conservative vs teams AWAY. Look at our results in CL for example. He thinks 0-0 is good result away and we can always finish enemy in our home field. That seems to be his philosophy so far. He is fine with draws.

But I have to admit, It's been working so far.. Although It doesn't look as good as winnig 0-3 away or crushing your opponent 0-5 away like Liverpool today.

Yes, though, even with Guardiola, Barca often went for 1-1 away etc, so it's not something entirely new. Anyway, I do strongly think this game can be put to bed in the first leg.

FinBarcelonafan · Feb 14, 2018

BruceWayne11 said:
Yes, though, even with Guardiola, Barca often went for 1-1 away etc, so it's not something entirely new. Anyway, I do strongly think this game can be put to bed in the first leg.

I hope it's repeat of Arsenal couple years ago, when we won 0-2 away. That's what it should be, but we have tough away game right before this match vs Eibar, so Valverde might just go damage control and hope for a draw.

Joan · Feb 14, 2018

I expect to see the same lineup we put against RM.

Mats
Roberto Pique Umtiti Alba
Paulinho Rak Busq Iniesta
Suarez Messi

Paulinho's movement could again prove to be crucial if he manages to do it. He's been shit lately.

It's not really about Paulinho, he doesn't move as good as it looks with us. But that's the thing we lack so it's massive. If you play a defensive team and only two of your players are trying to score, are attacking, it's easy for them to stop it, to block us. Many here often say Rakitić is a workhorse, I wish he pulled that more often. Messi and Suarez are deadly but they'll need help from the midfield when attacking, someone's gonna need to trick the defender, or to finish it when Messi or Suki do it. Decoy runs, I'd say.

Lelouch vi Britannia · Feb 14, 2018

1-1 away in CL knockouts is a good result. 0-0 isn't.

It's all about that away goal.

FinBarcelonafan · Feb 14, 2018

Joan Laporta said:
I expect to see the same lineup we put against RM.

Mats
Roberto Pique Umtiti Alba
Paulinho Rak Busq Iniesta
Suarez Messi

Paulinho's movement could again prove to be crucial if he manages to do it. He's been shit lately.

The whole team has been off lately. Can't just blame Paulinho, but yes he's been bad. Not scoring much or doing anything productive. Heck, even Messi looked quite bad. We need some break..

JamDav1982 · Feb 14, 2018

Lelouch vi Britannia said:
1-1 away in CL knockouts is a good result. 0-0 isn't.

It's all about that away goal.

0-0 is better than 1-0 defeat though.

Still has to be a bit of balanced approach.

Ousmane Dembélé · Feb 14, 2018

FinBarcelonafan said:
C'mon, Atletico was penalties away from winning and heck, penalty of Griezmann away from winning. Can't say they were close and Final vs Juventus was close game. Either team could have won it. Barcelona or Juventus. You can win it playing solid football. You probably need more of a luck, but we can't challenge teams in offensive football. That's fact. We couldn't with Neymar and we can't with Dembele.

and I don't even have to mention Chelsea.. They won it with pure luck 2012 or whatever year it was. It's possible.

What happened with Chelsea in 2012 won't happen again any time soon, we can't bank on ourselves getting that sort of luck, no team can. Also you cannot compare us to Atletico or Juventus since they're whole tactical setup and player personnel were suited perfectly to playing the type of football they did. We have the players to play attacking football and that's exactly what we should do. Atletico and Juventus came close, but in the end they lost due to their inability to score in the final. One goal is not enough in a final against elite opposition.

We CAN challenge teams playing offensive football. We couldn't do it with Neymar in 2016 or 2017 since Lucho's tactics got found out and our system was one dimensional and flawed. Go take a look at the football we were playing at the start of the season after the SuperCup under Valverde. We were playing free flowing attacking football and completely dismantling teams. Valverde fixed our tactics and we continued dominating with the 4-3-3, then injuries forced us to switch to the more rigid compact 4-4-2 in which we have done very well to be fair, but it's not good enough to win the CL. If Valverde can bring back the 4-3-3 from August-September we can beat anyone.

FinBarcelonafan · Feb 14, 2018

Lelouch vi Britannia said:
1-1 away in CL knockouts is a good result. 0-0 isn't.

It's all about that away goal.

Yeah that's a good point and we certainly need one away goal to get through. If we can't score one past vs Chelsea, well we don't even deserve to go trough.

FinBarcelonafan · Feb 14, 2018

Ousmane Dembélé said:
What happened with Chelsea in 2012 won't happen again any time soon, we can't bank on ourselves getting that sort of luck, no team can. Also you cannot compare us to Atletico or Juventus since they're whole tactical setup and player personnel were suited perfectly to playing the type of football they did. We have the players to play attacking football and that's exactly what we should do. Atletico and Juventus came close, but in the end they lost due to their inability to score in the final. One goal is not enough in a final against elite opposition.

We CAN challenge teams playing offensive football. We couldn't do it with Neymar in 2016 or 2017 since Lucho's tactics got found out and our system was one dimensional and flawed. Go take a look at the football we were playing at the start of the season after the SuperCup under Valverde. We were playing free flowing attacking football and completely dismantling teams. Valverde fixed our tactics and we continued dominating with the 4-3-3, then injuries forced us to switch to the more rigid compact 4-4-2 in which we have done very well to be fair, but it's not good enough to win the CL. If Valverde can bring back the 4-3-3 from August-September we can beat anyone.

So only way we can win CL is playing Dembele? We have no one else in his position.

The only problem is, is he going to be ready? he has been injured for so long.

Ousmane Dembélé · Feb 14, 2018

FinBarcelonafan said:
So only way we can win CL is playing Dembele? We have no one else in his position.

Not saying it's completely impossible to win the CL with our current system, but it's unlikely. We can stick with 4-4-2 if we somehow manage to become more uptempo in attack and play more creatively.

Joan · Feb 14, 2018

FinBarcelonafan said:
The whole team has been off lately. Can't just blame Paulinho, but yes he's been bad. Not scoring much or doing anything productive. Heck, even Messi looked quite bad. We need some break..

We are having a break right now. But it's true, we've been out of form lately. It's quite usual for Barca, no other team in the world cares about a domestic cup more than us. Think we've done well considering the number of games played recently.

Edited the post to explain what I thought.

FinBarcelonafan · Feb 14, 2018

Ousmane Dembélé said:
Not saying it's completely impossible to win the CL with our current system, but it's unlikely. We can stick with 4-4-2 if we somehow manage to become more uptempo in attack and play more creatively.

Man, I'm just afraid if Dembele is going to be enough to win it. I know you're big fan of him (obv.), but is he going to be that missing piece we need to win the CL? I think If Dembele brings his A-game we could probably lift CL trophy, but otherwise it's not so certain.

Lelouch vi Britannia · Feb 14, 2018

Joan Laporta said:
We are having a break right now. But it's true, we've been out of form lately. It's quite usual for Barca, no other team in the world cares about a domestic cup more than us. Think we've done well considering the number of games played recently.

Edited the post to explain what I thought.

That's a good point you raise there. We really care way too much about CDR.

Ousmane Dembélé · Feb 14, 2018

FinBarcelonafan said:
Man, I'm just afraid if Dembele is going to be enough to win it. I know you're big fan of him (obv.), but is he going to be that missing piece we need to win the CL? I think If Dembele brings his A-game we could probably lift CL trophy, but otherwise it's not so certain.

I agree, I don't think he's good enough just yet, but I think he provides us with a weapon that nobody else on our team has and it would be worthwhile to give him a shot. Our chances will be much better next year when both Dembele and Coutinho are fully integrated.

Not expecting much from us in the CL this year, with the way this this season started I'll be more than happy to take a domestic double.

CL | 1/8 Finals: FC Barcelona - Chelsea 4-1 agg.

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