CL | Round 4: Manchester City - FC Barcelona 3-1

raskolnikov

Well-known member
Luis Enrique was totally out of his depth. Just stood there watching wondering what was going on. You could see from his reactions how perceptive Pep was and how he dramatically shifted the focus of his team in counter-attacks in the second half, which basically sealed the game. I think it's high time we need a *different* coach, one which doesn't follow Barca's philosophy to death but brings his own ideas, especially in strengthening the defense.
Like who though?
 

Umtitol

New member
Lucho is out of his depth. I don't think it's only the players. pep adjusted his team, while lucho subbed rakitic for arda... Long season ahead.
 
It was the same game as the first encounter, except it was us who made all the mistakes.

Can't believe we missed out on Gundo he's looking like a real bargain right now.
 

akaranzo

Member
Our midfield is tottaly unbalanced. We have 8 midfielders and no one can replace Iniesta or Busquets or even Rakitic! That is not a great midfield that is ABSOLUTE disasterous scauting. Maybe our new midfielders are good players but combination of them is PURE DISASTER. We basically have 4 AM players and in 4-3-3 system you DO NOT NEED atacking midfield player!!!

Iit's like we have 4 Fabregas in our team.

Exactly, the combination of them is pure disaster because our manager has no idea what he's doing. He's not using the players the right way and relies on our front three to save us every game. Matches like these show how average Luis Enrique really is.
 

Richard.H

Senior Member
Luis Enrique was totally out of his depth. Just stood there watching wondering what was going on. You could see from his reactions how perceptive Pep was and how he dramatically shifted the focus of his team in counter-attacks in the second half, which basically sealed the game. I think it's high time we need a *different* coach, one which doesn't follow Barca's philosophy to death but brings his own ideas, especially in strengthening the defense.

You do realize you basically described Lucho?
 

akaranzo

Member
It was the same game as the first encounter, except it was us who made all the mistakes.

Can't believe we missed out on Gundo he's looking like a real bargain right now.

He's looking like a real bargain because he has a manager who actually knows what he's doing and is using him the right way. I can guarantee that if he was here right now, he'd also be a mess in our midfield and if Andre Gomes for example was in City, he'd look like a real bargain because Pep, unlike Lucho, actually knows how to organize a midfield and use his players correctly.
 
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Caramel

New member
Luis Enrique was totally out of his depth. Just stood there watching wondering what was going on. You could see from his reactions how perceptive Pep was and how he dramatically shifted the focus of his team in counter-attacks in the second half, which basically sealed the game. I think it's high time we need a *different* coach, one which doesn't follow Barca's philosophy to death but brings his own ideas, especially in strengthening the defense.


Okay. Who would you bring in then? :)
 

kilian

Senior Member
We don`t have bad midfielders. We have a bad coach, who just isn`t capable of creating a quality system and is getting outsmarted by a number of coaches. This could be a very bad year, and after that I think he is done.
 

mark1nhu

New member
We will lose Messi`s last good years with this incompetent useless Enrique. MSN were bailing him out for two years, but this season it`s bad game after bad game. If they continue like this, something will have to change. City destroyed us today.

It breaks my heart to say that, but I think I agree with you.

:unsure:
 

Bardh

New member
Like who though?

I like Simeone. He built a very resilient team in Atletico. So solid defensively and now very attacking-minded too. I think it's a myth that he's a defensive coach. Having a strong defense doesn't mean being defensive-minded. It's just about organization. In the long term, a defense is a must to win titles. Whenever we won the CL in the recent years we had a better defense than normally. Simeone breathes football, is very passionate and detail-minded, which makes the difference between top teams.

I like Marcelino too. He's done well with small teams and I think he likes to build well-organized teams. The key, however, is to let the manager do his job and not force him to embrace "the Barcelona philosophy" which basically means to hell with defense just attack like mad, take unnecessary risks and keep possession without doing anything with it.
 

Hatem Ben Arfa

New member
Lucho this, Lucho that......

the blame rest squarely on the players who clearly thought it was going to be a stroll in the park after Messi scored. They ALL switched off and almost didn't care when it went 2-1 because they still thought they would win easily without trying. It took 3-1 for Messi to finally wake up for the 2nd half. Suarez was really poor, Busquets was really poor and somehow escaped 2 yellows, Rakatic was really poor, Gomez is certainly no Iniesta, Sergi Roberto.....wow....just wow, Digne can't defend.

How hard is it to hold on to the ball in midfield for these guys tonight. Bring back Thiago and maybe sign Eden Hazard too.

Yes Enrique looked like a Rabit in headlights and took too long to change things but the players and their attitude are mostly to blame for this.
 
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gatsu

New member
Once upon a time xavi used to touch 100 balls per match, today our back line are the one touching more balls, I think this is a good summary of what Real Madrid agent (Lucho) have done to our team.
 

Barcaman

Administrator
Staff member
I wouldn't be so pissed as I am (predicted we'd lose) if Lucho hadn't thrown everything we had in. Forget about a gameplan too.
Subs are particularly pathetic. Arda adds nothing and we can't even bring on new shiny striker we got as he's fucking worthless.

There were no rotations and we still got schooled by Barca. Sorry, pep.
 

i_bleed_blaugrana

Senior Member
Lol. Oh boy. :coffee:

I didn't see the first half due to some personal bullshit so I didn't see much good after just watching the 2nd half lol.

I think this game gives a lot of credence to arguments about just how central Xavi and Iniesta have been, equally as vital as MSN, to our success. Goodness me, did we miss him tonight in the MF. Again, why I argued for Rafinha in the MF and its something that's still relatively lacking outside of Iniesta in the squad right now. Both Xavi and Iniesta had/have the vision to break opposing lines, either through a pass or through a dribble. Its that quality that is so vital in being a Barca MF that is why we need very specific sort of players.

I'm not prone to criticizing Lucho much these days but his swap of Arda for Rakitic was both questionable and troubling to me. As I watched it, I justified it as him saving Raki for Sevilla (which BIG PICTURE, is the more important game this week) but Arda was really poor coming on and gave the ball away in the buildup to that 3rd goal. He doesn't have enough urgency in his game right now to play in the MF for us and this game is a great example of why he should strictly be a forward for us. He is not consistent enough with is passing and we can afford that more out of a forward than in a MF with how we play and Lucho needs to learn this quickly before he continues to cost us games in this position. My only real vent from the game.

Arda has been very good this season. He has 5 goals and 4 assists, averaging more than 1 goal/assist every 90 mins played.

^^All of that is precisely why I didn't want Arda in the MF despite his stats. Again, those stats mainly came from him being in FW positions.

Rafinha and Denis are the players who need to be getting Iniesta's position more because neither Arda nor Gomes for me is really grasping that position at the moment. I like Gomes a lot better deeper aka in Raki or Busi's role, meaning for the time being he should be more of a bench/rotation option this season, not a starter for these sort of matches.

That's my biggest observation. Not terribly surprised at the result, we are pretty wounded atm and MSN can't do shit without a solid foundation feed it chances and possession high up the pitch. Its going to be a rough patch and I'm worried about Sevilla but once we start recuperating from the injuries, hopefully we can start finding some consistency again. Also, Pep's talk at half-time clearly made a difference. They pressed really intelligently and it seems he likes the diamond against us, something he used against us at Bayern which is smart. They played really well and honestly, they didn't deserve to be beaten that badly by us in the first leg anyway so it all ends up fairly even. They are a very solid team and I'll never complain losing to Pep unless we are clearly robbed. Ter Stegen was a bit weak on that FK too but whatever, we are still top of the group and control our destiny.

Hope this fires us up for Pizjuan because that's going to be an equally difficult game with a lot more to lose for dropping points.
 

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