Daniel Alves

[DonAndres]

Pedro plays well for Spain because there is no Messi dominating the ball in the forward areas. Also, if he is always covering for Alves, then how come we keep conceding so much?

For Iniesta and Alba to connect, Iniesta doesn't have to be on the left wing spot, he is much better in left midfield.

I said he has to cover for Alves, I never said he was a great defender who could keep us from conceding any more. Ultimately there is only so much Pedro can do in defense as a winger. He can pressure them into the wide areas of the pitch and press, but when Alves isn't doing his job correctly we will still ultimately end up conceding. I don't care if the lineup has Alba-Cesc-Iniesta on the left side or Alba-Iniesta-Villa, as long as that flank is emphasized the results will show.

 

[Indignado]

Alves is a great defender who suffers because the midfield doesn't track runners.

Well, we would know how good a defender he is if he actually played in defense

 

[darthvader7888]

I agree with most that we shouldn't use Alves/Alba. IMO, that's the reason we're conceding so many goals, both our fullbacks are too attacking-minded. I mean, we have great CBs in Pique and Puyol, and they've been playing pretty well this season, so the CBs are not to blame. IMO, the reason we concede so many goals is partly because we use Mascherano a lot to rest Puyol, but part of it is because we're using 2 offensive fullbacks. We should alternate between using Alves/Abidal and Alba/Montoya (this would also add some variety to the team, another thing people have been asking for), and stay away from using Alves and Alba.

As we saw in the cup game against Real, our defense can be pretty good. With 2 offensive fullbacks though, it usually isn't.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Barca8]

The problem is Alba is better at attacking than Alves is (at least now) and is also a better defender. Montoya covering Alba like he did for Alves would be even more effective and useful than what we saw today considering how potent our attack has been up the left side this season. If we play both attacking fullbacks we're screwed as both are limited in attack somewhat and we get absolutely destroyed on the counter.

Couldn't have said it better. Alba amazes me every match he plays.
The 10 or so million we can get for Dani can go towards a GK & CB

 

[Barca8]

Thank you, finally someone who agrees

lol I agree fully. Our backs are extremely important to our style of play. They provide width, drive the ball up to the forwards, and a lot of times are the link between attack & defense.

 

[darthvader7888]

Couldn't have said it better. Alba amazes me every match he plays.
The 10 or so million we can get for Dani can go towards a GK & CB

I don't think we should get rid of Dani yet. If we do, we'll only have Montoya and Adriano (who's injury prone) at RB. He shouldn't start with Alba, but we should keep him. Like I said, we should switch between using Montoya/Alba and Alves/Abidal, mainly using the former for more important matches.
Anyways, we'll have a transfer budget of about 50 mil for the summer, right? That should be enough for a GK and a CB.
If Villa leaves, we'll want to replace him as well. Fortunately, we should be able to pull that off as well, as long as we sell a few other players (Valdes, Sanchez, Afellay, etc).

 

[Stric]

We really have a lot of depth in our fullback department, especially with Abidal returning and Muniesa coming back from injury. Puyol can play RB, too. We could afford to sell Dani without buying a replacement if we wanted to. Alba, Adriano, Montoya, Abidal, Muniesa and Puyol are all players who (can) play as fullbacks.

 

[Deco 20]

Used to be a great defender. He hasn't been a defender this season at all.

He's been better in defense than Alba (when he's been defending). Despite Alves being in poor form early in the season most goals and chances we've conceded have come from the left side. This isn't mainly Alba's fault as he needs more help, but you shouldn't be blaming it on Alves.

 

[Indignado]

Couldn't have said it better. Alba amazes me every match he plays.
The 10 or so million we can get for Dani can go towards a GK & CB

I think we would even get 20 million for Dani.

 

[Garrus]

Dani owned that right flank, This was his second best performance after the victory against malaga 4-2, The defensive problems that occurred on his side against Sevilia happened because of the change in tactics, Bringing villa CF and moving tello to the left meant alves had to play as a right winger.
The only reason tito and roura are able to use such a flexible tactic is because he's the only right back in the world that can do this, Name some one who can control an entire flank by himself, No one in his right mind will sell him, We're lucky to have him.

 

[Deco 20]

We really have a lot of depth in our fullback department, especially with Abidal returning and Muniesa coming back from injury. Puyol can play RB, too. We could afford to sell Dani without buying a replacement if we wanted to. Alba, Adriano, Montoya, Abidal, Muniesa and Puyol are all players who (can) play as fullbacks.

The only RB there is Montoya. Adriano can play there too, but he's very injury prone and he's better at LB. Puyol shouldn't play there at all, unless we have a massive injury crisis.
At LB we've got Alba, Adriano, Abidal and possibly Montoya and Muniesa. Puyol has played there too.

 

[Deco 20]

Dani owned that right flank, This was his second best performance after the victory against malaga 4-2, The defensive problems that occurred on his side against Sevilia happened because of the change in tactics, Bringing villa CF and moving tello to the left meant alves had to play as a right winger.
The only reason tito and roura are able to use such a flexible tactic is because he's the only right back in the world that can do this, Name some one who can control an entire flank by himself, No one in his right mind will sell him, We're lucky to have him.

Not to mention that 90% of Sevillas chances came from our left side... it was only at the end, when as you said Alves played RW, that they created chances at our right side.

 

[Indignado]

He's been better in defense than Alba (when he's been defending). Despite Alves being in poor form early in the season most goals and chances we've conceded have come from the left side. This isn't mainly Alba's fault as he needs more help, but you shouldn't be blaming it on Alves.

This season certainly not. His positioning is beyond horrible.

 

[darthvader7888]

Dani owned that right flank, This was his second best performance after the victory against malaga 4-2, The defensive problems that occurred on his side against Sevilia happened because of the change in tactics, Bringing villa CF and moving tello to the left meant alves had to play as a right winger.
The only reason tito and roura are able to use such a flexible tactic is because he's the only right back in the world that can do this, Name some one who can control an entire flank by himself, No one in his right mind will sell him, We're lucky to have him.

+1
IMO, we shouldn't use Alba and Alves at the same time, but we definitely shouldn't sell him.

 

[Stric]

He's been better in defense than Alba (when he's been defending). Despite Alves being in poor form early in the season most goals and chances we've conceded have come from the left side. This isn't mainly Alba's fault as he needs more help, but you shouldn't be blaming it on Alves.

Wow, after reading this I wonder if we're talking about the same season.