I wouldnt put this on fitness too much. Difference between Liverpool and Bayern is that they would have finished the game by minute 60. They dont run around like maniacs for 90 minutes straight either. Would also help to have faster outlets when defending a lead, but hard to blame Koeman for that.
La Liga | Round 19: FC Barcelona - Real Sociedad 2-1
- Thread starter Barcaman
- Start date
FinBarcelonafan
Well-known member
Yes, in normal situation we could throw in Fati and Dembele. That would be nightmarish for the opponent.
serghei
Senior Member
Fitness is night and day compared with Liverpool and Bayern. Bayern and Liverpool play at the pace of what we played in the first half for 95 mins without even forcing. We looked like we struggled to play as intense as the first half and then suffered a major drop off 2nd half.
JamDav1982
Senior Member
It is not all fitness and is nerves as well without a doubt.
Shit scared of losing.
There is no way those subs were tired but they all came on and played as rest of team were and knowing game was there to lose.
Richard.H
Senior Member
Serious question: Do you watch either team play in CL or in their respective leagues? They do not run for 90 mins, but their fitness looks noticeably better than ours. They press collectively instead of just Brathwaite, just Messi, or just Griezmann running at the defender. When they have counters they also all run into the box within a few seconds. What happens in our counters? You have one player going into the box with no one else in there. Their passing and 1-2's are also a lot faster and less predictable than ours.
It's honestly a different league of comparison. I am not even sure what it will take to work up to such a level.
Thats just not true, but the grass is always greener on the other side I guess. Both have large spells of sitting back and play on the counter. Obviously not having Busquets/Messi as key player helps as well, but Pedri/Frenkie/Alba/Braithwaite/Griezmann etc pp look as fit as it gets and wouldnt look out of depth for those teams. But that doesnt support the original argument (that our training/general fitness is shit, which I disagree with. Not under Koeman).
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Capitan Puyol
Senior Member
Again we should score 5 goals (atleast)! Griezmann played like Segunda B player...horrible misses, pfff
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FinBarcelonafan
Well-known member
That's the difference. Bayern and Liverpool can sit back and have a threat. We don't have. They can calm down a bit and still hurt you. We only hope opponent doesn't score.
serghei
Senior Member
First you need to let Messi, Busi, Pique, even Lenglet go. The players you replace them with need to be more athletic and faster.
serghei
Senior Member
Just because Bayern and Liverpool sit back when they want to, doesn't mean they can't play 90 mins of football at a sustained intensity. We've seen how Liverpool played vs us at Anfield. Until 4-0, they pressed like maniacs.
JamDav1982
Senior Member
At least the table is starting to look a bit better.
Need to get through next couple games then get a weak off to rest.
Some of the players are playing every few days and huge pressure on when team not playing all that well.
Need to get through next couple games then get a weak off to rest.
Some of the players are playing every few days and huge pressure on when team not playing all that well.
I think the team is showing the pressure that Koeman is understandably under.
Once we have a string of wins and we are not overthinking scoring chances we will hopefully start looking like a challenger.
But it has been important to grind out these last two victories. Coming back against Sociedad is something we should build on.
Once we have a string of wins and we are not overthinking scoring chances we will hopefully start looking like a challenger.
But it has been important to grind out these last two victories. Coming back against Sociedad is something we should build on.
Messi983
Senior Member
This.
It was a nice comeback win (the first this season) against a very good La Liga opponent. I'll take that every day. We did something I wanted to see in previous games but didn't happen. This time team responded great after conceding first. Next step is doing the same in away games. I know home/away is not really as important these days without fans in the stands but I think our problem is more mental than it actually matters which stadium we're playing in. Obviously it would be better if we'd never concede first but we're not Atletico we could count on that. So we need a team to show character and turn over those games. Valladolid next week could be one of those tricky games.
Another thing we absoulutely should improve in is finishing the games off when we have chances to do that. We won the last two games but we've lost a lot of points because of poor finishing (and individual defensive mistakes) already this season. And players wasted a lot of energy against Levante and Sociedad for not deciding those games sooner. OTOH I think it was also a good test we can survive even when being pushed back to defend like we were in the last 25 minutes. Sure, this was because we were physically drained and subs didn't exactly helped us much either but we also have to give Sociedad credit. They've shown why they are deservedly where they are. It wasn't a great defensive performance (I don't expect those from this team though) but I can't question anyone's effort. Sure, Sociedad had some good chances but important thing is a team has sticked together and came out victorious.
Anyway, Valencia game starts just around 65 hours after end of last game and we looked very tired so I'd expect some more rotations to refresh the starting lineup. With all injuries we don't really have that many options unless RK would start Konrad or Puig which is unlikely. But then again nobody expected he'd play Araujo-Mingueza last night either.
I'd be happy if we could win next 3 games (I'd be also ok with 7 points) and finish 2020 in top 4. Then hopefully we can forget this horrible year and 2021 will be nicer to all of us.
serghei
Senior Member
With Valverde the team paced itself better, which meant slower football, but less of a difference between halves. With Setien, and now Koman, it's obvious that the team starts with more intensity, but the fallout in the 2nd half is drastic.
All this shows what's been said. That in terms if intensity and stamina, this team barely has any chance against the best in Europe at the moment.
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