Luis Enrique

[linetty]

What about match against Almeria? He underestimated them and sent out Munir, Pedro + never before seen midfield. Against every opponent we should experiment first 45 minutes and for the second half we send out our top dogs to save the day? There's a reason no other sane manager does this.
What's our starting eleven? I'm sure even players don't know.

Is that worrying for you? He underestimated them, so what? It was away from home so he should not, I agree, but he wanted to rest some players and you can't really blame him for that. He surely learned.

It's Lucho's first months at the club as well. He'll have everything sorted out for the business part of the season/

 

[Flavia]

There was some pressing in the previous 2 games my point is if we had won by 2 or 3 goals.everyone would be praising him today. For this game i think he made the right approach

Your logic makes no sense... even if the result was 0-2, the team played like crap. No sane person would be praising Lucho for screwing up the tactics, yet again. Regardless of the result.

 

[serghei]

Your logic makes no sense... even if the result was 0-2, the team played like crap. No sane person would be praising Lucho for screwing up the tactics, yet again. Regardless of the result.

Yea, even the commentators from my local tv station were laughing at Lucho, because he set up the game as if Valencia was RM or Bayern, fearing they will come at us all guns blazing. Instead, they played 2 lines of defenders, and we found ourselves trying to unlock a tight defence with 2DMs in a 3 men midfield.

 

[DinhoR10]

Even if he used 2 CDMs Xavi wasn't the right choice as the no 10, He had Rafinha, Messi and Iniesta, hell even neymar, who can all play that position better than the current Xavi. Xavi was unfortunately marked out because he can't dribble like Rafinha can to charge forward and unlock space for the forwards to work with.

 

[BerkeleyBernie]

That's the least of our problems. And the fact that we looked better with Pedro on -- debatable -- is a major coincidence. It was probably just Valencia being tired after running all night long.

Pedro was solid, but had more to do with changing the midfield that had been the problem all game- dropping Busi back to DM and Masch to CB. You can't compare PMS vs APOEL with MSN vs Valencia, as the tactics (and opponent) were entirely different. Let's see how MSN does with a normal lineup behind them, now that Suarez is getting a few games under his belt.

 

[Behrox]

Even if he used 2 CDMs Xavi wasn't the right choice as the no 10, He had Rafinha, Messi and Iniesta, hell even neymar, who can all play that position better than the current Xavi. Xavi was unfortunately marked out because he can't dribble like Rafinha can to charge forward and unlock space for the forwards to work with.

Rakitic was ideal for that midfield instead of Xavi. And who the fuck tries a new never before used midfield at the fucking Mestlla of all places

 

[Alik]

Rakitic was ideal for that midfield instead of Xavi. And who the fuck tries a new never before used midfield at the fucking Mestlla of all places

A considerable number of people were happy with the lineup before the game.

 

[Ryan_Cule]

Pep used to play 3 men back against Valencia. From there to 4 men back plus two DMs, well time flies. We are sick (in a bad way). Doesn't matter we win or not. After February things will get worse as it always does. If we are so stagnant now, what will happen then. We are on repeat mode, in terms of bad things, since Pep's departure. Only difference, things are getting worse. This club used to play beautiful/orgasmic football even few years back. Now all looks suffocating. Forget philosophy, atleast use tactics properly.

 

[Iarwain]

(after he realized it doesn't work and returned to the best setup, we looked much better and finished the game off well).

...while Valencia created their two best chances of the game during that "best" setup.

 

[linetty]

...while Valencia created their two best chances of the game during that "best" setup.

Yeah, of course. That 'best' setup is way more offensive than what we started off with yesterday and you are bound to suffer on counter especially against this great Valencia side. They are no pushovers and we were bound to have many problems against them, especially at their ground.

 

[Neymessi]

Maybe it's Neymar holding the ball for too long.

I hear this quite often.I think he does that only when the pace of the attack is slow and in that case its ok.

 

[Alarcón]

Pep used to play 3 men back against Valencia. From there to 4 men back plus two DMs, well time flies. We are sick (in a bad way).

Thanks for making me laugh though

 

[serghei]

Thanks for making me laugh though

Yea but Keita was a lot more offensive than Mascherano. He scored some goals for us from midfield, he was a very versatile midfielder, more like a box to box one than a DM. Mascherano's last goal is dated 5 years ago.'

Keita's offensive qualities were always underrated. He even scored a hattrick for us IIRC.

 

[Ryan_Cule]

Thanks for making me laugh though

Oh yes, now a whoscored picture will make me believe Pep never changed his formation after the game's initial kick off. Whoscored gave it a 4-3-3 because Pep started with a 4-3-3.

This was the game when Mascherano was for the first time used as RCB and he had difficulties playing there. Keita was very attacking and alves was pushed very high up the pitch.

Appreciate your google search abilities though.

 

[Iarwain]

Anyone remember this one?

After these Pep schemes you really see how naive that Clasico set up was from Enrique.