Luis Enrique

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
You bash the board for not making the most out of Messi in his prime and then bash the for short term thinking? Of course they're gonna think short-term mainly when we have Messi winding down his years. Also they did prepare for longterm with some good signings for the team in the long term. Players they have brought and the players we have havent been up to stratch

I'm going to keep my calm despite the disappointing, heart breaking exit, but next time, you should try to interpret what I mean or read the posts in the last few pages so obviously linked to it too before getting all bullish for no reason.

There's something such as thinking both short-term and long-term by signing players that are class, but also not 28+. One of those players are Kroos who we passed on. There is something called phasing out players, yet we just this season signed a proper young CB while having an ageing core, there's something called improving the midfield and the squad which we didn't either.

Good signings for the long-term? Gomes, Paco, Denis, Rafinha definitely don't look like it.

Quality > Quantity always

If you're a sucker for the board and management then so be it, but to think they actually made those signings properly is delusion.
 
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Devils

Senior Member
People mentioning rebuilding. You do understand that is impossible right? We literally have no money. We cant sell arda for half of what we bought him, let alone Gomez and Paco. We need to sell Messi or Neymar to rebuild this squad, no other way. We are overpaying for players heavily (their wages). Iniesta is finished yet he is 3rd on payroll. Busi is close to being done, Suarez will be 30 in month, Messi as well. Its over for this team...Atupid Bartomeu, literally crashed this team into wall along with Robert and Lucho.

We are in for tough road ahead...

Don't we have the annual transfer fund + record Rakuten and Nike deals kicking in?

Realistically we need three top signing in 2 midfielders and a 1 RB. Then we need a new CB and forward who will do as backups.

We should have enough to buy those players if we take into account our sales as well. But who knows what shit you will end up with :robert: pulling the strings
 

Barcaman

Administrator
Staff member
4-3-3 was a mistake. We couldn't press Juve without a wide man on the right.
In the end Juve managed significantly more possession than PSG and thus limiting Barca's chances.
 

BBZ8800

Senior Member
1 CL in 3 years with MSN and signing whoever he wanted. Fraud. Should had left last summer. Now it'll take a few years to recover from all the damage this pos is leaving behind.

People will jump on Lucho.

I have wrote on chat a few times how much I am starting to hate our 433.
And a few things to consider:
1. having prime Xavi+Iniesta in our team
2. having prime Messi to save our asses in our team
3. teams not knowing how to defend against 433 in the early years

During 2009 and 2011, our 433 was new and fresh (or our system), and teams SURELY didn't learn yet how to neutralize it, like today.
So, yes, we have weaker players today than back then, but still, even with prime Xavi+Iniesta+Messi+Alves, imo, our classic version of 433 would struggle against physically strong teams who knows how to park 2 buses infront of their box and we don't have an answer then.

What happened with 433 after early years in 2009 and 2011?
2012: Chelsea and bad luck
2013. Bayern, 0:7. 433 absolutely neutralized and unable to create any chances.
2014: Atletico, 1:2. We scored 1 goal in 180 minutes. We were neutralized and had zero ideas how to score.
2015: we won a CL, due to MSN's individual brilliance and insane momentum of our team.
2016: Atletico again. 2:3 on aggregate. We scored both goals against a 10-men Atletico. In 11 vs 11, we didn't have any ideas how to get past 2 buses infront of their goal.
2017: Juventus, 0:3 on aggregate. More or less, it felt like watching the same match (2010 Inter, 2013 Bayern, 2014 Atletico, 2016 Atletico over again).
I don't know how others feel, but for me personally, I am really having a horrible deja vu, and whenever we go out, we go out in an exactly the same way, without the ability to create clear chances (even today we didn't create more than 1-2 clear chances) and we look clueless. We can't break down teams through the middle, we aren't dangerous through flanks anymore and when we cross, there is no one to head the ball into a net since we play with short players.

Also, Pique going in attack, again a deja vu of 2010.
7 years have passed and our formation/tactics/system/whatever/plan B evolved by 0%.

I hear people talking on chat and here on forums how 433 is the best thing and the best thing in a history of football.
And how this is not formation's fault, but fault of Lucho or our poor RB and midfielders.

But once again:
2012, 2013, 2014, 2016: in majority of these years:
1. we had Xavi+Iniesta
2. we had prime Messi
3. we had RB Alves
= and yet 433 failed in majority of matches against any physical team who knows how to play defense.

So, when people say that we only need better players and that GOAT 433 (lel) will work again, please, can someone explain me HOW?
1. even if we buy Verratti and any player in the world, what then?
What with Messi?
He won't play as a RW.
We can't play 433 since he will drift in the middle.
Messi as a CAM also won't work, a formation won't be balanced.
So, what is the option? 433 can work only if we remove Messi (which is insane).
Further, if prime 433 with Messi+Iniesta+Xavi+Alves managed to win only 1 CL in the last 6 years, HOW ON EARTH will a new 433 without Xavi/Iniesta/Alves and one day without Messi work against physically strong teams?

I have heard replies that 433 gave us all glory in the last 10 years.
Again, we had prime Xavi+Iniesta+Alves+Messi.
Currently we have only Messi. Xavi is gone, Iniesta is not a guy whom he used to be, Alves is gone.
433 gave us all the glory, but we had prime Messi to save our asses each time.
Prime Messi would possibly turn any formation into a godlike formation.
So, it is still hard to tell whether 433 was that godlike, or it was just good and Messi alone turned it into a godlike.

Also, was 433 ever tested without Xavi+Iniesta+Messi?

I know that 451 is quite similar to 433, but we will (imo) need something new.
Either 343 (but without Alba in any combination), or 442 or 451.
With the current 433, we just seem as if we play with 10 men and as if we don't have midfield. (I know, people will say that we have poor midfielders and that we don't have Alves. But then again, since we will never again have Xavi+Iniesta and since La Masia is dry, how do you think that we will get even close to a prime 433, which already DIDN'T work against physical teams, even with prime Xavi+Iniesta+Alves+Messi once our opponents figured our how to neutralize BARCA's version of 433).

Some replied on a chat that most of big teams play 433 (Real for example).
But their 433 isn't actually great at all.
They score like 30% of goals from corners, penalties and crosses which have nothing to do with "a classic idea of a 433".
Plus, they are helped by Refs in La liga and in a CL.
So, to some extent, a pure footballing version of Real's 433 really isn't working too well, when you remove ref's help and headers after corners.

Anyway, I am extremely pissed at 433 lately.
It SURELY isn't working with our current team.
But still, I don't see it working anymore even if we buy Verratti and Bellerin.

Times have changed, teams defend differently.
We will need to move some players differently.
Plus, we will need a plan B and a different plan in building a team.
Era of buying 170 cm tall players is gone.
It worked in 2009 and 2011, but even Pep, a father of TikiTaka, never won a CL trophy later in his career WITHOUT Messi+Xavi+Iniesta.
So, in my eyes, it is still hard to tell whether 433 was that great or 433 worked perfectly ONLY when Barca and Spain had Xavi (probably the most perfect player in a history of football, to play in a 433) and without prime Messi who raised 433 (and any formation) to a whole new level.

So, in a world without Xavi, Iniesta, Alves, prime Messi and in a world where opponents learned how to neutralize Barca's version of 433, our 433 is not and imo it won't work anymore. (Or it WILL work, but in this way: good enough to beat Arsenal, City, Psg and similar teams, but will fail over and over against Bayern, Juve, Atletico and physical teams).

In the last 5 years (without a winning year 2015), 433 managed to score 1 goal in 8 matches of knockout rounds against physically tougher teams, even with Alves, Xavi and Iniesta:
2013: Bayern 0:3, 0:4
2014: Atletico 1:1, 0:1
2016: Atletico 2:1 (10men Atletico), 0:2
2017: Juventus 0:3, 0:0

That means that our beloved 433 managed to score 1 goal in roughly 670-680 minutes against physically tougher teams.
433's lovers, please think a little about it.
And remember that our team can only be worse in terms of quality than back then and that opponents will only know even better how to defend against our 433.
 
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DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
Sad ending to his tenure.

Perhaps we can salvage something in the league, but I guess Lucho will just fuck it up again by fielding Gomes, Denis, Arda, Mathieu in an away game.
 

gatsu

New member
The greatest plague that has touched Barca in its recent history.

A cancer who I hope will never coach a football team again.
 

GetIn

New member
Thanks for the treble and double and copa this year hopefully. Tactically inept, but did not have players that were up for it either this year.
 

Devils

Senior Member
The smartest thing he ever did was announcing he'd be leaving in March.

It's almost like he knew the finish of this season was going to be a complete disaster. Now the fans wont boo him, the board feel no pressure sack him and he can walk into the Bernabeu on Sunday and get annihilated without giving a shit.
 

Flavius

Member
I really hope for a class manager, not 3rd tier coach, or assistants.... Just find someone with personality and intelligent.
 

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