La Liga Round 31: Barca - Espanyol 4-1

Would like to see Kounde play and go with Cancelo RB and try to offer more support for Yamal v Atleti and take that gamble.

What do you even lose defensively with Kounde out? He is awful 1v1 and like did in midweek knows it and gives wide players far too much room to get ball in.

Would play Balde LB as Rashford if plays there isnt really the one to connect with other players anyway.

Araujo, Cubarsi have to play and would go Gavi, Casado in midfield.

Ferran LW, Olmo AM, Roony RW and Lewa CF.
 
What did Lookman do vs Kounde 1 vs 1 on Wednesday? Absolutely nothing. Kounde is the only defender in our backline with any kind of experience playing at an elite level.
 
serghei said:
What did Lookman do vs Kounde 1 vs 1 on Wednesday? Absolutely nothing. Kounde is the only defender in our backline with any kind of experience playing at an elite level.
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Kounde as he always does was miles stopping the player crossing for 2-0.

Does it time and again as so bad 1v1 he struggles and backs off.
 
JamDav1982 said:
Kounde as he always does was miles stopping the player crossing for 2-0.

Does it time and again as so bad 1v1 he struggles and backs off.
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Yeah, because he was caught 1 vs 2 again. Look at the play. Fullbacks don't stay close to the player touching the sideline.

At that goal maybe you should question why 2 CBs aren't enough to mark just one AM threat - Sorloth.
 
No he wasnt.. he was far too far off Ruggeri and slowed down yds away from him with hands behind back.

Awful defending from wide as usual and too easy to get ball in.
 
He has a player unmarked in front of him. In a more central position, you don't go wide to mark Ruggeri and leave that player open to receive.These are defending basics.
 
What you say is never done in defending. Back 4 stays compact and block more central positions, at the expense of wide players receiving. That's just a cross in the box, that Garcia and Martin should have solved. We have numerical superiority with Garcia and Martin both having Sorloth under marking, and he owns both.
 
serghei said:
What you say is never done in defending. Back 4 stays compact and block more central positions, at the expense of wide players receiving. That's just a cross in the box, that Garcia and Martin should have solved. We have numerical superiority with Garcia and Martin both having Sorloth under marking, and he owns both.
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No Kounde is slow to get out to the threat of ball in and leaves far too much room for cross in as always does and been pointed out for years.

Even Barca media are reporting on this action and it being something club are losing patience with him on.

Gerard doesnt defend well and Garcia concedes a goal that MATS would get hounded for in middle of goal right at him.
 
Barcelona media are doing anything to protect their Catalan players from La Masia. Nothing new. I just call it as I see it. Kounde caught between 2, prioritizes compactness as he should, ball is wide, Garcia and Martin don't handle the one threat they have under supervision. CB-pair failure. Not a big error since Sorloth is a top 9 and these 2, Garcia and Martin, are makeshift CBs. Both played as fullbacks last season vs Inter.
 
serghei said:
Barcelona media are doing anything to protect their Catalan players from La Masia. Nothing new.
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Not really and they are reporting club are losing patience with him and can see why he defends wide players poorly in same way time and again.

If anything he has got away with a lot of this defending before reported on.
 
serghei said:
Barcelona media are doing anything to protect their Catalan players from La Masia. Nothing new. I just call it as I see it. Kounde caught between 2, prioritizes compactness as he should, ball is wide, Garcia and Martin don't handle the one threat they have under supervision. CB-pair failure. Not a big error since Sorloth is a top 9 and these 2, Garcia and Martin, are makeshift CBs. Both played as fullbacks last season vs Inter.
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He wasnt caught between two at all and had more than enough time to pressure the wide player better than did is the point.

To make out he was caught between 2 and could not do anything to get to cross quicker is not even close to reality.
 
jamrock said:
True, that was a nothing burger cross that the CBs got caught sleeping on
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Garcia does nothing. His main role there is simple. He sees Sorloth moving from him and attacking Martin. With no one to mark, Garcia has only one job, intercept the cross. But he does nothing. Marks no one and simply jogs as a non factor, leaving Martin 1 vs 1 with Sorloth.

Imagine blaming Kounde who has 2 players to block, and not Garcia who basically doesn't do anything.
 
Kounde didnt have two players... that is a lie.

Kounde reacted slowly when ball went wide and as too often its a lazy leg out to try and block the cross when can get far far tighter.
 
JamDav1982 said:
Kounde didnt have two players... that is a lie.

Kounde reacted slowly when ball went wide and as too often its a lazy leg out to try and block the cross when can get far far tighter.
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Clear as day.

Kounde has one player centrally in front of him, and one player on the side. He positions himself to be able to intervene to both, but prioritizes the central player, as he should.

Meanwhile, centrally, the situation is reversed. We have two players (Garcia here is marking Sorloth), in charge of blocking just one AM player. It is pretty clear the CB pair, having numerical superiority, 2 vs 1, should have handled Sorloth.

Screenshot-2026-04-11-at-15-26-41.png



It's funny. You slam the player dealing with 1 vs 2 situation, and not a word about 2 players who got folded by the one threat they should have covered.
 
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Also, funny as hell, regarding the slowness and laziness of Kounde. Compared to Garcia, he was Usain Bolt.

1) Action started, look at positions of Kounde and Garcia.

Screenshot-2026-04-11-at-15-41-11.png


2) Cross is made, look at how much ground Kounde recovered compared to Garcia.

If Garcia matches Kounde's speed and reaction time, he deals with the cross with no issues, before it gets to Sorloth. So, if you want to accuse someone of being slow and wasting time to get into position, and point fingers, that's Eric Garcia mate.

Screenshot-2026-04-11-at-15-41-29.png
 
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