Search results

OK, he is having a problem these days, caused by the clearly excessive speed. He is at his best at light warp speed, which pretty much every time leaves every teammate in the dust. Like every single one of the Barca forwards, if can can get one or two to go in, I think the spigot will gush...

This has been a rather long slump for la pulga, by his standards. I'm trying to be patient, he did play better yesterday. Except for the shooting.

Well, Barca played its best game in a while, except for shooting. There are two players who are now at the top of their form: Ter Stegen and Pique. Although the Barca defense does bend, they have been quite resilient recently, which has prevented disaster during these weeks and weeks of very...

I'd say that Vidal has earned some bench time, off of his recent staring performances. S. Roberto plays like a Barca player, and he has a proven history in big games. He is not small, which should help against this physical, athletc Lyon team. It is good to have players available on the bench...

I see only one player on this year's squad who has been underperforming, poor Coutinho. The development of the younger players has been going quite well this season, and the team has survived the Umtitti injury quite well. I think Valverde has been doing a good job of giving the chances to the...

What I'd like to see is Suarez coming out of the game around the 60 minute mark. Messi knows how to rest during games. About the only rotation woud be something like Busquets and Rakitic splitting this game.

Valverde has done better developing the young players and squad depth this year than last year. In particular, the performances from Arthur, Lenglet and recently Dembele have been gratifying. Valverde is now allowing Alena the playing time to develop into an important squad member. Valverde...

Lots of forwards in this squad list. Looks like Sergi Roberto is the coverage at 4 positions.

It was a really good career move for him to retire as a right back after that bad injury last year. Now that he is a midfielder, he might continue to play for a few more years. And play well.

When Barca is on defense, Vidal does great. But in the passing game, not good. Should be the #5 choice in midfield, not the #3.

Not too many of the players are now at their best. Ter Stegen, yes. Pique is playing really well, Lenglet is good. Most of the rest of the key players must continue to play big minutes because the team has no viable alternatives. But Coutinho has to go to the bench now, must go with Dembele...

Most offensive players run hot or cold. Coutinho has a lot of experience, I expect him to make a good effort to turn things around. Might work, might not. Unless his performance improves over the next few months, I'm sure he'll go elsewhere before next season. Lots of teams will bid for him...

Well, he clearly has better speed than Neymar. To even be compared to Neymar, at only 18 years old! He just destroyed Atletico Madrid, who do have a reputation for defense. I hate Real Madrid, but now I want to see them play. Hard to predict quite how he will develop, but this is the type of...

Bilbao has not been good this season, but I dread any game without Alba. His substitutes have been absolutely disastrous this season. If you want to criticize Barca management, having no viable substitute for Alba might be top of the list. Need Messi for this one, to make up for the Bilbao...

There's nothing wrong with his fitness. Real played some good defense to keep Messi from getting too many chances. It is clear that Messi demanded, or the team decided, that he would not start the first leg of Copa matches this season. This is strategy for the long, 3 competition season for a...

Yowsa. Bale is toast with RM, they've got to play this kid. He is electric, and he fits so well with a counterattacking team like RM.

Madrid started the game full speed, to take advantage of the slow Marca starts in these 2 leg ties. This is a quite a Barca problem, when the opponents are of high quality. I though only Malcom started the match with the intensity that RM brought. Barca did create enough scoring chances...

Malcom starting weakens the team a whole bunch, since he has shown close to nothing at all in his previous starts. He has been occasionally OK as a sub. No Messi, no Dembele, will this produce no goals? With Semedo and Malcom on the field at the same time, just advancing the ball into the...

Messi misses practices a few times a year when he needs rest. A day or two of inactivity might be all he needs.

Without Suarez, we lose to Valencia. He penetrated the Valencia defense, going 1 vs. 8. Vidal followed, received the perfect pass, then dropped the ball off to Messi. Without Suarez this season, this team would be nowhere near as good.