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It's really been nothing but downhill since our first two games with him, hasn't it? You're not a great coach, Ronald, but noone can take away those two games against Villareal and Celta.

I see Gavi and Nico as very different players, though. Gavi is better in tight spaces - probably a crack in rondos - but there is more thought behind Nico's actions. He's also a bit dull in his movement, though. Not exactly what you want in a midfielder in 2021. Both of them seem like they...

Please don't get fooled by his flair of movement. Go to lower division football and you'll find one of these types in every other team. Analyse what actually comes from his actions.

Subtrack the wavy biomechanics and this is mostly side passes plus a few long balls. Think I might have been wrong hyping him up last year but the B-team seems like a good option for now.

just watching this again all actions 0:11 - fine i guess 0:16 - nice one but nothing special 0:19 - bad, inexcusable 0:30 - fine i guess 0:36 - good 0:41 - fine 0:52 - fine (balance doesn't exactly look reassuring) 0:59 - fine 1:02 - not terrible but certainly not good 1:09 - fine 1:15 -...

I really don't see what we have to lose, playing 4-2-3-1. People say it didn't work last time, well what do you call what we're doing right now? Is this working? Depay. Ansu. Griez. Demir. Pedri. De Jong. Griezmann will provide work in the middle to reach some kind...

he's good when he's the locus of attacking activity but basically useless when not. if we want to use him, then he should play as a 10 in a 4-2-3-1. otherwise sell.

christ, his subs are a joke did i count right that we ended the game with 5 defenders, 1 attacker and 4 cms?

His connection with Messi was one of the last positives offsetting his deficits. With that gone, he's not got much left.

i have a couple of concerns. most salient is probably his tendency to run himself into blocks and blind alleys.

Yeah calm down a bit mate, there's a difference between a disinterested assessment of what type of player he is and an excuse. You can say he's been shit all day long and i'd agree with you. That doesn't change the fact that as a player, he's more suited to a direct style where there's only one...

Well, with Messi, our style involved intricate fluctuations of tempo and Dembele was never really able to crack the logic of that style, when to put on the break and when to step on the gas. I think this constantly being out of sync, not sure what to do, stifled him a lot. He clearly thrived in...

he would actually fare much, much better now in post-Messi but moot point since he's most definitely going to get injured again and again

Right so if I'm understanding you correctly, then there was apparently a rigid, non-contingent game plan in place that prohibited Pedri from helping out with beating the pressure and maintaining general possession and that is why he wasn't involved in the game, and that you're in no way making...

If you aren't involved in the game as a midfielder, then that's on you. The coach gives instructions and those are based on certain presuppositions. Those presuppositions might be miscalculated or they might change. When they do, are you expecting the coach to stop the game and call for a...

I agree. When you have two players in midfield who are fairly easy to neutralize with organized pressure, then then whole midfield is drowned out. If one of either Busi or Pedri were more mobile, it would free up space for the other one to do their thing, get their own flow going. But two out of...

congratulations to him, we were still dominated last night

absolutely ridiculous to imply that Iniesta had a 'support role'. he wasn't some Ozil drifter with sporadic dribble tours and through balls. he was absolutely instrumental in maintaining possession, cooling off the game as soon as it heated up. he was there for 90 minutes right in the engine room.

convenient cop out, isn't it? doesn't matter how you're positioning yourself as a midfiedler - if you go 10-15 minutes without touching the ball while your team is struggling, then you're doing something wrong. also, i'd be willing to excuse it if he actually delivered something from that...

Our midfield yesterday: Frenkie 1,2 touches pr. minute. Busquets 0,9 touches pr. minute. Pedri 0,7 touches pr. minute. yes, he's tired but this is the type of player he is. likes to hang back and wait his turn. frenkie goes and makes it his turn. that's the difference. doesn't matter how...