Lliga | Round 27: FC Barcelona - Atletico Madrid 1-0

This is looking good. I hope it happens.

Ousmane Dembélé said:

Messi at RW? Dream on.

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Would be a very good idea against a team that is surely bound to crowd the midfield. Last time Messi played on Camp Nou on the right vs them we won 2-1 and he got Filipe Luiz sent off.

serghei said:

Would be a very good idea against a team that is surely bound to crowd the midfield. Last time Messi played on Camp Nou on the right vs them we won 2-1 and he got Filipe Luiz sent off.

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Well, on the other hand, it would be a bad idea, because Roberto would be exposed at RB, because he would have no cover.

serghei said:

Would be a very good idea against a team that is surely bound to crowd the midfield. Last time Messi played on Camp Nou on the right vs them we won 2-1 and he got Filipe Luiz sent off.

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Depends on who they play lm. I don't trust Roberto with one player, let alone two versus one. But yeah, if they go narrow with Koke left, say, it might work. Risky though and Valverde's anything but.

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Coutinho RM.

Joan Laporta said:

No, Chelsea example proves nothing.
Did they create any clear chance, a sitter? No, they didn't. The only chances they had were longshots. We were surprised by Willian and Valverde didn't build his tactics around him, that's a mistake, but they have a huge diversity in attack.
You couldn't even guess the formation.

If we tried to attack more, we'd be more vulnerable to counters and probably lose the game. We did well, all things considered. Nothing guarantees you we'd create more, not to mention score.

I don't expect us to win every match.
Drawing conclusion from that match on that pitch is pointless.


Look, you think if we play with Coutinho, Dembele, Messi, and Suarez we'll create more. No, we won't. Yes, Coutinho might score from distance, Dembele might counter them or pick a good cross/pass, but it'll be extremely tough to create anything.
How many chances did we create vs Juventus last season? With Neymar on the pitch? Or during Pep's era against parked buses?

I think Coutinho should start as he could be useful.

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Lol comparing last season and this season with is totally different and u even bring Neymar in lol. Drawing conclusions from one Girona match is equally pointless.

Your point is "being prone to counters", then yes we were vulnerable as hell if you were to keep drawing conclusions to the Girona match. We did concede as well against Espanyol countless times. We even failed to create anything against Getafe. And then u go on and say "Chelsea has fast and good players" and we struggle against smaller teams because we camt even go forward properly and invite them to keep exploiting our sloppiness and timidness. We have drawn 4 of our last 7 games, it's equally bad but then u will always find some excuse to say yeah, we cant win every match.

Yes we will create more and transition 10x better, with Paulinho we dont do any better since he contributes almost nothing, won almost zero duels and did not manage to win the ball back, except for commiting a few fouls. We will still play 4231/442 but with Dembele and it's not even a 433.

We never solidly tried to play good attack for once and u underestimating the likes of Coutinho and Dembele against dogshit teams like Las Palmas is delusional. "I dont think they will be able to do anything... they might counter."

Fking hell. Give me a damn break. They have the worst defence in La Liga and u think our attack wont do shit. Playing too safely is never good as well because we never exploit their vulnerabilties and the constant paranoia will only backfire and change the mentaltity of the game. That's why Las Palmas was able to exploit our vulnerbilities instead and look strong as the game progresses.

When Coutinho and Dembele subbed on it was too late. They were trying to defend their lead, instead the 1-0 open game would have been more easily exploited but we didnt. And we have only ourselves to blame for that.

Anyway, Coutinho plays on RM now which is a good sign that Dembele will come on the second half. It will be much better than the usual lineup.

I hope Coutinho is not RM. Opponents handle him better if they know he cant take a shot. And it's very hard for him to shoot at goal from the right, knowing that he is a right footed player. Almost all his great goals are with him coming from the left inside.

Well, I hope it's 4-4-2 diamond, like we played against Madrid, but this time with Coutinho at CAM.

pepi said:

View attachment 7726 This is looking good. I hope it happens.

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Might just be it, really hoping this is it and not Coutinho on the right, where he didn't impress at all, and he's much more of a threat from the left because of his long range shots, which could be decisive, if we can't break down Atleti's defense through penetrating.

It seems that Atletico are going more attacking than usual. 2 strikers.

I just hope EV would sub on Dembele early during halftime, but I doubt that. He is just too paranoid but I feel they will provide more energy. Not sure grandpa Iniesta will able to withstand the intensity... if we dont take the lead I'm sure Iniesta will play close to 70 mins or more.

Coutinho RW didn't work so far but who knows...

FCBfan22 said:

It seems that Atletico are going more attacking than usual. 2 strikers.

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Ateltico have played with two strikers for years.

Judging from Atleti's lineup, they will try to press us and that's potentialy where Valverde made a mistake of not playing Dembele, because we could use his pace.

FCBfan22 said:

Judging from Atleti's lineup, they will try to press us and that's potentialy where Valverde made a mistake of not playing Dembele, because we could use his pace.

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Usually they go for a high press in the first 10 mins. and regardless if they get a goal or not, they go back to their deep defensive block. But if they do get a goal after that initial pressing period, it's hard to turn the match around and beat them.