CL : Barca - Olympiakos 6-1

[Porque]

Yeah I agree, especially with that first line. His tactics are too volatile and too much of a lottery.

His tactics are also extremely athleticism dependent, more so than actual football ability, and I dislike that in a coach. As @Messi983 says, it is no surprise your players are dropping like flies. This guy expects them to be the fittest team on the planet. And when you look at most of these players, they aren't even the most athletic of footballers. Yet this guy is trying to make them play as such. He has no depth yet he's making these guys try to run so hard when there's still 7 months of the season left. Seriously, is the guy stupid?

I just think he's too dogmatic and stuck to his system, and won't change it even in the face of it falling apart. He's like a better Ruben Amorim, in that respect.

I don't even like his system when it does work. I think his ultra high line is absolute dogshit and relies on a lot of luck and fine margins, even when it does work.

That's fair. Conversely. I enjoy his football because from the end of the LE era up until Flick our football was way too safe, Pitty pasa, Messi and inshallah with physicality taking a backseat.

So it has been what I have wanted to see Barca play like since the death of tiki taka.

But yes he does take it to extremes, but in a more balanced and nuanced way than Bobby Robson did for us.

And when we hit form, it was entertaining to watch with our players top level technical, or already the three/four of them.

I think we beaten this track as well as we could have. Come June one of us will be right, or more right than the other .

So to more important matters. Absolum. Did you have a flutter at it? It's launch price is only about 20GBP. I'm gonna watch a play through on it in a bit since it seems the CL games are over already.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

"Barca doesn't have elite players and Flick makes it worse with his tactics"
This is, basically, what you are saying.

Fact that Barca remains among top contenders is testament to Flick. Having to play with Scezny, Roony, Dro, Rashford (who was dead a year ago), Martin, grandpa Lewa, Eric, etc.

He's a miracle worker.

True. We haven't given him much. He is a miracle worker for me. Especially last season. Now his team has come back to earth a bit.

 

[Maradona37]

That's fair. Conversely. I enjoy his football because from the end of the LE era up until Flick our football was way too safe, Pitty pasa, Messi and inshallah with physicality taking a backseat.

So it has been what I have wanted to see Barca play like since the death of tiki taka.

But yes he does take it to extremes, but in a more balanced and nuanced way than Bobby Robson did for us.

I think we beaten this track as well as we could have. Come June one of us will be right, or more right than the other .

So to more important matters. Absolum. Did you have a flutter at it? It's launch price is only about 20GBP. I'm gonna watch a play through on it in a bit since it seems the CL games are over already.

It's 100mph football and lacks nuance and subtlety. His football beats you over the head with a hammer. I don't like that, or the German style of coaching in general (even though I rate Klopp).

Also, none of these German coaches can defend adequately. We see it in BL too, with scored like 6-4 every week.

Nah I haven't had a go of it yet, but I will. Thanks. Not been playing games at all. I did buy the new Jonathan Wilson World Cup book in hardcover though, and look forward to reading that, if I can drag myself away from here. I was doing well not posting for a week or two then came back.

Going back to Barca - I don't take any pride in saying the team is overrated and Flick is overrated. It isn't an anti-Barca thing. I don't enjoy it like I enjoy United's woefulness.

I'd like to sit here and say all the players are brilliant and Flick is a genius, but that would be a massive lie in my estimation. I will admit I have been rather vocal about it in the last few hours though. If anything that shows I want Barca to do well as a neutral - it's frustrating that this team is not the Barca of old and that the coach won't change.

 

[ZenI]

We won, we would have won even if they didn't get that ridiculous red card. We play much better in CL than LL and we play much better in the second half. Sure, still may things to worry about... Yamal is more flashy but than substance this season, Olmo is nowhere to be found, we miss Inigo and how he was leader, Casado is meh compared to last season, Kounde forgot how to play etc etc etc. ut even though I feel we might not win LL and only get to quarter in CL I still think we'll do better than last 3 games before tonight.

 

[Maradona37]

We won, we would have won even if they didn't get that ridiculous red card. We play much better in CL than LL and we play much better in the second half. Sure, still may things to worry about... Yamal is more flashy but than substance this season, Olmo is nowhere to be found, we miss Inigo and how he was leader, Casado is meh compared to last season, Kounde forgot how to play etc etc etc. ut even though I feel we might not win LL and only get to quarter in CL I still think we'll do better than last 3 games before tonight.

Yeah, finishing (maybe a fairly distant) second in La Liga (third if Atletico can get a great run going) and getting to the QF of the CL (dependent on draw) is what I would see as a safe bet for the season.

If I was staking my life on it right now I would say 2nd in La Liga and QF of the CL, semis at a push.

But that's not good enough for Barca.

 

[MonteCuler]

Flick is a transitional solution. You're right in that a great deal of our players are overrated. And what are we supposed to do? Get a Barça philosophy coach and ask him to build a complete possesion based superteam with those players?

It's an option, but one that would fail. And we would have to wait maybe a decade or more to finally become the absolute top again, to get the world class players and become "true Barça" again

Flick uses different philosophy. Ruthless, efficient football with many variables, a lot of things that are not calculable, pure chaos football that you have no idea what it will bring. But it can work with players of much lower quality. He makes everything incredibly easy for the attackers. High risk high reward

Laporta opted to take the risk. He wanted to hire Flick even earlier. And it has brought him success. If you compare 23/24 and 24/25 seasons, it clearly has. Not only have we won 3 trophies and gone deep in CL but our reputation has completely transformed. Barça was basically a joke since 2018/19 up until Flick arrived. Now it's again one of the very top sides

With our financial situation we should be absolutely shit and unserious. We have many positions we would have to reinforce but there is no money to do it. And Deco and Laporta pretend there is no need to do it because they have Flick and rely on him to do some magic with Lewandowski or Ferran or Martin or fuck knows who. When we have money to sign proper footballers we can dream of being prime Barça again. Until then we stick to Flickball and trust Flick

 

[Kul_z]

In normal circumstances, if we had money we would cover the cracks(rb,lb,elite cb, and probably an wc attacker) and we would be pretty much heavy favourites to win everything. Right now we are at the point that you just dont know what edition of some of our players we would get in the match.
When you see what chances we let opponents to have, its a miracle we didnt get spanked properly yet.
We are playing bundesliga football on global scale and we are the most entertaining and bets open team right now. We aint winning shit until flick doesnt find some miracle formula to shut down chance after chance opponents get in minutes where our players look lost( it last for 5-10min) until they get their shit together.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

This team needs leadership. Who is the leader of this team right now? Martinez helped the defense so much.

 

[Kul_z]

This team needs leadership. Who is the leader of this team right now? Martinez helped the defense so much.

Puyol like figure to slap the shit out of lamine would be ideal. There is no player in the world right now who can come in this team and become a leader, well there is one but he aint coming back.

 

[jaype]

never a second yellow, might not even be a foul. But it's good to see that refs can fuck up in our favor once in a blue moon.

 

[Maradona37]

Flick is a transitional solution. You're right in that a great deal of our players are overrated. And what are we supposed to do? Get a Barça philosophy coach and ask him to build a complete possesion based superteam with those players?

It's an option, but one that would fail. And we would have to wait maybe a decade or more to finally become the absolute top again, to get the world class players and become "true Barça" again

Flick uses different philosophy. Ruthless, efficient football with many variables, a lot of things that are not calculable, pure chaos football that you have no idea what it will bring. But it can work with players of much lower quality. He makes everything incredibly easy for the attackers. High risk high reward

Laporta opted to take the risk. He wanted to hire Flick even earlier. And it has brought him success. If you compare 23/24 and 24/25 seasons, it clearly has. Not only have we won 3 trophies and gone deep in CL but our reputation has completely transformed. Barça was basically a joke since 2018/19 up until Flick arrived. Now it's again one of the very top sides

With our financial situation we should be absolutely shit and unserious. We have many positions we would have to reinforce but there is no money to do it. And Deco and Laporta pretend there is no need to do it because they have Flick and rely on him to do some magic with Lewandowski or Ferran or Martin or fuck knows who. When we have money to sign proper footballers we can dream of being prime Barça again. Until then we stick to Flickball and trust Flick

Fair enough.

 

[Givenchy]

Last season we got by outscoring the opposition with a largely shit defense. This season, the frontline isn't firing bar Rashford and the backline is even worse than last season!

Araujo-Christensen NOW. I want to cut Cubarsi some slack as he's still very young esp in terms of CBs but it's starting to piss me off watching him. Eric can play RB for the stoned Kounde. Eric-Cubarsi CB duo is a huge clanger from Hansi, never again.

 

[JamDav1982]

Last season we got by outscoring the opposition with a largely shit defense. This season, the frontline isn't firing bar Rashford and the backline is even worse than last season!

Araujo-Christensen NOW. I want to cut Cubarsi some slack as he's still very young esp in terms of CBs but it's starting to piss me off watching him. Eric can play RB for the stoned Kounde. Eric-Cubarsi CB duo is a huge clanger from Hansi, never again.

Most of the front line actually have decent goals/assists for minutes played.

Its just all very chaotic and feels like little control or by design.

 

[Richard.H]

Yeah I agree, especially with that first line. His tactics are too volatile and too much of a lottery.

His tactics are also extremely athleticism dependent, more so than actual football ability, and I dislike that in a coach. As @Messi983 says, it is no surprise your players are dropping like flies. This guy expects them to be the fittest team on the planet. And when you look at most of these players, they aren't even the most athletic of footballers.

To be fair, nearly all top teams are playing this way. They require far more athleticism than ever before. What he's doing isn't much different than the likes of PSG, Liverpool, Man City, Bayern. It's more so the way modern football is rather than a Flick tactic.

 

[Maradona37]

To be fair, nearly all top teams are playing this way. They require far more athleticism than ever before. What he's doing isn't much different than the likes of PSG, Liverpool, Man City, Bayern. It's more so the way modern football is rather than a Flick tactic.

Which is why 'modern football' is mostly bollocks.

Fucking rudimentary who can run the fastest and longest, and who is the strongest, who can press the best, utter utter shite.

The sort of environment where a donkey like Mason Mount can thrive.

If I wanted to watch athletes I'd watch track and field all the time. I wanna watch footballers.