La Liga | Round 1: FC Barcelona - Real Sociedad 4-2

[serghei]

Yea, get in. And bring the pressing from the front back. Haven't seen it for 6 years. Might shield our defense if we get it right and lead to easier chance creation as well as more dynamic faster football.

The team with Fati, Griezmann, Depay, Demir is very well built for sustained effort and work rate. Playing a 4-3-3 with 3 workers upfront might make it a pain in the ass for the other teams' backline.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Yea, get in. And bring the pressing from the front back. Haven't seen it for 6 years. Might shield our defense if we get it right and lead to easier chance creation as well as more dynamic faster football.

The team with Fati, Griezmann, Depay, Demir is very well built for sustained effort and work rate. Playing a 4-3-3 with 3 workers upfront might make it a pain in the ass for the other teams' backline.

Even looking at Villareal vs Chelsea. As long as your team can defend well (team effort) and you have a little bit of danger upfront, you can beat some big teams. That's football. You don't need a team full of Neymars, Messis, Suarezs (of course in an ideal situation you have these guys lol). As long as the collective effort and the quality of the players is there, we can win any team in the world.

Defense is our biggest issue and the lack of knowledge of how to play defense. If Koeman could fix that, I think we would be much harder team to beat in tournament competitions.

 

[Bobo32]

Even looking at Villareal vs Chelsea. As long as your team can defend well (team effort) and you have a little bit of danger upfront, you can beat some big teams. That's football. You don't need a team full of Neymars, Messis, Suarezs (of course in an ideal situation you have these guys lol). As long as the collective effort and the quality of the players is there, we can win any team in the world.

Defense is our biggest issue and the lack of knowledge of how to play defense. If Koeman could fix that, I think we would be much harder team to beat in tournament competitions.

Messi, Villa, Pedro was even more of an ideal situation!
Your point is good, but I think Koeman lack the vision and that his style still goes against the style best suited for the squad. But this Barcelona squad could of course win titles.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Messi, Villa, Pedro was even more of an ideal situation!
Your point is good, but I think Koeman lack the vision and that his style still goes against the style best suited for the squad. But this Barcelona squad could of course win titles.

Yeah Koeman is trying to build offensive juggernaut team out of not good enough players with naive defending.

It just doesn't work Vs the best teams. Might look occasionally great though.

 

[Gari]

Javier Tebas (La Liga President): "Barcelona's registrations? Ag?ero is injured and can sign up later, without any further problem, I think the pressure is now on for Memphis." ??

 

[jamrock]

Cant believe we may actually play Pedri.

 

[Birdy]

The team with Fati, Griezmann, Depay, Demir is very well built for sustained effort and work rate. Playing a 4-3-3 with 3 workers upfront might make it a pain in the ass for the other teams' backline.

-> I think the team will look pretty good upfront when the most advanced 3 will be Depay-Fati-Dembele
These are the most quality, and dangerous attackers we have got. With this trident we can terrorize most LaLiga teams.
There no other quality attackers in the squad, either as wide-forward/wingers or strikers.
Braithwate, Kun, and Collado can only be subs

-> Then, about Griezman, even without Messi, I doubt he can be of any use on either wing or at CF in a 4-3-3.
He has to play centrally AND not be the most advanced attacker, but rather have Fati or Braith or any striker in-front of him.
He is an AM, not a winger/wide-forward or striker.
Hence, he will never fit into a 4-3-3.
Only chance he works out is if we play 4-2-3-1 or variations of the 3-4-3 with him in the hole.

-> Exactly the same goes for Coutinho.

-> Finally Pedri and Demir are wonderful players, but both are 8s, or CAMs, and not wingers.
Even when Demir plays on the wing, he plays the position not as a winger, but as a midfielder.
Pedri did the same last season whenever Koeman used him on the left wing at the beggining.

Conclusion: Only Ansu, Depay, and Dembele can function properly in the 3 most advanced positions of a 4-3-3

 

[mdenci]

I really don't expect anything from this team this season, and that's a good thing, not just for me and my mental health, but for the players as well, the pressure will be significantly lower than previous seasons, more players will be involved in attacking movement of the team, AND I really believe that Messi leaving is the foundation stone for Xavi to take control next season. By that time, the only players with whom Xavi played with will be ter Stegen and our senior captains.

I think that throughout this season we should focus on 4-3-3, or even a 4-2-3-1 formation, getting our back line in some shape and order with an Alba/Balde-Garcia-Araujo-Dest/Emmerson lineup, with de Jong-Pedri: Dembele-Coutinho-Griezmann: Depay (4-2-3-1), or de Jong-Busi/Gavi-Pedri/Coutinho: Depay-Griezmann/Fati/Aguero-Dembele/Demir.

Given our roster for this game, I would like to see:

--------------------Neto

--------Dest - Araujo - Pique - Alba

--------------Gavi - Busi - Puig

-------Griezmann - Braithwaite - Depay

If Depay can't play, then 4-4-2 with Roberto in the mid. Subs would be Pedri, Emmerson and Menaj, considering our injury troubles.

 

[DonAK]

Friday the 13th

Have to register the players by the end of the day to be able to play this weekend I think. If not then have to wait for next weekend.

 

[jairzinho]

Laporta either has everything figured out or his just riding his luck hoping things work out.

What happens if we can't lessen wages before the end of August?

 

[S2K1985]

[MENTION=2]Barcaman[/MENTION]

Can you open the chat please? Im not @ home

 

[Nazario1985]

Laporta either has everything figured out or his just riding his luck hoping things work out.

What happens if we can't lessen wages before the end of August?

Then we're fucked.

It's either we agree on anything Tebas want or you'll have to pay players without using them + maybe a huge fee to pay LL for the already +25% on wage cap

 

[JohnN]

Even looking at Villareal vs Chelsea. As long as your team can defend well (team effort) and you have a little bit of danger upfront, you can beat some big teams. That's football. You don't need a team full of Neymars, Messis, Suarezs (of course in an ideal situation you have these guys lol). As long as the collective effort and the quality of the players is there, we can win any team in the world.

The sad part is that we used to be one of those "big teams" others would try to beat by playing like you describe.
Now, even though our budget is bigger than most teams we are just mediocre. We have been for some time now, but Messi gave us hope for something spectacular, which he delivered from time to time.
We need to sort out our defense and I don't mean full throttle pressing from the Frontline or something so radical. I mean our defense when we are facing an organized, possession attack. We are clueless in that regard.

 

[JerseyAddict]

I don't know what to expect... after so manny years I don't know what to expect when watching Barcelona.

 

[Raketa10]

Laporta either has everything figured out or his just riding his luck hoping things work out.

What happens if we can't lessen wages before the end of August?

I sincerely doubt he has a clue what is he doing. It's a pure improvisation. The Messi case showed us that. I only hope we will be able to register our new signings or this will be the most embarrassing summer ever. At the moment we are depending on Pjanic transfer to Juve and Umtiti's will to go and play elsewhere. Unbelievable things. If Juve manages to sign Locatelli we are fucked.