AjanleKoko:

Messi usually comes out at the beginning of the year like this.
I've observed him in the last 3 seasons. He is usually stronger in the second half of the season than the first.

Na only God sabi wetin he dey go do for Argentina during Xmas

Well, there's a certain Antonella Roccuzo. I guess she gives him some kind of treatment that we may never understand.

Does anyone else think another reason for Messi's great performance was Fabregas being benched? Not that they don't get along or anything but it seems when Fabregas plays, he kinda takes Messi's forward position and Messi drops a bit deeper to help the build up. We saw Messi finally making some runs today rather than passing the ball off to his teammates.

Orton1_0:

   
Chairman console yourself, its very much allowed. Like really, Busquets? 
LOL.
The very day i see Busquets in the same paragraph as Makalele, in any History book, I'll scratch off and eat my own face.

busquets is better than makelele in all attributes.
techniques, agility, vision, strength and even positioning. makelele tackles but busquets intercepts. . . .
in modern football, interception reigns supreme over tackling.

hannie:

Shut the bleep up Gbenga!!!
na so you dey rant about Riquelme the other time as if say na god of football . . .
why u too dey like overhype player so as to say na u first highlight how great the player go come be?

riquelme is a god of football.
german fans would tell you they were able to beat argentina in 2006 world cup because riquelme got subbed by their idiotic manager.
riquelme has done more for argentina than messi.

na wa 4 u o
imagine yapping tosh that Biscuits is the unsong hero of Barca . . .who come be the SUNG hero? Adriano? Cuenca?
abegiiiiii

sergio busquets?
you know what - watch the return leg of the copa del rey this week and pay particular attention to busquets.
see what he does - how he ensures possession is retained, how he offers himself as an outlet and how he reacts when barcelona are under attack.
i am sure you would beat up alex song the next time you see him for taking £50,000 per week from your club in spite of his pathetic display week in week out!

medjai:

Well, there's a certain Antonella Roccuzo. I guess she gives him some kind of treatment that we may never understand.

Does anyone else think another reason for Messi's great performance was Fabregas being benched? Not that they don't get along or anything but it seems when Fabregas plays, he kinda takes Messi's forward position and Messi drops a bit deeper to help the build up. We saw Messi finally making some runs today rather than passing the ball off to his teammates.

i saw this line of argument a lot in totatbarca and i don't really want to believe it, rather i will like to believe that messi may have finally picked his away form. If u may still want to advance this argument, then u may like to wonder why the same messi- and of course fabregas playing upfront- has scored 18 times at home.

Johnpaul88:

i saw this line of argument a lot in totatbarca and i don't really want to believe it, rather i will like to believe that messi may have finally picked his away form. If u may still want to advance this argument, then u may like to wonder why the same messi- and of course fabregas playing upfront- has scored 18 times at home.

17 times at home actually. It wasn't just the goals, it's his overall performance. The third goal for instance, the way he ghosted past Mathijsen and made a mess of the entire Malaga defence, that was classic Messi and we haven't seen alot of that this season.

i hope someone's going to send us some working links for this match?

Another El-thrashico is just a few hours from now. Let's see how dirty Moanrhino and his cohorts will get tonight, plus Penaldo's usual off-shows. Can't wait to serve those awful lots the humble pie.

Pepe was Pardoned , No wonder the outside world see spanish league as a capital JOKE , Balotelli made an attempt and he'll be facing four matches , Imagine ? Anyway i hope they throw a pig's head on pepe today or they pour hot Catalan Urine on him . We're carrying the night, i hope they won't break each other's legs tonight because Cesc ain't happy with Alonso . Anyway sha whatever they do we are Emerging Victorious and Moumurinho will pee in his proud pants tonight , VISCA EL BARCA

@medjai, that's right. We hope to see alot of that from him, when he leaves defenders for dead at his wake.

We expect to see a good match today and a barca win of course!
Visca el Barca!

Tonight they exit the Cope de rey!!

wetin dey happen na? They could have easily handed us a manita since. Thank God for Agent Pipita

You don't mean it! 2:0 already

Don's been pretty unlucky with injuries so far this season. This is like his fifth injury this season. Tore his hamstring it seems.

medjai:

Don's been pretty unlucky with injuries so far this season. This is like his fifth injury this season. Tore his hamstring it seems.

Arm injury it is.

Our defenders are aging, man

Crazy match!

We started nervously, gained in strength and rounded off the 1st half with 2 goals.

We started the 2nd half confidently and became over-confident and wasteful, as has happened too often this season, though never in the Camp Nou, apart from the Betis match. At the end we barely held off for the win. A third goal to Madrid would have led to an embarrassing exit from the Copa for us.

Our defenders simply switched off after a while and Abidal was well beaten by Ozil several times. I think Pep should avoid using Puyol and Abidal together when playing fast-paced teams, as they're both slower due to age. Masch has been our best defender this season and his tackles have saved us several goals.

Our passing wasn't crisp and we thus couldn't dominate the midfield as we usually would. Cesc seems more at home in the false 9 role than the Iniesta role. Thiago was a bit nervous in this match, but I'm sure he can hold his own against weaker teams in the league.

Messi looked tired towards the end - I hope Pep will grow some liver and sub him off when we're winning matches comfortably in the league.

Finally, I really, really hope that the injuries to Iniesta & Sanchez are only minor.

They took the game to us! We got too complacent in the game. And in as much as i hate to admit it, Madrid left off with some whiff of pride. Glad we knocked them off the competition.

I was disappointed,this was an opportunity for us to destroy madrid morale thus cause more havoc between Mou and Perez.Madrid are now motivated from todays game to go ahead and win laliga.they have been the better team tonight and if they had take their chances,im afraid they could have been 3 goals up in the first 20mins.the absence of iniesta from our midfield really disrupt our game plans,cesc is good no doubt but Iniesta was the player we needed to open up the play for us,we could not have the ball they way we suppose to even when we win the ball back we really never threatening madrid in the second half,we kept trying to use the wings even when it was obvious either pedro or Alexis were lacking the skills  to pass their men and deliver a good cross,ALexis was very tied and needed to be sub but then they were no close replacement on the bench.our squad is too tiny,any injury to one or two key players will really ruein our chancesof winnng silverware this season.against all odd we in the semi,i wish iniesta quick recovery and congratz to u all.

As FC Barcelona’s official website reports, initial
examinations on midfielder Andrés Iniesta have
confirmed that the player has a slight tear in the
hamstring of his left leg. The player exited the Copa
del Rey against Real Madrid in the 29th minute with
the injury, being replaced by Pedro. This Thursday
the player will undergo more tests to determine the
exact extent of the injury and the projected recovery
time.
Alexis, for his part, has pulled a muscle in his left
shoulder. He will be out approximately one to two
weeks.

This leg we were extremely lucky to go through, Madrid should've put this game to bed early.
However its not the defensive lapses in the first few minutes I am worried about, that's kinda been our thing for a while now. Once again the issue is how we shape up in attack.
We have no form, its as if the attacking players are just passing it around until they see an opening, there is no solid structure, and rarely any penetration from the wing.

I already explained why Fabregas' forced inclusion in the midfield has disturbed the whole rhythm of the frontline, and I feel today Illustrated that even more.

Once again Iniesta was forced to play wide, where he looked half as effective at best even in the short time he played. Fabregas is an excellent player, but while passing is great, its not at Iniesta/Xavi's level or most importantly, not nearly as consistent. If he was starting in any other midfield in the world he would've looked awesome, but when you displace someone like the Don you're always going to look underwhelming. Again we barely saw any penetration from midfield except from Messi, which was of course because Fabregas isn't that kind of player, its not really his fault though. Again Sanchez was forced to a CF role where he was really wasted, Alexis should be starting out wide period! Once Pedro came on we somewhat looked a bit like our old selves in attack with a true winger, but the drop in quality between Iniesta and Fabs in that AM role coupled with Sanchez's postion was apparent.

If Pep is insisting on starting Cesc than the position that best utilizes him without disrupting the team would be CF.


Messi bailed us out for the first goal, and it took a wonder strike to get the second. We are seeing less and less goals that were the end of our frontline's interplay like we used to see so often.

Until we revert back to the system that has been working magic the past couple of years, we will continue seeing more and more of this sort of attacking performance.

Enough rambling,

Its been a minute since I've been this nervous in a Clasico, those last 20 minutes - goodness!

I hope we don't get to meet in the CL. These classico games aren't very good for the health.

We showed character by knocking them out of the competition. We were sloopy but it was not costly after all. I do not expect the team to put in great performances game after game. This is why our win last wk in madrid was very important.

I am only sorry to see how thin our squad is. I thought at the begining of the season, that nw we have a big squad to see us through. Suddenly, we look so thin. Recurring injury to Iniesta have been a setback and it showed yesterday. Alexis should be able to shake his off soon enough.

All in all, Madrid did what anybody in their situation would have done. We would have done much better.

@Medjai, no single system last forever which is why Pep is working at various playing patterns for the team. I trust his genius and judgement and believe u should as well. We are Culeans and self-belief has been our front push. With time, we will get it right. Keeping faith wit the old system wull land us in deep s hit. We were okay to have gone invincible the last two seasons. And do u know how managers keep sleepless nights looking for antidote to break that formation? And off from the blues Pep came up with the preseason formations of 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 with us easily switching to other formations as the game drives on. That is Pep's bit of brilliance.

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/01/26/barcelona-2-2-real-madrid-tactics/

This summed up the game nicely.

medjai:
I already explained why Fabregas' forced inclusion in the midfield has disturbed the whole rhythm of the frontline, and I feel today Illustrated that even more.

Once again Iniesta was forced to play wide, where he looked half as effective at best even in the short time he played. Fabregas is an excellent player, but while passing is great, its not at Iniesta/Xavi's level or most importantly, not nearly as consistent. If he was starting in any other midfield in the world he would've looked awesome, but when you displace someone like the Don you're always going to look underwhelming. Again we barely saw any penetration from midfield except from Messi, which was of course because Fabregas isn't that kind of player, its not really his fault though. Again Sanchez was forced to a CF role where he was really wasted, Alexis should be starting out wide period! Once Pedro came on we somewhat looked a bit like our old selves in attack with a true winger, but the drop in quality between Iniesta and Fabs in that AM role coupled with Sanchez's postion was apparent.

If Pep is insisting on starting Cesc than the position that best utilizes him without disrupting the team would be CF.

So to sum up, Cesc ruined the game for Barca?

But this your analysis is fuzzy. . . In the same breath you say Iniesta played wide and Cesc couldn't replicate his quality in AM(which is funny cos i coulda sworn Cesc is by and far the best AM in our solar system), maybe he switched roles during the game?

P.S. I could have also sworn Cesc has better range in his passing than "Don", lol

@Mcle007, i love ur positivity. Clués are begining to be pessimistic. It looks now as though we never qualified against a quality opposition. Our one"bad game" now looks as though all lost. We need to take the positive aspect of this game.

On another note, i took a look at our fixtures for forseeable future. To be flank, i am really scared given our thin squad of only 13 first teamers:
1. Sat 28th: villareal vs fcb
2. Wed 1st feb: valencia vs fcb (cdr semis 1st leg)
3. Sat 4th:fcb vs real sociedad
4. Wed 8th:fcb vs valencia -cdr 2nd leg semis
5. Sat 11th: osasuna vs fcb
6. Tue 14th: bayer leverkusen vs fcb -ucl round of 16 1st leg.
7. Sat 18th: fcb vs valencia
8. Sat 25th: athletico madrid vs fcb

Isn't it scaring? I wonder how we will scale through given that most of these teams are really of high quality.
Visca el Barca!

^^
To be the best, you have to beat the best. Shikena.
Now you know why Pep is always playing Barca B boys. No need to be scared.

Mcleo007:

@Medjai, no single system last forever which is why Pep is working at various playing patterns for the team. I trust his genius and judgement and believe u should as well. We are Culeans and self-belief has been our front push. With time, we will get it right. Keeping faith wit the old system wull land us in deep s hit. We were okay to have gone invincible the last two seasons. And do u know how managers keep sleepless nights looking for antidote to break that formation? And off from the blues Pep came up with the preseason formations of 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 with us easily switching to other formations as the game drives on. That is Pep's bit of brilliance.

I understand but it ain't broke, so I wonder why Pep's trying to fix it.

ritchboy:

So to sum up, Cesc ruined the game for Barca?

No he didn't but he didn't do anything significant.

But this your analysis is fuzzy. . . In the same breath you say Iniesta played wide and Cesc couldn't replicate his quality in AM(which is funny cos i coulda sworn Cesc is by and far the best AM in our solar system), maybe he switched roles during the game?

Iniesta played wide and Cesc played as AM. Normally, that would be Iniesta's position - AM. So in order to accomodate Cesc in midfield, Iniesta was played out wide and Sanchez, as CF.

If Pep's insisting on starting Cesc then the position that best utilizes him without disrupting the team would be CF.

However, my ideal front six would be this:

Alexis/Villa -- Messi -- Pedro/Cuenca
----------Iniesta--------------------
------Xavi---------------------------
------------Busi--------------------

Fabregas would make a great impact sub for Iniesta or Xavi. He would also start some games in between to rest those two. The big difference between when he completely replaces Iniesta in the lineup and when he displaces Iniesta's while playing [b]alongside [/b]him, is that in the former case he doesn't force anyone else out of position. That same formation above with Cesc in for Andres while is a step down, still maintains the effective looking frontline. However when he simply starts [I]alongside[/I] Iniesta(as the case last night), the latter is forced out to the wing which in turn forces Alexis into CF causing the other wing to disappear totally, leaving our frontline looking a lot less effective.

Unfortunately we're currently adjusting the system to fit the players, when it should be the other way around.

Fabregas has been brilliant this season in the final third. He's thrived there but as a midfielder in deeper positions, he's had challanges playing the Barca possession game. He often looks to play very direct passes. At times that works well. At other times though it leads to careless giveaways and even more importantly – slows ball circulation.

Cesc seems to be looking to pick out the most direct pass rather than the most fluid one touch pass and this slows down how fast he moves the ball. He doesnt "dwell" on the ball. It's just different from how Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets and Thiago circulate the ball.  In a game like last night's, what we needed in midfield – especially to protect the two goal lead – we needed more composure in midfield rather than forcing direct play to take advantage of space behind the Madrid line.

P.S. I could have also sworn Cesc has better range in his passing than "Don", lol

Cesc, a better passer than Iniesta? You must be friends with Pele. He and only he is capable of such codswallop.

medjai:
Cesc, a better passer than Iniesta? You must be friends with Pele. He and only he is capable of such codswallop.

If you think Iniesta is a better passer of the ball than Cesc, you need to see a DENTIST!

There's a reason Cesc is world football's undisputed assist king with 18 - 22 assists every season while Iniesta struggles to cop 4 or 5

^^^^ Who be this bacteria seff??

ritchboy:

If you think Iniesta is a better passer of the ball than Cesc, you need to see a DENTIST!

There's a reason Cesc is world football's undisputed assist king with 18 - 22 assists every season while Iniesta struggles to cop 4 or 5

Yes Cesc is more productive but he isn't a better passer or player than Iniesta.
Of course, Cesc's gonna have racks on racks on racks of assits playing at Arsenal. Everything went through him. Corners, freekicks, everything was Cesc. Iniesta may not cop that much assits or goals but he's damn good. The best AM in the world. His contributions are beyond what stats can show. And as per stats, he had the most assits in the CL last season.

medjai:
Yes Cesc is more productive but he isn't a better passer or player than Iniesta.

Iniesta's passing can only match Cesc's at short distances, anything north of 20 yards and Iniesta is an apprentice compared to Cesc, that's why I used the term "range" initially.

Iniesta can only lay claim to being "arguably" better than Cesc in the current Barcelona setup/style, perhaps because he has a better understanding with Xavi having played with him longer(not an indictment of quality). Cesc is (in your own words) "more productive", and in any other team/system a superior midfielder.

Of course, Cesc's gonna have racks on racks on racks of assits playing at Arsenal. Everything went through him. Corners, freekicks, everything was Cesc.

Nonsense. Cesc didn't take "everything" at Arsenal. RVP (when fit) dominates all set-pieces from the right side while Cesc rotated with the likes of Arshavin, Rosicky and Nasri from the left. Can you tell us why this season Cesc has copped 12 assists already and Iniesta has just 4(3 times less than Cesc)? Maybe "everything goes through him" at Barca as well! I laugh in iCantstoplaughing

Iniesta may not cop that much assits or goals but he's damn good. The best AM in the world. His contributions are beyond what stats can show. And as per stats, he had the most assits in the CL last season.

Selective memory. . . In the spirit of isolating seasons/competitions, kindly tell us why Iniesta is yet to score a single goal in La Liga this season when it's already past the winter-break!

ritchboy:

Iniesta's passing can only match Cesc's at short distances, anything north of 20 yards and Iniesta is an apprentice compared to Cesc, that's why I used the term "range" initially.

Iniesta can only lay claim to being "arguably" better than Cesc in the current Barcelona setup/style, perhaps because he has a better understanding with Xavi having played with him longer(not an indictment of quality). Any other team/system, Cesc is a (in your own words) "more productive", and superior midfielder.


Nonsense. Cesc didn't take "everything" at Arsenal. RVP (when fit) dominates all set-pieces from the right side while Cesc rotated with the likes of Arshavin, Rosicky and Nasri from the left. Can you tell us why this season Cesc has copped 12 assists already and Iniesta has just 4(3 times less than Cesc)? Maybe "everything goes through him" at Barca as well! I laugh in iCantstoplaughing

Selective memory. . . In the spirit of isolating competitions, kindly tell us why Iniesta is yet to score a single goal in La Liga this season when it's already past the winter-break!

ritchboy, stop blaspheming. . . . .iniesta is a better player than fabregas in every department of the round leather game.

iniesta is the better dribbler and his high reluctance to give the ball away is miles better than cesc fabregas who often loses possession under pressure.
he's so dead on the ball, runs on his forefeet and his balance is as supreme as messi's - light of touch!
without his last minute goal against chelsea in 2009, i wonder what barca would have been under guardiola - they have not looked back since that night.

[flash=425,400]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzEycwDQYS0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3[/flash]

ritchboy abi kilonje,
Cesc doesn't play for ya club anymore. Leave matter for the Mathiases