jpmoriarti:
What is your definition of improving?

Best teams win matches even when not playing well.

This is what Barcelona has to learn to do. This is what Real Madrid knows how to do.

For us, we must play well to win. We have to change that mindset.

There are many ways to win matches. Football matches consists of 90 minutes of play. There's no law that says you must play well the whole 90 minutes to win.

Ask yourself the last time Barcelona won 3 - 0 in Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

Yes, we were chaotic at some stage of the game. But do you really expect a walk in the park in Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan?

Real madrid were crap against Psg

They were crap against Chelsea

They were crap against Liverpool

Guess what.... they won all those games and became champions.

Sevilla was clearly on a mission yesterday, first 20 mins was already giving off signs of hard fought win for any side but with the way we hand picked their defence and scoring 3 goals (could have been more) without conceding is just ruthless. I like that

Kilishihunter:

I concur too, As good and vital as busi is, his lack of pace and strength have been brutally exposed by his age, Xavi told gavi to start marking and retrieving balls very close to him, that's why we saw that kid almost everywhere tackling and intercepting, Pjanic's long balls over the top too will really help the attackers during buildup and counterattacking transitions

Can Pjanic play as a single pivot? I am not saying Busquets is doing a fantastic job there but I don't know how Pjanic will fare in that position.

I know Xavi isn't afraid. If he feels Busquets is the weakness in the team, he'll definitely do the needful

BlaqFaze:
Real madrid were crap against Psg

They were crap against Chelsea

They were crap against Liverpool

Guess what.... they won all those games and became champions

For us, stars must align and everything perfect before we win UCL. That's why we win UCL alongside a treble or a double. Because we almost have to have a perfect season.

Real Madrid on the other hand, doesn't need to be perfect to win.

We need to learn this.

Kilishihunter:

We don't have a controller who'll stay in the middle to dictate play from the midfield, reason why xavi went for Silva, FDJ's the closest to it but he roams too much, Also in the history of barça since cruyff our FBs have been used to try and go wide to stretch the opposition before they can come back to aid the midfield when dominating play, Busi needs to see less games now because of his weakened limitations, We got several new players so you cannot expect them to gel at once and fully understand each other in just less than a month, Give them time to blend
Sevilla's defence is only shit cause of departures the other aspects are okay reason why you saw us being held down in the early stages, Also you should also think about what your own team can do to hurt other teams not them to us always, Our attack as you noted is very deadly and we are super fast with transitions, one mistake from them and we're on our way to their goalpost running at them

Bernardo is actually not a controller, infact pedri and de jong are more of controllers than Bernardo, who drifts to the wings alot. His straying off the middle is masked by the fact that guardiola uses converted wingers at city who overcompensate Bernardo's drifting by clustering the middle. Man city's structure and style of play is a delicate one.
if Bernardo had come here, I don't think it solves our problems in terms of control and midfield presence, it only aids our creativity.

Culer:
You're talking about a weakened sevilla that has failed to win any match so far this season. They've been very poor.

Yes I saw the goals.. and like I said before, we have a very good and lethal attack, that's what've been coming through for us. Otherwise we've been 'meh'.
Our midfield play hasn't been good at all so far this season.. the interiors push too forward and the full backs are too wide hugging the flank, leaving busquets somewhat isolated.
If we meet teams that press really high, we'll suffer severely and the lethal ones like Bayern will punish us.
We have to improve and I hope we do.

This is exactly what Xavi wanted. That's how to stretch an opposition team. When we hug the flanks, we force them to send a man out of position, leaving us with the possibility of finding our own free man, that is the third man. It is a difficult tactics but the team will learn it.

jpmoriarti:
This is exactly what Xavi wanted. That's how to stretch an opposition team. When we hug the flanks, we force them to send a man out of position, leaving us with the possibility of finding our own free man, that is the third man. It is a difficult tactics but the team will learn it.

this leaves us with less control of the match and makes us less dominant in possession.
So we are now more of a direct, counter attacking side under xavi.
Cool.. Let's see how it goes

jpmoriarti:
What is your definition of improving?

Best teams win matches even when not playing well.

This is what Barcelona has to learn to do. This is what Real Madrid knows how to do.

For us, we must play well to win. We have to change that mindset.

There are many ways to win matches. Football matches consists of 90 minutes of play. There's no law that says you must play well the whole 90 minutes to win.

Ask yourself the last time Barcelona won 3 - 0 in Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan.

Yes, we were chaotic at some stage of the game. But do you really expect a walk in the park in Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan?

Even man city that are the kings of ball possession literally had to park the bus for tico who specialize in haram football in the recent UCL quarters, They had to do that against ten men, If we go to betis they will still dominate us at several points, Head to tico the same thing, Valencia too, Even Vardrid that like conceding possession so they'll hit us on the counter will at one time point in time give us problems with control, Just cause we got a couple of new players doesn't mean we will be 100% in everything from start to finish, Every coach and team has his own contrasting styles and pattern which will work for or against us, it's left to xavi to adapt and beat it

Culer:
Bernardo is actually not a controller, infact pedri and de jong are more of controllers than Bernardo, who drifts to the wings alot. His straying off the middle is masked by the fact that guardiola uses converted wingers at city who overcompensate Bernardo's drifting by clustering the middle. Man city's structure and style of play is a delicate one.
if Bernardo had come here, I don't think it solves our problems in terms of control and midfield presence, it only aids our creativity.

Inverted wingers allow your fullbacks to thrive. We also try to apply similar pattern at Barca. Bellerin will be very pivotal if he stays fit. The inverted winger can also hug the flanks and allow the fullback to drift inwards.

You don't have to be negative Everytime. You are entitled to your opinions but you don't have to criticize Everytime, yesterday was a win celebrate it as a win and leave it that way.The teams giving Bayern tough times do you know how bad we'll crush them. Everytime you're making a comparison even when we win. Yesterday Man city played very well and drew but you won't see that ofcourse because they're a near perfect team abi.

Culer:
am I being pessimistic with your data? Or na you carry me come here?

You can always skip my posts if you find them "pessimistic".

Culer:
this leaves us with less control of the match and makes us less dominant in possession.
So we are now more of a direct, counter attacking side under xavi.
Cool.. Let's see how it goes

Against a team that also plays well in possession, I don't think competing in the middle with them will benefit us so much. We have a great frontline. We need to take full advantage of it. We need to get the ball to them as soon as possible. We need to stretch them and strike when they least expect it.

Real Madrid realises how good Vinicius and Benzema is. So they give the ball to them as fast as possible and as accurate as possible.

Very soon every team we will play against will be a poor side, it started with Madrid. Observe

Culer:
LMAO, don't be stupid.
Sevilla are a very poor side now, and as poor as they've been this season, they'd have punished us if they were effective, as they smoked our backline several times early on during the game.

The quality of our attack was what came through for us last night, and it's been the case so far through the season.

Bundesliga is like Bayerns birthright, they are guaranteed to win that league every season even before the league properly begins. So bayern actually can afford to take some games lightly.

I'll say it again, if we continue this chaotic style of football against strong opposition, we'll be severely punished.

jpmoriarti:
Inverted wingers allow your fullbacks to thrive. We also try to apply similar pattern at Barca. Bellerin will be very pivotal if he stays fit. The inverted winger can also hug the flanks and allow the fullback to drift inwards.

City doesn't have any inverted winger right now except Mahrez who's mostly on the bench. When I said 'converted' wingers, I meant foden and grealish who are midfielders playing as false wingers for city, they occasionally cluster the middle when de bruyne pushes forward in attack and Bernardo drifts towards the flank, and if you observe, walker positions close to rodri to provide passing options.

Omo the guy na sadist, sadly

BlaqFaze:
Na the same guy wey dey bookmark Eric Garcia post to later laugh am when he fvck up...

jpmoriarti:
Against a team that also plays well in possession, I don't think competing in the middle with them will benefit us so much. We have a great frontline. We need to take full advantage of it. We need to get the ball to them as soon as possible. We need to stretch them and strike when they least expect it.

Real Madrid realises how good Vinicius and Benzema is. So they give the ball to them as fast as possible and as accurate as possible.

therein lies your point!
You want us to play like Real Madrid lol.

But we are Barca and we are renowned for utilising the midfield and dominate possession.

Spare me the bulshit about a great Frontline, we had MSN under lucho– arguably the most deadly Frontline in football history, yet we recycled possession pretty well even though we were kinda direct.

Like I said, I'll give Xavi's Barca the benefit of the doubt as the team hasn't gelled yet, hence the lack of cohesion.

Culer:
Bernardo is actually not a controller, infact pedri and de jong are more of controllers than Bernardo, who drifts to the wings alot. His straying off the middle is masked by the fact that guardiola uses converted wingers at city who overcompensate Bernardo's drifting by clustering the middle. Man city's structure and style of play is a delicate one.
if Bernardo had come here, I don't think it solves our problems in terms of control and midfield presence, it only aids our creativity.

Nope, pedri and de Jong can't control than Bernando, Pedri still drifts like an AM though he's gradually improving several facets of his game and FDJ tends to roam too much and drive the ball than sit back recently with us, Bernando can be a winger but also stand in as a 8 or 6 as you want, Watch him in Portugal and his games against Vardrid this year when pep made his FBs disciplined against them cause of counter attacks in the second leg, Infact he's even a major reason over even the inverted wingers sometimes that KDB has the license to roam forward and either pick the final pass or launch his wicked shots
Also know that Football has changed to a more physical and direct game, If you like bring back xavi and iniesta teams will press you or either sit back in a low block to deal with you, Even the great pep had several problems when travelling with us to Anoeta

Culer:
City doesn't have any inverted winger right now except Mahrez who's mostly on the bench. When I said 'converted' wingers, I meant foden and grealish who are midfielders playing as false wingers for city, they occasionally cluster the middle when de bruyne pushes forward in attack and Bernardo drifts towards the flank, and if you observe, walker positions close to rodri to provide passing options.

Seems you value control over actual winning of matches. For you, a team without control, is always one step away from conceding.

Barcelona will always tend to have more control. That's in the heart of Barcelona of our plays.

But we need the element of surprise and unpredictability. It is a matter of tradeoffs. You tradeoff control for element of surprise. It is impossible to have both in today's football.

Great forward lines should be taken full advantage of. Sometimes, that would mean losing some control. It is abit of a controlled chaos.

jpmoriarti:
Can Pjanic play as a single pivot? I am not saying Busquets is doing a fantastic job there but I don't know how Pjanic will fare in that position.

I know Xavi isn't afraid. If he feels Busquets is the weakness in the team, he'll definitely do the needful

He can but he's not been tried there well enough in his career, the actual stuff is that busi is still a better interceptor than him there, but against bigger teams his normal limitations of pace and power being advanced to the core now by old age might be problematic, As defensive solid and strong as Kessie is, he too isn't a very strong single pivot

Culer:
therein lies your point!
You want us to play like Real Madrid lol.

But we are Barca and we are renowned for utilising the midfield and dominate possession.

Spare me the bulshit about a great Frontline, we had MSN under lucho– arguably the most deadly Frontline in football history, yet we recycled possession pretty well even though we were kinda direct.

Like I said, I'll give Xavi's Barca the benefit of the doubt as the team hasn't gelled yet, hence the lack of cohesion.

And what has that gotten us in the last 7 years? Embarrassments upon Embarrassments.

We need to adapt our football to what is obtained currently in Europe. Football is faster now and more athletic.

Reason we have invested heavily in strong defense and strong forward lines. Even the midfielder we bought is not your average tictack merchant. He's strong and athletic.

We need to control less and hurt more. Example was against Real Sociedad and Sevilla. We scored 7 goals and we didn't have everything our way. And we conceded only 1 goal.

Real Madrid without control has won 5 out of the last 8 UCL.

You need to evaluate what success means for you. For me, success means playing well and winning trophies. Playing well but not winning trophies does not cut it for me

jpmoriarti:
Seems you value control over actual winning of matches. For you, a team without control, is always one step away from conceding.

Barcelona will always tend to have more control. That's in the heart of Barcelona of our plays.

But we need the element of surprise and unpredictability. It is a matter of tradeoffs. You tradeoff control for element of surprise.

Great forward lines should be taken full advantage of. Sometimes, that would mean losing some control. It is abit of a controlled chaos.

We controlled the game for most stages against frankfurt at the camp nou, we were beaten at home
Against Cadiz, they sat back, ate up pressure, Their strikers turned to Maldini and Baresi, Their GK turned to a Spiderman and spiderwoman first born and we lost by a counter attacking goal
Same shit happened with rayo
Our cruyffian ideology pushes us to win while playing beautiful football with control which has made barca the giant it is now, but my brother teams don wise up, No be every game you go come out 100%, If a game becomes excessively hot and out of control cause of pressure, Gimme the scrappy win make I use am calma

Kilishihunter:

Nope, pedri and de Jong can't control than Bernando, Pedri still drifts like an AM though he's gradually improving several facets of his game and FDJ tends to roam too much and drive the ball than sit back recently with us, Bernando can be a winger but also stand in as a 8 or 6 as you want, Watch him in Portugal and his games against Vardrid this year when pep made his FBs disciplined against them cause of counter attacks in the second leg, Infact he's even a major reason over even the inverted wingers sometimes that KDB has the license to roam forward and either pick the final pass or launch his wicked shots
Also know that Football has changed to a more physical and direct game, If you like bring back xavi and iniesta teams will press you or either sit back in a low block to deal with him, Even the great pep had several problems when travelling with us to Anoeta

stop peddling false information because you want to suit your narrative. Bernardo has never played as an 8 or 6 for Portugal. He's used as a winger to create clear cut chances.
Bernardo isn't a controller, guardiola's city is a well structured and drilled team that's why he's able to function as an interior. FDJ even though he roams forward alot is more of a controller than bernardo.
Ten hag so badly wanted him in his team because he needed control in his midfield at United and he very well new FDJ fits that profile.

If Bernardo comes here, it wouldn't solve anything in terms of midfield presence and control for us... Even worsened by the fact that Xavi's idea and style of football is a very direct and counter attacking one.

Culer:
stop peddling false information because you want to suit your narrative. Bernardo has never played as an 8 or 6 for Portugal. He's used as a winger to create clear cut chances.
Bernardo isn't a controller, guardiola's city is a well structured and drilled team that's why he's able to function as an interior. FDJ even though he roams forward alot is more of a controller than bernardo.
Ten hag so badly wanted him in his team because he needed control in his midfield at United and he very well new FDJ fits that profile.

If Bernardo comes here, it wouldn't solve anything in terms of midfield presence and control for us... Even worsened by the fact that Xavi's idea and style of football is a very direct and counter attacking one.

In your first image, William carvalho and Danilo Pereira are pure sitting DMs, Bruno pushes up upfield to move close to the striker or score reason why he was mostly benched during the euros, He's a instinctive AM
So which player controls that midfield?

Kilishihunter:

We controlled the game for most stages against frankfurt at the camp nou, we were beaten at home
Against Cadiz, they sat back, ate up pressure, Their strikers turned to Maldini and Baresi, Their GK turned to a Spiderman and spiderwoman first born and we lost by a counter attacking goal
Same shit happened with rayo
Our cruyffian ideology pushes us to win while playing beautiful football with control which has made barca the giant it is now, but my brother teams don wise up, No be every game you go come out 100%, If a game becomes excessively hot and out of control cause of pressure, Gimme the scrappy win make I use am calma

Of course, control gives you peace of mind during games but no guarantees of winning.

We still control but we are now more lethal in attack. We don't need too much touches to reach opposition area.

jpmoriarti:
Against a team that also plays well in possession, I don't think competing in the middle with them will benefit us so much. We have a great frontline. We need to take full advantage of it. We need to get the ball to them as soon as possible. We need to stretch them and strike when they least expect it.

Real Madrid realises how good Vinicius and Benzema is. So they give the ball to them as fast as possible and as accurate as possible.

My problem isn't even with our midfield getting dominated. My issue is with the midfield finding it difficult to connect with the forwards that we'll now have to rely on defenders like Eric and fullbacks like Roberto and Kounde to bail us out.

The problem Xavi should worry about is how effective the middle can work and be inclusive in total ball play.

Kilishihunter:

In your first image, William carvalho and Danilo Pereira are pure sitting DMs, Bruno pushes up upfield to move close to the striker or score reason why he was mostly benched during the euros, He's a instinctive AM
So which player controls that midfield?

lmao. And you say you watch Portugal?

Fernando Santos doesn't use a controller for Portugal..
Santos' Philosophy is more of grit, dynamism and physical presence in midfield than technicality. Portugal play a counter attacking football focusing on quick transitions, hence the reason why they are always dominated by teams who match or are more than them in terms of quality, heck even Switzerland had most of the ball when they played portugal.

Faithti:
The Race for the pichichi as it stands now
Spanish La Liga Top Scorers
Name GoalsGL AssistsA PlayedP Mins per GoalMPG
1
Robert LewandowskiLewandowski
BarcelonaBarcelona
5 0 4 69
1
Iago AspasIago Aspas
Celta VigoCelta Vigo
5 0 4 72
3
Borja IglesiasIglesias
Real BetisReal Betis
4 1 4 81
4
Vinícius JúniorVinícius Júnior
Real MadridReal Madrid
3 1 4 115
4
Karim BenzemaBenzema
Real MadridReal Madrid
3 1 4 120
4
Umar SadiqSadiq
Real Sociedad, AlmeríaReal Sociedad, Almería
3 0 4 96
4
Álvaro MorataMorata
Atlético MadridAtl Madrid
3 0 4 105
8
Gorka GuruzetaGuruzeta
Athletic BilbaoAth Bilbao
2 0 2 28
8
Álex BaenaBaena Rodríguez
VillarrealVillarreal
2 0 3 34
8
Antoine GriezmannGriezmann
Atlético MadridAtl Madrid
2 0 4 55
8
Chimy AvilaÁvila
OsasunaOsasuna
2 0 3 105
8
Alex BerenguerBerenguer Remiro
Athletic BilbaoAth Bilbao
2 0 3 111
8
Largie RamazaniRamazani
AlmeríaAlmería
2 0 3 119
8
JoseluJoselu
EspanyolEspanyol
2 0 3 135
8
JuanmiJuanmi
Real BetisReal Betis
2 0 4 158
8
Vedat MuriqiMuriqi
MallorcaMallorca
2 0 4 177
17
Ansu FatiFati Vieira
BarcelonaBarcelona
1 2 4 102
17
David AlabaAlaba
Real MadridReal Madrid
1 2 4 273
17
Ousmane DembéléDembélé
BarcelonaBarcelona
1 2 4 306
17
Lee Kang-InLee
MallorcaMallorca
1 2 4 340
17
RodrygoRodrygo
Real MadridReal Madrid
1 1 2 112
17
RaphinhaRaphinha
BarcelonaBarcelona
1 1 4 237
17
Luka ModricModric
Real MadridReal Madrid
1 1 4 260
17
Federico ValverdeValverde
Real MadridReal Madrid
1 1 4 265

Bro next time put it in a way understandable, anyway I'm happy seeing our very own country man Sadiq. I watched him against Madrid when still in Ameria and he was great even at that age and with that height.

abduleez1:


My problem isn't even with our midfield getting dominated. My issue is with the midfield finding it difficult to connect with the forwards that we'll now have to rely on defenders like Eric and fullbacks like Roberto and Kounde to bail us out.

The problem Xavi should worry about is how effective the middle can work and be inclusive in total ball play.

This is it, How our midfield will feed our forwards , You can control all you want but still do nada, Xavi wanting silva was for firstly creativity and an experienced stable leader in the midfield which FDJ has not been able to enact consistently, Pedri is our best bet but he's gradually learning how to be less of an AM/LW and more of a CM, Even his long balls have improved though with xavi wanting him to score more he'll still push up, Gavi is more of a workhorse and ball winner than a creative specimen though he's not bad at it and will improve with time, Then again xavi's style of play somehow employs lesser use of the midfielders than wingers/FBs, I dare to say our gameplay resembles Klopp rather than pep sometimes

❗| Xavi's team plays more similar to Luis Enrique's Barça, rather than Pep Guardiola. @sport

Culer:
lmao. And you say you watch Portugal?

Fernando Santos doesn't use a controller for Portugal..
Santos' Philosophy is more of grit, dynamism and physical presence in midfield than technicality. Portugal play a counter attacking football focusing on quick transitions, hence the reason why they are always dominated by teams who match or are more than them in terms of quality, heck even Switzerland had most of the ball when they played portugal.

I watch Portugal and I know about Santos's passive tactics, But then again even Mourinho and Simeone will come out to take hold of the game when they are down and need a win, Go and checkout their Euro's Round of 16 exit against Belgium when he and Moutinho took hold of that midfield when they were in search of an equalizer or against Serbia when they lost, Bernado Silva won the UNL 2019 player of the tournament through coming infield with also drifting from the wings, Go and checkup his matchup with FDJ in the middle for that final
If a Ruben neves or Moutinho is there he'll have the license to roam and push up, But they don't feature that much cause of the sitting DMs of course, You don't expect Carvalho or Danilo to give you more tempo in midfield when chasing a goal

Kilishihunter:

This is it, How our midfield will feed our forwards , You can control all you want but still do nada, Xavi wanting silva was for firstly creativity and an experienced stable leader in the midfield which FDJ has not been able to enact consistently, Pedri is our best bet but he's gradually learning how to be less of an AM/LW and more of a CM, Even his long balls have improved though with xavi wanting him to score more he'll still push up, Gavi is more of a workhorse and ball winner than a creative specimen though he's not bad at it and will improve with time, Then again xavi's style of play somehow employs lesser use of the midfielders than wingers/FBs, our gameplay resembles Klopp rather than pep sometimes

simply put!!

OkpaNsukkaisBae:





U dey mind d guy? I neva defend people wey sabi play ball finish e com be lord of movement. We talk am here say splashing 55m on a city bench warmer is a bad business

When we signed this guy i was happy you know,even asked my city friends about him they said "you will enjoy him he is a great player"(Maybe this was why i hated him more)with high expectation and signing.

Then i watched his first game for us not too impressive perhaps he needs time to gel in.But as week swept by he's flaws started becoming apparent ..to me he is only good at making ghost runs and finding himself in good areas.

I was disappointed he was even being compared here to Depay...i even remember telling a culee that he wont improve rather he will decline down the ranks and gave them examples of new signings with potentials to improve/work-on. Gosh epistle again on this case am done.Thank God they are seeing the light now.

Culer:
simply put!!

You also saw where I typed sometimes , The real Madrid game last season and recent rayo bashing made us employ free flowing possession and control reminiscent of pep
Anyways I don't need xavi to be like pep, if he finds his own system that makes us win most of the time and give us trophies it's all good

Kilishihunter:

I watch Portugal and I know about Santos's passive tactics, But then again even Mourinho and Simeone will come out to take hold of the game when they are down and need a win, Go and checkout their Euro's Round of 16 exit against Belgium when he and Moutinho took hold of that midfield when they were in search of an equalizer or against Serbia when they lost, Bernado Silva won the UNL 2019 player of the tournament through coming infield with also drifting from the wings, Go and checkup his matchup with FDJ in the middle for that final
If a Ruben neves or Moutinho is there he'll have the license to roam and push up, But they don't feature that much cause of the sitting DMs of course, You don't expect Carvalho or Danilo to give you more tempo in midfield when chasing a goal

Ruben neves and moutinho aren't there because Santos doesn't care about technicality, don't you get the point?!
Santos' prefers a dynamic and physical midfield over technique and control (just like when klopp has wijnaldum, Henderson and fabinho in midfield). it's why Renato always has game time and flourishes for Portugal.
Portugal's play is a passive one that dwell on quick transitions. Bernardo plays as an inverted winger, that's why he drifts to the middle to create clear cut chances and leave room for cancelo create width in attack. He doesn't play as a controller.