Melvyn11:


Question: Has ronaldo won any individual award for Portugal in a tournament .

Answer:

Neymar1095:

Yes I really pity Messi. look at all the average players in Argentina compared to Colombia who had world class players everywhere idiot your Goat is a fraud.

IKON360:

Ok I get you now, you meant Valverde had a superior squad to Enrique's, well Enrique had the best attacking trio and good midfielders but a poor defense. Valverde has a good defense, a manageable midfield and Messi in attack...

IKON360:

Firstly I am not happy that we didn't win UCL, I was so sad no loss in football has pained me like that one. And I am not satisfied with failure. Why should I be?

And Enrique didn't have a better team than Valverde, he had MSN, he had Iniesta, he had a younger Rakitic and Busquets. But how do you think that Enrique had a better team?

IKON360:

You being a fan of Barca or me being a "fan" of Valverde no final control over what happens at Camp Nou, your complaining won't have him sacked, even the players don't really have a say. Messi the captain wants Valverde, all fans can do is complain but it won't change anything. Since Valverde won't be sacked, the board should get him the players needed to succeed. Simple.
Your comment on Guardiola's teams never showing lack of character is sentimental, you don't watch all Man city's matches. Watch all and you will see that even Guardiola's Man City do show confusion and bewilderment, one of the best teams that Guardiola coached was the Bayern team that reached the Semis of UCL, yet did you see how Ancellotti's Madrid beat, daring superiority and Guardiola was clueless on how to remedy it. Same thing with Man City of last season, met Liverpool 4 times and lost 4 times yet they were the best in the league. Real Madrid that won UCL thrice in a row never beat us back to back in La Liga, yet they were dominant in Europe and if you watched Barca v Liverpool the 2nd leg there were more blunders than even conceding that goal, worse blunders e.g missing chances that we shouldn't have missed.
Well Valverde isn't being sacked, Enrique wasn't a coach that inspired confidence but he knew how to get the best from his awesome players, Neymar, younger and more clinical Suarez and Messi, Guardiola had one of the best midfielder trios in European football history. These teams inspired confidence. Valverde's Barca don't inspire confidence, Suarez as much as I like him, does not inspire confidence, Busi also doesn't, Coutinho doesn't, Dembele isn't fit enough to play much more inspire confidence. Only Messi.
The teams that have won UCL in the past 10 years, had players in every position that you can rely on. Even Chelsea had Drogba. But our Barca has Suarez. If they want Valverde to succeed then they need to get a new striker.

Kimbeast:
Barcelona should never be reliant on one player, to think people are saying they need to get a messi heir is just a complete slap in the face to Barcelona’s own Philosophy, they need to get back to being a well oiled machine and get back to the passing and pressing teams of old where every player is important in their own sense. Barca need pep Back.

Awesome01:


Same way we waited for this season.

IKON360:

Very astute write up, but all your complaints about Valverde and the board etc won't have come up if we had scored in that match against Liverpool, when I joined this thread, so many fans were complaining about Valverde and how he was killing the team how Dembele should always start matches despite his earlier glaring flaws like he never gave either Alba or Roberto or Semedo enough cover, he never tracked back or how Valverde persisted with Suarez despite having Boateng on the bench and so many other complaints, then we went on a 20+ game winning streak turning out excellent performances against Athletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Man utd, Liverpool 1st leg, Lyon and other numerous games, I was pro Valverde and every Valverde complaint seized cos he was doing well. Immediately we lost the match to Liverpool, see anger and hating directed on Valverde and myself because we didn't qualify against Liverpool. And it seems you are in the same boat too. Prior to Guardiola and Enrique, no Barca coach had ever won the treble, Ronaldinho virtually brought Barca to its glory days yet he never won the treble, saying the winning of only league is nothing is an insult to the hardwork of those players. Valverde turns every player to weakling, wow!! So Ter Stegen, Pique, Dembele Messi, Suarez, Vidal are all weaklings?! Wow. As at our match against Liverpool, only two CBs were better than Pique, Van Dijk and nobody else. Barca finished UCL as one of the least conceding sides, Pique and co were exceptional. You have good analytical skills but they are extremely unfair when brought into the general picture. Busquets is old, but you can't call 5 DMs better than him, just 5. Even Suarez that I love, is past his prime, so I agree that he needs a replacement yet its hard to even find a player like him that will allow Messi thrive because until Messi leaves he remains the most important player in that team.
And my brother, a finisher will solve 90% of our problems, even conservative sides need to score goals so do the most non conservative of sides need goals. Liverpool scored 4 goals, we needed just 1 and due to our not scoring that one, we couldn't qualify for UCL finals and due to our not qualifying for the finals, you feel( and so do numerous) that we need a new coach and a new board of directors...
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The signing of Dembele and Coutinho were due to the departures of Neymar and Iniesta, however Coutinho can't be consistent enough for one to rely on him and Dembele is to injury prone for one to rely on him. Are they flops? Coutinho most likely, should they be replaced? Well spending over 250m on two players well, those players must recoup like 50% of the money o( that's for me).
I feel Coutinho plays better when Messi isn't on the pitch, like was obvious during a few matches at the end of the season.
Basically I don't think Valverde needs to be sacked yet, give him his last season and if no UCL, he can carry his wahala and go but we need a new DM and a new 9.

IKON360:

My brother don't give yourself stress, that's how fans were complaining that Guardiola doesn't have plan B that's why Chelsea and Inter knocked us out, that's also how fans were complaining that we are to reliant on our forwards under Enrique that's why we never won UCL again. That's also how Debroslink and some others complained that the reason we lost this UCL is because we are too reliant on Messi, some others blamed Valverde and you are blaming Valverde, Bartomeu and Rakitic. There are so many people to blame but how about the players that chances were created for them to score yet they didn't, chance upon chance?
Well, the most important thing right now is getting a finisher, a very good one. Goals win trophies, we can still win the league next season but to win UCL you must score. And if you watched Barcelona matches, you will know that Valverde isn't conservative, in fact he is very far from conservative. Our exposure to counter attacks is more than enough proof that we are not conservative. And if you watched Liverpool vs Tottenham you would also see that Liverpool were conservative, very conservative, they had just 3 shots on target yet they won. Conservation is wisdom and it depends, sometimes it's necessary, some other times it isn't. And we didn't lose cos we were conservative, we lost cos we couldnt finish off our chances

IKON360:

My brother don't give yourself stress, that's how fans were complaining that Guardiola doesn't have plan B that's why Chelsea and Inter knocked us out, that's also how fans were complaining that we are to reliant on our forwards under Enrique that's why we never won UCL again. That's also how Debroslink and some others complained that the reason we lost this UCL is because we are too reliant on Messi, some others blamed Valverde and you are blaming Valverde, Bartomeu and Rakitic. There are so many people to blame but how about the players that chances were created for them to score yet they didn't, chance upon chance?
Well, the most important thing right now is getting a finisher, a very good one. Goals win trophies, we can still win the league next season but to win UCL you must score. And if you watched Barcelona matches, you will know that Valverde isn't conservative, in fact he is very far from conservative. Our exposure to counter attacks is more than enough proof that we are not conservative. And if you watched Liverpool vs Tottenham you would also see that Liverpool were conservative, very conservative, they had just 3 shots on target yet they won. Conservation is wisdom and it depends, sometimes it's necessary, some other times it isn't. And we didn't lose cos we were conservative, we lost cos we couldnt finish off our chances

IKON360:

We were just one goal away from qualifying against Liverpool, one goal. ONE GOAL... if we had scored that goal and qualified for the final and maybe won UCL, would you still complain all these your complaints?
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Did you watch Coutinho in Liverpool? Shey you know of all their other super forwards, Coutinho pressed the least; in Barca everybody must press unless you are a certain Messi. So I feel this pressing affected Coutinho's energy levels Coutinho is no Mane and if you watched some of our matches we may have counter and you will see Messi, Vidal and Suarez, no, Coutinho. If get a more energetic DM, maybe Coutinho won't have to press so much and then he could be more useful in matches...
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Busquests had a good season even if he wasn't in La Liga team of the season, Frenkie De Jong can play that DM well however what we need is creativity in the middle, more goal scorers from midfield and a deadly striker to complement Messi's creativity. Suarez scored harder goals than cheap goals, yet we kept creating easy to bury chances.
So for me if Rakitic is to be sold, then a midfielder like Pogba, Bernardo Silva or De Bruyne or even Erickson should be signed and then a more energetic DM like Idrissa Gueye or Ndidi or Ndombele and Griezman. However money is the problem

patrickmuf:
Xavi and Iniesta didn't need to create that much, up front was Messi at his peak, Henry and Eto and other times, it was Villa and a very clinical Pedro who finished off chances created by Messi and Alves not so much from Xavi and Iniesta. Also, when it was Xavi and Iniesta, the back line was a lot more balanced with Abidal stay back while Alves bombed forward, now you have Alba and Semedo both bombing forward yet you want Rakitic to still assume an attacking role, have you also considered that Busquet is not the player he once was? At his peak, he gave Xavi and Iniesta the freedom to play and join the attack when necessary. You can't compare the set up and personnel then and now.

IKON360:

Coutinho was poor because of the added responsibility he had, wingers who track back and contribute efficiently in attack are those that have either been forced to learn or have the energy levels to do it eg Mane and Salah, Sterling and other Man City wingers. Coutinho was pampered, he is the 3rd most expensive player of all and Barca's most expensive, so he was basically pampered. So he played. If we can get a more energetic DM, Coutinho won't have to drop deep so much and he can contribute to more attacks.
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Dude Busquets was exceptional this season, don't even go there, my problem with Busquets is his lack of pace. And teams have to just target Busi's lack of pace, continue the same to Pique but with a better stringing of passes and you have scored. If Busi was faster we may not have conceded as much as we did. But aside that Busi is very good and selfless too. If Rakitic was giving back passes, Arthur was almost as bad. Rakitic was even better than Arthur, the midfielders I'd say were better than Rakitic were just Vidal and maybe Busi, nobody else.
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Check Messi's heat map on any site for this season, Messi operated from the right but he was never a winger, Messi's days as a winger have since ended. This season he was, Messi.

patrickmuf:
No, Rakitic is not the problem. You can't have 2 attention full backs and expect Rakitic to function as an AMF especially when your DMF is not Kante or a much younger Busi.
You have Alba attacking on the one side and Sergi Roberto/Semedo doing same on the other side and still expect your CM to join the attack, that will be suicide. When Pep was at Barca, Abidal was the LB, he sat back for Alves to attack thus Iniesta on the LMF was free to also attack as an AMF.
At Liverpool where they have 2 flying fullbacks, they don't play with an out and out attacking midfielder because Robertson and Arnold need cover when they bombard forward.
At City, when ever Mendy players, Walker curtails his forays forward and it is so even when Zichenko starts. They have to be a balance. In Pep's season, Kolarov and Zabaleta were constantly pushing forward and it left gapping holes as De Bruyne and David Silva are not known for their defensive contributions, he corrected that mistake in his second season.
You can also check Hynckes Bayern team, with Alaba and Lahm as attacking wingbacks, he constantly had Martinez and Bastian Schweinsteiger sitting deep and Kroos in CM. When Pep took over at Bayern, for some reason, he opted to play Martinez as CB, a move that left them exposed to counter attacks.

I have highlighted all this scenarios to show you that Rakitic is not the problem rather the system/personnel...

IKON360:

Barcelona doesn't need new midfielders, Liverpool won UCL with 3 shots, 3 on target and 2 goals. What we need is finishing, we created enough chances in the 1st leg and 2nd leg against Liverpool and we scored just 3 goals. Finishing keeps letting us down, the midfielders if anybody should be changed is Busi, not because he is poor but cos he is old. I'd like us to sign players like maybe Ndombele or Ndidi or Idrissa Gueye, we have more than enough creative players, Coutinho, Messi are creative enough maybe if Rakitic and Arthur could be more creative, long passes, short through passes etc then we can gun again for UCL but we need to be finishing up chances.

IKON360:

Do you thought about it? All our midfielders have poor creativity. And for me I think Rakitic is the most imaginative. Arthur didn't have up to 3 assists this season, nor up to 3 goals. Vidal had more goals and assists than them. Busquets was to far from the opposition box to even have up to 6 shots by seasons end... So Rakitic isn't the problem, the whole midfielders have issues

IKON360:

How is Rakitic a problem?

IKON360:

Frenkie should go for Busquets position, Barca's problem is very far from Rakitic

stuff46:


Koeman has diviated from the traditional Barcelona culture on his coaching career....

Someone else capable should be brough, or heck..... wtf am i hearing about Roberto Martinez?

stuff46:


He should not be an option if we actually intend to traditionally get involved with our policies. Basically, there are other candidates and also Koeman should not be considered either.

tesppidd:
The most annoying part is the way he acts on the sideline, seemingly engrossed in deep thoughts,

And then he comes up with shiit or does nothing at all.


WTF was he thinking?