₦airaland Forum

AjanleKoko: Puyol is out again with a knee injury

This is very worrisome! Now we have only Pique & Masche and even Bartra has been on/off with injuries lately. I hope this doesn't cost us in the UCL.

I'm not so worried about PSG - they are the quintessential one-man team, with Ibra always carrying the burden. But if/when we get to the semis, we need all men on board. Hopefully, Pique and Masche can avoid injuries and yellow cards and Bartra can return this weekend.

We desperately need to buy a CB this summer.

usbcable: where everybody? una dey fear PSG ni?

he pain me say them no give una juventus.

that team for show una wen.

but PSG too may want to prove that they now have what it takes to compete in europe.

but luckily the have problems at ligue 1, hence the cant rest players for your matches.

Lol! You can yarn because you guys got Galatasaray! I predict you'll meet Bayern/Juve in the semis...

ddippset: why are you guys like this? Why are you saying this now? Before the match everybody was talking bout how recovering from a 2-0 deficit was never heard of and how barca would likely go out. You didn't make this comment then. Now its been done and like it or now history has been made and now to you its no big deal!
Now lemme explain something to you. This is not coming from 2 or 3 goals down in a game. This is coming back from a 2-0 deficit in a home/away fixture. One side comes into a fresh gme with. 2 goal cushion, the other comes into the gme with a 2 goal deficit with no away goal scored. This is history. It is a 'MIRACLE'

To be fair, Deportivo came back from a 4-1 defeat against Milan. That, to me, ranks as the greatest comeback in UCL history. How can you (little Deportivo) even believe you can recover from a 4-1 defeat against that great Milan side? Kaka, Nesta, Maldini, Pirlo, Shevchenko, etc...

After that is last night's Barca victory, then Chelsea against Napoli (last season), Barca against Chelsea (2003 or so when Rivaldo's team came back from 3-1), Monaco against Real Madrid (3-1 after losing the 1st leg 4-2 in Madrid), etc, etc.

biolabee: Barca has repaid the favor paid in the 1994 ucl final
That team was strong

Koeman, ROamrio, Stickhov, Sergi, etc

Lol! True!

usbcable: too bad.

Platini has reserved one of those teams for us.

Hehehe! You take one, we take the other, shikena.

Like you, I don't want another Classico, you can have your bragging rights for this season, so long as n=Barca wins the league and UCl double and you take the Copa, 1022 all over again!

I will mention the referee as well: It was a fair match, he kept things in control, gave correct yellow cards and the most controversial call was the penalty not called for Pedro.

No opportunity for the haters to shout Uefalona and all that crap.

usbcable: faints out of nausea @ the bolded.

But really, I didnt really see it thesame way every T D and H saw it.

barcelona is playing at home, except if they were utterly unlucky would they not be able to beat this present AC Milan.
and Niang proved luck was on barca's side.

NOW tell me if you now believe that Arsenal match tomorrow is the real deal of miracles.

BTW
congrats on the victory, hope you get either Juve or Bayern in the quarters ([size=4pt]do i hear an amen from Johnpaul[/size])

I agree with you bro! Arsenal has a real mountain to climb - to go and score 3 goals against Bayern in Germany no be yam!

But I don't hope for Bayern or Juve now, we already had drama in this tie, make we manage Porto/Malaga or Galatasaray in the next round

Don Iniesta shares my man of the match with Messi – he was gliding through the Milan defenders like silk and he was impressive in pressing as well. He was just excellent. Xavi was also great, despite his recent injury – I’m amazed that he kept it up for 90 mins.

There were a lot more shots from outside the box this time, the passing was crisp and not static, very good running from players who had been rested against Depor. This was a classic performance!

Yes, haters can all go back to a cave.

usbcable: but I dont see a 2 goal comeback as being a miracle quote and unquote.
score one goal in the first half and s core another in the second.

that is not so much of a miracle for an home team.

I see arsenals match as being more of the miracle game

I've always said you are a closet Barca fan!

While many Cules were jittery, you were calmly optimistic of our chances!

Anyway, that Niang goal that didn't go in was was made me really believe we were going through. On a bad night, like Cheski last season, everything goes wrong, the best player even misses a penalty. When things are going right, your opponents miss sitters...

Hallelujah o! The boys have done it! I am sooo happy for Villa that he scored.

We made history! If any team could lose after a 2-0 1st lead, it's Milan. They nearly let a 4-0 lead slip at Arsenal last season.

I'm waiting to see all those columnists on goal.com, bleacher report, etc, who said this was the end of an era.

This is the best performance of the season so far! Exhilarating stuff!

AjanleKoko: I'm not blaming Roura at all.
But the problem is still there. Tito cannot coach the team remotely, and make tactical changes from New York, in the course of the game. Roura is not likely to try on anything - in FC Barcelona you will likely get fired if that backfires. So I am kinda resigned to seeing the same old setup.
To be honest, I don't expect us to go through



With respect to bolded - have you noticed how painfully slow we are these days in the buildup? Even in front of goal, the movement is so slow, even a Granada or Deportivo seems quicker to line up behind the ball. The worst is how slow we are to close up the spaces when defending. You see an opposition player running into space to intercept a long ball forward or to the flanks, and nobody tracking him, and no other players closing up spaces. Alves is most guilty of this.

This recent development is what has resulted in the last string of poor results - the same tiki-taka that tore defences apart is now being ridiculed by the whole world. If we played one of those Madrid matches at the same intensity that we used to, we'd have destroyed them.

No, I know you're not blaming Roura, just fans in general...on a lot of Barca sites.

Yeah, lack of speed recently is certainly worrisome. I rememebr the UCL final in Wembley, as well as the Classico wins over Madrid...our team was running a lot more.

AjanleKoko: ^^
If they show up with a crazy lineup like this, I would be over the moon. Even if we eventually crash out. I'd like to see us try on anything but the same.

I want to see anything but stubborn insistence on horizontal play. Which is what I am 200% sure will happen - No Tito on the bench, and Roura will not take charge or chances. We'll likely line up in the same old formation, pass the ball around, and try to walk it into the net

Lol! True. Anything other than a predictable line-up will do. People do not seem to appreciate how well Tito was changing things before he fell sick. I don't blame Roura - the man did not ask for this. Let's hope whichever team shows up can do the business.

I take comfort in Milan's 3-0 loss to Arsenal last season and Inter's 3-0 loss to Tottenham last week. Italian temas aren't that great playing away these days - mostly in England though - EPL teams finish them off with fast pace.

An audacious plan for AC Milan

I believe we can win the match against Milan on Tuesday and by 2 or more goals too. But we cannot play like we have been playing recently; in fact, even our normal game will hardly be enough to overturn the 2-goal deficit.

If I had the chance to coach Barca for this game, this is the line-up I would start with:
Valdes, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Mascherano, Alba, Busquests, Song, Iniesta, Messi, Villa

At first glance, it looks crazy! We need to score, yet I have suggested having almost all our defenders on the pitch. But here is the plan:

• Alves and Alba will play essentially as wingers. Barca has two of the best wingbacks in the world and I don’t think any defence can really cope well with the quality of Alves & Alba when they play at their best. But we often under use them because they make these great runs, get past opposing full backs, yet have to cut back and pass into the overcrowded centre since there’s hardly anyone to cross to in the box, especially against these tight defences.

• Song and Busquests will form a double pivot, protecting the central defence of Puyol and Masche from potential Milan counter attacks with the wingbacks so far up.

• Pique goes up front and plays as a central striker, along with Villa. Pep and Tito/Roura often use Pique as an emergency striker when we are desperate for goals, but this time, we need him up there at the start, not at the desperate end. Pique is taller than most of the Milan defenders and he is the only one with the size and heading quality to partner Villa for the crosses. So we will have 2 people for the wingbacks to aim for and trust me, Milan’s defence isn’t the toughest out there – Villa/Pique have a good chance.

• Messi will operate from deep, alongside Iniesta, but both of them are free to roam as they wish. Messi withdrawn frees him from a congested area but with his speed, he will still get into goalscoring positions.

• With the wingbacks messing around with Milan’s fullbacks and Pique/Villa keeping the CBs busy, Messi and Iniesta will have a lot more space than in the 1st leg and they can do a lot of damage from the centre.

SUBS:

• At half time, Masche can be subbed off and Pique goes back to defend with Puyol. Tello comes in to join Villa upfront and now Milan defenders have to worry about Tello’s speed in addition to crosses from left and right. I won’t start Tello because his speed is even more effective when the defenders are somewhat tired from a busy 1st half.

• Later in the 2nd half, I’ll bring in Adriano for Alves: his instruction is to cross/pass half the time and the other half, cut in and smash a shot towards goal. With Adriano’s speed, energy and fierce shots, we keep the Milan defence on edge.

• Last sub (hopefully after we are 3 goals up) will be Alexis/Pedro in for Villa. This is to keep up the pressing to ensure we retrieve the ball quickly anytime we lose it.

No central midfielder in my plan: Xavi is just recovering from injury; Thiago is not yet ready for this high profile match; Cesc has been poor of late. Yes, we will lose some possession with this kind of plan but better to win with 55% possession than lose with 75% possession.

On the other hand, this plan ensures that we have our 3 tallest players (Song, Pique, Busi) on the pitch and we are less susceptible to corner kicks (and we also have a better chance when we try to score from corner kicks).

The constantly-changing tactics will also affect Milan’s plan because like every team, they probably have one plan to stop Barca: cage Messi and leave the flanks to Barca’s ineffectual wingers. They will definitely not expect such a big departure from normal Barca.

It may seem like our first priority is to score 2 goals, but for me, the 1st priority is to keep a clean sheet. If we are only 1-0 up in the 80th minute, there’s hope, but if we are 2-1 up in the 80th minute, there’s no hope.

PS: No insults please. If you disagree, just state your own preferred line-up and let’s enjoy the match (and hopefully Barca goes through)…

Alaba_Slim: I'm a utd fan BUT i am not happy when barca (esp M£$$ì) are trendin on twitter every 0.0000001 nano secondz 4rm footballers, celebrities to sportzpundits/journalists, comedianz,etc
chei my messi don suffer since dat defeat to milan...well such na life cos i know messi will & must surely bounce back.
@least pple will no longa make their CHILDISH comment dat 'barca can do without a coach'

Spot on with the bolded.

[quote author=logica Roura obviously doesn't have it.

But I am not blaming Roura. The management is to blame, but they must've thought since Villanova as assistant to Guardiola replaced Guardiola and had even better results, then Roura could do same.[/quote]Agree! Management assumed that all Roura has to do is show up with Messi and the team will win.

McLeo's post is another one I agree with. There are many lessons to be learnt, but from Rubin Kazan, to Inter, to Madrid, to Chelsea, to Celtic, to AC Milan, we never learn the lessons.

We are officially in crisis mode. We are definitely not beating Milan 3-0 if we keep defending like this.

Thank God Tito got us a healthy lead in the league before getting ill.

logica: Barcelona's arrogance in not using a proper caretaker manager is out for all to see. Now we can see the usefulness of a manager/coach.

I agree 100%.

AJ, sorry man. Wrong match to go watch in Camp Nou.

Barca coaches and management need to learn that defence is part of the game and necessary investments in quality CBs is paramount for this team. No point defending like school boys and later blaming opponents for parking the bus.

Johnpaul88: There are plans by Rosell to bring him back at least for the match. He normally has free times when he is not receiving treatment. He doesn't shuttle between Barcelona and New York because of long flight time. However, he can make this one, seeing the obvious need for it. He can thereafter, continue his treatment and return eventually whenever the treatment is completed. It's not as if he lives in the hospital. The players 'll need his presence.

Alright, let's hope that is possible. Otherwise, he and Roura should just spend every possible free time on the phone...or we loan Pep for a few weeks

Johnpaul88: Italian club Juventus are
interested in Alexis Sanchez
(24) and think Barcelona would
accept an offer of around 20M
this summer [tuttosport]

20m is a lot lower than we paid for him (about 35m including bonuses), but at this point, I'll cut the losses and take the cash in part payment for Neymar or Hummels.

[quote author=A-40]Curious stat I saw while watching Press Pass. Barca have conceded at least a goal in their last eleven consecutive matches

quote]

That stat is correct. And it's the worst consecutive defensive run for Barca since 1998 or so. Well, we have been talking about the defence all season, haven't we? People thought Puyol will save us but the man is getting old. Not buying a CB in the last 2 summers (and buying Song, pretending he can be an emergency CB) was a really stupid decision.

AjanleKoko: El Clasico on my mind. With a ring side seat
AJ will be reporting live from the Camp Nou for that game

Good for you. The ticket must have been very expensive, no? I have been saying I'll go to the Camp Nou for a match, but it just hasn't happened yet: Barca always seems to be playing away the weekends I'm in Europe.

Johnpaul88: I hope we score just enough that'll put us through. Milan is not the same team outside SanSiro. We'll create alot of chances on that day. I hope Tito 's available to spur the team to victory. He should be able to give the team some few time before the treatment continues.

Tito won't be back till April. We can only hope Roura is bold enough to make the right tactical changes we need.

We can beat Milan - a goal for us in the 1st half and the match will be controllable. We just have to be focused in defence as we cannot afford to concede an away goal, which will mean we have to score at least 4 goals.

This was a useful win. The attack was better and with both Villa and Tello involved in the goals, many of us who criticized the sterile performance in Milan have been proved right. Thiago was also impressive in the midfield. The key improvements in attack were the shots from outside the box and crosses into the box (one of which led to villa’s goal).

Unfortunately, our defence continues to leak seriously. Sevilla have been poor in la Liga this season, but they put our defence under pressure throughout the game. Things improved a bit after bringing in Busquests for the double pivot (an unusual thing in Barca), but I fear for our matches against Madrid and Milan. We cannot afford to concede in those matches, especially against Milan.

The league is ours – we need to concentrate on the cups. This time last season, Madrid was 10 points ahead and won the league quite easily. Now we are 12 points ahead of Athletico and I don’t see any of the chasing pack catching up with us.

Irony of ironies: Botia scores his 1st league goal against Barca. This is a decent CB we could (and should) have bought back in the summer for like 2m, but we didn't exercise our buy-back clause. Now we have played Song, Busquests & Adriano as CB this season and continue to suffer defensively. Hope management gets some sense soon.

Back to UCL, I don't recall the last time Barca needed to win by 3 goals to move on to the next round. In 2010, we needed 2 goals against Inter, in 2011, we needed just 1 goal against Arsenal, in 2012, we needed 2 goals against Chelsea. We failed the 2 times we needed 2 goals, so the odds are well stacked against us to score 3 unreplied goals against ACM.

On the flip side, if there's any team that can lose a 2-0 advantage in UCL, it's ACM. I'm sure many people remember ACM losing to Super Depor 4-0 in 2001 after winning the 1st leg 4-1. And just last season ACM managed to lose 3-0 to Arsenal after winning the 1st leg 4-0 in Milan and only scrapping through.

If we are focused and do not bother exerting our key players in the upcoming league matches (including the classico next weekend), I'm sure we can overturn the loss to Milan. We just need to play a lot better than we did in San Siro:
- Shoot from outside the box, take a risk, possession is a means to an end, not an end in itelf!
- Wingers need to cross in, no point always trying through the crowded centre. Again, be bold and tke some risk.
- No need to keep all our outfied players in the Milan half - draw them out to create space.
- Keep things tight at the back - if we did not defend stupidly, 1st leg could have ended 0-0.
- Play Villa & Tello, our key scorers other than Messi. We are too Messi-dependent & smart coaches plan around this.

Looking at our starting line-up against Sevilla, I can't help but wonder: can't we ever rest Messi? I'm strongly of the opinion that our coaches' reluctance to rest key players has contributed to recent cup exits. We played a full squad against Osasuna before travelling to Milan (by road) to lose to Inter 3-1 in 2010. Last year, we played a classico before exiting the UCL to Chelsea...in fact I believe that classico is the reason both Barca and Real failed to make the final. That same weekend, both Chelsea and Bayern rested virtually their entire 1st teams.

in 2011, we won the UCL final against ManU because Pep finally managed to rest the squad for 2 weeks before the final after we won the league.

Now we are playing Messi, Alves, Pique, Iniesta, while Real rested Ronaldo, Ozil, Benzama, Khedira, etc for their match...oh and Real need wins in La Liga far more than we do.

We have a healthy lead in the league - focus should turn to the cup competions now.

Johnpaul88: Very harsh result.
Our defence was poor but we did'nt deserve to lose . I hate playing these kind teams.

ddippset: its very difficult to create chances in the final third when there are at least 16 players in just that one third of the pitch. You don't succeed all the time.

I don't blame Milan - I blame our team. What other tactic did we expect Milan to deploy? Attack recklessly and lose? Barca has experienced anough losses against teams defending professionally that we should now have an Option B to cater for these instances, but we don't - we keep doing the same thing for 90 mins expecting a different result.

We definitely deserved to lose - against Chelsea, we were better, creating chances, hitting the post, etc. Here, we were just passing like that counts for anything. I knew after 15 mins that we wouldn't score. But the only attacking change made was to bring in the ineffectual Sanchez. How about goal scorers like Tello and Villa?

Same feeling as after the tie against Chelsea:
No shots from outside the box.
No switch to the wings when the centre is crowded.
Our defence always vulnerable to counter attacks.

AC Milan got their tactics right and got the result they needed. Now we have no volcano to blame (unlike against Inter in 2010). If we cannot beat parked buses, then we should be ready for this every now and then.

I'm really fed up with the coaches not using Villa! We bought him for 40m, yet bench him for important matches and keep playing crap Alexis. This match was begging for an alternate outlet to Messi and that outlet was never provided. The reason our 2009 team was so dangerous was because we had 3 outlets in Messi, Etoo & Henry. messi may be currently bagging 50 goals per season, but he is a single outlet and that makes defending against Barca easier.

We (and Malaga) are the only away teams that lost in this round of the UCL.

Let's hope for a better performance in the 2nd leg.

Happy new year Cules!

Johnpaul88: FT Catolonia 1 - 1 Nigeria

Who saw the match ? I did. We were good against our more illustrious opponent. They had 2nd minute penalty but we equalised in the second half through a counter.

Barca team B players like Tello,
Bartra, roberto and Montoya all played. Alba, Puyol and Busquet played as well. Soriano lead the attack.

I didn't see the match butits good to hear that naija did well.

Anyone got news on how well Soriano is doing in Austria?

There's a report I saw on ESPN that a mystery Russian club offered Barca 250m pounds for Messi!

Crazy money, but the offer was rejected.

medjai: To all my cules, have a Messi Christmas and a Xavi, prosperous new year

Lol, nice one!

I'm wishing everyone on this thread a Merry Christmas and a blessed 2013.

eyoniggar: @Stealthy I understand if you dont agree with my reasoning based on the pass-back Alves made. I was unable to furnish my reasons for saying that with details. But if I could try, I would say, since he knew he was off, trying to score would most def trigger the lines man raising the flag and the ref blowing the whistle, but passing back might just do a little trick for that not to happen. Do I make sense sha?

Lol, no wahala. Alves na kolo guy, him fit try that

Anyway, hope he stays and doesn't go to PSG in the summer.

eyoniggar: ^^^^ No I think he knew was off, then he had no choice but to pass the ball back.

If you think you are offside, passing the ball back does not in any way cancel your being offside. Once you touch the ball, the flag goes up. So you're still better trying to score than trying to pass back.

I don't agree with your reasoning.

scantee: my broda i was like wtf; Aleves mst be high on something for making such decision.

Lol, Alves is always high

ajibutter: Malaga 3 - 2 Madrid.

We are 16 points ahead of Madrid.

Viva barca!

If Man City don't win EPL, they will sack Mancini and hire Mou, give him tons of cash to spend and when he wins something, people will say he is a great coach.

Good thing Pep and Tito have shown him who is boss in Spain

I have a feeling Mou wants to get sacked. Madrid are a far better team than their recent results indicate.

If he doesn't want to get sacked, why would he do an idiotic thing like bench Casillas?

Nice win for the boys, Tito will be proud of them. Way to end the year!

Alexis is good at dragging defenders away from Messi. but his finishing is just too poor.

Did anyone see Alves trying to pass the ball when he got a 1-on-1 chance (81st min or so), that's what I was complaining about last week.

In other news, Abidal has started training with the team, so our defence may be able to survive this season without disaster.

But we still need to buy 1 or 2 solid CBs in the summer.