Moura7:


E go gree make them bottle feed am?? Small thing e don drop deep.....plus i feel feeding him would be like building the team around him again

Messi actually reads the game perfectly. And he'll know for sure that our midfield lacks creativity. He mostly drops deep to be the creative outlet.

At man-city, there'll be minimum need for that. His groove would come back.

SonOfAfonja:
I’ll repeat it...if Messi stays one more season in Barca, then he’s the most foolish footballer ever.

True! At this point in his career, he needs a team where he wouldn't have to do loads of work. How Juventus plays to Ronaldo's strength comes to mind.

It's either you can play the piano or you carry it. Messi can definitely play the piano, others should be allowed to carry it(if u know what I mean).

[quote author=tesppidd post=94836679]Nadal is absolutely destroying Djokovic.

But if there's one man who can win a match from 2 sets down;
It's Djoko. [/quote

Maybe on another surface, djokovic would have pulled that off. On clay, Nasal is a different beast entirely..

joviegghead:

I hope not. Barca will be committing a great blunder it they allow this to happen.

.

The truth is, of all the wingers we have, dembele is clearly the most talented. But when it comes to having maturity in terms of tactical awareness, positional play, ball retention, knowing when to dribble and when to pass, he comes behind Fati and Trincao.

He was late for training once more this week. Which shows he still doesn't understand the discipline required to be a top footballer. Talent isn't just enough.

Anything above 80million wouldn't be a bad deal in my opinion.

haymekus:


No just them, every fücking underperforming player, take a good look at T.silva, he is 36, but he’s still better than both of our defenders.

If a player stops performing, he should not be in the first eleven ffs, irrespective of his status, past teams he has played for, or money spent on him.


Roberto, pique, lenglet, Alba & busquet are all starters because they are our captains and it’s so awful, considering that this shït is only done at barce

The truth is, If busquet and pique maintain their positions in the team on a regular, then I'm personally not expecting much from Barça this season.

jpmoriarti:
Messi's penchant to openly criticize the club that pays his wages for the past 20 years is becoming really a bad practice.

Anyways, that you are a GOAT doesn't mean you are educated.

Pique shares the same legendary status as Messi but Pique hasn't disgraced the club openly the way Messi has dragged the club at every turn. It doesn't mean Pique does not have his misgivings against the leadership of the club but it means he has proper education and he's not being managed by his fuckkking dad.

Pique shares the same legendary status as Messi? Come on now

Sommyroy10:




Cruyff takes also quite a lot of liberties with his Spanish and rambles a bit.

He starts talking about how he enjoyed more being a player than a coach, but that he really enjoyed helping players to become better. He then talks about when he asked what was the best player in Barcelona's academy:

*I asked, "who is the best?" I was told: Guardiola.*

*I went to watch the B-team, and he wasn’t playing. I went to watch the junior-A and he wasn’t playing. He was playing in our junior-B team. I asked, "but if he is the best, why is he playing there?" They told me he was weak. Not strong enough. I asked them, "what are we playing here? Isn’t it football? If he is good, he is good".*

*He started playing in the B-team and was improving. One day we were talking and I told him: You need to think about what you can do and what you can’t. There’s always a solution for what you can’t do. For example: I can’t defend. If I have to defend this restaurant, I am the worst because they can surpass me anywhere. However, if I have to defend this table, I am the best in the world. What is good and what is bad? It’s just distance.*

*I told Guardiola: You need to always take care of one thing. You need to have two midfielders close to you, and defend only your area in the field. You’ll be the best defender there is. Prevention is better than cure. If you don’t watch where they are, and they leave you alone, you are the one getting the punishment.*

*Then, as he had so much vision, he was able to organize them, and the opposite team never could take advantage (of his lack of physical traits). Moreover, they where always close to him so he could find them with the ball.*

*If you can't cover a large area you need to position yourself well, and that’s pure intelligence.*

Trust me it doesn't always work this way. Sergio busquet should have the best positioning for a defensive midfielder, but we all know how much he gets exposed.

The modern day DM should still be able to cover loads of ground.

Sommyroy10:
Tbh Flick was forced to use Davies. He would not have started him if Sule and Hernandez were not injured last season. Alaba would have been playing at LB

But his performance ensured he nailed a place in the team. Ruqui's performance everytime he was given a chance towards the end of the season were top notch. That made up for nothing.

In recent years with Barça, It just feels like an hierarchy thats almost impossible for the young players to break. Especially if u didn't come in for loads of money and u're just a La Masia product.

Ikennablue:
These are the exact words of Koeman

Koeman: "Riqui Puig? I spoke to him yesterday. In my opinion, young players have to play: Riqui, Aleñá, Pedri... I told him that it will be difficult for him to play regularly, but I also told him that he has a future here. A loan deal could work for him."

"It's not true that I have told Riqui that I don't count on him. However, there's competition and that complicates things right now."

"I recommend Riqui to leave on loan because a young player like him has to play."



Take your time and think about what this man is saying. Remember, Alena was loaned last season. Koeman got balls. I like that.

Our defense is really shit. All the counter attack against us would have resulted to goal. If nothing is done about this defense, this season will still be a disaster

I personally think the amount of money spent buying a player plays a role in his selection, especially at barca.

At bayern, we all saw how a certain canadian left-back kept Bayern and bundesliga record signing Lucas Henandez out of the team. Team selection should be solely based on performance.

Its a shame that money and experience plays a key role at Barcelona. At least that the only reason I can think of as to why pjanic and busquet would still get the nod over Riqui and Alena.

Its left for him to go on loan, preferably a team in laliga or maybe Ajax and show his talent. Odegaard would start making the starting lineup after his loan spell. I guess a loan isn't all bad.

Sommyroy10:
I would rather believe it's just for today's match. He(Koeman) would have a press conference very soon, he would be surely asked, we hear his response and conclude.

We can only wait and see. If its true, I really hope it isn't a permanent deal. At most, a loan

joviegghead:

My brother, me sef don tire.

How can you hammer a team like schalke 8-0.

The Bayern/German ruthlessness is back again.
Worse part is, that speed demon Sané(my ex fave city player) is in the team.

Hans flick is doing a fantastic job. I hope Koeman's tough training and tactics pays off too.

E follow tire me oo
The Barça match definitely wasn't a fluke

tesppidd:
He is setting us back.

He has got nothing more to offer.

Lol, A player that would still top our goal and assist stats again once the season starts officially.

Messi is his problem, he's just set the bar so high. So anything that doesn't resemble that youthful left-footed Argentine running up and down the pitch that people could relate with 10years ago still doesn't do it for certain people.

Jimmy17:
But griezmann is not my ideal center forward

He's never been an ideal CF. I persoally think he'll do well playing as a False9

A quick question before the Champions League final kicks off:
What are the odds of PSG beaten Bayern? I personally don't see any. Anyone with a different opinion?

joviegghead:


Read between the lines. It's a bad sign for Suarez.
frenkie is Dutch and will be favored big time.

if he manages to get his desired players (depay, van de beek,and that Everton defender),mehn ,those guys will bench anyone dragging their positions.

If Suarez stubbornly decides to finish his contract, it would be hard getting rid of him trust me. Except Barça follows the man-utd route with Sanchez. That would mean paying him a considerable amount of money from the salary his meant to earn in his last year.

Van de beek is attacking minded, that would hamper the growth of Puig and Alena. If the coach really wants to give "La Masia" a chance, signing an attacking midfielder is the least of our worries right now. Coutinho might even become reborn if he's allowed to play there, who knows.

haymekus:


Selling the first 8 ancestors means barce are saving a whooping 2m+ every week.


Can you fûcking imagine, saving 2m+ from selling waste products, mehn no wonder dey want to wreck this club, cos they know no one will sign their dead asś and pay them so much

Sergio busquet still has 3 years to run down his contract. I sure he was 30yrs at the time he signed his extension. How the board gave that man a 5-year contract sums up how myopic they've been.

From Pique:

“Shame is the word. You can’t play like that, you can’t play in Europe like that,” he said.

“It is neither the first, nor the second, nor the third time. It’s very hard, we all have to reflect.

“The club needs changes and I’m not talking about the coach, about the players. I don’t want to point at anyone. Structurally we needs changes of all kinds, because it is neither the first, nor the second nor the third time.

“The first one to volunteer will be me, if new blood has to come in and change this dynamic I will be the first to go, to step aside.

”Now we have hit rock-bottom. I think we all have to look and reflect internally and decide what is best for Barca, which is the most important thing.”

I hope Busquet follows suit. Dude has become too slow and weak over the years. He could still start against average teams in Laliga but DeJong has to cement his place as our Pivot. Things definitely has to change

DissTroy:

If the replays I've seen are anything to go by, you are just looking for scapegoats.
Barca have depended solely on Messi's brilliance in the last 3 years or so. The trophies amassed in that time have had to scraped - sometimes by a hair's breathe.

When you rely on the most brilliant student in school to win you quiz competitions, what happens the day he falls short? Are the other students on the team collectively intelligent enough to win competitions for the team? In Barca's case, we both know the answer - no.

Barca has known this all this time that's why the official Barca social accounts have become Messi fan accounts. That's why they'd keep eulogizing even his wife and kids daily on their accounts. That's why even when Messi's wife posts on Instagram, Barca players and management would go mark their presence in the comment section.
That's why Leo coughs and even the Barca president is running to bring him water. That's why he bought a condo in Milan and the Barca team went nuts.
They know they'd be toast without him now. Barca fans know too.

Same thing with Arsenal's official accounts almost literally eating Aubameyang's poo in the last one month.

You and I know no top-tier club would keep Suarez. You and I know Umtiti should have been sold. We know Griezmann became a Messi fan boy once he arrived and just wanted to relax 'cause, after all, Messi's been winning trophies with a bulk of these shitty players so he can't make it worse.

Oh, and the coaches too. From Luiz Enrique to the rest: When Barca started shedding off its tiki taka team. When strange players like Ardan Turan could make a Barcelona team! When Rakitic, who's never had the Barca DNA could play in a Barca first team.
When we could make a Barca-like player like Countinho unplayable in Barca because Tiki Taka was being dumped.
When thuggish, patternless Atletico players suddenly became the cynosure of Barca's board.
That's when it all started getting wrong.

Tiki Taka died after MSN and the 2008/2009/2010 class left Barcelona. Essentially, Barca lost its identity.

Don't blame the players - blame the management.

U're 100% right. In my opinion, the board could still cut their loss. For example, Griezmann would still command a transfer fee of 60-70 million. Suarez could also be sold for 10-15 million. An MLS team would definitely be intrested. That money could be used to get a youthful attacker that would fit into our style.

Too many old heads at Barcelona, no priority on youths. I guess we'll just have to see what happens in the coming weeks before the start of the new season.

I guess I was right with Busquet and Roberto being overwhelmed. Why do I still feel like Puig could have made an impact had he started the game.

U watch how Sergio Roberto last the ball for the 2nd goal and just wonder why he started this game after being the worst player against Napoli.

If Ure trying to defend a lead and need an attacker to drop back, then Griezmann is definitely the man. I certainly don't know what the coach was thinking bringing on Griezmann while we chanced the game.

I can't recall any attack Griezmann instigated. Fati was more of an ATTACKING threat in the few minutes he came on.
Ter Stegen played his worst match in a Barca shirt.

Finally, Setien has to go!

peterd53:


Bro, dz is not the game to experiment. Puig will be overwhelm by Bayern if he plays. He still got a lot to learn. Even Pep won’t play him.

U shouldn't speak for Pep, I guess we have our way of seeing football tho. Let's hope busquet and Sergio Roberto don't get overwhelmed

peterd53:


Are you comparing Foden to puig in term of big game experience??

Mind u, foden have played against d likes of spurs,United and Liverpool before dat game against Madrid. You can just put a youngster in the thick of tinz just like that. Puig place is on the bench for now.

The same Puig that bossed the midfield against Atletico Madrid? Maybe At.Madrid is a small team or u are referring to another Puig.

The truth is they're some players that don't really feel pressure. I see Puig in that light. If given the chance this evening, I'm sure he'll deliver.

biomustry:

Setien: “It is a little too early for Ansu and Riqui Puig to play at this level. They must have patience, in a couple of seasons they might play in the Champions League.”

don't expect to see them in the game o

Little too early? Seeing how Phil foden started and performed against Real Madrid, I guess not everyone has as much balls as Pep

Having Griezmann in the lineup today was like playing with only 10men, my worry is how only Messi provides the attacking threat, with very rare glimpse from Suarez. Once Bayern can close down Messi, it's game over for Barça!

Can someone explain why rakitic got the nod ahead of Puig in the midfield? I thought of it and experience was the only answer I could provide. The penalty he gave away didn't reflect the 'experience' factor tho

Finally, going by Setiens lineup today, I wouldn't have my hopes up on seeing dembele against Bayern.

calculator123:
Braithwiate is a testament that your starting doesn't matter, it's how you pick up yourself and move on that matters more.

Good morale boost going to Naples

Too bad he isn't registered to play the Champions League.

Barcelona just kept on passing for no reason, no through balls. Griezmann got lost. I understand how Alba provides the left-width in our new formation but Ansu fati isn't a bit effective on the right wing either. Can't recall him dribbling past Valencia's left back once.

Griezmann clearly our best player in attack? Na the same el clasico our two watch�

petux:
I dont know how much longer till we get rid of our clueless coach.

*Why start both semedo and Roberto when you know they ain't a good pair..

* Greizmann was clearly the best player in our attack. Why sub him off when you can just sub off suarez( the inconsistent player who keep losing the ball) and put Greizmann in 9 - his right position then put Ansu fati on the left wing...

Messi sef dae miss sitter..

Lenglet sef and his long pass wey no dae work

This el clasico is disappointing. Thank God for our keeper and defenders...we would have conceded a goal.

Adekaka12345:

But we defeated them last season now.

If u saw the first leg which we won, u'd admit that they were the better side.

It was just one of those nights in football were nothing goes in ur favour no matter what u do. I'm not sure we'd get that lucky again.

To think they've improved on last season, this time I'll put my money on them beating us home and away. Just like Bayern did that year.

NonFarmPayrol:
Mehn liverpool balling


Barca need a good coach soon

Cause I see better football in the english clasico

As a Barcelona fan, Liverpool are the only team I pray we avoid when the champions league draws start coming in.

We will be greatly exposed

After watching our defeat to Levante, I came to the conclusion that we lack that voice that'll constant remind the players on the need to cover grounds, win those 50-50 balls, stick ur foot in etc. The pep, klopp or conte kinda barking

At a point in the 2nd half when the score-line was still 0-1, if u paid attention to how some players were strolling, u'd think Barcelona were leading by 4 goals.

It doesn't also help much that Messi is also quiet on the pitch. A Puyol kinda attitude would have kept the lads on their toes.

If only Valverde would use passion and drive to make up for what he lacks in tactics. Sometimes, His expressions and body language drive me crazy.

Excallibur:
quite poor but excusable given the fact that its the first time he's playing this month

Aiit thanks

To those that saw the match, how was Ansu fati's performance?

Spain boss Robert Moreno has been talking about Lionel Messi and has lavished praise on the Barcelona captain.

Moreno knows Messi well from his time at Barcelona where he working alongside Luis Enrique initially with the B team and then with the senior side.

The 42-year-old is under no illusion that Messi is the greatest player ever and spoke about what it was like to work with the Argentina international.
“He’s the best player in history. It was incredible to see him in training every day,” he said.

”What you can see in matches on TV we would see every day. Leo plays another game to everybody else. You can’t train him, you are with him - he is football. You help the other players to adapt to him, his movements and decisions.

”With Leo it’s like The Matrix. He can see the movement of the legs of the opponent, and he sees the movement of the goalkeeper and has the ability to react.

”There’s no other player in history that has done that. Leo is god.”