Man of the Match 13/14 edition

Xavi
Alves
Pique

Semi-Neutral said:

Why? When you look at Montoya, who delivered maybe 2 total crosses and 0 accurate ones, Dani's statistics aren't so bad. Also, Espanol only had one real chance due to a slight misjudgment, I think Dani did his defensive duties quite well. And attacking wise, he got the ball into dangerous areas more than anyone else, probably more than any two other players; even if 4/5 of his crosses were to the GK or out of bounds, the 1/5 of the crosses that were accurate could have resulted in goals, something very few fullbacks in the world provide.

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That is not fair to Montoya, who had a nice game with no errors whatsoever. Montoya plays a defensive game, we don't need more from him other than playing safe and careful in defense. Dani is the one who's expected to deliver in the offense. Today, he really didn't do well - especially on the wing (he was a lot better when he cut in the center). He wasn't the worst either, as some suggest.

Neymar
Xavi
Pique

Neymar
Piqué
Xavi

1. Xavi- did his stuff:control, pass, pass, control...did a lot of defensive work as well
2. Pique/Masch- Espanyol did not create any danger and they were responsible for that
HM Montoya and Alexis

Neymar
Xavi
Valdes - For that one save that could've made things much worse.

serghei said:

That is not fair to Montoya, who had a nice game with no errors whatsoever. Montoya plays a defensive game, we don't need more from him other than playing safe and careful in defense. Dani is the one who's expected to deliver in the offense. Today, he really didn't do well - especially on the wing (he was a lot better when he cut in the center). He wasn't the worst either, as some suggest.

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I do agree that Montoya was solid, but I just think it's silly how with one player you (not you, just people) go, "He messed up a cross, but he's not supposed to cross anyway" and with other players it'll be, "He messed up a cross, WTF, bench him, god he's terrible, he's not good enough for a team like Barcelona, (best one )why is he even crossing to midgets?!"

Don't hate on one fullback because he "should be able to cross better" then ignore another one. I understand upholding different players by different standards, but not when you try to apply universal rules to them.

Man this is a hard one to pick 3:

1. Neymar - created the goal and had some nice attempts.
2. Sanchez - 3 goals in 3 games must be a personal best, congrats Chileano.
3. Pique - was very solid especially in the air tonight.

Pique
Neymar
Alexis

Neymar
Alexis
Pique

Neymar - For being a constant threat pushing forward and for the great assist
Xavi - For the lovely balls fed to Alves
Valdes - For the crucial save

1. Neymar
2. Pique
3. Alexis

Neymar
Alexis
Piqué

With Espanyol compact behind the ball, a goal was likely to come from the wings- Neymar, Alves (just fugedaboutit, horrid crossing per usual), or Messi cutting in from right.

1. Got to give top spot to Neymar for his double-nutmeg assist.
2. Xavi - Espanyol confined to their half by Xavi-Busi dominance.
3. Busi - along with Xavi, the most fun to watch throughout the game, with his brilliant 1-touch wall passing

Honorable mentions:
Mascherano - doing the dirty work, per usual, cleaning up messes
Valdes - did well to save Alves botched defending
Messi - not his best day, but might have broken through at any point.
Montoya - solid throughout
Pique - decent game
Cesc- did well with his few minutes
Pedro - did well with his few minutes

Others:
Alexis: not much of a threat, but good positioning for the tap-in
Iniesta- tried to make something happen, but was unable to create any openings

Worst performance:
Alves- typical wasteful crosses (though mini-Messi got on the end of one). There was one where Messi laid it out to Alves, unmarked, with loads of time, who still managed to sail the ball five meters over the 5 Barça players in the box. FFS, with that much time, pick a target and hit it!

The Official Barcaforum.com MoM-thread award - 13/14 Edition
Espanyol, La Liga, home (1-0)

1. Neymar (44,9%) Got to give top spot to Neymar for his double-nutmeg assist ~ BerkeleyBernie
2. Pique (15,6%) was very solid especially in the air tonight ~ barcanuck
2. Xavi (15,6%) Constantly on the ball, pinging forward long balls and distributing short passes equally well, looked a class above Espanol's midfielders ~ Semi-Neutral
3. Alexis (12,9%) Not a brilliant game, but he worked hard and he scored the only goal ~pEllee


Random fact(s) of the round:
- For the last 6 consecutive rounds, Neymar and Messi have swapped places between 1st and 2nd place in the rankings after each round.
- It's been 8 rounds since both Messi and Neymar featured in the top 3 (Messi 3 times and Neymar 5 times).