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hehe he could be thinking of Frenkie there tbh I watched the training clips where they did some "fun" things after the game, for example played with tennis balls and tried to head the ball into a bin. Luuk seemed to have a pretty good natural talent, watching those. He also seems very clinical...

I agree though! He is of course great in some sense, but I never wanted him in Barcelona for instance.

And I refuse to believe they'd be able to do it against the current midfield, correctly set up and with the rest of the team playing decently close to how they should. The biggest qualitative differences between -21 Barcelona and -11 Barcelona are the attack and the right back (let's see where...

Attack is the best defence! A controlled attack - controlled aggression!

A nice pass from him: https://twitter.com/Paulmcg8/status/1461382238688489479 But mostly some very nice opinions from Paul McGuinness, whom I rate very highly!

Barca pay for ter Stegen too! lol it's barcacentre's twitter account doing the translation... I think Xavi speaks his mind, but he prefers to speak when he has positive things to say. Whether he is correct or not, I think his praise and trust will help the players.

Xavi: "Ter Stegen is fundamental for us… He is among the three best goalkeepers in the world. He has personality, character, great footwork and insurance. For me he is a guarantee."

Yeah he was really very terrible. There was a clip where some people here blamed Puig for a "headless chicken" run. Just before that, Coutinho had lost the ball by missing a very simple but very crucial pass, and then he was nutmegged when not only Puig but two or three other players very much...

Nothing Pep came up with, and Xavi said it too when he arrived - the attacker should be the first defender and the defender the first attacker, as per Cruyff. Enrique gave it as a good explanation for the choices he made that made them succesfully qualify for another tournament, and not as an...

It is very different yes to compare different players playing for different systems. Kante has many positives and advantages over Busquets, but bringing the ball forward isn't one of them. I don't agree that it's a very difficult situation, the easy pass to the wide back would be fine, or the...

Where did the ball end up in the end? A pass towards the player in the left half space would've been very good and progressive, but he didn't see it. Busquets always see these passes. He progresses the ball about 10 meters, with another player having to do the same thing pretty much. I like...

Busquets doesn't need to run around for 30 steps in order to play a bad pass to someone marked facing backwards. He'd either play the easy one touch pass to the RB, turn and play to the other half space, or find someone in an even better position that isn't seen on that cropped video. Very...

It is with Barcelona as it is with the spanish NT: as Luis Enrique says, they are a bit poor at defending, but great when they have the ball. So it is important that all players reliably can at least keep the ball. It all falls apart when you have 1,2,3 very sloppy players, and players who don't...

I rewatched the last 20 mins, and I saw no situation like that with Pique. Maybe OVI thought about one situation when Puig wanted Araujo to pass it to him but didn't dare, then the sequence after Puig got that same pass from Pique and could play it for Araujo to hoof it towards a Depay free on...

Puig wanted the ball centrally then that time IIRC. The pressing player covered the wide pass so he went back inside. He is sometimes too eager to get the ball, even in tight situations. Pique could just pass it backwards I guess if he didn't believe there was a way out through Puig?

You cannot defend as a midfielder on the assumption that your team mate doing the pressing will be nutmegged. They are 3v1 close to the line and the only way out is the back pass that Puig runs to intercept (Depay walk-jogs and would let the defender hoof it or even control it). Some prefer...

What Koeman said doesn't matter one bit.

It is very unhonourable to do what was done with Setien, and also Valverde I think, by the previous board. It is also very unhonourable to agree to a contract that runs over the election, when you know they'll probably want to choose their own manager. If you are a "club legend" it is even more...

I think Mingueza is pretty poor on the ball from the flank, but as a CB I really like his calmness and his decisions. He spots the longer passes between the lines from there, and knows when to advance or when to play simple. DM is a very different role to CB but also to RB. I think the...

I like your eye here and I agree. Maybe Garcia or even Mingueza could be options too, to brainstorm a bit. Xavi said something about Gavi being able to, but I didn't see it so far.