Search results

however, he did well against Napoli. And he did not get enough rest before Bayern game. Messi's weakness (needs more rest between important games than other top players) is greatly magnified by COVID schedules. His socalled massive decline can be explained by it.

Even in his prime, Messi would have suffered from the heavy, compressed schedule caused by COVID. He never performed well after only 3 days rest. A sensible coach and his medical team should plan accordingly and never let him play 90 minutes in such situations. Koeman should hire an assistant...

all 3 Bar?a losses came against teams from Madrid

Atletico Madrid is a good team, probably best in Spain right now. Look at their recent record, compared to ours. The loss today was unfortunate, due to the terrible mistake by MAtS. He should have played Messi in second half only, Messi was too tired and jet lagged for 90 min against the best La...

tired Messi was still best player. But it would probably have been better to just play him in second half, for more impact.

Too bad he is injured but he had 2 opportunities to shoot inside the box before he took the long distance attempt. It almost went in due to the deflection. Koeman needs to tell his players that it's ok to try to shoot, not just wait for Messi.

I repeat what I said for years: resting Messi is good for the team and for himself as well. He will play better if he does not have to play all minutes.

maybe playing him along Messi is the problem. Let him play when Messi is rested and see what he can do. And Messi should definitely be rested.

MAtS saved 4 goals - we could have lost without him. However, we could also have scored 2-3 in first half. In 2nd half our defense was really bad.

only first 20 minutes were worth watching

only Bar?a threat in offense after the Sub

needs rest! let him play second half only against Betis

almost scored 2 goals ...

I think it's time for Koeman to turn the fact that Bar?a management acquired 2 players that are similar to Messi into a plus (instead of a problem): Given that Messi does not have the stamina to play 2-3 matches per week, he should be rested and Griezmann + Coutinho should take his place. I...

Messi never plays well on short rest. He had a very good Juventus match, should have been rested today, or at least saved for the second half. It's on the coach to force Messi to play less. Anyway, he tried hard at the end, was close to scoring. He will be back but should not play all 90 minutes.

maybe Neto should have played the Bayern match. Too much pressure on MAtS to compete with Neuer. BTW, I don't think Bayern would have defeated PSG without Neuer. He was MOTM in my book. I think we should not kick out Neto and let MAtS take over immediately. MAtS may have a slight edge in...

maybe he thinks Ansu Fati betrayed him be picking a new manager... Anyway, I am not concerned. Open play goals will come. What I am concerned about is letting him start on 2 days rest - a recipe for injuries! Let Griezmann start and bring in Messi in 2nd half.

Shaktar scored 3 goals, Borussia MGB scored 2 goals. How come we could only score 1 goal!

Question: would the referee have called this penalty in a packed stadium? Is the absence of a home crowd changing how referees are behaving? And how VAR is interpreted?

what worries me most about the current schedule for top clubs is that it is so compressed. It started with La Liga after the COVID break. 2-3 days between matches is not enough for recovery. As a consequence, there will be injuries. Top clubs need to rotate much more. As to Bar?a and Messi...