14 - Javier Mascherano

[Clockwise]

 

[ryuken]

God bless you Mas

 

[alex 10]

i love mashrano
what a game he had and he saved us in the end

 

[Catalonian Devil]

I like how he got subbed off right after the tackle and went hobbling off...

Any cule heart he hadn't won by that time was a prisoner to him as he hobbled off the pitch

 

[Clockwise]

that tackle..... thaaaaaat tackle... THAAAAAAAAAAAT TACKLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was even better than Messi's flick.
ps I love you.

^^^^

 

[DennyCrane]

He was without a doubt MotM. He finally fits into the team and our playing style. All hail to the mighty Mascherano!

 

[Sewelly]

It still annoys me how limited his passing is, for me he'll never be a great fit into the current Barca team. However, when it comes to the defensive side of the game he's an absolute beast.

 

[barcetia]

It still annoys me how limited his passing is, for me he'll never be a great fit into the current Barca team. However, when it comes to the defensive side of the game he's an absolute beast.

? it's not

 

[Cal-FCB]

What a game from him. He constantly battled in the middle, so many tackles he put in. His challenge on Bendtner kept us in tournament. That's 3 games in a row and he's been fantastic in all of them.

 

[knicks]

You must be a big hero to do this f*ck!..

 

[FCBarca]

We learned two things from the DMs last night...One, the Biscuit is no Yaya as a CB...Two, talk of Mascherano's demise has been seriously overstated...He had a huge influence on the match, quite easily a MOTM candidate

I was thinking had Pique & Puyol been fit and able to play, we wouldn't have seen Mascherano out there bossing the midfield and making fantastically timed tackles to snuff out even a whiff of a counter for Arsenal...Immense performance

 

[Silver]

Well with these performance he made himself popular by barca fans.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

Let us not forget that he laid Wilshire on his FUCKIN ass and tackled the shit out of Nasri I think it was charging in from midfield to the left flank. His tackle in the dying moments of the game though,,, had me running around like a wild beast and tearing shit up in my own house. It was fantastic

 

[Sewelly]

? it's not

What you talking about? You saying his passing range isn't limited? It really is, disasterously so, and it sticks out like a sore thumb when he's in the Barca midfield. Sideways and backwards short range passes is about the limits for his range, anything else attempted last night resulted in the giving away of the ball - like it has done for most of his career.

I'm not going to lie, I've never rated Mascherano that highly and I think before joining Barca he'd built a reputation that dwarfed his actual ability level. For me he has always been a limited, overrated player. However that is not to understate his good qualities, which were proven brilliantly last night and he was almost certainly the MOTM. Don't try and tell me he's an expansive footballer with the ball though, because that's nonsense.

Again, this is not to detract from his defensive qualities. He's a great tackler, reads the game well, is very disciplined and is committed. He's also a master of the 'dark arts', whether you see that as a positive or not is up to personal interpretation. As a pure defensive midfielder he's great at that job.

I just don't understand how anybody can rate his expansive passing ability highly without being delusional. He was the source of 90% of miss-placed Barca passes on Tuesday. For me personally, I'll always be irritated by the function of a pure defensive midfielder with little else to their game. Give me an allround footballer in the centre anyday rather than the likes of Mascherano and Gilberto Silva.

 

[Metaphysical]