14 - Javier Mascherano

Truthist

Truthist

New member
It's not simply a case of him having a good or bad game, no one is making that point here. It's the fact that it's a mismatch with him being a CB having to mark the opposition aerial threats.

It's also a slight lack of respect to natural defenders who have put in the hard hours throughout their lives/careers and seeing him take their place.

Above all, fitting square pegs in a round hole has been one of the main reasons of our decline in recent seasons IMO.
 
Ursegor

Ursegor

World Champion
Lulz is a tank. If anyone thinks sticks like Bartra or Pique who has been criticized countless times for getting outmuscled by a granny wouldn't have gotten outmuscled there they need to rethink. It wasn't even an aerial ball where he failed due to lack of height, in that case I'd understand the criticism. Rest of the game flawless. I'm actually rewatching the game right now and noting down all mistakes. Haven't written down Mascherano's name once. It's really the fullbacks stinking up the place mostly, trying to dribble in their own half (both set pieces for the 1st and 2nd goal came about like that) and particularly Alves passing the ball into people who are under heavy pressure which leads to counterattacks and Alba being generally out of his depth at this level. Coupled with a fail of a collective pressing where only 1 or 2 players actively press instead of a unite pressing which causes gaps this is what we get overall. Also Busquets trying to be cute on 2 occasions. It's like they've all lost their brains. No wonder Pep thinks Lahm is the most intelligent player of all time.
 
serghei

serghei

Senior Member
Truthist said:
It's not simply a case of him having a good or bad game, no one is making that point here. It's the fact that it's a mismatch with him being a CB having to mark the opposition aerial threats.
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What aerial threats? PSG scored all their goals with low height shots - except the Verrati goal, which had nothing to do with him.

Truthist said:
It's also a slight lack of respect to natural defenders who have put in the hard hours throughout their lives/careers and seeing him take their place.
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Who the hell cares about that?
 
Alarcón

Alarcón

New member
Piqué has long legs and I'm 100% sure if he marked Luiz instead of Mascherano there, the ball wouldn't go in, I can think of countless situations exactly like this one where Piqué managed to put the ball away. For their third goal, he was not in the right position to stop the cross, which is usual for him as he is positionally awful for a CB (no surprise for someone who became a CB at 26). And in more than one situation he was harassed by Pastore or whoever else, one of which led to PSG having a 2 or 3 vs 1 situation that they thankfully couldn't exploit. If that's a good game then our standards are pretty low.
 
Sumlit

Sumlit

San Claudio Bravo
Alarcón said:
Piqué has long legs and I'm 100% sure if he marked Luiz instead of Mascherano there, the ball wouldn't go in, I can think of countless situations exactly like this one where Piqué managed to put the ball away. For their third goal, he was not in the right position to stop the cross, which is usual for him as he is positionally awful for a CB (no surprise for someone who became a CB at 26). And in more than one situation he was harassed by Pastore or whoever else. If that's a good game then our standards are pretty low.
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The failure in the play was more in positioning by the entire team, than on Mascherano alone, just like it was for the second goal. Not so sure Pique would have done any different than Mascherano did.

For instance, Alves was the one covering the cross trying to deflect it. He jumped but the ball sailed over him. That's a failure there. Alves is too short to be the one trying to head the ball away. Rakitic or Busquets should have been there on the right side, but instead they were BOTH on the left side. Poor awareness and discipline by the team there.

Second goal was much the same. You had zonal markers in Rakitic and Mathieu because of size, but 3 players failed to stick to their marks, chiefly Alba and Iniesta, as a result the far post was wide open for a clean header.

Defending set pieces is as much discipline and tactics as it is size, perhaps even more than size. Barca had poor discipline and tactics in both cases and they got burnt.
 
BarçAjax8

BarçAjax8

New member
iceon said:
Not Neymars biggest fan going by this game :lol:
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Yeah some really rough tackles on Neymar. I understand playing for your nation with pride, but there was nothing on the line here and Neymar is a team-mate. Imagine what kind of shit we'd be in if Masche injured Neymar :facepalm1:
 
Frodo_FCB

Frodo_FCB

New member
Ok lets not exaggerate things..What i saw it was the usual passionate Mascherano and Neymar been a bit excessive when he got fouled.
Nothing more here :coffee:
 
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