14 - Javier Mascherano

[KyletheMuslim]

He's been here for almost 5 years now and has done so much, so of course he's a club legend.

I was really skeptical about his signing back in 2010. A couple months into the season I swear he was a waste of money, but then Puyol get injured. It was in the match against Arsenal in the second leg of the round of 16 in march 2011 when he truly became a barca player, his clutch Tackle to nip the ball away from lord bendtner following wilshere's through ball was the stuff of legend. He played wonderfully in the final as well. In the following season he kept pique out of the team with his beast form, I remember in the early months of 2012 during our great run of form before the april clasico when we clawed back a 10 point deficit in the league to put us back in contention for the liga, he had a run of games where he recovered every ball he went for. In 2012/13 he was our stalwart because puyol was basically injured all season and pique was in poor form.
Last season wasn't his best but he redeemed himself with a mythical performance at the world cup, especially that tackle against Robben in the semifinal.
In El Jefecito we have a real Legend

 

[Vilarrubi]

Might have been posted in another thread but loolllll

 

[Ursegor]

Blessing that he's in the midfield for these big games I tell ya. Busi can be really slack in mid and Masche real sloppy at the back. Case and point Aguero foul last night.

His initial mistake was not the foul in the box. It was getting wrongside of Agüero by overcommitting a couple seconds before that.

I don't share the enthusiasm about Mascherano in midfield. Too much "yolo all in" last ditch stuff and mindless ball chasing. Might look spectacular in the few smaller game he gets to play here and there. If he were to play regularly in big games people would notice mistakes like the one above a lot more and get annoyed very quickly. He also went into a slide tackle in the 1st leg against Agüero and completely failed and glided past Kun and suddenly it was 2 vs. 1 with Pique saving his blushes.

"Best DM in the world". That requires more than a handful of showings against terrible international sides. I'm shitting bricks when thinking about Real Madrid putting pressure on Mascherano. He already looked horrific against Rayo Vallecano under pressure. Manchester City is no benchmark with Yaya, Nasri, Agüero strolling around the pitch. Far from a "blessing".

 

[Kohe321]

Yeah Ursegor I agree, he did that same mistake in the first leg as well where he went in way too "yolo mode" and ended up on the wrong side of the player, who just turned him away and could run straight towards goal. He needs to keep a cool head and stop doing these kinds of defensive blunders against RM, I don't want to think about Bale getting past him like that with Ronaldo and Benz poaching in the box.

That said he can be fantastic as well, so if he can just keep the mistakes to a minimum he will do great.

 

[DrPepper]

Yeah Ursegor I agree, he did that same mistake in the first leg as well where he went in way too "yolo mode" and ended up on the wrong side of the player, who just turned him away and could run straight towards goal. He needs to keep a cool head and stop doing these kinds of defensive blunders against RM, I don't want to think about Bale getting past him like that with Ronaldo and Benz poaching in the box.

That said he can be fantastic as well, so if he can just keep the mistakes to a minimum he will do great.

At least he played at DM in the second leg, where his headless running can be covered more often than not. But as a CB doing these things is beyond stupid which is a main reason why I think he shouldn't play there in big matches. Even against City he struggled and they're not exactly one of the best teams in the world.

 

[linetty]

This guy is NOT a DM for Barca. How many times do I have to repeat this? It was painful to watch. Thank God Busi is fit already, that's a miracle.

 

[Gasgas]

They overwhelmed him in the second half

 

[Devils]

Busi coming back in a huge blessing.

Masch absolutely cannot be put in this position against world class opposition.

 

[gatsu]

This guy is NOT a DM for Barca. How many times do I have to repeat this? It was painful to watch. Thank God Busi is fit already, that's a miracle.

Yeah We keep saying that, Busquets is our best midfielder, he is as much important as Messi in Lucho's system.

 

[KyletheMuslim]

He should stick to centreback

 

[DonAndres]

Don't want to see him at DM again now that Busi is back. He was god awful in distribution today. With the way our midfield is set up to support the attack, a lot of the responsibility to provide structure and control in the center lies on the pivot. The result: RM's midfield harassed the shit out of us while we had no control whatsoever in the first half. Iniesta had the unfortunate duty of trying to salvage our buildup. Masch is very smart in defense and has a great partnership with Pique but he does not belong in midfield.

I feel that our play would've been much better had Busquets been there for the whole match. It would've given us a calmer, more in control midfield (to the benefit of Rakitic/Iniesta). Not to mention that Messi would get more touches and be able to give a stronger performance. Then again, the hypothetical game doesn't work too well since Mathieu wouldn't have played and scored if Busi had . Hard to compare, but the point is that our entire team benefits when Busi plays over Masch.

 

[footyfan]

Yes, Messi depends a lot on Busquets against good opposition. Busquets releases the ball so early and so accurately, it allows Messi to catch the defense off-guard..

 

[Ini8]

Isn't he suspended for the next game? At least he can get some rest now. He's been so reckless lately.

 

[Morten]

I generally like him, his excellent defensive play and all that, but what the hell was the Ronaldo- Mascherano situation about? Ronaldo touched him in the face and then Mascherano went screaming in agony. Remind me of the Adebayor - Mascherano episode a few years back.

 

[Blaugrana Bull]

No need for those fuckers Cristiano and Carvajal to touch his head.