14 - Javier Mascherano

khaled_a_d

Senior Member
Dont agree.

There is absolutely no reason for Pique to be marking same area as Umtiti for that goal.

What is the reason for Mascherano not to be there? Pique is at least the CB and it isn't his job to be at that position even if it was the ideal one,Mascherano on the other hand was supposed to be there and didn't track someone else.
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
What is the reason for Mascherano not to be there? Pique is at least the CB and it isn't his job to be at that position even if it was the ideal one,Mascherano on the other hand was supposed to be there and didn't track someone else.

Masch could do more to try and track his run but not even sure he would have got to him in time to stop him.

Pique should be trying to stop the cut back but is an area that stops nothing.
 

God Serena

New member
Masche arguably costed us the second goal but the third was all on him.

That was pathetic defending. Did he even know the ball was coming his way?
 

abiabi

Member
The funny thing is, we were marking man to man on set pieces, and I'm 99% sure Mascherano was responsible for us changing that. Argentinians hate zonal defending.

And he's the one that blew his man coverage. I mean, he didn't blow it, he just was a traffic cone for Chiellini to jump over.
 

El Flaco

Active member
Lost his man three times, three goals.

Just look how he jogged after Dybala in the first 2 goals. Useless in DM.

He is the reason of our loss today. Dybala owned him. TBH he didn't quite bother tracking him, but oh well...

The first goal Dybala was between Iniesta and Pique who were lazy defensively and gave him too much room.

Second goal Pique for some reason marked the near post where Umtiti was.

Both goals on Pique far more than Masch who was shit overall.

Why the hell was he marking Chiellini? Same thing happened with Ramos last Clásico... Is it the work of the genius Unzue?

2nd goal was far more on Mascherano, it is his job as a DM to be in that position not the CB.
But tbf we had this problem most of season long no matter who is our DM

Masche arguably costed us the second goal but the third was all on him.

That was pathetic defending. Did he even know the ball was coming his way?

[gfy]WiltedWearyEasteuropeanshepherd[/gfy]

[gfy]RaggedFearlessJumpingbean[/gfy]

[gfy]CanineMeanGalapagospenguin[/gfy]

[gfy]CavernousPresentDingo[/gfy]

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[gfy]FondDecimalGroundhog[/gfy]
 

BarçaBarça

New member
Really sad to see him f*** it all up, when he finally played his favourite position. He could at least make an effort and put some energy in the defensive duties, but in the end he played a huge part in the decisive goals - very, very disappointing.
 

Meatball

New member
The 2nd goal was mostly on him! For the 3rd goal if he had just tried to jump full force (no even need to reach to the ball here), it would have been way tougher for Chiellini to make a header, let alone guiding it to the bottom left corner like that! He brutally let the team down here
 

Behrox

Vice President of FC Barcelona
I'll never understand how Masch always seems to be the one marking arguably the biggest man on the field in our games during set pieces
 

Antimadridista1

New member
I'll never understand how Masch always seems to be the one marking arguably the biggest man on the field in our games during set pieces

Completely right. It's always either him or Busquets, with Pique trying to take the ball first. Bad tactics when the opposition team got 4 or 5 tall players with the likes of Bonucci, Chiellini, Mandzukic, Higuain...

Tactics are completely wrong and it's on Luis Enrique and his staff.
 

Sneer

Banned
Lets get rid of him while we can still make some money. .
We could get someone younger and taller. . . . . Possibly a swap with Roma for Manolas or something.
 

Neymessi

Active member
We suck ass at set pieces. Scoring as well as defending. Absolutely 0 tactics visible.

I wouldn't be giving much shit if it was restricted to scoring coz we have other ways to score we are good at but we are terrible at defending.
 

Behrox

Vice President of FC Barcelona
Well as I play CB and am relatively tall at 6'1, I always try to mark the guy who I perceive as the biggest aerial threat. I can't for the life of me understand how both Bunnoci and Chielleni were not marked by either of Pique or Umtiti and to add insult to injury, Masche was expected to mark him when a standing Chielleni would have towered over Masch at the peak of his jump
 

serghei

Senior Member
Here is why Lucho is just a bad tactical manager.

First goal is how zonal defense is not supposed to be played with a team like ours. In modern zonal defense systems you have all three factors that you need to take into consideration: the zone to be covered, the opponents, and the ball. If players go out from your zone to receive, you follow them until he goes way out of your zone. So, Pique there is tactically forced to follow Dybala. He doesn't do it, so he is 1st to blame for the goal imo.

What you see in the first goal is unacceptable. You have a player (Dybala), going away from Pique, and Pique doesn't do anything except he sticks to his zone as if his point of reference is not the ball, not the opponent, but strictly his position (he looks to keep a straight line with Roberto, Umtiti and Mathieu - who is late, which in theory is what a position oriented zonal defense should look like). But this is so badly done, and so unfit for our type of team. Pique absolutely had to track Dybala there. FFS, guarding empty space while other zones are filled with opposing players creating superiority is not only dumb, it's actually tactical suicide.

The concept of 'helping out' does not exist under Lucho. Modern defensive systems have a method of anticipating danger and taking actions to correct unavoidable individual positional mistakes. Lucho, like Mourinho has only one way to treat positional errors, and that is moan when they happen, as if players don't do individual mistakes. Everybody makes them, which is why the system must have a collective way of reacting to those mistakes and fix them within seconds. Before the opponent speculates them.

You see Pique being in a position to correct Mascherano's positional error, and doesn't do it because the manager doesn't think players need to help each other. By not correcting Mascherano's error when he clearly could have, Pique makes an even bigger error. And this is because players do not act according to each other's position, to where the ball is and how can it be played, or to where the opponent is situated. Our players guard their zones, while opponents go outside and create superiority at will.

Luis Enrique has successfully managed to make us a completely reactive team in defence, as if we have several monster defenders a la Maldini and Nesta in the squad.
 
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