2021 Preseason

Gari

Active member
Ronald Koeman: "The system of playing with three defenders gave us a lot of positive things last season, but this does not necessarily mean that we will continue to play with this system during the new season.""The rival has played with great intensity and it been a good preparation." "I don't like to lose but I'm happy with what we've done after a week of this tour."
 

gregorrin10

Senior Member
New season, same old story. First dangerous opponent, Koeman shits himself and goes back to 5-3-2, then throws on 5 attackers for the last 15 minutes without ANY plan and fixed formation, and manages to lose the game because of it in the process. Alba shits himself away from home because of fans returning to the stadiums. (now that that's happening, we might as well just sell him to avoid Half Time Crying: Part 2 ). And this was only a friendly. Scary.

Don't think I'll be watching much, if any Barca matches this season, at least not live. Especially since La Liga matches in my country are moving to a different TV channel, which I currently don't have in my TV channel package. And I certainly won't be paying extra or changing my TV provider to watch this crap every week, much less be bothered with looking for non-glitchy Internet links for this team of spineless players and tactical clueless manager that is Cowardman. I suspect in most matches even the highlights won't be much to look at...

I can only hope for the sake of the future of this club, that Laporta knows and understands just how finished our veteran players are, and that the only thing standing in the way of him moving them on/letting them go to start a new story with an almost new team, new manager and a new direction this summer already, is the lack of funds and not being able to afford it. Koeman included of course. And i'm not talking just about money, to pay all these leeches off, but also not having the numbers on the players themselves, if like half the team (which is reasonable considering the amount of crap we have) left at the same time, without being able to replace them right away.
 

FinBarcelonafan

Well-known member
Maybe Koeman gets to his senses and sees that the only veteran who we can count on every game still is Messi. Some are so finished, that it is an act of sabotage to play them consistently no matter the opponent (Pique, Roberto, Umtiti), and the rest are partly finished and liabilities especially in pressure games (Busi, Alba).

The truth. Our veterans are finished. Fresh blood badly needed.
 

Rassvet

Well-known member
This shows why I said we might get knocked out in the group stage this season. Pots 3/4 have some decent teams like Salzburg who are certainly capable of finishing above us over 6 games.
 

gregorrin10

Senior Member
Jesus christ people really writing outraged essays over a friendly defeat :lol:

Sorry, we all know that Koeman will turn it up to 11 as far as his tactical knowledge and choices go, and half of our team won't shit themselves when it matters. Just like last season, and the season before that, and the season before that...riiiight. :lol:

Exactly the fact that it's only a friendly, rings alarm bells, cause nowadays these spineless and not even average, but just plain bad excuse of a players can't even dominate and not make mistakes and not get run over by every attacker on the opponent's team in friendly matches and/or against relegation fodders in La Liga, much less on a big CL night away from home against a serious opponent in front of 60.000 screaming home fans.
 

malvolio

Senior Member
This shows why I said we might get knocked out in the group stage this season. Pots 3/4 have some decent teams like Salzburg who are certainly capable of finishing above us over 6 games.

Nah, the current format of the CL won't allow it.
 

Birdy

Senior Member
It only worked when Dembele had that good spell around the Sevilla games. If we go with 3 atb it should be a 3-4-3, and in under no circumstances 2 of those should be Pique and Lenglet. That's setting up for failure.

Didn't watch the game, but last season 3-4-3 with Frenkie at Libero was the best system around that time.
When you play 3-5-2 you have one too many mids and defenders.
Especially when Busi is one of them, and Nico -who plays like him- is the other (again didn't watch the game, just read the lineups)
Needless to say, Griezzy should not be one of the 3 upfont.
 

akaranzo

Active member
Sorry, we all know that Koeman will turn it up to 11 as far as his tactical knowledge and choices go, and half of our team won't shit themselves when it matters. Just like last season, and the season before that, and the season before that...riiiight. :lol:

Exactly the fact that it's only a friendly, rings alarm bells, cause nowadays these spineless and not even average, but just plain bad excuse of a players can't even dominate and not make mistakes and not get run over by every attacker on the opponent's team in friendly matches and/or against relegation fodders in La Liga, much less on a big CL night away from home against a serious opponent in front of 60.000 screaming home fans.

You should take a break from watching football if that's really how you feel. I was feeling the same type of burnout around 2016/2017 and just decided to pay a lot less attention to football for a couple seasons and it helped.
 

Zidane82

Well-known member
Remember they are two weeks or so ahead of us fitness wise and have already played three league games plus we are missing Messi and Pedri ... two of our three elite players
 

Andresito

Senior Member
Staff member
Lol, 1 friendly loss and the season is over apparently. Madrid won 1 out of 5 games in 2017-18 and went on to win CL. We're still missing like 9 players and played with bums/youngsters who won't participate a single minute when the season starts.

Calm down please.
 

FCBarca

Mike the Knife
I saw the Red Bull contest as a good litmus test for where we are, even without key players - not only because of how well they press & counter but that they were ahead in their preparation for the season

And predictably, Koeman showed that against the minnows he can prepare his teams well enough but not in matches where players need to raise their intensity & be sharp. I am astounded by how naive Koeman continues to be, seemingly unprepared or ignorant to the opponent and their style of play. You'd think the team would be ready for what they were about to face

Individually there were many impressive moments, especially from the kids like Gavi & Nico but the lack of sharpness in finishing actions or escaping pressure suggests Koeman has not evolved at all for what is needed

Adeyemi is an outstanding talent at 19 and leaving Araujo so often isolated against him was foolish but the bigger issue continues to be the lack of width in attack. Ron is merely another in a line of coaches picked by Bartomeu who have betrayed the playing style of Barca. A big IF Ansu is able to recapture his prior form, there is optimism on that left flank but Dembele won't be available until November at earliest for the right - which means we still will struggle for width playing any combination of Memphis & Griezz.

We wait for Xavi
 

Porque

Senior Member
Griezmann was a worse attacking option than Depay.

A glaring problem when your 100m (+20m) signing is worse than a free transfer.

Friendly was a good test. My issue was that Koeman reverted to the 352 and didn't want to test how his 433 would perform in a tough away friendly.

Other than that, alot to work on and some interesting things shown from the young players.

The most important note is that Balde, Nico and Demir are ready to step in this season. As is Gavi though he will propser being the key midfielder in the B.
 

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