8 - Pedri

[serghei]

On other occasions, when the situation is not perfect, he is far from his absolute best.
Especially in CL KO matches.

That's like saying Tom Cruise is the best action star, but he only makes big money films with state of the art technical possibilities. Of course, he's Tom Cruise.

So is Pep. Of course Pep has great situations at his clubs when every club except for Madrid would line up to get him and treat him like a king.

Getting access to the best things is ALSO often a priviledge for the best. It's not something that happens randomly.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Too taxing, heavily dependent on massive work in trainings. Why do you think Pep left? He knew the squad had to be refreshed in some positions as 2012 was a massive decline compared to all time great 2011, and the players got too popular at that point. So the new dumb board decided to stick with the players, as they saw Pep as Laporta's man anyway.

Pep clearly has no problem staying as we see at City going for 6+ years if he can implement in the squad the decisions he wants.

But I don't think it is going to be as easy as getting rid of all the amigos and with a lot of new and younger players, we will finally get back to the real Barca way.

Many players who have left talked about how "easy" our training was, compared to training sessions run by other clubs in other leagues. I wonder what culminated it? I can't imagine we had "easy" training sessions under Pep, during our golden era.

I think the club's sporting department might need a total revamp to get back to the very basics, demanding the proper commitment from both the coach stuff and players to cut the crap and get back to work.

 

[serghei]

But I don't think it is going to be as easy as getting rid of all the amigos and with a lot of new and younger players, we will finally get back to the real Barca way.

Many players who have left talked about how "easy" our training was, compared to training sessions run by other clubs in other leagues. I wonder what culminated it? I can't imagine we had "easy" training sessions under Pep, during our golden era.

I think the club's sporting department might need a total revamp to get back to the very basics, demanding the proper commitment from both the coach stuff and players to cut the crap and get back to work.

Getting rid of the amigos is not enough. You have to bring in top players instead of them. We don't have the funds basically. What we invested so far got us from top 4 fight and into a probably title fight again. A new manager like Tuchel would maybe get a bit more in CL short term. But not much more.

 

[KingLeo10]

Getting rid of the amigos is not enough. You have to bring in top players instead of them. We don't have the funds basically.

Who are the top players on the market that we missed that wanted to come here as first choice? Spending wasn't the issue this summer. We spent 200 M + this summer.

Squad still isn't top tier, but Xavi is currently the biggest problem.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

hopefully he will develop as nice as Federico Valverde

 

[JamDav1982]

Getting rid of the amigos is not enough. You have to bring in top players instead of them. We don't have the funds basically. What we invested so far got us from top 4 fight and into a probably title fight again. A new manager like Tuchel would maybe get a bit more in CL short term. But not much more.

Barca have one of top squads in Europe and should be getting out of CL group and competing with Real... Some are better but not many and not to extent should not be able to compete with them.

Not dunted out CL group two years in row to teams like Benfica and Inter and out of Euorpa to Frankfurt in embarrasing fashion.

A coach should be expected to achieve a lot more.

At this point Xavi and the set up at club will stop it being so attractive to top players if anything.

 

[unknowngenius10]

Unfortunately Barca are very good at overating players just b.c they are from spain. We need a better player to replace him while he develops. And if he never develops, at least we coukd have a nuce sub when needed

 

[serghei]

Who are the top players on the market that we missed that wanted to come here as first choice? Spending wasn't the issue this summer. We spent 200 M + this summer.

Squad still isn't top tier, but Xavi is currently the biggest problem.

We spent 200M this summer, but the team was in a massive hole. We are still -3 from Madrid and the title fight if we win the rest games until the World Cup will continue. We're gonna need a new 200m probably to finalize the team.

Starting team in the last days of Bartomeu in the Clasico:

Dest - Pique - Lenglet - Alba
Pedri - Busi - De Jong - Coutinho
Messi - Fati.

What players in this team above do you think are good enough as a starter right now, 2 years after that game?

I think only De Jong. Pedri and Fati as good squad options. Messi gone for money, old bums that don't want to go... bums that we finally got rid of like Coutinho...

In reality, we have to build a completely new squad almost and last summer was first real go at it.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Getting rid of the amigos is not enough. You have to bring in top players instead of them. We don't have the funds basically. What we invested so far got us from top 4 fight and into a probably title fight again. A new manager like Tuchel would maybe get a bit more in CL short term. But not much more.

I don't think it is just the players. We can have the best players in the world and they definitely will help but we keep slacking off, not working on our basics and not demanding the basics, don't want to piss off players who don't bother to move their ass and run etc., we will be the same as today. Of course proper managers will help too, but we have had been pretty much the same under a string of managers.

Something about us is rotten or missing.

 

[JamDav1982]

Nah Barca have a squad that should be competing with Real and doing better in CL.

A top coach with this squad can be doing far far better.

I am fairly sure Serghie was hailing the quality of squad before season starts as up there able to compete on both fronts.

Mental gymnastics to give excuses for Xavi back out.

 

[serghei]

I don't think it is just the players. We can have the best players in the world and they definitely will help but we keep slacking off, not working on our basics and not demanding the basics, don't want to piss off players who don't bother to move their ass and run etc., we will be the same as today. Of course proper managers will help too, but we have had been pretty much the same under a string of managers.

Something about us is rotten or missing.

Players + manager/staff. Not much wrong can be other than that. Especially since Bartomeu the crook is gone.

I think we need to give it time, and get more used to the fact that we're not gonna be very competitive too soon. Focus on improving vs teams of lower level than us and beating those more easily than Celta and Mallorca affair.

Nah Barca have a squad that should be competing with Real and doing better in CL.

A top coach with this squad can be doing far far better.

I am fairly sure Serghie was hailing the quality of squad before season starts as up there able to compete on both fronts.

Mental gymnastics to give excuses for Xavi back out.

We're -3 with Madrid. Not 20 points away or something. If we fall behind them by many points again, Xavi will go in the summer. We were leaders in the league ffs before playing the clasico away. Add some context to what you post ffs.

I told you before the season the reasonable objective is to fight with Madrid for the title. Had the bad luck of having a horrible CL draw and some tragic refereeing + injuries hitting at a bad time in the same compartment (defense), which is the main reason why we're out from CL.

 

[JamDav1982]

Xavi is failing with a squad that a good coach would be doing a lot better with.

Simple as that.

He needs to improve massively and not be getting dunted by likes of Frankfurt and Inter in Europe when has the better squad and was allowed to spend 250m+ on players he had heavy input into recruiting.

 

[fergus90]

Positionally the team is on par where it should be in the league (1-2) but obviously the actual performances paint a much different picture.

The league performances that have been going unpunished are being punished in Europe. Being 2nd to Madrid by 4 points whilst not ideal is not a disaster, to be out of Europe by October is simply unforgivable.

 

[serghei]

Xavi is failing with a squad that a good coach would be doing a lot better with.

Simple as that.

He needs to improve massively and not be getting dunted by likes of Frankfurt and Inter in Europe when has the better squad and was allowed to spend 250m+ on players he had heavy input into recruiting.

A great coach would do a better job, I agree. Go get him for all I care. Won't be easy.

 

[JamDav1982]

A great coach would do a better job, I agree. Go get him for all I care. Won't be easy.

Yes and the point is it shows how poorly Xavi is doing in many respects to this point.

Not even a top coach. A lot of coaches would be doing better than Xavi has.