Alexis Sanchez

[serghei]

So the onus is on Messi then? "We'll be ok once Messi starts scoring 50 goals a season again" right?

Did you intentionally missed the part where I said Neymar will play better next season? And I don't think we should expect from Messi to score just 28 goals per season in the league. That's not a stat worthy of "the best in the world", especially if we take into consideration that our whole play evolves around him.

 

[Sumlit]

Did you intentionally missed the part where I said Neymar will play better next season? And I don't think we should expect from Messi to score just 28 goals per season in the league. That's not a stat worthy of "the best in the world", especially if we take into consideration that our whole play evolves around him.

There's no mention of Neymar in the below quote, nor for that matter any other attacking player except mentioning that the attack will get better once Messi gets back to his best, which is 45+ La Liga goals.

So again, the interpretation is squad stays status quo, with the addition of Benatia and Messi returning to his 45+ scoring seasons, everything will be back to the way it was.

You will always gonna have few chances to score against a parked bus in defence.
But the worst Barca in years scored 2 valid goals against this super-Atletico. If we can play just a little bit better in attack, and that will happen once Messi is back to his best, and if we take care of our defence, we are back. Atletico wasn't that great in attack either. They created 2-3 chances themselves. But with Mascherano's error and Pinto in the goal, that was enough for them to snitch a goal.

 

[oz187]

we play 6 small ones each season as well why not score there. Just sayin

Some of the best players can step up in the big games. There's plenty of league games against weaker teams where Alexis doesn't score either. Alexis has quality but he has weaknesses in his mentality. Not being trusted makes it that much harder for him. The motivation of a big game can be something that gets him past his mental hurdles. But you find out if you don't try and trusting him would in and of itself give him a boost.

 

[Shegzy]

4-2-3-1 or man city 442 is the way I think we should head to.But then two of Alexis,Pedro and tello will have to leave and cesc also,iniesta and neymar will have to compete for the same position.

 

[serghei]

@Sumlit, yea, the changes we have to make this summer are mostly GK and defence. And one CM. The attack was fine, out of Pedro, Alexis and Messi, the only one who didn't deliver as expected was Messi. With a better defence we would have won that Atletico game.

It would be wrong to change 10 players at once. This is not the way. We need 3-5 signings. That's it.

 

[Butaan4barca]

40 odd goals and he didn't deliver ?

 

[serghei]

40 odd goals and he didn't deliver ?

Well, if he is better than CR and has a worse season than him, that means he underperformed. He also said his year wasn't very good.

 

[Kerrybai]

Messi scored nearly a goal a game. Statistically I expect no more than that from him, but against some of the tricky paired buses both he and the teal failed to deliver. As Messi said himself they lacked energy. I think most of all the board and Tata failed to deliver. IMO no one fully delivered this season, with maybe the exception of Valdes.

Our players could never deliver to their potential with Tata's tactics.

 

[Sumlit]

@Sumlit, yea, the changes we have to make this summer are mostly GK and defence. And one CM. The attack was fine, out of Pedro, Alexis and Messi, the only one who didn't deliver as expected was Messi. With a better defence we would have won that Atletico game.

It would be wrong to change 10 players at once. This is not the way. We need 3-5 signings. That's it.

You defend Alexis so much, yet your standards are so low for him that out of Pedro, Messi and him, Messi was the one who didn't deliver, yet almost near doubled Alexis production.

 

[anguy]

It would be wrong to change 10 players at once. This is not the way. We need 3-5 signings. That's it.

You are forgetting about likely transfer ban next year. Barcelona needs prepare team for 2 seasons, not just one.

 

[CesDel]

You defend Alexis so much, yet your standards are so low for him that out of Pedro, Messi and him, Messi was the one who didn't deliver, yet almost near doubled Alexis production.

I think that's got more to do with expectations. I mean, if a player like Falcao would have had the numbers that Messi had this season, he would be one of the favorites to win the ballon d'or. But because this is Messi, a guy who has spoiled us, it's a "bad" season..

 

[Semi-Neutral]

You defend Alexis so much, yet your standards are so low for him that out of Pedro, Messi and him, Messi was the one who didn't deliver, yet almost near doubled Alexis production.

Note the words "deliver as expected"

It was a good season by Messi, but knowing what he's capable of...

 

[serghei]

Note the words "deliver as expected"

It was a good season by Messi, but knowing what he's capable of...

Yea, it was a good season, it's just that two players had better seasons than him. And I didn't expect both Suarez and Ronaldo to be ahead of Messi at the end of the season in the Golden shoe race.

 

[BerkeleyBernie]

ITTS
(It's the tactics, stupid)

I don't care who you have on the wings- as long as Barça is set up the way it is with wide forwards to create width, as long as opponents park the bus, as long as Messi plays either a static CF or drops into the midfield leaving no one up front center, as long as Alves squanders 30-40% of Barça attacks with aimless crosses, as long as your most advanced midfielder (Iniesta) isn't much of a shooting threat, then the majority of the goals are going to come from Messi. It's not that "the onus" is on Messi- it's *by design* that the attack is Messi-centric. That will only change when the whole system changes, not just the names. You could bring Ronaldo/Bale/Reus/Hazard/AnyNameHere on for Neymar/Pedro/Alexis, and they're going to have just as much trouble breaking buses from the wings.

 

[spark]

Yea, it was a good season, it's just that two players had better seasons than him. And I didn't expect both Suarez and Ronaldo to be ahead of Messi at the end of the season in the Golden shoe race.

That he was even in race tells of his quality. He went to Argentina with 8!!!! league goals while they both were on 20 or more.