Messi983
Senior Member
It was no experiment, Busquets was ill and couldn't play anymore and Gomes was the only option Lucho had to sub him without changing the system or another player position.
DM is the only position we don't have a true backup (now it seems RB is like that as well) and we knew that before the season. We didn't have a backup RB on the bench so we could move Roberto to DM and even if Vidal would be there Lucho doesn't trust him enough. Only other two options he had were:
1. Mathieu as CB and Masche as DM. I don't think people would like Mathieu in this game (it would be different if Umtiti was available but then he would probably start so it would be Masche coming on to play as DM) and Masche is not really good as DM in our system.
2. Rakitić as DM, but he was playing really good in his position and Lucho probably didn't want to change that by moving him to DM.
Would it be better if Lucho selected one of the above mentioned options? Maybe, but I can understand Lucho's decision to sub in Gomes for Busi. He was good against Celtic when he played as DM but of course it's one thing playing against beaten Celtic side with 3+ goals difference when he came on and totally different playing against Atletico. That said, I don't think he really did something wrong, it's just that the level of the whole team droped after Busi and Messi went off (and understandable so because they are our most important players) and their level wasn't even that high before that (though I think we did play good in last 20-30 minutes of first half). It would probably be good enough to beat most of La Liga teams but not Atletico. They deserve some credit too. They didn't really play great but just did enough to get what they wanted.
DM is the only position we don't have a true backup (now it seems RB is like that as well) and we knew that before the season. We didn't have a backup RB on the bench so we could move Roberto to DM and even if Vidal would be there Lucho doesn't trust him enough. Only other two options he had were:
1. Mathieu as CB and Masche as DM. I don't think people would like Mathieu in this game (it would be different if Umtiti was available but then he would probably start so it would be Masche coming on to play as DM) and Masche is not really good as DM in our system.
2. Rakitić as DM, but he was playing really good in his position and Lucho probably didn't want to change that by moving him to DM.
Would it be better if Lucho selected one of the above mentioned options? Maybe, but I can understand Lucho's decision to sub in Gomes for Busi. He was good against Celtic when he played as DM but of course it's one thing playing against beaten Celtic side with 3+ goals difference when he came on and totally different playing against Atletico. That said, I don't think he really did something wrong, it's just that the level of the whole team droped after Busi and Messi went off (and understandable so because they are our most important players) and their level wasn't even that high before that (though I think we did play good in last 20-30 minutes of first half). It would probably be good enough to beat most of La Liga teams but not Atletico. They deserve some credit too. They didn't really play great but just did enough to get what they wanted.
