Barça's Transfers and Rumors

[Cule4life]

If we have to lose against Madrid hope we lose 7-0. But doubt even that will wake up Zubi and Rosell. They have gone beyond the realm of the universe of stupidity to explore "alternate universes". Stephen Hawking would be proud.

 

[ryuken]

Why dont we just concure that we are cheap and cant get a CB and probably never will. Zubi the moron keep dangle false hope in front of us, Jan transfer? Lmao

 

[AnfieldEd]

What do you mean not much options this summer?

I can name 20 centre backs that would be reasonably priced that would be an improvement on what you have now. To back that up I will name them - in no particular order btw.

Agger
Subotic
Ranocchia
Bonucci
Ogbonna
Benatia
Howedes
Matip
Sakho
Papadopoulos
Abdennour
Zouma
Astori
Mangala
De Vrij
Skrtel
Dede
Alderweireld
Otamendi
Coloccini
Kaboul
Martins Indi
Kolo Toure
Kongolo

Named more than 20 in fact.

Then you have your premium priced defenders:-

Hummels
Luiz
Vidic
Silva
Kompany
Nastasic
Cheillini
Dante
Koscielny

So really I don't get that excuse. Plenty of defenders who were/are available who wouldn't cost the earth, who do a solid job for you guys.

 

[Cule4life]

Why dont we just concure that we are cheap and cant get a CB and probably never will. Zubi the moron keep dangle false hope in front of us, Jan transfer? Lmao

No we are stupid and try to negotiate with clubs who dont need money and go after unavailable defenders like playing FIFA. Else we could have got good players like Vertonghen, Ogbonna, Kurt Zouma, Nkolou etc.

 

[jamrock]

What do you mean not much options this summer?

I can name 20 centre backs that would be reasonably priced that would be an improvement on what you have now. To back that up I will name them - in no particular order btw.

Agger
Subotic
Ranocchia
Bonucci
Ogbonna
Benatia
Howedes
Matip
Sakho
Papadopoulos
Abdennour
Zouma
Astori
Mangala
De Vrij
Skrtel
Dede
Alderweireld
Otamendi
Coloccini
Kaboul
Martins Indi
Kolo Toure
Kongolo

Named more than 20 in fact.

Then you have your premium priced defenders:-

Hummels
Luiz
Vidic
Silva
Kompany
Nastasic
Cheillini
Dante
Koscielny

So really I don't get that excuse. Plenty of defenders who were/are available who wouldn't cost the earth, who do a solid job for you guys.

Bonucci
Colocini
kaboul
toure

seriously?, i could on, but i agree they were defenders out there

 

[Flavia]

What do you mean not much options this summer?

I can name 20 centre backs that would be reasonably priced that would be an improvement on what you have now. To back that up I will name them - in no particular order btw.

Agger
Subotic
Ranocchia
Bonucci
Ogbonna
Benatia
Howedes
Matip
Sakho
Papadopoulos
Abdennour
Zouma
Astori
Mangala
De Vrij
Skrtel
Dede
Alderweireld
Otamendi
Coloccini
Kaboul
Martins Indi
Kolo Toure
Kongolo

Named more than 20 in fact.

Then you have your premium priced defenders:-

Hummels
Luiz
Vidic
Silva
Kompany
Nastasic
Cheillini
Dante
Koscielny

So really I don't get that excuse. Plenty of defenders who were/are available who wouldn't cost the earth, who do a solid job for you guys.

I don't think anyone gets that excuse. There were plenty of defenders. Even Vergini, that Tata suggested but wasn't allowed. It seems unless you're a brazilian cb, you're not good enough.

 

[ebc_99]

We may well win the league although that will depend on Real Madrid of course .

As to the Champions League , I don't think we are even close to winning that tbh.

All the other top teams have improved somewhat whilst we could have even gone backwards .

Granted Neymar is amazing but we've lost Thiago just at the time when we'd expect him to start playing more and more with Xavi in decline , we've lost David Villa who seems to have hit form again . Our defence is beyond tragic and Pedro seems to be a starter .
Pedro would get nowhere near the other top teams starting eleven .

How are we not close to winning the Champions league? who is ahead of us? Bayern? No other team has shown me anything that would suggest they are better than Barca.

We have not gone backwards, that is nonsense and not many of the teams in Europe have improved that much. Bayern so far don't look as good as last year, Madrid have not played that well yet, Chelsea look better but they have a very weak forward line and an average midfield compared to ours. Dortmund look good but it will be hard for them to do as well as last year, Man Utd have done bad business this summer and will struggle without Ferguson i feel. Outside of those teams Know one else was close to our level last year and I don't see a big jump in quality from any of them.

Thiago did very little to contribute to our recent success, he was a bit part player and won't be missed. David Villa looks good because he is playing at a team that has space when going forward, If teams played us like they do Atletico we would win every game. Our team is so talented everyone else adapts a special strategy to play us which is to defend deep usually.

Our defence is not good but nor is Real's, Chelsea have a weak attack as I have mentioned and an average midfield, Uniteds midfield is worse than our defence. And Pedro is not a great player but nor is Torres who starts for Chelsea or Welbeck at United or Navas at City etc. What I'm trying to say is that every other team has issues and all would love to have our players even Bayern do not have the riches that we have.

If our players are fully fit in time for the latter stages of the Champions League then we can beat anyone, outside of the other 3 semi-finalists of last year there is no other club that has a squad as good as ours. We still need a couple of defenders but we can still have days when our defence is excellent and if Tata gets his tactics right then we can win the Champions League.

I don't understand why so many think we have no chance in Europe, it is as if we have a team made up of journeymen and not the little geniuses we have in our team.

 

[Cule4life]

If teams played us like they do Atletico we would win every game.

Did you watch the Bayern matches? Did they park the bus against us? They bullied and toyed with us physically and we havent done anything to improve upon that. Sadly parking the bus is no longer the only way to beat us. We will be bullied on setpieces and counters like we have time and time again by players like Mandzukic, Lewandowski, lucas moura, Robben etc. you expect Mascherano Alba, Alves and Pique to keep up with them?

We are too far form winning the CL. I will be happy if we make the semis

 

[flamenco]

Did you watch the Bayern matches? Did they park the bus against us? They bullied and toyed with us physically and we havent done anything to improve upon that. Sadly parking the bus is no longer the only way to beat us. We will be bullied on setpieces and counters like we have time and time again by players like Mandzukic, Lewandowski, lucas moura, Robben etc. you expect Mascherano Alba, Alves and Pique to keep up with them?

We are too far form winning the CL. I will be happy if we make the semis

In our case cautious realism is the way to go. It's better to expect the worse things before they actually happen than to lie to ourselves

 

[ebc_99]

Did you watch the Bayern matches? Did they park the bus against us? They bullied and toyed with us physically and we havent done anything to improve upon that. Sadly parking the bus is no longer the only way to beat us. We will be bullied on setpieces and counters like we have time and time again by players like Mandzukic, Lewandowski, lucas moura, Robben etc. you expect Mascherano Alba, Alves and Pique to keep up with them?

We are too far form winning the CL. I will be happy if we make the semis

The point I was making is that Villa looks so good because he does not play against parked buses like he did at Barca.

Bayern did not park the bus but nonetheless they adapted their own strategy to stop us. But the point still stands that teams first port of call when playing us is to devise a way to stop our creative players. With us it is the opposite we look at ways to break through their defence.

Getting to the semi's is pretty close, it would mean we are one of the 4 best teams in Europe for the 7th consecutive year which would be some achievement.

You talk about Mandzukic, Lewandowski atc like they are some sort super player that can't be stopped. If we improve our defending at set pieces then that would be a major strength of theirs diminished. And that is what Rubi was brought to the club for and it will take time for us to see the benefits of specific set piece training which is his forte.

Looking at how much joy Chelsea had on Friday against Bayern and also the game against Dortmund I would say our forward line and midfield could do as much damage to their defence as they would to ours. Last years performance in the semi from us was not representative of the level of both sides and I would love if we got Bayern this season as I think we would beat them.

 

[Flavia]

If we improve our defending at set pieces then that would be a major strength of theirs diminished. And that is what Rubi was brought to the club for and it will take time for us to see the benefits of specific set piece training which is his forte.

I can't see that happening with the height of our players. Iniesta was marking atletico's forward, when he scored from that corner, if I'm not mistaken. Aerial play will remain another one of our frailties.

 

[flamenco]

and weren't definitely too hasty getting rid of Abidal ?

 

[flamenco]

I can't see that happening with the height of our players. Iniesta was marking atletico's forward, when he scored from that corner, if I'm not mistaken. Aerial play will remain another one of our frailties.

Puyol coming back might help a bit though he's not as tall as Piquenbauer

 

[ebc_99]

I can't see that happening with the height of our players. Iniesta was marking atletico's forward, when he scored from that corner, if I'm not mistaken. Aerial play will remain another one of our frailties.

The height of the players is a problem and we can't change that for another few months at the earliest and knowing our board not even then, but if can get the positioning and discipline right then it will help us defend better than we do now. It is much easier to defend a corner than to attack one so we must use all the advantages we have which we don't do at the moment.

Our defence was so awful last year that we have huge room for improvement even without signing a new player and that is some comfort atleast.

 

[flamenco]

The height of the players is a problem and we can't change that for another few months at the earliest and knowing our board not even then, but if can get the positioning and discipline right then it will help us defend better than we do now. It is much easier to defend a corner than to attack one so we must use all the advantages we have which we don't do at the moment.

Our defence was so awful last year that we have huge room for improvement even without signing a new player and that is some comfort atleast.

pragmatism @its best
Let's see what Tata will do about our defensive problems with the lil'means @his disposal