Cdr | 1/4 2nd leg: FC Barcelona - Athletic Bilbao 3-1 (5-2 agg.)

[coke]

we can Not Play this line up against Athletic, they are to good for us

 

[dakt]

You should avoid sugar man.

I know, but it's been a looooong while. I'm weak.

 

[Truthist]

Too much is expected of Neymar and Suarez, Messi has to up the intensity.

 

[dakt]

you have diabetes??

nope... some cells in body love sugar more than the others.

 

[Nucky]

Today we can see what Busquets means to us.. Poor perfomance but win is ours and for 6th time in a row we will play in semifinals of Copa..

 

[KyletheMuslim]

we suffered for most of the match, today just goes to show important busquets and Alba are

 

[EdmondDantes]

Ugly game. Bilbao were once again extremely violent. Good second half by our lads though.

Onto to the semis.

 

[SeloBarca]

Poor performance from our midfield and defence.
Raki, Roberto, Rafinha doesnt work at all together unless were already winning the game.
Have to play iniesta, Busquetes + one of them to make it work.
Should really get a controlling midfielder.

Suarez and Messi also out of their game today.

 

[viper76]

Bad first half.
A good second half.

 

[serghei]

We need to win this Copa. Atletico and Real Madrid out, we should have this in the bag. No team can beat us over two legs, not Valencia, not Sevilla, not Celta. And in the final we kind of always show up.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Midfield, midfield, midfield. Can't emphasize enough.

Utterly poor first half. Messi was off today. Hope Neymar is fine.

 

[Barcaman]

In the end good result and Pique and Neymar goals wiped out our poor first half performance where we were lucky not to fall 2 or 3 goals behind.

I do hope Lucho and players realize that because they just came after another poor match in Málaga.

I am a bit worried about Atlético.

 

[Jamie Cal]

I thought we were plenty good in the second half. They created one half chance, where Verm should have blocked Inaki, other than that, hardly anything. That says it all to me.

We were well in control in the last 20 minutes even before we got the second goal. So I'm not sure why there's so many complaints in midfield (some of the guys in chat decided they were bad regardless of what they did), when we were just a bit wasteful up front in the second half.

 

[barcafan161]

Poor but 3-1 result will do.

 

[i_bleed_blaugrana]

Poor performance from our midfield and defence.
Raki, Roberto, Rafinha doesnt work at all together unless were already winning the game.
Have to play iniesta, Busquetes + one of them to make it work.
Should really get a controlling midfielder.

Suarez and Messi also out of their game today.

Not sure at all why you drag him into this but okay.

It's plain and simple, Mascherano just isn't a DM for us. We don't need anyone else, we have all the MFs we need, even though there are others who would fit our style well. I think if Roberto or Busi had started in DM, we would have played a lot better. We were in a 4-3-3 with Messi wide for the first half and that's why it was so chaotic. Busi is really the only DM we have who can handle being a lone DM, mainly due to his passing range and his ability to know when to push forward in the play. You can't imagine how difficult playing the lone DM is in an extremely offensive interpretation of a 4-3-3. Mascherano was a world class DM for Liverpool and he showed he can still do it with Argentina in 2014 but even a player as world class as him in that position struggles in our system. That's how hard it is and that just goes to show just how amazing Busi really is. I always appreciate players who are masters of the tactical side of the game and you cannot stress how important players like that are for successful teams.

That said, we switched formations in the 2nd half, and I'd argue that Mascherano looked better. Lucho has been flipping Messi to the center occasionally and we shape up into a 4-3-1-2, with Suarez pushing wide right to give space for Messi. In this formation (its what Argentina played in Brazil btw), the MF 3's main task is defensive in intercepting balls and moving it to the trequarista (Messi) and with that extra cover, Mascherano looked better but in a 4-3-3 with Messi wide right, Raki or the RCM has to push forward more to create the triangle between Messi and Suarez and I think that's why we looked so lost in the first half but better in the second half. Also, there is something I really like in a Roberto-Busi-Raki midfield, particularly with Messi central. Something to consider going forward and I really like that Lucho is learning when to flip the triangle in specific situations.