Champions League 23/24

[Morten]

Vini was voted as cl player of the season

Raphi became second to Fede for the goal of the cl (Fede goal vs city, Raphi goal against psg away)

Well deserved, and the team looks pretty okay, though Kroos could have gotten into that midfield imo, but its fine.

 

[L3v1s]

I can't believe it's been 9 years since Barcelona last won the Champions League; really puts things into perspective.

Makes me think that Barcelona's golden generation has underachieved, considering it was arguably the greatest team in history in almost every aspect of the game. It is what it is...

 

[soul24rage]

Makes me think that Barcelona's golden generation has underachieved, considering it was arguably the greatest team in history in almost every aspect of the game. It is what it is...

I agree. imo, we could have achieved more if Pep stayed with us. His time as Barca coach was too short.

Unfortunately, our club is too political to make this job harder than normal for any managers.

We need to trust in La Masia for the time being.

 

[KingLeo10]

Makes me think that Barcelona's golden generation has underachieved, considering it was arguably the greatest team in history in almost every aspect of the game. It is what it is...

4 CLs and 6 LL in 9 years from 06-15 isn't underachieving

People always forget one thing about sports. It is tougher for the person/team setting the standard, because you don't know how much is good enough. RM had a very clear objective/goal post to surpass our 06-15 success (in terms of trophies) and they equalled it/slightly surpassed it (more CL, less LL)

 

[L3v1s]

I agree. imo, we could have achieved more if Pep stayed with us. His time as Barca coach was too short.

Unfortunately, our club is too political to make this job harder than normal for any managers.

We need to trust in La Masia for the time being.

It was indeed too short, considering that Messi&Iniesta were both in their prime, Xavi had a few more years aswell. But then again, weren't there discussions that the Barca job was too "tiring"? I remember Pep also had some sort of fallout with the board because he wanted to get rid of some players, like replace Pique with Hummels or Kompany. But who really knows perhaps it was a mix of everything.

4 CLs and 6 LL in 9 years from 06-15 isn't underachieving

People always forget one thing about sports. It is tougher for the person/team setting the standard, because you don't know how much is good enough. RM had a very clear objective/goal post to surpass our 06-15 success (in terms of trophies) and they equalled it/slightly surpassed it (more CL, less LL)

For what that team was, I think they should've won atleast 2 more Champions Leagues titles. It's ridiculous how Madrid won the last 2 with lesser quality both game and squadwise.. Maybe I'm reactionary due to the last seasons failures. Prime Milan won 3 during the 80s-90s, so we managed to surpass that team. At the end, football is also about luck, and despite being the best team in the world for many seasons, there were also moments in which small details made the difference.

Overall, I'm thinking that perhaps we should've sold some of the players from that golden generation. It turned out later that this "amigos" mentality killed us.

 

[Messigician]

It was indeed too short, considering that Messi&Iniesta were both in their prime, Xavi had a few more years aswell. But then again, weren't there discussions that the Barca job was too "tiring"? I remember Pep also had some sort of fallout with the board because he wanted to get rid of some players, like replace Pique with Hummels or Kompany. But who really knows perhaps it was a mix of everything.


For what that team was, I think they should've won atleast 2 more Champions Leagues titles. It's ridiculous how Madrid won the last 2 with lesser quality both game and squadwise.. Maybe I'm reactionary due to the last seasons failures. Prime Milan won 3 during the 80s-90s, so we managed to surpass that team. At the end, football is also about luck, and despite being the best team in the world for many seasons, there were also moments in which small details made the difference.

Overall, I'm thinking that perhaps we should've sold some of the players from that golden generation. It turned out later that this "amigos" mentality killed us.

Nah we won the most dominant treble in history

 

[Birdy]

Oh yes. The horrors of direct football with historic season, scoring bucketload goals. Oh my. Mou should have won CL, with Madrid. That team was lit as frack.

And there goes your dumbass narrative.

that season?
No, Bayern and Barca were still better than you that season

 

[Birdy]

⚪️🏆 “What do you think about this Champions League?”.

Florentino Pérez: “I think that we are already focused on the next one. We want the 16th”.

Unreal winning mentality

That's not winning mentality bro

That's called pure arrogance

 

[Birdy]

With that logic, we are the same as Real since we changed our philosophy two times.

In the 70s when Rinus Michels came, we started to adopt Dutch style of football.

And in the 1990 under Cruijff, we went full on Dutch football.

Tldr:
1. Real change their philosophy when needed (to improve themselves) to win trophies = they are bad guys

2. Barca change their philosophy from a random football style to Dutch football and gain success = Barca are good guys in your eyes

The only difference is that Barca upgraded their philosophy to a level 2 (attacking football with Dutch principles), while Real has done the same, but with 18 different upgrades/patches.

This is why Real won 15 CLs or 8 in the last 40 years, and Barca won 1 title ever without Messi's impact.

The real question is: are Barca heroes and good guys here?
Or do we need an upgrade?

Also, you could easily put us under the saying: insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

When something is not working = Barca does it the same again.
When something is not working for Real = they upgrade their ideas.

It's a matter of taste.
Are we true to ourselves?
Or are we just dellusional, too emotional and stuck in the past?

Real has won half of their CL trophies when they weren't the better team due to their cautious and counterattacking approach.
And when has Barca won the CL as the weaker team?
= NEVER

We can win it only in the absolute perfect circumstances with no injuries, no unlucky goals, no ref's mistakes.
And when we are by far the best team in the tournament.

On the other hand, Real can win in 100s of different scenarios because they are flexible and they have upgraded their approach 18 times.

Again, unlike us.
We have one upgrade in 1990' and we aren't changing.
= always try to attack as if there is no tomorrow.

The funny thing is, one of the rare titles without Messi, in 2006', came with more cautious approach by Rijkaard when we won against Chelsea and Milan in RM's style with very cautious approach.
With players like Van Bommel, Edmilson, Motta playing in midfield.

Many wrong points in your take:

1) they had something working (winning trophies) in the past, yet they sacked their title winning managers because of the football.
That shows they had different mentality in the fanbase until 2009 or so

2) It is simply NOT factually correct that we always try to attack.
Not only Rijkaard (Ten Cate basically): we won UCL 2015 with counterattacks by Messi Neymar Suarez.
Xavi tried to play cautiously against Napoli and PSG this season.
Valverde was super cautious in 4-4-2 in the 2019 UCL. Same with Setien in the 2020 UCL.
All these cases the reason we got out was NOT that were YOLO attacking.

3) Real Madrid does not win because they are flexible. Other teams are also flexible.
But they don't win a UCL being worse than their opponents in all 4 (including final) or 3 of their knock-out ties.
Easy motto, but it's far from the reason

4) Being flexible in games/ circumstances, and adapting to the opponent is part of a coach's game-management, and it is certainly needed in football. Pep does it all the time.
That is something completely different from NOT HAVING any tactical identity on the pitch.
I/We are obviously criticize the latter, not the former

5) the plasticity of fans comes down not only to NOT having any identity, apart from simply winning no matter what. It comes down to being so amenable to change their standards, because some great side was ridiculing them back then, and some merchant called Mou sold them the easy solution, which they bought

6) the historical reconstruction you make might be correct about Michels, not about Cryuff.
Cryuff's team did not change philosophy. He changed the tactical plan of how THAT philosophy can be applied on the pitch in 1990. Same thing that Pep did in 2009.
None of them can be considered a philosophy change
We can compare Barca's identity and philosophy to a different one, and different ways of playing football like Klopp's gegenpressing for instance.
But that's a different discussion, because we compare something with something else, not something with nothing.

PS: Bottom line: I am very proud of being a fan of a club that has this identity and philosophy.
The moment Barcelona becomes a new Madrid or Juventus, and abandons its philosophy to 'winning no matter how' I will stop being a Barca fan

 

[NKMaribor]

The only thing that changed with Madrid is Flo outgrowing his infantile galactico stage, which brought absolute prosperity which built fantastic club culture. That is why Madrid is absolute winner.

While in parallel why Barca is socio culturally defunkt, is because people at the top who represent it, offer the same inept mentality as Birdy does trying to rationalize their own failures and deep sense of Madrid envy.

Madrid has no identity. Lmfao!