CL | 1/8 Final: FC Barcelona - SSC Napoli 4-2 (agg.)

[Messi983]

You guys should love him more after this. Setien doing his best to attract that EV cult love. BBZ is putting posters in his bedroom with Setien's face as we speak.

EV would probably start the same lineup today (with Lenglet instead of Umtiti). But he wouldn't play both Raki and Vidal for 90 minutes on Saturday.

 

[serghei]

I posted numbers a few Months ago.
Real is the best.
Juve and Bayern are good away.

Barca is the best team in Europe at home since 2000' and the worst away (out of these big teams).

Barca have like 85% wins at home.
And 20-25% away.

While other teams have like 70% wins at home and 40-50% away.

Barca has the biggest differences in these two extremes.
Pep had around 20% away KO wins.
And even Cruijff had around 16-18% if away KO wins.

Rijkaard had the highest percentage of away KO wins, 50% iirc, because he played a mix of Barca&Italian tactics/defense.

Historically, stats say that it is very hard to play in the classic Barca's way on away KO European matches.

Yea, sounds legit.

 

[Hamzah]

Let's not go over this again. EV wasn't pragmatic. Some key aspects of pragmatic managers, their bread and butter, were completely missing under EV.

I’m not arguing with that, but I did praise EV when he did display those qualities

 

[te amo barca]

wtf, my enthusiasm for the game has just vanished

 

[Hamzah]

EV was never pragmatic because he didn't win the biggest games in the CL. In the Roma, we had twice the roster but EV led the choke.

In the league, RM are allergic to success and we have Messi. It doesn't take a pragmatist to win that.

And I criticised the decision to play roberto ahead of paulinho prior to that game, an unpragmatic move

 

[serghei]

wtf, my enthusiasm for the game has just vanished

Not at all. It's a shit call imo, but it doesn't mean we'll play like crap.

 

[Hardy]

vidal, busi, rakishit and fraudglet in the same pitch out of Camp Nou, can't wait to see the showcase of back pass, giveaways and counter attacks lmao

 

[Neeraj]

Pretty disappointed with Setien's fetish for Rakitic. Seriously, what do managers see in him? I'm going to ignore Valverde cause he was a joke, but Lucho...Setien..Jesus, we need this guy to get the fuck out. I'm just hoping that we're putting him out there to show the world that he's on sale and maybe get some value from him, but that's just me being optimistic.

 

[serghei]

In before Rakitic actually plays well and scores . Let's wait for the game. And as I said, I expect guys who defended Valverde to follow logic here and defend Setien too. He put the most defensive and physical team possible here.

If BBZ and his comrades would've put the team on the field today, this is the team that would've played.

 

[Marshall D Teach]

Pretty disappointed with Setien's fetish for Rakitic. Seriously, what do managers see in him? I'm going to ignore Valverde cause he was a joke, but Lucho...Setien..Jesus, we need this guy to get the fuck out. I'm just hoping that we're putting him out there to show the world that he's on sale and maybe get some value from him, but that's just me being optimistic.

Lucho was actually trying to phase him out in his last season. Too bad the alternative was Gomes

 

[Hamzah]

We’ve seen this movie before. You can predict fairly well that Barca will put in a crap away performance, especially with these players

Rakitic isn’t suddenly going to be good now that setien is coach

 

[KingLeo10]

Not at all. It's a shit call imo, but it doesn't mean we'll play like crap.

Rakitic and Busquets both starting have been the reason for our horror shows v PSG, Juve, Roma, and Pool.

Even a 100 IQ coach would see this is an issue.

I don't care about the result (because a lot goes into the result) but not recognizing this problem BEFORE the game began is a fireable offense at this point. It's literally suicidal and it could be a couple of goals down before HT by the time changes are made. Let's be real, he won't sub Raki/Busquets in the 25th min if we're 0-2 by then.

Setien's lost me.

 

[BusiTheKing]

Seriously what the fuck? Rakitic is bad every single game. This is so fucking weird. He's never ever good. This is not hyperbole. Why is he being played? He's fucking awful defensively and useless offensively. I really don't get it.

 

[Hardy]

In before Rakitic actually plays well and scores . Let's wait for the game. And as I said, I expect guys who defended Valverde to follow logic here and defend Setien too. He put the most defensive and phisical team possible here.

it's a lose lose situation, if he plays well he'll start against a batter team as well next round

 

[serghei]

Rakitic and Busquets both starting have been the reason for our horror shows v PSG, Juve, Roma, and Pool.

Even a 100 IQ coach would see this is an issue.

I don't care about the result (because a lot goes into the result) but not recognizing this problem BEFORE the game began is a fireable offense at this point. It's literally suicidal and it could be a couple of goals down before HT by the time changes are made. Let's be real, he won't sub Raki in the 25th min if we're 0-2 by then.

Setien's lost me.

The reasons were bigger imo than just personnel. Basically, there was a lot more wrong with the team under EV than just the players who went on the field. As long as this changes, and the team-related aspects are better, it is logical that individuals will perform better as well.

We need to see how we do first. If we move well, maybe Rakitic won't panic as much under pressure. He needs help when pressed that's for sure, and quickly.