CL | Round 4: Manchester City - FC Barcelona 3-1

[malvolio]

The whole team+staff is sleepwalking this season. We win games mainly by MSN quality.
We lack rhythm and cohesion in our play. Conceding amateurish goals all over the place. Hard to see us winning something at this rate.

 

[Zincubus]

A humble pie we badly need.. we gotta thank man city for that.. we played our best football this season during first half.. knocked their socks of the pitch with total football.. pressed them everywhere, bullied thier midfielfers and created chances for fun.. but we didnt have the legs to do it again in the second half.. we have to fix our fitnes issues.. only that explais the outrageoys disparities of the first and second half.

As I said , we were 1:0 up with 74% possession and looking comfortable ...then one stupid , schoolboy error of a pass by Sergie Roberto gave them the goal and that's when the game changed .... They tell 9 year old full backs NOT to pass across your own penalty box .....Sergie never had the basic RB training and it showed tonight . He did the same stupid pass 3 times in the first half and we got away with it each time ....then 10 seconds into the second half and he does it again !?!

 

[Bardh]

You do realize you basically described Lucho?

Lucho's following Barca's long-time commitment to playing it short and risky in defense and avoiding kicking the ball away at all costs; he's following Barca's commitment to possession ball when there are openings and possibilities to play it direct; and Barca's commitment to having a shit defense that attacks while we have MSN.

 

[raskolnikov]

Lucho this, Lucho that......

the blame rest squarely on the players who clearly thought it was going to be a stroll in the park after Messi scored. They ALL switched off and almost didn't care when it went 2-1 because they still thought they would win easily without trying. It took 3-1 for Messi to finally wake up for the 2nd half. Suarez was really poor, Busquets was really poor and somehow escaped 2 yellows, Rakatic was really poor, Gomez is certainly no Iniesta, Sergi Roberto.....wow....just wow, Digne can't defend.

How hard is it to hold on to the ball in midfield for these guys tonight. Bring back Thiago and maybe sign Eden Hazard too.

Yes Enrique looked like a Rabit in headlights and took to long to change things but the players and their attitude are mostly to blame for this.

I still mainly blame Lucho, He doesnt respond well when things arent going our way. When has he ever changed things up that led to a win like Pep did today in the second half?
Now Pep is probably the best coach out there so you wont expect the same but in general its msn carrying him while he needs to keep the players happy and fit.

He just need to rotate properly and keep msn fit till march/april then we can have a go at the trophies an basically stop making stupid mistakes.
.

 

[Zincubus]

Our midfield is tottaly unbalanced. We have 8 midfielders and no one can replace Iniesta or Busquets or even Rakitic! That is not a great midfield that is ABSOLUTE disasterous scauting. Maybe our new midfielders are good players but combination of them is PURE DISASTER. We basically have 4 AM players and in 4-3-3 system you DO NOT NEED 4 atacking midfield players!!!

Iit's like we have 4 Fabregas in our team.

Oh and I am 100% sure Pep would not have bought Arda or Gomes.

Gomes is only 22 and I have high hopes for him being a special player for us ...

Real Madrid were gutted to miss out on him !!

 

[serghei]

They tell 9 year old full backs NOT to pass across your own penalty box .....Sergie never had the basic RB training and it showed tonight . He did the same stupid pass 3 times in the first half and we got away with it each time ....then 10 seconds into the second half and he does it again !?!

Except it's what we do. Roberto has to have enough quality on the ball to pass inside as well, not just down the line. He needs to play that pass, but he needs to pass it well.

 

[Zincubus]

Like who though?

Ronald Koeman , Michael Laudrup for two !?!

 

[Zebulun]

Except it's what we do. Roberto has to have enough quality on the ball to pass inside as well, not just down the line. He needs to play that pass, but he needs to pass it well.

I agree with Zinc on this one, passing across your pen box is suicide. Imagine if dani alves had done that, we'd be grilling him now.

 

[mazp]

If there's a silver lining, we would have won the tie if this was a CL knockout game..

 

[Raketa10]

Ronald Koeman , Michael Laudrup for two !?!

Ronald Koeman and Pochettino would be good.

 

[Zincubus]

I agree with Zinc on this one, passing across your pen box is suicide. Imagine if dani alves had done that, we'd be grilling him now.

Plus he did it another 4 times AFTER that as well !!!!

It's one thing making a daft mistake but he should be learnng from that mistake not repeating it .

I'm gobsmacked that he's getting such an easy ride after his performance tonight .

Richard Dunne and Rio Ferdinand just picked out Sergie's mistake as THE turning point of the whole match .....

 

[Zincubus]

Ronald Koeman and Pochettino would be good.

True

 

[Ahmedd]

Today the problem was not the fitness but a tactical change from pep mainly by replacing Kevin in the center their midfield gained more options and speed, this is why our midfield was overwhelmed. We used to do the same when Pep was our coach.

De Bruyne was way better as a CM but i don't think that it explains everything. We were trashing them before Bob's mistake. And if Gomes didn't miss it would have been a different match. I do agree that Pep made a good tactical decision though.

 

[gasgas]

Luis Enrique was totally out of his depth. Just stood there watching wondering what was going on. You could see from his reactions how perceptive Pep was and how he dramatically shifted the focus of his team in counter-attacks in the second half, which basically sealed the game. I think it's high time we need a *different* coach, one which doesn't follow Barca's philosophy to death but brings his own ideas, especially in strengthening the defense.

Simeone


I was just thinking

What if instead of bringing Suarez back with Gomes
Wasting money on Paco
We could have spurged for Verratti

 

[BarcaOG]

Loss is the result of really bad errors on our part, less than City having been superior.