CL | Round of 16 - 1st Leg: PSG - FC Barcelona 4-0

[Vilarrubi]

Completely serious.

He had good games but haters just didn't seem them.

It's not haters. On forums you get some exaggerated opinions sometimes... but generally if a player plays well they get praise and if they play poorly the opposite.

It's not even like he has stats on his side too, Fabregas was a bad fit for us and still had lots of goals and assists. Gomes has one assist in 29 games... and in the PSG game made ZERO passes forward if you look at the pass map.

There's just no defending him anymore.

 

[Wambo]

Why was Veratti getting so much space here? The three Barca players are trying to close the space around the PSG player with the ball, but the ball was already about to get passed to Veratti.


In the next moment Veratti has only Iniesta in front of him and easily passes the ball to the player in the center, although Iniesta tried to limit his passing options.

The whole midfield was outplayed with two passes. And that high defense line is just asking for a through ball.

 

[Messi983]

I agree with vilarrubi. He didn't really show anything man......
He had the chance a lot of times.

Yes, but tell me which one of our midfielders show a lot this season?

Sure, Rafinha and Denis scored some goals (most of them when played in more attacking roles, especially Rafinha) but they were also often lost when played as CMs. Arda's best games were as LM/LW. Rakitić's best game (I think) was when he played DM vs. Eibar. Of course, Iniesta is Iniesta but even when he was healthy and fit I don't think he ever played up close to his best this season.

I think Gomes showed flashes of good to great player he can become. But Lucho constantly changing his position, sometimes he even played all three midfield positions in one game just didn't let him to adapt and learn to play one position. And then also changing his midfield partners in every game. One game he plays as DM with Rakitić and Denis, the next one he's AM (Iniesta role) with Busquets and Arda. There is no consistency in our midfield at all and that's why I think it's unfair to just write off either of Gomes or Denis before we see how they can do under new coach that will (hopefully) know hot to utilise midfield better. Lucho don't even care about any kind of midfield stability. I won't even talk about tiki-taka midfield dominance we've had with Xaviesta, because that's not possible to do with players we currently have. I gave Lucho credit in his first two seasons to realise that and move our focus from midfield to MSN but in the meantime he also lost that little midfield stability we should've kept. In other words, I was ok getting more direct approach to our game because of speed and individual abilities of MSN but now players don't know anymore whether they should keep the ball (play possesion style) or just try to move it directly forward.

 

[Messi983]

It's not haters. On forums you get some exaggerated opinions sometimes... but generally if a player plays well they get praise and if they play poorly the opposite.

Some fan favourites are praised (or defended) if they play below their usual level and others are criticised even when they play good. I agree that hate is too strong word and I usually don't use it when describing footballers (especially our own) but I really get a vibe that some people here "hate" Gomes and Neymar and think they are the biggest culprits that we're not playing good. And if you want to say a good thing or two about those players you are usually called a fanboy. I don't consider myself Neymar's (or even less Gomes's) fanboy but I think they just get criticised too often and unfairly compared to most of other players. I've criticised Neymar's part of the game that I think he should absolutely improve (finishing) a lot of times and on the other hand I've praise his defensive workrate that even some of his biggest opponents here seems to recognise now. And about Gomes I've also said that it's unfair to negatively singling him out every time when whole team plays bad like we did against PSG. But on the other hand when we played some good games and he was also good no one really praised him.

It's not even like he has stats on his side too, Fabregas was a bad fit for us and still had lots of goals and assists. Gomes has one assist in 29 games... and in the PSG game made ZERO passes forward if you look at the pass map.

I don't care about stats and Fabregas is a great example why stats can be misleading.

 

[Vilarrubi]

Some fan favourites are praised (or defended) if they play below their usual level and others are criticised even when they play good. I agree that hate is too strong word and I usually don't use it when describing footballers (especially our own) but I really get a vibe that some people here "hate" Gomes and Neymar and think they are the biggest culprits that we're not playing good. And if you want to say a good thing or two about those players you are usually called a fanboy. I don't consider myself Neymar's (or even less Gomes's) fanboy but I think they just get criticised too often and unfairly compared to most of other players. I've criticised Neymar's part of the game that I think he should absolutely improve (finishing) a lot of times and on the other hand I've praise his defensive workrate that even some of his biggest opponents here seems to recognise now. And about Gomes I've also said that it's unfair to negatively singling him out every time when whole team plays bad like we did against PSG. But on the other hand when we played some good games and he was also good no one really praised him.

I'm neither hater or fanboy. I stay as neutral as I can when it comes to our players.

When we signed Gomes I wanted him be great for Barca, as any Barca fan would. We gave him time, more and more games.. now it is apparent he will never be a good fit for us. It's really plain to see.

What would you say he has done well while he has been here?

I don't care about stats and Fabregas is a great example why stats can be misleading.

That was my whole point. Stats are meaningless BUT he doesn't even have those to cover up how bad he has been for us.

 

[Asylum15]

Yes, but tell me which one of our midfielders show a lot this season?

Sure, Rafinha and Denis scored some goals (most of them when played in more attacking roles, especially Rafinha) but they were also often lost when played as CMs. Arda's best games were as LM/LW. Rakitić's best game (I think) was when he played DM vs. Eibar. Of course, Iniesta is Iniesta but even when he was healthy and fit I don't think he ever played up close to his best this season.

I think Gomes showed flashes of good to great player he can become. But Lucho constantly changing his position, sometimes he even played all three midfield positions in one game just didn't let him to adapt and learn to play one position. And then also changing his midfield partners in every game. One game he plays as DM with Rakitić and Denis, the next one he's AM (Iniesta role) with Busquets and Arda. There is no consistency in our midfield at all and that's why I think it's unfair to just write off either of Gomes or Denis before we see how they can do under new coach that will (hopefully) know hot to utilise midfield better. Lucho don't even care about any kind of midfield stability. I won't even talk about tiki-taka midfield dominance we've had with Xaviesta, because that's not possible to do with players we currently have. I gave Lucho credit in his first two seasons to realise that and move our focus from midfield to MSN but in the meantime he also lost that little midfield stability we should've kept. In other words, I was ok getting more direct approach to our game because of speed and individual abilities of MSN but now players don't know anymore whether they should keep the ball (play possesion style) or just try to move it directly forward.

Gomes will never be Barcelona quality.

It's not a personal attack on you or him, it's just the way it is.

We need much higher quality players than Andre for the future.

 

[MagIX]

Why was Veratti getting so much space here? The three Barca players are trying to close the space around the PSG player with the ball, but the ball was already about to get passed to Veratti.


In the next moment Veratti has only Iniesta in front of him and easily passes the ball to the player in the center, although Iniesta tried to limit his passing options.

The whole midfield was outplayed with two passes. And that high defense line is just asking for a through ball.

1) It's incredible that a team like us are so extremly poor at defending. Tactically the same, at a level of an amateur team.
The tactics ouf our opponent is very easy: they let us press high so that between our lines (defence, midfield, attack) are
open 30 meter and since we do not know how to defend (+ in miedfild we do not have the players who can defend and press, Iniesta at defending
is worth less than zero, Busquets is slow like a snail) our opponent have easy life, easy pass through, and we are outplayed. Or,
alternativly, a long ball = that means they have the ball or recover the ball 95% of the time,
because we are extremly poor also in this area and in the air !

2) They press us very high, they mark all our players (means: they run after our players, they are agressive, they do not give space,...), they do not let us go out
of our half (or better 1/4) and if we survive, ok, otherwise we lost the ball or, since we cannot go further back of the goalkeeper,
we try a long ball = see above, 95% we lost the ball.

3) If we survive theier high pressure, they (all the players) run back like crazy and they (all the players) parked the bus.

4) repeat (see point 1)

Our tactics: hope for some magic from MSN

 

[xavi_the_Boss]

http://spielverlagerung.com/2017/02/16/psg-trounce-unintense-barcelona/

 

[DonAK]

I wonder whether Lucho even does positional drills that much in training. Much have taken a drop either way.

 

[xXKonan]

I wonder whether Lucho even does positional drills that much in training. Much have taken a drop either way.

I ask that myself and going by what we have seen for awhile now it doesn't look like it.

People talk about how bad we can't control games and stuff and yeah that's a big problem but a much bigger problem I find is just how tactically poor the Midfield is positional wise. When you don't have pacey Midfielders like we do and without proper tactical positioning man our midfield gets dicked and the defense is left exposed.

The story of us for a long time now. I mean people rag on our defense all the time but they really aren't getting help at all from the Midfield.

 

[El Flaco]

[tw]832565246854262788[/tw]

 

[Kikan]

I do not understand why all this blame on lucho ? Not a fan and you can have his head anytime , But our players from midfield to defense simply did not play or rather they could not match PSG's energy . No one should blame Messi for anything , what the hell is he suppose to do ? bring the ball from defense and take it all the way and score a goal ? Messi this entire year and last year is torn between playing in the midfield and attack . Our guys all of them with Neymar being an exception are simply not creative and too fearful to go forward . Might put a robot in the midfield .

 

[FlaFCB]

I do not understand why all this blame on lucho ? Not a fan and you can have his head anytime , But our players from midfield to defense simply did not play or rather they could not match PSG's energy . No one should blame Messi for anything , what the hell is he suppose to do ? bring the ball from defense and take it all the way and score a goal ? Messi this entire year and last year is torn between playing in the midfield and attack . Our guys all of them with Neymar being an exception are simply not creative and too fearful to go forward . Might put a robot in the midfield .

Simple: our play have been deteriorating since Jan 2016. This is not something that happened overnight, nor it was an accident. Many people, who were paying attention, were seeing the signs of many problems with lucho's Barça. It was not the first time the team played like that either. It's on the coach, not on the players.

 

[xXKonan]

What may have worked when we won the treble and for part of the 2015/16 season it simply stopped functioning properly in 2016 and right now. Lucho simply failed to do many major fixes as time went on to and we get our situation right now.

The system deteriorated to a point where it's not flexible and it's tactically a mess as well. Midfield which was this team's strongest aspect for many years is pretty much a giant black hole, our Right back spot is a dead zone along with the right hand side and we can't build from the back worth a lick either.

This result was coming for awhile now and we simply rode our luck a lot this year due to teams that couldn't finish their chances. We are simply a team that has no idea what to do once we get out on the field and a coach who doesn't seem to realize shit is messed up right now.

 

[Lelouch vi Britannia]

The story of us for a long time now. I mean people rag on our defense all the time but they really aren't getting help at all from the Midfield.

Defense is no longer the big hole in our team and hasn't been for some time now. It's the midfield. All we need in defense is a decent right back.