Daniel Alves

[footyfan]

I don't think it's wrong to argue that a team is better defensively if it has a defensive style of play. If they have a defensive style of play and are good at it, of course they're the better team defensively.

Hypothetically, if Atletico had scored as many goals as Barca despite their defensive style of play, I wouldn't necessarily call them the better attacking team. Real Madrid had outscored us in each of the 2009/10,2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons despite their supposedly defensive style of play. I would still say though that Barca were the better attacking team.

As far as Dortmund are concerned, I've already said they've been about as poor/good as Barca this season, however they're playing below their level currently while Barcelona have been worse than Dortmund defensively for a lot lot longer. On a given day, I would always assume Dortmund would put in a better defensive performance than Barcelona, especially if the two faced each other.

 

[suckabov]

Last season, Valdes was pretty poor by his standards, yet we had our poorest season defensively in years. Last year, our defence was poor, yet Valdes still had a poor season. It's not flawed logic, if anything your's is flawed logic. [...] There's goalkeeping, and then there's defending. Dani Alves cannot be excused for his nonchalance, or Adriano cannot be excused from his inability to play the offside trap, or Pique for his poor marking or balance, or for Barca as a team to be god awful at set pieces because Valdes is in the form of his life. And neither is Valdes playing really well because our defence sucked. 2-3 years ago, we had an awesome defence yet Valdes was excellent, perhaps the best goalkeeper in the world. And then there have been years where Valdes has been poor but our defence has been great. My point is they are not very correlated like you may think.

If you read again what I wrote, I didn't say that this (our defense being bad because Valdes is good and vice versa) is the case. I was just exemplifying how you can not definitely say that different preconditions will lead to the same scenario. In logic, that's called "petitio principii". It's not possible. We don't know anything about how our defense would look without Valdes, if it would be the same etc. I know that Valdes' good form and the (lacking) quality of our defense aren't results of each other, that would be stupid, and that's not what I said either. I know how it was last year. I was just giving an easy example.

I don't see anything ridiculous about the reaction to Semi-Neutral's statement. Fact is he tried to show that Barca are best defensively using statistics and was proved wrong. It was an honest mistake and there's nothing wrong with that. But you can't really expect a Barca fan who watched all the games this season to really believe they've been the best in Europe defensively.

Well yes, and as I said, I don't believe Barca have the best defense either - but much much better than a lot of people on here make it out to be. I just hate it how it seems to be a trend to react to someone's opinion with reaction gifs and smilies as if those were valid arguments. To me that seems like ridiculing what that person said, which I find childish as such. I have nothing against people who, like you, normally word out their opinion or try to make a point. So I was more annoyed with others. And apart from that, the pessimism and Bayern glorification by some is putting me off. Not talking about you here.

More ridiculous is people popping up calling others Bayern fanboys while failing to logic their way through their argument.

Not sure if you mean me, but I didn't call anyone a Bayern fanboy. With my Bayern complex comment I was referring to someone who accused those of us who argued against Bayern's defense of having a Bayern complex.

According to whoscored, we concede 9 shots per game. Bayern concede 8 shots per game. TIL: only 1 shot conceded is the difference between what's hailed in here as the bestest defense in the whole wide world, and our shambolic excuse of a back four.


Some people... Seriously

 

[serghei]

Well yes, and as I said, I don't believe Barca have the best defense either

There are different types of defence. Barca can use only one. The only way we can defend properly is by not letting the opponent get inside our last 20 metres. Nowadays, when people say good defence, they mean a defence that is able to resist a fierce attack, that can absorb the pressure. That's not our style, never was. We are the agressors, and being the agressors means we only have to worry about those rare moments in which other teams give us trouble. We have maybe 5 or 6 situations in a game where we actually have to put in a good old school defence game, and by that I mean headers, clinches, sliding tackles and so on. Except for those rare ocassions, we defend by not letting the opponent attack us. A couple of years ago we were so good that teams didn't attack us no matter what. Hell, Chelsea didn't attack us with one man advantage and United was held at bay in Rome and please keep in mind that we were playing without Alves and Abidal, two of our key players. Nowadays teams feel we have declined. Maybe is true and we should all learn to accept this. But if it's not true, then we should make a statement soon. The best chance is in the next clasico. If Madrid dominates us again, than it's the midfield that is letting us down, not the defence.

 

[Gohan]

People always whining about Alves not doing his defensive jobs do not realize that Alves plays a crucial role in our attack which sometimes unfortunately leaves us uncovered on the counter. So stop bitchin bout Alves all the time

 

[Ghost]

The 2-3 runs he made at the end clearly show that he hasn't lost THAT much pace. Of course he is slower than a few years ago, but when he does try to run, he is fast. Just doesn't attempt them often.

 

[Meitux]

Not really, he's not so energetic. You cant' call that really fast, certainly something decent but not so fast. It doesn't matter anyway to me, everytime he got forward he didn't make something out of it, just ruined the attack. Not to mention the gaps he left behind him, best example the chance that Muntari did put the ball in but frankly Robinho screwed his control.

 

[oz187]

It doesn't matter anyway to me, everytime he got forward he didn't make something out of it, just ruined the attack.

This is just trolling.

 

[Indignado]

This is just trolling.

It's not. He didn't offer anything going forward yesterday.

 

[DinhoR10]

If he doesnt offer much going forward, we might as well play montoya atleast we have defensive stability them

 

[evilhita666]

While it's true some people over react about his defensive skills, it's still annoying to see him make the same mistakes over and over, especially drifting inwards during crosses... I can remember Sanchez denying Muntari a free header twice, just by marking where Alves should be...

 

[Flavia]

We need a gif of that nutmeg on cr

 

[evilhita666]

We need a gif of that nutmeg on cr

That was amazing, too bad it didn't end on a goal...

He had a great match today...

 

[te amo barca]

We need a gif of that nutmeg on cr

here you go

 

[BarcaGirl]

That nutmeg on CR

 

[abual3bed1]

He showed today why he's still and will stay the 1st choice for the RB. Solid as a rock.