David Villa

[Cule4life]

It looks like this could have been in the coaches' plans since the beginning. Keep Villa fit, uninjured and healthy the whole first half, unleash him in the 2nd half. Slowly getting him more and more fit throughout the season while keeping him safe and also warming up the other forwards.

If that was the plan, it's turning out very nicely right now

I don't believe this was the case. With all due respect to Tito i think his hand was forced. In my opinion he is tactically stubborn. Given the fact that he persisted with the Iniesta on LW experiment far too long when it was clear that it was not working. He only changed it in the Milan match as it was a do or die situation and our season was on the line. I'm not claiming to be a manager but i daresay if there was any other tactically brilliant manager like Fergie the Iniesta LW experiment would have been dropped a long time ago certainly not when our season was on the line.

And about this preserving Villa for the 2nd half doesn't convince me. How can you expect to bench a player for so long with him having been linked to a winter transfer and then suddenly expect him to turn up in the 2nd half and give match winning performances. He was injured not crippled for chrissakes. It's to Villa's credit that he kept fighting for a place in the team and didn't lose confidence or form with so little playing time.

Im just happy that it turned out well but i attribute it to good luck instead of a "master plan"

 

[Flavia]

One important thing is that Villa wasn't benched just for the sake of being benched, he had a lot of problems after recovering from his injury, the last being kidney stones.

 

[Cule4life]

One important thing is that Villa wasn't benched just for the sake of being benched, he had a lot of problems after recovering from his injury, the last being kidney stones.

Come on we are not talking about matches missed from injuries or stones. We are talking about him benched for important game and then playing 90 minutes in useless CDR matches completely disproving the theory he wasn't "fit" or being "preserved" for the "important matches".

 

[Flavia]

Come on we are not talking about matches missed from injuries or stones. We are talking about him benched for important game and then playing 90 minutes in useless CDR matches completely disproving the theory he wasn't "fit" or being "preserved" for the "important matches".

The much is speculation from our part. Villa was always getting some disconfort/problems after playing matches, and maybe we misunderstood Tito being cautious with being stubborn or whatever. Now Villa seems fit, at least I didn't get that impression before.

 

[ammarfcb]

Barcelona are unbeaten in all 31 Liga matches (30W 1D) in which David Villa scored or gave an assist #fcblive

play them both. profit.

 

[Cule4life]

The much is speculation from our part. Villa was always getting some disconfort/problems after playing matches, and maybe we misunderstood Tito being cautious with being stubborn or whatever. Now Villa seems fit, at least I didn't get that impression before.

Obviously we will never get the exact truth as we dont have access to the dressing room. Im just saying Villa not playing due to Tito's stubbornness is a plausible explanation. And Tito not giving enough chances to youngsters like Pep further strengthens this theory. I would love to be wrong though.

 

[oz187]

Come on we are not talking about matches missed from injuries or stones. We are talking about him benched for important game and then playing 90 minutes in useless CDR matches completely disproving the theory he wasn't "fit" or being "preserved" for the "important matches".

That doesn't disprove it. If he plays in important games he has to go all out and could aggravate any injuries. By playing as sub or playing in lesser matched he gets the opportunity to play himself back to full match fitness.

 

[Cule4life]

That doesn't disprove it. If he plays in important games he has to go all out and could aggravate any injuries. By playing as sub or playing in lesser matched he gets the opportunity to play himself back to full match fitness.

Pardon me but isnt the most widely used and accepted method of getting a player back to full fitness is giving him more minutes incrementally? Like 10 then 20, 30, 40 and so on till he is fit to last 90 minutes? You just dissed years of footballing research to justify your argument.

 

[Clockwise]

play them both. profit.

play both acquire 3 points

 

[Youngie]

One important thing is that Villa wasn't benched just for the sake of being benched, he had a lot of problems after recovering from his injury, the last being kidney stones.

True. Only now doers it seem like Villa is getting back to full fitness (a year and a bit later)

 

[Galning]

The much is speculation from our part. Villa was always getting some disconfort/problems after playing matches, and maybe we misunderstood Tito being cautious with being stubborn or whatever. Now Villa seems fit, at least I didn't get that impression before.

Don't even bother
Form some reason whenever a player doesn't play it's always down to the manager not liking him.

The staff said time and time again that Villa would be more important in the second half of the season and look.. but that's probably too logical for some people.

 

[raedkuwait]

Don't even bother
Form some reason whenever a player doesn't play it's always down to the manager not liking him.

The staff said time and time again that Villa would be more important in the second half of the season and look.. but that's probably too logical for some people.

So u want to convince us and convince your self, that the staff all of the sudden decided that Villa is fit and ready to play just after they found out that our form is really bad without
him, and after our bad defeat To Ac milan and the defeats to real madrid and our bad form in where the staff insisted on playing iniesta and fabregas and the same formation over and over
again, let me ask u this and i want an honest answer, do u think villa would have been playing on the return leg vs Ac milan if our team managed to hang on to a 0-0 result in Ac milan?

nah to me the staff has finally realized that there same boring formation again and again was not gone cut it any more, and they had to do some change and get villa involved other wise
we would have been out of CL already So they where actually forced to playing Villa.

Waiting for bojan to delet this post again as he always delet my post

 

[goope]

According to barcastuff Villa's contract that expires in 2014 will renew automatically until 2015 if he plays a certain number of games.

I think Villa shouldn't renew this season. He should see if he's still wanted next season. If yes, he can renew until after 2015. If not, he should leave for free.

 

[Scottro]

That doesn't disprove it. If he plays in important games he has to go all out and could aggravate any injuries. By playing as sub or playing in lesser matched he gets the opportunity to play himself back to full match fitness.

So you feel Villa just goes out and jogs around for a while in the lesser matches and plays at say 80%. I dont think so. He goes out there to play his heart out and win his starting position back regardless of the opponent. No difference in level of play if it is a top team or a bottom of the table team.

The staff of any team alway stress the team must perform all out in every game or the speed of play and level of play of the team will start to drop. No way they are saying everyone play 100% except Villa we have him out there for a warm up today.

The staff did not feel Villa could contribute in the critical matches and they only used Villa in the less critical matches to rest what the staff felt were the key players. This to me seemed obvious all season.

 

[tello]

True. Only now doers it seem like Villa is getting back to full fitness (a year and a bit later)

I think he still has a long way to go to reach the before injury physical conditon and stamina.

He looks pretty slow and pretty tired now as compared to what he used to be...