Ousmane Dembélé
Banned
He needs to solidify his bus for Madrid and get a 0-0 or 1-1 out of the Bernabeu.
Even Barca with this midfield dominates possession better than Madrid or anyone else on the planet and Zidane's team has shown signs of weakness against teams that play football against them.
M
MessiCam
Guest
The problem is our proclivity to concede counter attack goals. Madrid are lethal in the counter... They murdered us on the counter in the Super Copa.
How many goals we conceded this season?
henias
New member
All the possession in the world won't necessarily win u games. In no way Zidane's midfield is worse than ours. They are just having a hangover and are adjusting to find their form. They will catch up if we still dont reinforce our midfield and attack.
behindbrowneyes
Well-known member
Zidane's midfield isn't worse. Their starting line-up in midfield is better. That and our lack of wingers are the reasons why Valverde prefers a 4-man-mid and if you compare this seasons games vs Juve to the last seasons' you could easily see why. Last season they basically could walk through our midfield with 2 or 3 simple passes, in this campaign they struggled to create chances.
Clásico has its own laws anyway. No one expected us to win in the BernaLEO without Neymar and the pressure we had due to the situation we were in.
Aryagorn
Improvin' Perfection!!
Could you please translate
DonAK
President of FC Barcelona
Already did. Gerard say it was nice that Valverde came to watch them play as it had been two and a half years since the first team coach last did it.
henias
New member
When did I say Zidane's midfield is worse? The 442 isnt making it any better against teams who sit back and they still were able to break into counter attacks because of easy disposession in the middle, due to the congestion of midfield. We arent stretching the opponents defence in any way, they could easily win the ball back without having to move much. It's more disastrous than a 433 and we have few alternatives for wingers that Valverde doesnt experiment much with. 442 with a bunch of workhorse midfielders isnt going to make it much better. Busqets is also isolated in a 442. Iniesta is also forced out wide.
Last season, we defended without shape, one midfielder often drop very deep to form a 5 men defence leaving 2 midfielders to mark 3 attackers. It's Lucho's defensive tactics that went wrong, but you dont necessary need a 442 to be able to defend well. Madrid utilised a 433, which occasionally transitions into a 442, when a winger drops off, and still managed to stay compact.
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Birdy
Senior Member
I think EV is not fool enough (and he has shown that he is not) to think that the current Barca can play as we used to in the past and win against current Real Madrid.
Whether we like it or not, right now there is an abysmal gap between the quality of our squad and the quality of their squad.
And don't get carried away by Madrid's inconsistency and laziness this year so far. This a special game and a classico. In order to have a chance, we must first realize our current inferiority.
And then we can maybe grab something out of this game
PS: When EV played conservative we conceded only 5 in so many games. In the last game against Celta, we conceded 2 by playing much better football, but being vulnerable on the counter as in the past
So, you can see which approach is to be preferred for the Classico
JerseyAddict
Well-known member
Nicely put. +1 on your post.
henias
New member
Wrong. Again, we played "better football" which is ineffective largely due to the 442 constriction which limits play in the middle. If 442 was supposed to create an impression of "a more defensive" tactics, clearly the 2 goals conceded against a 6th placed Celta is a sure sign that there's something awfully wrong.
Playing a 442 is nothing wrong, but playing a 442 POSSESSION...? It's a huge risk you are taking because when they push up too high and get caught in the middle, the 2 centerbacks will get caught on the counter very easily. Which happened with Umititi and Pique and people seemed put all the blame on them. It's Valverde's tactics that is putting alot of pressure and defensive workload on them. If we keep having that mentality that we have to be force a 442 regardless of the opponents, it will destroy us. We are lucky to have Messi performing well in matches， without Messi, it wouldnt be 2-2.
Regardless of the squad quality, if u are playing possession football, it's best u instill a 433 even if u dont seem to have the best player. Valencia isn't the best squad in the world, but they still have the right tactics that doesnt contradict with ur playing style. And we aren't even playing against Madrid yet, we are playing against mid-tier and lower-tier teams. So how are our squad "terrible" against them? As a matter of fact, we havent even faced a world class squad yet.
Valverde is too predictable as of now, and he's playing with fire. The results will show in the long run.
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