Ernesto Valverde - V1

[MessiCam]

Games like these makes me wary of counting us as UCL favorites. We've seen in the past how teams have managed to neutralize our attack even with MSN and a younger Iniesta and Rakitic, and even with Alves.

With 4-4-2 we've gotten more balance, but lost some attacking firepower, but that just means a team could score one goal against us and eliminate us, or we could score one goal and then counter them when they have to attack.

Either way I predict getting the first goal would be vital, almost to the point it would put a team as a huge favorite in the tie and that could get very problematic.

I'd be cautiously optimistic rather than be overconfident just because we look more defensively solid. We've sacrificed a bit of our attack to be more solid.

It’s a bit too narrow. The teams have figured out the double pivot... Don’t press in the centre only do it on the flanks and go hard for counters.

What you end up with are players playing wider than usual and pumping in crosses. Iniesta really shouldn’t be that wide taking on players by the byline. That’s the full backs job. Anyway, it is what it is at this stage.

[MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] will say play the 4-4-2 with work horses (which has worked and will probably continue to work) and I will say change to 4-3-3 False 9. Suárez and Messi can’t play in the same 11 with the players we have.

Today it looked more 4-2-3-1 for me but the problem was Paco’s indiscipline and to a lesser extent Coutinho.

 

[Barcaman]

Only beef I have is not resting more players. Yes, it may sound strange considering we drew but what we lacked this afternoon more than anything was intensity.

He stuck with 4-4-2 and didn't play Iniesta and Coutinho together and I liked that. 7 points ahead is still more than great and Atleti has tougher schedule too.

 

[Mitchell1978]

I don't get the choice to start Paco on the wing/in midfield, he is a center-forward and offers nothing in that role.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

He needs to get his tactics right and fast. Right now he seems unclear whether to stay with the 4-4-2 or move to the 4-3-3, whatever it is he needs to get it sorted.

And I'm not sure if he knows the beSt eleven yet either. Seems like a mess.

 

[serghei]

I don't get the choice to start Paco on the wing/in midfield, he is a center-forward and offers nothing in that role.

It was clearly a stupid call. Should have started Semedo and Roberto wide in 4-4-2. And Messi was problematic for us in this game, due to his very poor movement. He stood in many different positions but rarely moved off the ball, and when you don't move enough, this kind of freedom hurts the team's shape.

When Messi's not very sharp, or is complacent, it would be better for him to take over a more advanced position, either on RW and as a 2nd striker. You can't play in midfield if you don't move.

 

[serghei]

Games like these makes me wary of counting us as UCL favorites. We've seen in the past how teams have managed to neutralize our attack even with MSN and a younger Iniesta and Rakitic, and even with Alves.

With 4-4-2 we've gotten more balance, but lost some attacking firepower, but that just means a team could score one goal against us and eliminate us, or we could score one goal and then counter them when they have to attack.

Either way I predict getting the first goal would be vital, almost to the point it would put a team as a huge favorite in the tie and that could get very problematic.

I'd be cautiously optimistic rather than be overconfident just because we look more defensively solid. We've sacrificed a bit of our attack to be more solid.

It is very important to not concede silly goals, or goals against teams that sacrifice very little defensive security going forward. If we receive goals like that, then yea, it will be hard.

We basically have to score away in CL. Even 1 goal would do it most of the time. Once we go 1-0 up away, a lot of possibilities open up for us.

 

[MagIX]

Right, but not easy for him, now he has available 2 players that cost 300Mio...
I do not even know if he is allowed to bench such amount of euro.
Till now we were very good without them.
I hope that he will take the right decisions

 

[Lelouch vi Britannia]

This Barca is much more defensive than previous ones.

Feels to me like it has a hard time getting that first goal but once it does the floodgates open as the other team has to attack and we can absorb that and hit them on the break.

Still think we won’t have a problem with Chelsea but we will in the rest of the CL.

 

[Altomonte]

What worries me is the very short break between Eibar game and Chelsea match. I think it would be ok to risk another loss of points but rest key players (Messi, Iniesta, Suarez, Busquets, Alba) against Eibar. I don't want to see another PSG / Juventus home match!

 

[MessiCam]

Under no circumstances should La Liga be sacrificed for the Champions League. La Liga is our bread and butter and the Champions League is a long shot. Always has been.

 

[George_Costanza]

- I think we were bad and the team looked less focused due to the intensity of cup games vs. Valencia.
- Playing Paco in the midfield is like playing with 10 players instead of 11. The same mistake of starting Gomes last game. I believe in Paco but only as a striker.
- Coutinho and Dembele both needs time to settle. No need to rush them both.

 

[Lelouch vi Britannia]

Under no circumstances should La Liga be sacrificed for the Champions League. La Liga is our bread and butter and the Champions League is a long shot. Always has been.

Wouldn't have minded sacrificing CDR though.

Also, we still have a cushion, we could afford to rest some players.

 

[Barcaman]

Valverde:

"The positive news was the performance of the two centre-backs, Yerry and Lucas, who both did well."

"Lucas was out of position and it was Yerry's first start, so it wasn't the usual defence but we got through the game without too many scares."

"At the beginning they had to adapt quickly because Getafe were pressing high. They got better as the game went on and we were able to play out from the back as usual. We are happy with them because it was a difficult role."

"It's a result which shows everyone that there's still a long way to go in the league," he added. "We're still going to have to sweat and push hard to win it."

 

[DonAK]

Just wanted to check something quick in terms of goalscoring rate:

2013-14: 2.63 goals/game

2014-15: 2.89 goals/game

2015-16: 2.94 goals/game

2016-17: 3.05 goals/game

2017-18: 2.60 goals/game right now

Now this doesn't say much right now as we could still end up scoring a lot of goals and ending up better in terms of goals scored this season.

But if you check out this link: http://www.squawka.com/football-tea...0#any#any#season#1#all-matches#total#desc#avg

And go from season to season, you can also see that we're also creating the lowest amount of chances since 2012-13.

Getting that first goal in a CL tie is going to be very, very important.

 

[serghei]

Just wanted to check something quick in terms of goalscoring rate:

2013-14: 2.63 goals/game

2014-15: 2.89 goals/game

2015-16: 2.94 goals/game

2016-17: 3.05 goals/game

2017-18: 2.60 goals/game right now

Now this doesn't say much right now as we could still end up scoring a lot of goals and ending up better in terms of goals scored this season.

But if you check out this link: http://www.squawka.com/football-tea...0#any#any#season#1#all-matches#total#desc#avg

And go from season to season, you can also see that we're also creating the lowest amount of chances since 2012-13.

Getting that first goal in a CL tie is going to be very, very important.

Agreed. The thing is that there's no point in bringing those stats even. It's fairly obvious just by looking at the games that we do create less chances than in the past due to being more careful to not give teams the chance to counter us. This gets back to more cycles of stale possession being initiated, especially out wide. When Messi's not very involved, there's very little action being made to breat teams in the center.