I usually don't write long posts but this morning I just have to. Il try to be BBZ for one time so let’s see where this ends.
First of all, I am sad for all of us who hoped we can win CL this year. We all had our doubts but I am willing to bet no one believed we’ll go out after 4-1 win. It happened so we have to live with that.
IMHO there are 4 major reasons why this debacle happened so let’s begin:
1.
Attitude of our players was disgraceful. I have watched to many football games where one team underestimates another and goes out. And the worst of all is the fact when you start the game like this there is no point of return since you simply can’t switch on just like that. In my eyes the problem is even bigger when you realize that we had big problems in the first game and we won only because of luck and no one in our team saw that. Suarez even claimed they scored own goas because of our superb pressing. That’s just arrogant!
2.
Valverde! I don’t even know where to begin with this guy since I have BIG problems with his philosophy in general. Let’ s first talk about yesterday. It was clear from the sky that we are in big fucking trouble immediately after they scored first goal and what he does? NOTHING. He made his first substitute in 81st minute! We have 11 players on the field who are having one of the worst nights of their lives and he does nothing. Umtiti and Pique were horrific yet Vermaelen who played fantastic every time he was on the field never got a chance. If I knew only that fact and nothing else I would be enough to say he is not a manager for Barca.
Now let’s talk about his philosophy and tactics this entire season. 90% of our games were painfully hard to watch, I can maybe count 5 games when I really enjoyed watching Barca this year. Some will say we were great defensively well I tend to disagree. In Lucho’s first year we were great defensively, you had that feeling of solidity but this year we had an enormous amount of luck. There were games when we didn’t concede but we looked shaky as hell in the back. To be fair I felt most secure when Vermaelen played before he got injured. In the end we can all agree that this 4-4-2 formation is not something any Barca fan is found of.
This manager also refused to rotate even in games against Leganes or CDR games and players are visibly tired. We lost 10 mil EUR yesterday for not qualifying for CL semis but hell yeah we can win CDR, a trophy no one cares about! His statement that he prefers to work with a small team is ludicrous for a club that wants to compete for all trophies every seasons.
Does this team have its limitations? Well for sure it has and I doubt any of us could say anything if we were beaten against Real or Bayern or Lpool or City or PSG but we got hammered by fucking Roma. Sorry Valverde but you have ZERO excuses for this one.
3.
Our squad and actual quality of players we have
Let’s begin:
Ter Stegen – nothing to say here except that we have one of the best GK in the world
Alba – don’t know what to think about this guy anymore, attack wise he is great but in the defense he has some serious issues not to mention that his arrogant attitude is something I sincerely hate. It’s really time to buy a proper LB to give him something to think about.
Semedo – I am not sure if this guy will succeed here. I tend to agree with BBZ on this one his tactical awareness is terrible. He was an absolute horror show yesterday. Will he learn or not I don’t know but this level is just not good enough so far. In serious games we will get slaughtered on his side.
Sergi Roberto – I agree more and more that he is better as a RB than RM. Is he good enough RB I don’t know but he is the best we have right now. He is definitely not a RM in 4-4-2 system.
Pique – I still believe in this guy and won’t blame him for yesterday although he was terrible since it’s visible from the sky he is dead tired. He was overplayed BIG time.
Umtiti – I am furious with this guy. In the most important part of the season he turned his brain off and went in full retard mode. His head was not on the field since he was worried more about his contract renewal than winning trophies. I am seriously worried that his IQ is at least questionable.
Iniesta – there is not much to say here, one of the best midfielders ever but he is done
Busquets – now IMHO there is something to talk about. We all love Busi but let’s be honest to ourselves. In the midfield where he was surrounded with Xavi and Iniesta in their prime his role was clear, he played midfield pivot where his role was to pass to the first player who is free and control the positional part of the game. In that role he is the best in the world but in this kind of football where triangles don’t exist anymore Busi is a liability. He is bad in attack, he is slow in defense so if we continue to play like this we won’t see his strengths anymore. He is just not on the physical level of modern box to box midfielder. So if we want to exploit Busi strengths we have to go back to triangles, if we don’t do that his limitations will be more and more obvious.
Rakitic – I know some will say I am biased towards this guy and maybe I am but IMHO he was undoubtedly our best midfielder this season. Does he have his limitations? Hell yeah! A lot of them. He is slow as hell, he can’t control the game but in his current position as DM he showed he can still contribute to the team. I would also like to have Verratti or Thiago here but reality is he contributed more than all of us expected from him after dreadful last season.
Paulinho – don’t know what to think here so I’ll go with “he is dead tired” and that is the reason his form collapsed but the fact is that he is a liability in defense when he plays as a CM player. We’ll see next season if he can regain his scoring form again but I don’t believe he can contribute that much.
Suarez – his biggest strength was his killer instinct and now he needs 10 chances to score ONE goal. He collapsed this year and I am afraid he is done. His off-ball movement is terrible, his passing is terrible, he is living in offside and talks to the referee all of the time. I am afraid he will never return to his old form. When he plays like this he is just a liability and nothing more. Griezmann would be a BIG fucking improvement over current Luis Suarez.
Dembele – I am still sure he has huge potential but let’s be honest his IQ is not something to be enthusiastic about. He needs one great manager to develop him and Valverde for sure is not the one.
Coutinho – I have no doubts about him, he will contribute much next season and he is for sure big improvement of our team. Only question is in what position will he play. We must form our midfield so we can exploit his strengths as much as possible. This will be maybe the most important job our manager has to solve before next season begins.
Messi – still GOAT for me but I can’t understand one thing about this guy. In some games he just turns off and that happens mostly in CL. I can understand he is having a bad day and that he needs a supporting cast but I can’t comprehend a fact that he walks 90 minutes even when it’s clear we need him. He could at least move or try to distract defenders or defend every now and than but yesterday he did NOTHING. The problem is this is not the first time it happened. It happened last year against Juve and also against ATM in CL few years ago.
I won’t analyze Cillesen, Digne, Gomes, Denis, Vidal, Paco or Mina since there is no point in doing that but the fact is that Paco deserved more chances in some home games when Suarez was playing like shit and the fact is also that buying Mina made no fucking sense since he never got a chance to prove himself. Gomes, Vidal and Denis have no place in a club like Barca.
4. The last problem is the number of leaders in our team – ZERO! After Masche left we have ZERO leaders. Compare that to RM. They have a bunch of players with balls who can lead their team and who will sometime shout on their teammates and win the games on muscles. I see here one big problem and I don’t see any solution right now.
In the end I’ll say one more thing. The amount of support Roma had yesterday from the stands was FANTASTIC. That’s also something Barca doesn’t have and in some games, that’s also a BIG fucking factor. I really hope Bartomeu will react after this since we really need a world class manager for next season (something we didn’t have after Pep left) but I fear that our president is also not on the level required for leading a big club like Barca.
Raketa10 out!
