serghei
Senior Member
And yet he was immense. Scored his only two chances and had a great bit of skill that was inches away from an absolute golazo.
And yet he was immense. Scored his only two chances and had a great bit of skill that was inches away from an absolute golazo.
xXKonan
Senior Member
His system reminds me of a poor mans version of the treble winning season in 2014-15.
He's basically only using the Midfield to control the game and retain possession while relying on the Forwards and Fullbacks to create. But vs Rayo Suarez was basically alone in a 4-5-1 until Dembele was subbed on in the front line.
serghei
Senior Member
That treble winning team was great as long as MSN were firing on all cillinders, dribbling players for fun and scoring golazo after golazo. That was about 12-14 months. From january 2015 until february 2016 or so. Then it completely went to shit as MSN were, obviously, unable to perform at that crazy level for long.
But, you're right, tactically there's not much difference.
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xXKonan
Senior Member
Midfield won't change much anytime soon.
Arthur is still a developing player himself and he's not quite creative yet but he brings other good things to the table at this time. I expected Rakitic to step up more being the more attacking option in the Midfield but while he has his limitations I do think he maybe asked to be more conservative as well.
I think Coutinho is being asked to do most of the creative work but as you can see it hasn't been happening.
Arthur is still a developing player himself and he's not quite creative yet but he brings other good things to the table at this time. I expected Rakitic to step up more being the more attacking option in the Midfield but while he has his limitations I do think he maybe asked to be more conservative as well.
I think Coutinho is being asked to do most of the creative work but as you can see it hasn't been happening.
khaled_a_d
Senior Member
People are criminally underrating our midfield in Lucho 1st 2 years,Raki and Iniesta were critical and not just providing control, CL 1st goal is huge example of how much this midfield played a part, Iniesta assist against PSG too etc.
The brilliance of MSN made that midfield creativity go under the radar tbh, later on Iniesta lost a step, Raki struggled with both fatigue and with basically new role at right side when Messi moved to the inside again.
Horatio
You're welcome
Suarez scored a brace without receiving the ball once. Best no.9 right there!
serghei
Senior Member
Don't think so. Creatively, the midfield had a pretty low profile role. The front 3 basically scored all the goals almost and also they mostly provided the killer passes to themselves (less so Neymar who finished more chances than he created for the other two). I'd say Alves was the next player with the most creativity in that team in 2015, more than any of the midfielders. Midfield was fine, but not decisive at all overall. The MSN was the difference in almost all games.
City away it was mostly the Suarez show. City at home it was all Messi embarassing them and setting up Neymar for god knows how many 1 vs 1 misses. PSG win was all Suarez and Neymar with Messi as the key passer in what was tie over in first game. Bayern at home it was Messi with 2 goals 1 assist, very much a legendary Messi performance. Neymar 1 goal after the ball went through Suarez and Messi prior. Bayern away it was Messi with 2 killer passes to Neymar who then squared for a Suarez double that saw the tie off.
I think it's a mistake to not view that season as mostly dominated by one of the best front trios ever seen, playing in complete understanding of each others at the peak of their game. Let's face it, 99.9% of the managers don't get to have a strike force like that in their team. When at least two of the three were in a great mood it smelled like trouble for the opponent.
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serghei
Senior Member
Yea, and even when it happened, they had a lot more defensive roles while the creativity was mostly left to the front three and Alves who played more like a winger in that season, with Rakitic covering for him in defense. Even Iniesta complained at some point that he had to adapt to a new role, with more defensive roles, as Neymar wasn't a Pedro like winger who did a lot of work in defense.
Barcilliant
Senior Member
Watched City vs Southampton live. If the play us in Cl we will be torn apart. So much speed and movement. The team is so well drilled and synchronised.
Even without DeBruyne City looked immense. It doesn't matter who plays the team essentially plays the same football. Ncontrast this with Valverde and our slow, static up and down style of play.
Valverde is not even good enough for Valencia or Sevilla let alone Barca.
Even without DeBruyne City looked immense. It doesn't matter who plays the team essentially plays the same football. Ncontrast this with Valverde and our slow, static up and down style of play.
Valverde is not even good enough for Valencia or Sevilla let alone Barca.
FinBarcelonafan
Well-known member
Exactly. City is like the new and better version of Barca. If they had Messi there would be nothing stopping them.n
Messigician
Senior Member
You know they lost to Lyon right? City are far from invincible
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