Jadentheman
Active member
Does current Barca play like that? Guess I haven’t been paying attention. It was agonizing to watch today, I tuned out. And the rest of Twitter agrees with me
Euro 2020 (2021)
- Thread starter Messi983
- Start date
Does current Barca play like that? Guess I haven’t been paying attention. It was agonizing to watch today, I tuned out. And the rest of Twitter agrees with me
Jadentheman
Active member
Not unless Barca can gain another upcoming superstar. So far it appears they’re all going to go to the PL with exception to Mbappe who is trying to force his way to Real.
jairzinho
Senior Member
Lucho's final euros squad is kinda weird. No Saul, Soler, Angelino. Even Aspas should have been picked ahead of Morata
Plus he is not going to get too far with that slow possession crap.
Llorente is a waste at RB, should be closer to goal. Pedri should be benched. kid is good but shouldn't be ahead of Thiago.
Plus he is not going to get too far with that slow possession crap.
Llorente is a waste at RB, should be closer to goal. Pedri should be benched. kid is good but shouldn't be ahead of Thiago.
Richard.H
Senior Member
Totally agreed
Messi983
Senior Member
Things are not really as simple as you want to make them look imo. 2010 also didn't happen suddenly but was a result of a longterm planned work.
We can somehow agree that Barca could start to recruit different profile of players (from countries like France and Germany for example) short and mid-term if we'd want to change the way we're playing drastically (I'm talking about "normal" times not now when we don't have money to really do anything). But while this would look like we're trying to change something there is no guarantee things would work. It's acutally very likely we'd fail and be even in a worse situation we're now trying to replicate things that worked in the past over and over again and hoping for different outcomes we've got in most recent history. And to make this "new philosophy" work longterm it would mean changing the way kids in La Masia are playing too which would again take a lot of time.
NT is different as clubs though as they normally can't import foreign talents and have a limited pool of players they can work with (even in a country like Spain which produces tons and tons of players every year they are in the end all of similar profile). So how can you expect them to play different? Even if we can say that some of their modern day midfielders are more direct than Xavi and Iniesta so some small modifications of the system could be done but overall philosophy would still stay similar. Obviously none of the new midfielders comes even close to Xaviesta quality which is not surprising as they are two of the best midfielders ever and Barca/Spain were lucky to have them playing together in their prime years which will probably never happen again. They might produce a Xavi or an Iniesta in 40-50 years but it's almost impossible they'll get a Xaviesta ever again.
Anyway, back to the question what Spain is supposed to do? They're not France who have athletic players of African origin so they can play to their strengths. Nor are they like Germany who were always a hard working team (although they've produced a lot more technical players over the last decade or so - which again is a product of long term plan and work) with a never give up attitude which they are learning since they've made their first football steps as 6-7 years old kids. And they are also not a traditionally great defensive team like Italy. You can't change the way senior NT is playing over the night. No coach can come into the locker room and say to the players something like "forget about everything you've learned so far in your careers about possession football, we'll now start to play by defending deep and try to score from counters."
It's a longterm process and Spain has certain limitations here compared to other top football nations so it's only logical for them to continue betting on their supposed strength which is being technically superior to the opponents. Although that strength is not clearly as evident as it was a decade ago it still gives them better chances to succeed than doing something they've never done before or can't do. Spain can't "out-France" France, "out-German" Germany or "out-Italy" Italy (if you understand what I mean), they can only beat them by playing it the only way they know and can.
I mean if anyone has shown he doesn't care that much about possession football it's Lucho. During his time at Barca people often complained about him not having enough control over the games etc. But he had arguably the best attacking trio we'll ever seen at his disposal back then so he played to their strengths (well, unless Messi wasn't the real coach at that time
). It brought us short term success but this approach wouldn't work longterm. And now with Spain he has Morata, Ferran and Olmo instead of a prime MSN 
so can't really try to do the same things even if he'd want to change something.But clearly, all of this doesn't mean some of Lucho's decisions were not questionable at least. Even with clear limitations this team has (and some of them not being Lucho's fault. I think with a fit Ramos - yeah, I know he could still take him to Euros even if not totally ready to play if nothing else for his leadership which this team clearly lacks - and Fati this would be a totally different team) they could and should still do better.
Spain's football isn't even bad, it's quite good; they created a few good chances. Spain just lacks forwards with the ability to penetrate the defense. It's the same issue with Barcelona, they lack two solid wingers and a striker. It's not the football that's the problem, it's the players. We've went through 3 different managers with vastly different philosophies, and our styles HAVE changed a lot since 2017. I'm not sure why you're trying to make this an issue about style of football.
The squad is the biggest issue.
The squad is the biggest issue.
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Spain looked very strong. In control of the game, created multiple chances. Were able to up the tempo towards the end when needing a goal for the win. If Morata wasn't a donkey in front of goal would have been a comfortable win. One of the favourites for me. Their entire team and squad is full of league winners, champions league winners/finalists, europa league winners. England's best player = Kane who hasn't won a trophy yet. Spain and Italy might end up winning this.
I do think England should be the 2nd favorite behind France, but knowing them they will find a way to disappoint. And there's something about Kane that makes me deeply distrust him. After those two Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany and Spain (plus maybe Belgium?) are all roughly equal.
It's quite exciting how even the field is (well, apart from France).
serghei
Senior Member
Seems to me like you see only what you want to see. Spain plays on the wings with crosses. Don't see many similarities at all.
You basically have a beef with any variety of possession, technical football.
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Southgate is all that stands between England doing well and doing not so well. Kane has never performed against tough opposition either so he needs to show he's this ?100m+ striker. But yeah think there's an even playing field, exciting Euros for sure, first one I've actually been hyped for. Last few didn't interest me for whatever reason.
fergus90
Senior Member
That's unfair, Kane plays for Spurs so he will never win a trophy. There are CL winners and multiple league winners in that England team too. Kane was poor against Croatia, to be honest, but if anyone will hold us back it will be Gareth Southgate.
There's got to be more CL winners in the England team than italy right?!
Yeah it is unfair spurs are shite lol. But they have been to finals and not won so part of that is on him. Over the last 5 years they've had a good enough squad to win something, even if it's just the league cup.
My points weren't very clear tbh. England are still second favourites for me but I was just showing how everyone seems to have written spain off despite having all these league winners etc too. Maybe even more throughout the squad than England? Not sure on it but it's probably quite close.
Italy don't have top quality or anything, again maybe badly made point, was more just saying they shouldn't be underestimated. Not just because of the Turkey victory but decent squad, good manager.
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