Gerard Piqué

[Cule4life]

This one is funny and tragic at the same time - of course this was a huge f*ck up. But have you seen TS or Luiz lately? They've been playing shit as well! Did you watch Ramos and Pepe bossing it yesterday? No you didn't, THAT was terrible.

TS has been flawless and Luiz is massively overrated. He is a DM not a CB. Glad he didnt come to Barca

 

[Semi-Neutral]

But when the argument is so pathetic that its not even a worth a reply a gif suffices. But im gonna post a reply just to satisfy you

2: If only that was an isolated incident. How many times has he slipped in the past 2 year? You probably cant count them on two hands. If that doesn't show you something is wrong then nothing will. If he cant stay on his feet he should give up football and try break dancing
3: If he was chest facing the player or hadn't been as slow as a tortoise he would have blocked the shot. Thiago Silva, Kompany, heck even Mascherano would have put a block in.
4- He followed the attacker but was too slow/lazy to put a block in. Again a good CB would have blocked that

So the number of times he slipped shows his playing ability? Maybe he naturally can't keep his balance, maybe it was just that day (I honestly don't notice Pique slipping that often...).

For number three, you clearly haven't played CB, or you'd know how screwed he would have been had he faced with his chest. All Marin would have had to do was kick the ball and run in front of Pique so Pique would have to foul him to get to the ball first, and then a guaranteed cross comes in or even a shot on goal. What he did was allow Marin to take that shot, where had Busquets given 100% he would have blocked it, and it was less likely to score from anyway.

In number four the only way he could have gotten a block in was by diving in, which is never a good idea in the box, and even if he did that would concede a corner (which is terrible for us). He trusted that the defenders in the middle were able to handle the situation.

 

[Cule4life]

He cant naturally keep his balance? Were you trying to defend him?

I said he should have been chest facing OR been fast to turn and block and he did neither

Diving in perfectly to block a cross in the box is the hallmark of a good CB. You dont need to play CB to know that

So to prevent a corner he should allow free crosses into the box?

Trusted the defenders in the middle? With our defensive record?

 

[Flavia]

Just to give my two cents, Pique is definitely a target for some people but it's pretty well deserved on many occasions. Some qualities which make him look piss poor are:

1. How he approaches defending 1v1's- Every time you see him defending against an attacker that's dribbling at him, he's either retreating to the point where he gets beaten and has to chase him, or he falls on the floor. He's not doing what he should be doing, which is smothering the attacking player into making errors and actually putting pressure. Standing in front of the guy just for the sake of being there isn't defending if he isn't gonna stand his ground and get the ball.

2. Aerial ability and physicality- He's been gifted with height and long legs, yet happens to be one of the worst aerial defenders in elite football and slow as a boulder. You can see from his physique that he isn't even fit or muscular, which is a pretty obvious reason as to why he can't jump for shit or dominate attackers despite his colossal size. I'd bet that he wouldn't even be slow if he were to sprint-train with more dedication. Needless to say it's glaringly obvious that he is not even slightly fit or physically strong for a footballer, which can be attributed to lack of motivation.

3. Command- As a guy who spends more time in our starting lineup than almost any other player, Pique has yet to take on a leadership role at all. Guys like Mascherano and Puyol are imposing and inspiring, yet Pique just sits back and does his thing like it's nobody's business.

A lot of this can be solved by picking the guy up off his ass and making him work for his spot. It's not THAT often that a footballer declines due to an increase in responsibility, but that's what happened to Pique and he seriously needs to fix this. When Puyol returns, it should be him and Masch starting. When January comes and a CB hopefully arrives, Pique should be struggling to get himself on the starting lineup. Only then will he possibly improve to the level he should be at.

Great post. We cannot forget Pique lived a long time on Puyol's shadow, so to speak. Since Puyol's been missing, he's been subpar. And Abidal. Pique needs someone telling him what to do, and how to focus.
But the problem last game wasn't just Pique. The defense was disorganized, pure chaos at one point. But Pique's been the weakest of the cbs for a long time now. It's understandable people lost patience with him. A better cb wouldn't solve all problems, but to do better than Pique's been doing isn't that hard.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

He cant naturally keep his balance? Were you trying to defend him?

??

I said he should have been chest facing OR been fast to turn and block and he did neither

He's not fast enough, he doesn't have the pace...

Trusted the defenders in the middle? With our defensive record?

We haven't conceded from low crosses into the box at all this season, corners on the other hand are much worse for us.

 

[Ursegor]

He simply can't defend. Last season against Athletic Bilbao:

One sidestep and you're past him. His acceleration is slower than a snail.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

And that's why he shouldn't be chest facing. ^

 

[Cule4life]

And that's why he shouldn't be chest facing. ^

Its not facing chest per se but the quickness of body movement to turn your body in which Pique is very slow
Meaning he shoud have turned his chest by the time Marin took a shot

 

[Stric]

I myself have said that Pique hasn't been playing well the last few seasons, so enjoy taking my post out of context all you want. But if you go through this thread, you'll find about a billion comments about how Shakira and modeling are the reasons why he's having blunders, and very few quality posts with arguments and logic, while with Mascherano and his blunders it's the other way around. Pique deserves criticism and I've already said that, but he gets extra (and this is usually what we see around here) for being who he is outside the pitch, and that's bullshit. Bashing Pique has become a trend, just like it has with some other players, like Sanchez (guilty as charged), Pedro, Fabregas and others. But they're no competition to Pique.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

Its not facing chest per se but the quickness of body movement to turn your body in which Pique is very slow
Meaning he shoud have turned his chest by the time Marin took a shot

He did turn his chest, he was just off-balance so he couldn't get a foot in. And that's bad, I'll admit, but it's not a terrible mistake like people make it out to be.

 

[alex88bg]

I agree with DonAndres fully.Can u explain it to me please how the hell is he so unfit ? Due to his obvious lack of physical trainig he has no acceleration,no explosiveness,no jumping power and no physical pressence in the box.His body is a lame excuse for an athlete ,he is a complete physical joke of modern football.Most attackers of best leagues are strong and explosive and u expect that Pique can 1 vs 1 them ? He just didnt lose his ability he just has to do more now since puyi and abi arent here....A lot more,and he just isnt good enough.If he could develope phyiscally he could gain more confidence on the top of everything for sure.
I am sorry Gerrard but this is amateurish approach to a very serious thing.

I know Neymar is fast but the prime example of the positioning and the lack of reflexes due lack of confidence in your body.Atrocius
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH_ktuyr4CI

 

[Boris]

This one is funny and tragic at the same time - of course this was a huge f*ck up. But have you seen TS or Luiz lately? They've been playing shit as well! Did you watch Ramos and Pepe bossing it yesterday? No you didn't, THAT was terrible.

Yes I did watch Madrid play. Nothing comes even close to this. So many mistakes, it's like he's got no idea where the goal is, or where his teammates are. He just follows and lets players make a deadly crosses. And tackling ....terrible. At least he could be good in heading the ball, in which he's average too
So you have an average defender who is a starter for how long ? And he deserved that? No. He deserves to be benched and rotated.
We'd be unstopable if we had Pepe or Ramos with Masch.

 

[jamrock]

we'd b be unstoppable with defenders from a team that has conceded more goals than us in la liga over the past two years, keep in mind this is two years where our overall team play has been crap, yet we still managed to concede less.

AH Jesus.
this place.

 

[Truthist]

I don't think I've ever seen a defender as slow as him and to have a full back at the side of you who doesn't help out is a recipe for disaster.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Cule4life]

we'd b be unstoppable with defenders from a team that has conceded more goals than us in la liga over the past two years, keep in mind this is two years where our overall team play has been crap, yet we still managed to concede less.

AH Jesus.
this place.

So Ramos and Varane wouldnt improve our defence? We concede less because we have like 70% of the ball in most of the matches so our defenders our tested much less then others. Thats the way our team defends through possession. Still our defenders come up short when the opposition has the few chances it has.