Gerard Piqué

[pEllee]

After reading what you said, I think his main problem is timing slide tackles and the actual speed of throwing himself on the ground. The way he does it, the attackers have enough time to almost dodge the tackle, so yes, there is a problem. If he can get that down, like back in the days, I will seriously consider him one of the best defenders in the world. Sure, he lacks an aerial side despite his height, but I don't really blame him for that, as I myself am terrible in the air despite being decently tall where I play. So I agree that there is room for improvement, but I don't think he needs to be benched or doesn't deserve to start or costs us games or etc. I think his strengths make up for his weaknesses and Barca fans exaggerate everything to a ridiculous degree.

Time for him to start doing it like he used to then? I'm sure he could improve physically. No, I don't think he costs games at the moment either. Much of it is due to Valdes' incredible form though.

I also agree that the Barca fans usually exaggerate everything. Still, the performances are not as good as they could or maybe should be. That's the whole point.

People are now just criticizing Pique like they used to do with Valdes!
Last season for example, he recovered 4-5 crucial balls against Bayern yet people just talked about the owngoal!
Give the guy a chance, he was good last night!

I couldn't watch the full game last night but I agree with the Bayern example. He made some great last ditch tackles in that game. Shame about the own goal.

 

[Barcaman]

Who knows, maybe emergence of Bartra will prompt Pique to start performing better?

 

[Meitux]

Any chance of providing competition is good, he just needs to keep performing and maintain some consistency. Pique should be benched, only when he's benched he should of realise that he needs to work hard for a place rather than being a sure name in the line and be lazy as it's already proved. But i think shouldn't rush on overreacting on Bartra, he's doing good but if we make a god out of him if he doesn't perform people will be going crazy critisizing him, funny thing that it happens with Pique on both ocassions, for some people killing him completely and some defending him and finding whatever excuse they find to make something good out of him ridiculously, but it's a fact that he's been bad and not for a while but for 2 seasons in a row, there should be some balance. Everything is good for Bartra at the moment, but you need to realise that it's still early for him and not overreact.

 

[oz187]

Tw Pique: "I can't sleep!! What can I do at 1:30am in Glasgow?"

Pique fishing for a booty call?

 

[KhaledBarca]

Hummels

 

[KhaledBarca]

You're not saving it, one good performance would not be redemption. And obviously in a lose where the score was 0-3 despite his ''crucial'' tackles the result remained. So it's pretty normal that people would talk about the goals than something that didn't count in the overall score...

I just don't like how all people are treating Pique, he did more mistakes than previous seasons and that was normal because (same applies to all Barcelona defenders, especially Alves and Mascherano):
1- No pressing = More chances conceded = more mistakes (it has to do with the whole system). Playing a high line is very difficult for all defenders, the pressing that Barcelona used to apply with Guardiola (especially between 2009-2011) helped to reduce the pressure on our defenders.

with Tito, the team wasn't pressing well (except for few games mainly the Milan game 4-0). Our defence and mainly Pique (the only tall player in our defence) was under huge pressure, thus its normal to do more mistakes.

The question is if we had Hummels, Luiz or Thiago Silva in Pique's position playing alongside Mascherano, Alves and Alba, would they have done any better?

Barcelona used to have PUYOL and ABIDAL at their best between 2009 & 2011. Now we have Mashcerano and Alba!

Swapping Hummels or Luiz with pique is not the solution (infact its stupid). Pique is a starter and he's one of the best CBs in the world, but we need another World Class defender alongside him! Maybe, with Bartra getting more confidence and Puyol back from injury the defense would look better...

 

[pEllee]

This thread always goes quiet whenever he plays one game without a mistake but to be honest, he did well today. I did criticize his tackling and the way he attacks the ball but it was spot on today.

 

[Meitux]

This thread always goes quiet whenever he plays one game without a mistake but to be honest, he did well today. I did criticize his tackling and the way he attacks the ball but it was spot on today.

Everybody can judge him for that game specifically, but not find one performance as an excuse for saying that he's generally good... I haven't the full game but your are saying that it goes ''quiet'' like suddenly he became a good player. Let's just judge him for his performance on that particular game and not find a single performance as an excuse for saying that he's good, he's got a long way before he convices everybody that he's good and certainly after being bad for a long time people have big expectations, but maybe Pique is not capable of completing them simply because people ask too much because of our desperate situation in defence and ask something that Pique may not be, in our case a very top class defender. We'll see through the season...

 

[pEllee]

No, but at least give some credit where it's due. Did I say he suddenly became great? Nope. I said he did well today. Hopefully, he'll keep on doing well.

 

[ZenI]

He did ok, but I would not hesitate to play Bartra + Masch over Pique and soon Puyi is back.

 

[Ghost]

First OK performance in ages.


Bartra was still better, though..

 

[Mr Hulot]

For all the hate this guy gets, I really think his defensive attributes are very good, but unfortunately his body has let him down. I am not an expert trainer, so I don't know if it is his fault, because he is lazy or the fact that he is so tall, but nowadays he is so slow that he will always be a liability for our high defensive line. Too bad, because if he was a midfielder he would continue to be one of the best in his position.

 

[Flavia]

If only he could find his way back to being that Piquenbauer again. But he was ok today, no brain farts.

 

[ThwiX]

Ok performance, but overshadowed by Bartra yet again.

 

[pEllee]

For all the hate this guy gets, I really think his defensive attributes are very good, but unfortunately his body has let him down. I am not an expert trainer, so I don't no if it is his fault, because he is lazy or the fact that he is so tall, but nowadays he is so slow that he will always be a liability for our high defensive line. Too bad, because if he was a midfielder he would continue to be one of the best in his position.

Tbh, I don't know if he does extra work but I'm sure he could improve, his body shouldn't let him down when he's that young. I've seen players suddenly gain a yard of pace, I'm sure he could do that as well.