Gerardo "Tata" Martino

[jamrock]

We need a major overhaul. Selling Song, Tello or Mascherano won't change a bit.
Problem is in the main players who either gotten old or lost motivation. Or both.

your saying if we sold those guys and bring in the players everyone seems to love, like vidal, insert striker here, Koscielny(who i dont rate, but you get the point) and mix them with iniesta, xavi,busquets. their will be no change?.

but buying those guys and mixing them with avg players like tello and song will?

or do be do a ridiculous fire sale and get rig of every body?

the best solution is to replace the sqaud players with WC players and mix them with what we already have to create some competition in the team.

the only big player that really have to leave is alves.

 

[Gascav]

And a tall right back opposite side as abidal

 

[evilhita666]

your saying if we sold those guys and bring in the players everyone seems to love, like vidal, insert striker here, Koscielny(who i dont rate, but you get the point) and mix them with iniesta, xavi,busquets. their will be no change?.

but buying those guys and mixing them with avg players like tello and song will?

or do be do a ridiculous fire sale and get rig of every body?

the best solution is to replace the sqaud players with WC players and mix them with what we already have to create some competition in the team.

the only big player that really have to leave is alves.

I know it can be hard to part ways with the likes of Xavi and Iniesta, or players that have given so much to the club, but the reality is that something has to change and if it's for the better then so be it...

Do you remember Pep's first move? Kicking out Dinho, Deco and eventually Eto'o, the three biggest players we had back then... And the results were evident, the slacking was gone and the motivation came back...

I've been saying it for two seasons, this teams needs to be shaken from the core (something Pep was aware of)... And while I'm not pointing fingers or saying this or that player should be sold, the truth is that this team is stale and broken, living on past glories and allegiances, squandering gratitude and perpetuating a homage of past victories...

Without an overhaul we won't be able to stay competitive for long, the signs are there and we all know it...

EDIT: To me the only player that should be untouchable is Messi and probably Busquets, the rest are up for debate...

 

[Flavia]

I know it can be hard to part ways with the likes of Xavi and Iniesta, or players that have given so much to the club, but the reality is that something has to change and if it's for the better then so be it...

Do you remember Pep's first move? Kicking out Dinho, Deco and eventually Eto'o, the three biggest players we had back then... And the results were evident, the slacking was gone and the motivation came back...

I've been saying it for two seasons, this teams needs to be shaken from the core (something Pep was aware of)... And while I'm not pointing fingers or saying this or that player should be sold, the truth is that this team is stale and broken, living on past glories and allegiances, squandering gratitude and perpetuating a homage of past victories...

Without an overhaul we won't be able to stay competitive for long, the signs are there and we all know it...

EDIT: To me the only player that should be untouchable is Messi and probably Busquets, the rest are up for debate...

I think that's more because the board failed to reinforce the teaam properly. This since the last season Pep was here. Now a cb, cm/dm and a striker are needed. And maybe even a defensive fullback.
Those thing kept accumulating each passing year, now it's just going overboard. Barça's been playing with a makeshift defender for too long. Xavi has no adequate backup. And forwards are all similar.
At least to me now, bringing cesc, alba, and especially song, were all bad moves. Even alexis to some extent, as he's more of the same we already had here. But no good in dwelling about it.

I just hope next transfer window won't be a disappointment again. Just Ter Stegen, and the comebacks of Rafinha and Deulo won't be enough.

 

[Andrew M]

How can you say bringing Cesc and Alba were bad moves? These acquisitions had unanimous support from everyone I would say. Song was an ill-conceived move, yes,

 

[ammarfcb]

alba was one of our best signings for a long time. and cesc is great too. but hey you can't expect much from people who wan to sell iniesta to cover up for a manager who's only seen European football 6 months ago.

 

[jamrock]

I know it can be hard to part ways with the likes of Xavi and Iniesta, or players that have given so much to the club, but the reality is that something has to change and if it's for the better then so be it...

Do you remember Pep's first move? Kicking out Dinho, Deco and eventually Eto'o, the three biggest players we had back then... And the results were evident, the slacking was gone and the motivation came back...

I've been saying it for two seasons, this teams needs to be shaken from the core (something Pep was aware of)... And while I'm not pointing fingers or saying this or that player should be sold, the truth is that this team is stale and broken, living on past glories and allegiances, squandering gratitude and perpetuating a homage of past victories...

Without an overhaul we won't be able to stay competitive for long, the signs are there and we all know it...

EDIT: To me the only player that should be untouchable is Messi and probably Busquets, the rest are up for debate...

pep kicked out those guys,with the exception of eto'o because they started to stack off and where bad influences on the dressing room, who can accuse iniesta or xavi of doing this?. None

eto was more because of his ego and to fit messi down the middle.

Xavi has been playing every game for the past two seasons or close to it, iniesta is coming of one of his best seasons ever, and both are model professionals, if a players is slacking off or doesn't fit into his tactical plan they by all means sell them, but dont just sell for the sake of it.

a team with xavi and iniesta plus two other WC midfielder who are different, is always better than one without, its as simple as that.

get rid of the dead weight transfer who have added nothing of real value to the team and replace them with better players while keeping our core, this will add versitility and competition back in our sqaud.

no need for song,tello,sanchez(like him),masch, if we can get better players who can rotate and compliment what we already have, one thing pep always had in his sqaud was a bit of varety, whether it be keita, yaya, villa, henry, abidal.

he didn't have a sqaud full of players with the same profile, he brought in players to compliment our core.

Out
tello
Masch
song
roberto
alves
sanchez

thats 5-6 spots that can be fiiled with top class to work class talent that can add to what we already have.

 

[Andrew M]

Kinda wish they went with Luis Enrique

 

[Flavia]

How can you say bringing Cesc and Alba were bad moves? These acquisitions had unanimous support from everyone I would say. Song was an ill-conceived move, yes,

It's just my pov. Cesc, because it ultimately made Thiago left, who, in my opinion, was more suited to replace Xavi. Cesc is still finding his real place in the team. I really like him as a player, he's awesome. But he still doesn't really suits the way of playing everyone wants.
And Alba, because he is too attack minded, and he's being a defensive liability lately. Hopefully he'll sort himself out and improves. But a defensive minded lb would'd been better, imo.

Pique gave an interview recently, saying his relationship with Pep was shaken by the time Pep left. So that rumor of Pep wanting to sell him, cesc, alves and villa might be true. It was probably the overhaul a lot think it's needed now, that Pep also envisioned. As he took Thiago to bayern, that really makes sense to me now.

 

[jamrock]

It's just my pov. Cesc, because it ultimately made Thiago left, who, in my opinion, was more suited to replace Xavi. Cesc is still finding his real place in the team. I really like him as a player, he's awesome. But he still doesn't really suits the way of playing everyone wants.
And Alba, because he is too attack minded, and he's being a defensive liability lately. Hopefully he'll sort himself out and improves. But a defensive minded lb would'd been better, imo.

Pique gave an interview recently, saying his relationship with Pep was shaken by the time Pep left. So that rumor of Pep wanting to sell him, cesc, alves and villa might be true. It was probably the overhaul a lot think it's needed now, that Pep also envisioned. As he took Thiago to bayern, that really makes sense to me now.

agree with everything said here, as i heard a pundit say recently its either we give the keys of the team to cecs and play in a fashion that suits him better or we sell him, i personally would give him one more year, then thats it.

buying alba and not selling alves was also a big mistake, because you cant keep both in a balance team, i and others have been saying this from the word go. peronally i think alves i much more creative that alba, so if he were younger, i could keep him, but time isn't on his side.

pep is a start dude and probably realize cesc didn't fit and wanted to ship him, the same way he did ibra after just one season, because truly he doesn't fit.

pique can go even now as far as i am concern, though i like him alot. but notice how he never touched the core of the team

No busquets,xavi,iniesta,messi. you can always find another ball playing CB. but those players are one of a kind.

 

[JamDav1982]

agree with everything said here, as i heard a pundit say recently its either we give the keys of the team to cecs and play in a fashion that suits him better or we sell him, i personally would give him one more year, then thats it.

buying alba and not selling alves was also a big mistake, because you cant keep both in a balance team, i and others have been saying this from the word go. peronally i think alves i much more creative that alba, so if he were younger, i could keep him, but time isn't on his side.

pep is a start dude and probably realize cesc didn't fit and wanted to ship him, the same way he did ibra after just one season, because truly he doesn't fit.

pique can go even now as far as i am concern, though i like him alot. but notice how he never touched the core of the team

No busquets,xavi,iniesta,messi. you can always find another ball playing CB. but those players are one of a kind.

That is a bit of a knee jerk reaction in relation to Pique and Cesc.

Arguably Cesc has been Barcelonas best player this season and Pique has been the best CB.

They are not the problem.

 

[Andrew M]

It's just my pov. Cesc, because it ultimately made Thiago left, who, in my opinion, was more suited to replace Xavi. Cesc is still finding his real place in the team. I really like him as a player, he's awesome. But he still doesn't really suits the way of playing everyone wants.
And Alba, because he is too attack minded, and he's being a defensive liability lately. Hopefully he'll sort himself out and improves. But a defensive minded lb would'd been better, imo.

Pique gave an interview recently, saying his relationship with Pep was shaken by the time Pep left. So that rumor of Pep wanting to sell him, cesc, alves and villa might be true. It was probably the overhaul a lot think it's needed now, that Pep also envisioned. As he took Thiago to bayern, that really makes sense to me now.

But at the time I am sure you would have said that signing Cesc was the right thing to do?

Alba is fine I think, but maybe playing both he and Alves is a bit too much. At this stage I would rather have Alba than Alves.

Pep has got watermelon-sized balls so I would not be surprised if he wanted to sell those four. I think selling Pique would have been a mistake though.

 

[jamrock]

That is a bit of a knee jerk reaction in relation to Pique and Cesc.

Arguably Cesc has been Barcelonas best player this season and Pique has been the best CB.

They are not the problem.

I am not saying we should sell pique, I am saying its easier to replace him, with another ball playing CB, than to replace some of the players being mentioned.

I really don't think cesc as been our best player, its like all is other seasons, he is putting up good numbers but not stamping his class on the team, he has been one of our best though, but no one has really stood out.

and thats the point about cesc he was brought in to Shine not just give good performances and he has failed to do so thus far.

 

[big_man]

Before I get to my main point, we are on a patchy run of form, that much is undeniable, Tata and the team needs to get their asses in gear before we start to go downwards at the business end like last season. I was perfectly fine with us not peaking in Jan or Feb like last season, but I hope this is a case of the team trying to peak at the right time (Man City game onwards) otherwise It's getting a little worrying.

Now that I got that out of the way. I have a look around this site and its embarrassing reading all around. I usually avoid this place like a plague after defeat, these days its happening even if we won 7-0. Tata out? Iniesta over the hill?

Not sure people have got the memo yet. "Pure tika taka" has been sussed out for the most part. The one man that is trying to add other dimensions to the team and hasn't even gotten to a full season is being touted to be tossed in the bin for Luis bloody Enrique in the name of "Barca DNA". Give me a break.

Tata has my full support until the end of season at least, the man is doing fine all things considered. If you want a club in crisis you need to go and look at Manchester United for some perspective.

Yesterday, Sociedad had 5 natural defenders start that game, and 9 defenders in total. Tell me one game this season where Bayern faced 5 Natural defenders, or Madrid? I'll wait.....
It's NOT easy to score against team that park the bus ALL the time. We consistently face these teams week in week out, far more than ANY team in the world, including flavour of the year/month/decade team Bayern.

What is so hard to get about this? we have a better scoring ratio than pretty much every team, apart from maybe City and Bayern, despite teams playing far more cynical and defensive against us. Sometimes we've played wonderful football, sometimes we played patchy, so what? Tata is new, what the heck do you expect? You think he's just going to come from South America and conjure a team consisting of Sachhi-like back 5 and Pep-like front 6 in 8 months?

We have a problem against parked buses, so what do we do? do we still pass it aimlessly around the box like we started to do during pep's last year? or we try something else? I don't know about you, but I applaud Tata for trying something different, it gives me hope even if we draw/lose because it means he's conscious of the issues and trying different options.

It is obvious as all hell that Tata is trying to incorporate other elements to this team. He's doing it with the squad he was given in the summer and WITHOUT any of the players he might have wanted. I'll take that anyday over this jehovah witness levels of tiki taka-ism that seem to have plagued the club and its fans.

We played beautiful football under Ronnie that many fans outside the club say was more enjoyable than Pep's and it wasn't tiki taka. Time to move forwards, United's problem has been inability to adapt away from their 442 system that won them a lot on the 90's and 00's, let's not become a victim of that as well.

I accept the change, even though it might be rough along the way. I look at this board and I look at Man United's and Madrid, and there is infinitely more positivity despite them being on equal footing at the very least in terms of expectations as a club, and are in a similar or worse situation, doesn't make any sense but hey ho.

 

[jamrock]

is it like a fashion statement to say pep struggled against parked business in his last season, because as i recalled it, we struggled because pep being pep, he tried to revolutionize the team when a simple evolution was what was probably needed, with his changing of formations which weaken the defense and is other tactical changes, which saw us lose points against the lower teams, but we always always out played every single team and created numerous chances every game, including against chelsea in the return leg.