Gerardo "Tata" Martino

[serghei]

Cesc over Iniesta for me is a big reason why this midfield just looks absolutely useless

Iniesta hasn't been in any way better than Cesc this season so far IMO. He suits Barca's style better obviously, but his form is worse than Fabregas' at the moment. There isn't one midfielder in our team who's playing at or near his best. Thiago would have been a starter these days if he stayed with us.

 

[barcanuck]

Load of newspaper rubbish that was. Iniesta being fit is the issue not Tata's tactics.

 

[coura]

sport and el mundo deportivo = 100% crap.

 

[Barcaman]

I don't buy it either. But still.. this reminds me of 1996 when Robson was our coach. I remember pundits claiming Guardiola and some other players refused to follow Robson's tactics.

 

[Cule4life]

"He wants to change tactics but the team resists" What a load of bullshite. If you want to play a certain way and your team just declines then what sort of coach are you? Better find a different job then.

Again if this is true it could be due to the players being lazy and not being scared of tata because this effin board didn't even allow a clearout advocated by Pep so what could tata do to them

 

[TornAndFrayed]

A bit too many conspiracy theories here. I mean I agree we're not in a great place at the moment, but to question our players' professionalism and Tata's abilities this way is overreacting.

We have to get it in our head that we were bound to decline after 2008-2011. Now that's certainly not a reason to welcome any problem we face in a fatalist way, but we should also look to other teams and a more distant past than Pep's era when we judge this team.
Top teams in la liga are winning a lot more points these recent years. If we faced this RM and especially Simeone's Atletico under Pep, well I'm sure we'd still be more confident than now, but we would never have felt so comfortable as when competition was softer.

My point is this team's standard of performance was bound to decline but is still very high. Even when currently "off form" we are easily in the best 10 teams of the moment in Europe. When we are on form we are one of the best two, or three. Compared to Pep, yea that's a decline. Is it impossible to win titles with such a team ? Hell no.

And, this is a transition season. The big moves will happen this summer. If they don't then I for one will be seriously worried. Remember Tata can't say anything he wants to the press, and he hasn't had his chance to make any signings. I think he is doing all right considering the cards he was dealt. He is not perfect but calling or even wishing for him to go is premature and unfair in my opinion

 

[big_man]

stats can deceive

Except that (frankly, tiring) cliche doesn't apply here. Stats can be deceiving in the case of Xavi having 90% + completion rate and having a bad game. But that right there is anything but deceiving. It doesn't mean he's done a better job than the great man, but that is very very impressive. We've lost 3 games all season, and won a buckload of games until the last month, there's nothing "deceiving" about that.

 

[big_man]

Watching this Madrid game it sparked a little thought in my head. An important one that people maybe don't consider.
In this game as it stands, Villareal have been much more attacking than they were against us and they've created some decent chances too. They're essentially playing 442 against Madrid. Against us they play a far more cynical game. The Sevilla game as well, they went to Madrid and attacked. Against us they were far more cagey. Do people not think if teams give us the space they give Madrid (and 99% of other teams) they'll get ripped apart?

EDIT:Just went over to whoscored.com to see if the amount of chances created matches with what I watched in the first half, as it turns out:

Villareal have 7 shots (2 on target) already at half time. Against us they had 3 shots (1 on target) all damn game.

Sevilla as well, against us they had 7 shots. Against Madrid they had 16!

Are we a victim of our playing style? Limiting teams to few chances? Or are teams happy to not attack all game and hope to score from their very few chances?

 

[Gascav]

No we actually deny ourselves space by passing too slowly and poor movement upfront

 

[footyfan]

Watching this Madrid game it sparked a little thought in my head. An important one that people maybe don't consider.
In this game as it stands, Villareal have been much more attacking than they were against us and they've created some decent chances too. They're essentially playing 442 against Madrid. Against us they play a far more cynical game. The Sevilla game as well, they went to Madrid and attacked. Against us they were far more cagey. Do people not think if teams give us the space they give Madrid (and 99% of other teams) they'll get ripped apart?

EDIT:Just went over to whoscored.com to see if the amount of chances created matches with what I watched in the first half, as it turns out:

Villareal have 7 shots (2 on target) on target already at half time. Against us they had 3 shots (1 on target) all damn game.

Sevilla as well, against us they had 7 shots on target. Against Madrid they had 16!

Are we a victim of our playing style? Limiting teams to few chances? Or are teams happy to just defend all game and hope to score from their very few chances?

Teams set up exactly the same way against both Madrid and Barca. The difference is that while attacking, Madrid give the ball away really quickly while Barca dont. Teams get a lot more chances to attack and commit men forward against Madrid than Barca. However, to counter this, Madrid leave a couple of players deep to defend and Barca don't. There is so much space in Real Madrid's midfield because their forwards don't track back and their defenders + midfielders don't push up and compress the space as we do. This spurs the opposition forward and they themselves leave space at the back.

 

[big_man]

No we actually deny ourselves space by passing too slowly and poor movement upfront

I'm not talking about our team. I'm talking about the other teams. Villareal had 3 shots all game, in 90 mins! They are one of the best teams in the league this season. How is that possible?

 

[Gascav]

Teams set up exactly the same way against both Madrid and Barca. The difference is that while attacking, Madrid give the ball away really quickly while Barca dont. Teams get a lot more chances to attack and commit men forward against Madrid than Barca. However, to counter this, Madrid leave a couple of players deep to defend and Barca don't. There is so much space in Real Madrid's midfield because their forwards don't track back and their defenders + midfielders don't push up and compress the space as we do. This spurs the opposition forward and they themselves leave space at the back.

You have said it very well!!! And the quality of shots the teams have against us matters. They had 3 shots and scored one. Says a lot, about them taking shots that can actually harm us

 

[Gascav]

I'm not talking about our team. I'm talking about the other teams. Villareal had 3 shots all game, in 90 mins! They are one of the best teams in the league this season. How is that possible?

And from those three they scored one. That means that they know that with few shots they can score about our defense, no need to take too many shots

 

[DinhoR10]

Teams set up exactly the same way against both Madrid and Barca. The difference is that while attacking, Madrid give the ball away really quickly while Barca dont. Teams get a lot more chances to attack and commit men forward against Madrid than Barca. However, to counter this, Madrid leave a couple of players deep to defend and Barca don't. There is so much space in Real Madrid's midfield because their forwards don't track back and their defenders + midfielders don't push up and compress the space as we do. This spurs the opposition forward and they themselves leave space at the back.

In out last game Sociedad played with 5 at the back, in the classico Ramos played in midfield. Teams go out of their way to play more defensively against us your reasoning might have been correct a few seasons back but teams try to play against madrid they just defend against us.

 

[footyfan]

In out last game Sociedad played with 5 at the back, in the classico Ramos played in midfield. Teams go out of their way to play more defensively against us your reasoning might have been correct a few seasons back but teams try to play against madrid they just defend against us.

Ramos in midfield doesn't make Madrid more defensive (they put him there to mark Messi) and you have found one game where a team resorted to 5 defenders. Any more examples? Every time Madrid have the ball for more than 10 seconds in the opposition half, you see the familiar bunker bed defence forming in the opposition lines.

How are teams supposed to attack Barcelona if they can't get the ball?