Gerardo "Tata" Martino
- Thread starter Faceless
- Start date
ammarfcb
ze special one
+1. we're not winning because of the gameplan, its the players pulling performances like this; the likelihood of which will increase with nerman returning
Your best players are supposed to step up.
Everybody has been judging the man with Messi and Iniesta out for long periods. How can you judge a coach when your two most creative players (by far) are out for extended spells?
ammarfcb
ze special one
by looking at endless long balls leading to nothing. the identity shud be there no matter who u play.
This identity thing is misguided i'm sorry but if you don't have the players for it you can't play tiki taka properly. Just like Barca can't play explosive attacking football like City or Dortmund we can't play our technical game without our technical players on the pitch, without iniesta our entire left flank handicapped and our centre is messed up because messi has to drop deep more, Cesc is not Iniesta and cannot turn on the teams synergy like he can.
F
Flavia
Guest
FCBarca
Mike the Knife
Exactly, I think Iniesta had as much to do with the win as Leo...This is the difference between having Cesc in midfield & Xavi/Iniesta
Great choice of ava, Flavia...I downloaded that pic straight away when I saw it on twitter...I wish I could fine one of them celebrating the 2nd goal
"Identity"...
How long have you been watching Barca?
You don't remember Barca pre-Guardiola do you? Because if you do, you would know this Identity thing that has creeped up post Pep is as pretentious as it gets.
DonAndres
Wild Man of Borneo
Martino: "Goal Alexis offside? Don't know, I just saw a penalty on Messi that wasn't given..." 
I can't say that Tata merited praise for today. Winning and the manager doing well are two different things. Even Tito was able to win. Tata's lack of a system really made us suffer early on and we relied on Messi/Iniesta turning on for the entire team to get things going. I don't understand why he's been starting Xavi so much recently. He's declined to a large degree and our two best central midfielders are Cesc and Iniesta.
Hope Tata develops some team unifying tactics before the City game. We can't go in there unprepared like we've looked so often in 2014.
I can't say that Tata merited praise for today. Winning and the manager doing well are two different things. Even Tito was able to win. Tata's lack of a system really made us suffer early on and we relied on Messi/Iniesta turning on for the entire team to get things going. I don't understand why he's been starting Xavi so much recently. He's declined to a large degree and our two best central midfielders are Cesc and Iniesta.
Hope Tata develops some team unifying tactics before the City game. We can't go in there unprepared like we've looked so often in 2014.
Crossing his hands behind his back it´s the game plan.
There was a gameplan, here it is:
We are not a strictly possession based team anymore. We don't place as much emphasis on keeping the ball. It's a double edged sword we have to come to terms with. On one hand is helps us against teams that have learned to adapt to our style because we can get more space in behind as teams come to attack us when we lose the ball.
We do this at the cost of conceding chances and perhaps a goal like we did earlier, but that is football. I'd rather that than holding onto the ball all game passing sideways without a meaningful attack and get done on the counter, losing or drawing the game, there's countless examples of this between 2011-2013.
I am almost certain our "identity" wouldn't have scored us 4 goals against that same Sevilla side if we started the game that way. We have seen this PLENTY of times since teams started learning to adapt. Sit back and soak up pressure, we just pass pass and pass, because we have our players camped in their half we have no opportunity to counter, meanwhile on the other end...you know the rest of the story...
So yes, that is the gameplan, still posession based but mixed with counter attacking. Sevilla started well, big deal, we generally don't start games well, but people conveniently forget this, all part of the rose tinted specs. Do you remember our away game against Shaktar in 2010 and how badly we were outplayed in the first 20 mins? United 09? Atletico away during the Aguero years?
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