La Liga | Round 15: FC Barcelona - Betis 0-1

[JamDav1982]

Xavi made the cardinal sin of rotating a struggling team. Play the best team and take players off if things go well. Not start a half assed line-up and throw in the best players later to "save" us. That rarely works out.

Xavi more or less only rotated Frenkie who was not fit.

Bar maybe Garcia or Pique for Lenglet after that it was the strongest team. Both those two played v Villareal where gave up a ton of chances anyway.

Outwith injuries he rotated one player.

 

[KingLeo10]

What I don't get is serghei has been the chief proponent of no Amigos yet the likes of Busquets, Pique, Alba, Roberto being mainstays of Xavi's plans does't raise alarms?

 

[JamDav1982]

What I don't get is serghei has been the chief proponent of no Amigos yet the likes of Busquets, Pique, Alba, Roberto being mainstays of Xavi's plans does't raise alarms?

Just about everything folk used to moan about with Koeman has vanished.

Puig game time, performances of team, Gavi playing every game, old players playing etc.

 

[serghei]

What I don't get is serghei has been the chief proponent of no Amigos yet the likes of Busquets, Pique, Alba, Roberto being mainstays of Xavi's plans does't raise alarms?

Pique was on the bench today. Alba doesn't have a rival in his position. Never proposed benching Alba without signing anyone instead. Alba and Busi play for Spain as well btw, under Lucho.

Pique and Busi should both be rotated. For sure. Busi when Pedri comes back.

Was Pique on the bench when fully fit under Koeman this season btw?

Seems to me, this is the first game when Pique was on the bench when fully fit in a game.

 

[JamDav1982]

Pique was on the bench today. Alba doesn't have a rival in his position. Never proposed benching Alba without signing anyone instead. Alba and Busi play for Spain as well btw, under Lucho.

Nothing different to circumstances previously.

 

[KingLeo10]

Pique was on the bench today. Alba doesn't have a rival in his position. Never proposed benching Alba without signing anyone instead. Alba and Busi play for Spain as well btw, under Lucho.

Pique is being rested for the Bayern game. The exact game he shouldn't play in anymore.

Miss me with that Busquets and Alba play for Spain under Lucho. That's a lame excuse.

 

[DonAK]

If Gavi can play I don't know why Balde cannot get more chances.

 

[malvolio]

Don't know what Laporta wanted or not, but the people close to him like Enric Masip or Jose Elias who is a part of Laporta's bank guarantee have more than once suggested that they wanted to move on from Messi anyway due to his age or various other reasons.

You got that right. They wanted to move on, as this club has done countless times in the past with non catalan players.

At most it was Laporta getting a bit euphoric after the elections. But once Super League came along + his people advising him, it was no going back.

 

[serghei]

If Gavi can play I don't know why Balde cannot get more chances.

I haven't seen anything of Balde that is impressive to play over Alba. Gavi impressed right away. The team still needs some structure and experience. Adding Balde right now would add even more unbalance.

We actually need 1-2 more players with experience. No more youngsters bets.

Ansu, Nico, Gavi, Pedri, Araujo are enough as a young core. Complete them with inspired transfers.

 

[DonAK]

I haven't seen anything of Balde that is impressive to play over Alba. Gavi impressed right away.

I don't think he's been bad either. Not very good, but not bad. Decent I'd say.

Should still get more chances when Alba looks like he is dying out there.

 

[JamDav1982]

It had absolutely nothing to do with Messi not being Catalan.

They wanted to keep him at club and couldnt under the rules. The part that pissed folk off was the bollocks spoken previous to them admitting it.

Barca are missing far more than Messi though.

 

[serghei]

What we have plus:

- Gaya, Ferran Torres, Azpilicueta, Cavani.

That would set us in the right direction in the summer. A mix of two very experienced older players on the cheap, one mature opportunity signing, and 1 young top player.

 

[malvolio]

It had absolutely nothing to do with Messi not being Catalan.

They wanted to keep him at club and couldnt under the rules. The part that pissed folk off was the bollocks spoken previous to them admitting it.

Barca are missing far more than Messi though.

The pattern is there,even if that's not the main reason. But catalan stars got a different treatment.

All other foreigners were kicked out when club deemed they were no longer needed or too old.

 

[JamDav1982]

The pattern is there,even if that's not the main reason. But catalan stars got a different treatment.

All other foreigners were kicked out when club deemed they were no longer needed or too old.

Likes of Iniesta and Messi are not treated any differently due to not being Catalan and neither were kicked out by club.

The issue is legendary status and would bet both Iniesta and Messi would have been kept for too long also if circumstances arose.

 

[jairzinho]

Rangnick:
"Modern football in the last 10 years, it has completely changed into a more physical, more athletic, more vertical game. In order to develop teams, you need to train the bodies and the brains."

THIS.