La Liga | Round 5: FC Barcelona - Sevilla 1-1

[Devils]

Sevilla is a very good and solid team.
Too early to judge our team, new coach, new tactics, we will see

They are excellent.

 

[Morten]

Messi drops backs because he has a good passing range and vision. He can also make the effect of surprise with a special dribbling in tight spaces (when the opponent expects it the least).
If you put Messi in the box, he can be outsmarted physically and find less options to play the ball.
When he plays, the wingers should help him by making fast and smart runs; that's how it works. But with the Koeman's conservative style, our wingers can make that surprising runs (and they are not so fast either).
I have a new idea: why not testing a 3/5/2 tactic instead of 4/2/3/1 and see how it works : with Dembele and Alba as fast wingbacks: that may be solve our problems of transitions. The actual Juventus is playing that way, under Pirlo.

Messi up front no longer works imo, if you go back to 11/12, he had great movement, finishing,acceleration and dribbling to make it all look easy.
Still have some of those qualities, but no longer to the extent that he did back then, i dont think Messi could re-invent himself as a false 9, nor do i think he is interested in it(he likes to be the playmaker too much as well).

 

[ContraryIan]

fati - young kid finding his feet at the top level. clearly out of his depth when first time shots don't work
griezmann - a horror show of a player
trincao - ?? who is this guy? he barely had a good season at benfica and we think he's figo mk2
braithwaite - second rate player. good for the likes of getafe
pedri - ?? like trincao, but he came from segunda
dembele - forever injured and he has feet that move quicker than his brain can
running is not enough

I began this season thinking there is not a single player in the squad who doesn’t have a question mark above his head. Everywhere you look in the squad there are doubts.

Is de Jong Actually any good? Is Messi past it/uninterested? Can you trust Coutinho? Can Fati last the pace? Is Pique done? Is Dembele still a player? Why the blend of old men and children? And so on...

This train wreck of a performance highlights all my doubts. Expect a yo-yo season.

 

[Horatio]

We did well. 90 minutes of football instead of gassed final 25 min.
Created ample chances and didnt give Sevilla too much opportunities.
1-1 against this Sevilla at their home is nothing to feel bad about.

We are definitely faster in attack as we got the ball behind final line of defense more than a few times. Just a bit of tough luck nobody converted.

 

[ArtistCatalunya]

Its no surprise anymore, just like his dribbling. the opponents are reading everything he does these days and taking the ball back with relative ease.

In the preview game (against Celta), two goals came from a beautiful dribbling of Messi. So yeah it declined a bit.. but can succeed against any team if the requirements and the good conditions are there : give him more space and options, he can shine so well ! Dribbling is also about intelligence and timing, and he is outstanding in this, even if his physicality seems declining those days.

 

[Mistyoptic]

I thought it was okay - not too disheartened. Sevilla are a good team and even if we should be beating them (especially at home) it's going to take time for everything to come together.

Biggest negatives would be that Griezmann really just looks totally lost and out of place (I can't really see a reason for him to start at this point), Messi looked pretty disinterested at times, and Koeman's refusal to bring on Puig - even when the game is crying out for a creative central midfielder - is really frustrating.

It's a work in progress though, still early days.

 

[malvolio]

Messi up front no longer works imo, if you go back to 11/12, he had great movement, finishing,acceleration and dribbling to make it all look easy.
Still have some of those qualities, but no longer to the extent that he did back then, i dont think Messi could re-invent himself as a false 9, nor do i think he is interested in it(he likes to be the playmaker too much as well).

exactly. but, we sold suarez and haven't bought anyone. instead we're chasing mediocre players.

I began this season thinking there is not a single player in the squad who doesn’t have a question mark above his head. Everywhere you look in the squad there are doubts.

Is de Jong Actually any good? Is Messi past it/uninterested? Can you trust Coutinho? Can Fati last the pace? Is Pique done? Is Dembele still a player? Why the blend of old men and children? And so on...

This train wreck of a performance highlights all my doubts. Expect a yo-yo season.

no doubt. i didn't want to write about the other players in the first 11 because it's depressing. our problem is that we don't have a good enough core of players and some starters that are starters because they are the least shite.

you just know coutinho will also turn to shit when the going gets tough.

 

[snowy]

Lack of creativity in the MF. Your boy Puig could do wonder here.

hehehe Datz a W for Georgieboy

Just having Dembele running into space... Messi would be able to ping the balls over the defence while still insisting playing CDM.

That setup was tailored-made for the speedster

That Youssef Nessiry is like Dembele, in the negative way. Too much speed but a very low IQ

Except that Bouze would've easily got passed Pique and gotten himself 1v1 vs Bono. Can't promise you he'd have scored though

WTF VAR, what is it gooooood for? Absolutely nothiin yeah

here come da hot steppa

 

[Richard.H]

I thought it was okay - not too disheartened. Sevilla are a good team and even if we should be beating them (especially at home) it's going to take time for everything to come together.

Biggest negatives would be that Griezmann really just looks totally lost and out of place (I can't really see a reason for him to start at this point), Messi looked pretty disinterested at times, and Koeman's refusal to bring on Puig - even when the game is crying out for a creative central midfielder - is really frustrating.

It's a work in progress though, still early days.

At this point i would start one of Pedri or Trincao over Griez. He's too much of a liability in attack. Sure he tracks back and makes tackles but it's goals/attacking threat that we need. Hopefully RK benches him.

 

[Total-Football]

Trash performance.. Let's call it what it is.
Physically weak as usual, and technically with a lot of dechets. Valverdian stuff inside out.
Loosing possession to opponents in camp nou for a barca team is a travesty.

 

[gasgas]

We did well. 90 minutes of football instead of gassed final 25 min.
Created ample chances and didnt give Sevilla too much opportunities.
1-1 against this Sevilla at their home is nothing to feel bad about.

We are definitely faster in attack as we got the ball behind final line of defense more than a few times. Just a bit of tough luck nobody converted.

But this was at the Camp Nou

 

[xxxxxx]

It's going to be like this a lot of our matches, especially against the better teams.

Sevilla is a decent team, but I wouldn't class them as a top side.

 

[ArtistCatalunya]

Some may say that Bayern struggled to beat Sevilla in the SuperCup, so we shouldn't be worried or dissatisfied with the performance.
BUT, this is not the whole reality.
Bayern vs Sevilla was played in a neutral stadium, and Bayern dominated the game with too much goal-opportunities for them and 2 refused goals (for a tight offside).
Barca vs Sevilla tonight was played in the CampNou, not in Hungary. And our midfield was dominated by the Sevillans. They created more opportunities than us.
It means we should do much better than this, and be more offensive, especially at home.

 

[serghei]

I don't get how Koeman thinks Puig can't help us?! Man was screaming for a player of his profile that can increase the passing rhythm and speed.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Expected meltdown here. Look on the bright side - we're not MU or Pool today.
Seriously though, everyone seemed gassed after Celta match and subs couldn't make impact in the team that was mostly lethargic. Not good subs though. Biskvits, DJ and Pjanic at the same time? Give vibes of Rakitich, Vidal, Biskvits. :/ Hope Koeman is not dumb and stubborn to not see how it was a total fail decision. Had to start with refreshed squad to begin with.