La Liga Round 9: Real Madrid - FC Barcelona 3-1

[El Gato]

Aye, should have pounced on the absolutely hopeless display of Barca defenders and knock another 2-3 with ease
Chose not to
Your implication that we didn't do that because we couldn't/were too shit to do so is.. not unexpected

Need to be merciful to make Barca a semi-viable Super League club

 

[Birdy]

Aye, should have pounced on the absolutely hopeless display of Barca defenders and knock another 2-3 with ease
Chose not to
Your implication that we didn't do that because we couldn't/were too shit to do so is.. not unexpected

Need to be merciful to make Barca a semi-viable Super League club

Your implication is what?
That you felt pity and took it easy?
LOL

You could see your players wanting as many goals as possible.
You just didn't generate the chances on the break that you should have, especially given our backline and our bad md tonight

 

[El Gato]

Your implication is what?
That you felt pity and took it easy?
LOL

You could see your players wanting as many goals as possible.
You just didn't generate the chances on the break that you should have, especially given our backline and our bad md tonight

Lmao no team didn't feel pity obviously
But it is mercy of sorts, could have been 4 up if even tried to stay upfield rather than dropping back and coach wasn't a conservative who overtly says he doesn't care as long as 3 points are bagged

I make it no secret of criticizing Real or mainly Ancelotti getting scared when on front foot and can't follow through
Been asked 3 times during the presser and he doesn't care, he just claims we couldn't apply pressure when he knows we can because we showed it several times before
Chose not to continue the pressure and went back to being content defending in lower block and making few appearances
Keyword - chose

In some ways it was the right thing to do as being goal up means most teams prefer to suck opposition in, especially when have such advantages on wings like we do

In others being such a weak ass conservative will be exploited as teams learn the patterns
He never changes approach to big fixtures and counts on team firing on all cylinders in final 15-20 mins. It'll bite him in the ass eventually
Especially since he doesn't consider building a bigger lead an advantage. He banks on his team being strong enough to not need it, almost like Simeone

 

[Birdy]

Lmao no team didn't feel pity obviously
But it is mercy of sorts, could have been 4 up if even tried to stay upfield rather than dropping back and coach wasn't a conservative who overtly says he doesn't care as long as 3 points are bagged

This is as far from "we could have scored 4 or 5" as it gets...
When someone says "we could have scored 4 or 5" she means we had big chances for 4-5, or at least we had conditions for big chances, GIVEN our approach in the game.
Not fantasizing another approach that didn't happen in the game, and a football the coach is not playing, LOL

PS: BTW, the last Classico if I remember correctly Carlo tried to play differently and apply pressure upfront and 0-4 happened.
Don't know then how you are so confident you would have embarrassed us with that approach

 

[El Gato]

This is as far from "we could have scored 4 or 5" as it gets...
When someone says "we could have scored 4 or 5" she means we had big chances for 4-5, or at least we had conditions for big chances, GIVEN our approach in the game.
Not fantasizing another approach that didn't happen in the game, and a football the coach is not playing, LOL

PS: BTW, the last Classico if I remember correctly Carlo tried to play differently and apply pressure upfront and 0-4 happened.
Don't know then how you are so confident you would have embarrassed us with that approach

Nope it doesnt need to involve chances had, can just be extrapolated from known faults of opposition i.e. terrible crossfield passes between defenders that can be pounced on and several balls pressured out of play in your own area
Any team who would have kept the pressure would have eventually scored 2 or 3 more than did at the time
Nothing outlandish anyone that has seen the Barca game with Busquets on field would have argued about

Last Clasico irrelevant.
Team didn't give a toss about it as many points up in table and both key Frenchmen in both formations missing.
Modrić at 9 even. Then recall Nacho even went and said they didn't really care because of the points cushion.
In no way representative of how we would play when more open + have more younger midfielders that could be used and avoid the common issues with space on counters where Modric and Kroos cant both be relied on making up ground to cover
With Tchou and Fede in midfield together this is normally much easier to do, just choose not to bother experimenting when know the quality on ball Modric has

 

[Birdy]

Nope it doesnt need to involve chances had, can just be extrapolated from known faults of opposition i.e. terrible crossfield passes between defenders that can be pounced on and several balls pressured out of play in your own area
Any team who would have kept the pressure would have eventually scored 2 or 3 more than did at the time
Nothing outlandish anyone that has seen the Barca game with Busquets on field would have argued about

Last Clasico irrelevant.
Team didn't give a toss about it as many points up in table and both key Frenchmen in both formations missing.
Modrić at 9 even. Then recall Nacho even went and said they didn't really care because of the points cushion.
In no way representative of how we would play when more open + have more younger midfielders that could be used and avoid the common issues with space on counters where Modric and Kroos cant both be relied on making up ground to cover
With Tchou and Fede in midfield together this is normally much easier to do, just choose not to bother experimenting when know the quality on ball Modric has

Your last paragraph didn't address my point. Psychological explanations are irrelevant, when I pointed the different tactical approach that backfired for you.
Then OK you are probably talking about another coach in general since you want Modric and Kroos out of this approach.
Back to my original claim about fantasizing what can't happen under Ancelotti in general, let alone in 1 game

About the first chunk,
I think you mistake many traits of our defenders. Both Eric and Kounde, and Ter Stegen are phenomenal on the ball in short and long passes.
Where are the 'terrible ones' you saw?
Busi, yes, he was bad, but he is not enough to say you could have scored 2 or 3 by putting pressure on backline.
The last classico is a good example, since our CBs could easily pick long balls to our wingers despite being pressured.

 

[FC B]

Season after season, manager after manager, we always get caught and concede on counters. It?s like we never learn or have no idea what to do about it. Either don?t play slow and weak midfielders or don?t play a high line, do something, Jesus.

If nobody running the club wakes up to see this is no more 2008-2011 in nowadays football, Barca could have a chance but that won't happen anytime soon if ever.

 

[El Gato]

Your last paragraph didn't address my point. Psychological explanations are irrelevant, when I pointed the different tactical approach that backfired for you.
Then OK you are probably talking about another coach in general since you want Modric and Kroos out of this approach.
Back to my original claim about fantasizing what can't happen under Ancelotti in general, let alone in 1 game

About the first chunk,
I think you mistake many traits of our defenders. Both Eric and Kounde, and Ter Stegen are phenomenal on the ball in short and long passes.
Where are the 'terrible ones' you saw?
Busi, yes, he was bad, but he is not enough to say you could have scored 2 or 3 by putting pressure on backline.
The last classico is a good example, since our CBs could easily pick long balls to our wingers despite being pressured.

Makes world of difference what mindset team goes into game with
When someone knows they dont need a win and dont have two tools that they normally do that help them win, they naturally dont care too much and showed afterward where captain went out into mixed zone and said it straight up they weren't very much in it because were 10-15 points up in table
At that point everyone should of realised the 0-4 happened because Barca were on good form and Real went out just to turn up for a day of work while doing none of it

I didnt claim traits of your defenders. I said they were trash tonight at the beginning of the match and really until Busquets went off, and should have been made to pay far more than did in the period of domination that lasted too short
Garcia, Roberto and Kounde were shocking getting ball out the back especially in first 20 mins
First example would be that pass which got played under pressure from right side of your area, and went out for a throw-in for Real the opposite side of the pitch by your goal as were trying to escape
Several more that got played you can go watch back

Last Clasico is a waste of analysis time, not representative of either team strength or weakness
In fact that entire Barca honeymoon run from signing Auba till international break in late March/early April did plenty to mask real qualities of several Barca players like Garcia
Then again this one now is also not a great sample of level as several starters out and Busquets worst he's ever been in a Clasico I think

And that's all without mentioning just the defending which was hilarious sometimes
Frenkie pedestrian movement on the Fede goal to cover leaving centre wide open just to close Vinicius shot on his right lol

Many more moments which attest to this being mercy/apprehension on Madrid part if they ever got over their insecurities in exploiting Barca weakness

 

[FC B]

Madrid was terrible today no doubt about it.

But i will not worry about them, they will pick a better form after February

Madrid under Carlo is terrible yet they win, Barca since the glory days of Lucho is terrible and they don't win, they try to dominate and impose a severely outdated style of play especially with the wrong players, one which brings no end results whatsover and it will continue to fail so until they'll change how they think about what and how they play in the current modern football days.

 

[Devils]

Catalans believing they are actually relevant these days lol!

Catalan football 2022:

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

No it's not.
You created only 1 significant chance with Vini, the rebound of which was the 1st goal

You can argue you would have had more of this, if you were not leading, but that's a different argument, and no one knows if that's true

Look also at the difference in xT

Not arguing we played some magnificent game, but RM were bad as well, just took their chances

Isn't this case in almost every big game we play.. we shit the bed and opponent score every chance. At what point its not chance anymore?

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Catalana believing they are actually relevant these days lol!

Catalan football 2022:

Why change something what works? Like Busi and windows 95.

if it ain't broke, don't fix it

 

[Zidane82]

Sport speculate Kounde will start at RB. Balde at LB with Eric-Malonso to provide the soft belly.

Frenkie on the bench with the Ancient One left to do what he does best- be countered tremondously.

Can't wait.

They got it wrong then ..

 

[Horatio]

Madridistas claiming this is not a 4-0 because they "relaxed" are delusional lol.

Madrid looked a bit gassed final 25 min. MF of theirs disorganized AF. Dumb penalty giveaway by Garcia. Lewa should have done better. 2-1 Madrid win would have been fair since they looked better but not by a mile. Definitely helps when you have Busquets playing for the opposing team. 2-1 fair, but 2-2 would not have been surprising seeing how 2nd half went.

 

[Rassvet]

Forum de amgios had a meltdown when I said it, but seems I was spot on as often in warning that Barca-Madrid could be on the verge of becoming a Dortmund-Bayern type rivalary.

Madrid have a better current squad, better coach, better people running the club, much better finances, stadium in much better shape, better young talent, and the two best upcoming players both dream of playing there.