Lliga: Real Madrid - FC Barcelona 3-1

[Lomar1o]

One of Xavi or iniesta must start. There is no other choice. Instead Busi, Pedro, Pique should never play. With Rakitic and Masch i think xavi or iniesta can play better. But Pique and Pedro will never play better and busi is letting the team down.

if only we could get coutinho..

 

[messi2140]

if only we could get coutinho..

It could be a good option but not a realistic one , we have transfer ban till 2016.

 

[Lomar1o]

It could be a good option but not a realistic one , we have transfer ban till 2016.

yes but if somehow the ban is delayed or something. i like coutinho's game very much

 

[pacp_96]

Why all the Busi hate. Just come back from an injury. Pretty sure I read somewhere that he is having some sort of operation. He thrives when the midfield is playing close together in pure tika taka triangles. Masch is just a different kind of CDM. Lucho needs to decide which one is needed in each situation.

 

[Flavia]

True. But it's like trusting a child to go to the groceries and buy you all the things you need in order to make a great recipe. He can do it, but there's a big chance he'll forget to buy you asparagus, olive oil or some shit you need to make the damn recipe.

Lucho is not a child. If we can see the problems, I'm sure he can too.

He made some mistakes yesterday, that I hope he'll never do again. Like fielding that midfield, and too much rotations. He needs to find his best 11 and stick to it, just resting players sometimes.
We didn't play as an unit, and I think it might be because of too much rotations. Players' form too, but it was the 1st time Pique, Masch and Mathieu played together in defence.

I hope he realized Busquets can't play alone. He needs Rakitic or Masch. Not playing Alba was a mistake too, let Carvajal free to do as he pleased.

And look at this:



The pass that started the play that led to the penalty. I think it's kroos, free to decided what to do. So much space there. I think I saw Lucho making gestures for the team to be compact more than once, but they didn't listen.

 

[gatsu]

Put aside the tactical and individual issues, i think that Lucho must work on a constant eleven, in 12 matches we have never seen the same squad composition.

Edit: Sorry didn't read Flavia's post.

 

[John Antonio Bilboa]

Luis Enrique got the squad selection all wrong today, all wrong. I don't like this Messi in the middle thing, its just not his best position at all. Neymar had good night, don't think Busi can be blamed too much, Alves and Matheiu didn't really understand the concept of wing back. Both kept getting exposed and were too slow to get back left Busi with too much to do there's know way in hell that he's gonna keep up with Ronaldo.
Dunno what happened to Pique used to be one of the worlds best, he had an absolute shocker last night, absolutely appalling

 

[PhilS]

@Ursegor, the board failed big time. The decisive moment, when we needed a ferm and intelligent board was 2012. They should've listen to Pep, he knew that the players were not motivated anymore. He was the only person who could've known that. Instead of listening to him, they decided to let him go and put Tito (RIP) instead. After a season in which we ended 9 points after Madrid, we bought 2 cheap players in the summer of 2012 (Alba and Song). Our team from 2011-12 is just the faded version of the team that played the 2011 CL final on Wembley. Look it up, it's exactly the same, except we put Alba instead of Abidal, who had that liver transplant.

Let's look at the players that were on the market in the summer of 2012:

Hazard - Lille to Chelsea
Thiago Silva - Milan to PSG
Javi Martinez - Bilbao to Bayern
Dante - Monchengladbach to Bayern
Modric - Tottanham to Madrid
Reus - Monchengladbach to Dortmund
Mandzukic - Wolfsburg to Bayern

So, imagine this. After a year in which Bayern finnished 7 points behind Dortmund in Budesliga and made the CL FINAL!!!, they bought 3 starters, all of them which started on Wembley and won the CL next year (Mandzukic, Dante, and Javi Martinez). Barcelona, after a year in which they finnished 9 points after Madrid in La Liga and was eliminated in the CL semifinals, bough 2 cheap players, one starter, and one backup. Talk about faulty management.

Now let's go to 2012/12.

We won the league because Messi scored 92 goals in that year. Then Messi got injured, Tito had that horrible cancer and the team collapsed and got dominated in virtualy every single important game they've played except the 4-0 win against Milan. By that time, the decline was clear and the 0-7 we took against Bayern was the ultimate evidence.

Now let's look at the transfers.

Players available in the 2013 summer transfer window:

Cavani - Napoli to PSG
James Rodriguez - Porto to AS Monaco
Gotze - Dortmund to Bayern
Marquinhos - Roma to PSG
Strootman - PSV to Roma
Falcao - Atletico to AS Monaco
Isco - Malaga to Real Madrid
Tevez - Manchester City to Juventus
Ozil - Real Madrid to Arsenal
Willian - Anji to Chelsea
Lamela - Roma to Tottenham
Bale - Tottenham to Real Madrid

And what do we do? We spend a fortune to Neymar's dad and took only 1 player: Neymar. We just stood there on the market, and let all this young players like Isco, Marquinhos leave to other teams. We had a declining team and a declining midfield and we didn't sign any midfielders. Not one. Instead, WE SOLD one. Thiago.

Thaen, during 2013-14 season, a thropy-less one, of course, we are hit with this ban, we appeal and CAS suspends the suspension. We are allowed to make transfers. And what do we do again? We sell Alexis (horrible move), Cesc, and buy Suarez and some other inferior players like Mathieu, Rakitic and an injured CB that doesn't play. Oh, and the brazilian wonder Douglas. How could I forget about him?

board.

And Lucho, a coach with no credentials to build us a new team.

Of all the players you list as supposedly available to Barca but not acquired in the last two years, I see only 3 who I might prefer over the players Barca did get. Hazard, Isco (though he could still disappear this season) and Silva. You might notice that these three all selected very fine teams, teams that a rational player might choose over Barca.

You fail to credit Barca for the excellent players added the last two years: Neymar, Rak, Math, and Bravo. All are perfect fits for this team, which is not the case for all top-flight players. Plus Suarez will probably be fantastic, though he could also get a lifetime ban. Plus Ter Stegen has not had a good start, but no problem if it takes him a while to adapt, he could have a fine decade with the club.

 

[pacp_96]

^ both of you have good points.

IMO we made good transfers. Only big disappointment was not going for Thiago Silva in 2012 when he went to PSG. Easily the best defender in the world at that point arguably the best even now. Other than that only a few of them are better than players we got.

 

[PhilS]

So, Barca did not have a great game. But the reality is, Barca is in first place. Neymar is red hot. Suarez is rusty, and has no idea how to play with his new teammates yet, but he already is a huge improvement. So, Messi did not have a Messi game, give him a break, no one can always be fantastic.

This game was curious time to revert to Xavi/Iniesta, no more of that, please, we already know from last season that is over for ever. Do or die with Iniesta/Rak in all the big games.

Starting 3 CBs may have prevented goals, but Math is a poor Barca offensive fullback as of now. As of now, I would much rather see Masch at RB than Math at LB.

I still rate Barca the favorite to win La Liga. I think the team is perfectly configured to win pretty much every remaining Liga game except Atletico and RM. Lose those 3 games, plus two more random draws, that is 99 points which will be first place.

Playing against teams that are very good at set plays, who also have world-class midfields (Atletico, RM, Bayern, Dortmund, PSG, Chelsea), even I can't be optimistic based on what we have seen so far this year. So, chances do not look good to win Champions League or Copa.

One big trophy in a year, like La Liga, is excellent. Those triple and sextuple years were flukes, it is ridiculous to expect any more of those.

 

[CuleLife4Life]

It could be a good option but not a realistic one , we have transfer ban till 2016.

He is young and we can wait. Will probably cost us a shit ton of money though but still a good investment. He'll just have turned 24 in the summer of 2016 and by then, Iniesta will (sadly) be a non-factor.

 

[Schumi]

The average age of our XI was 28.7 years old. In Real Madrid's case it was just 26.6.

Our back 4 had an average age of 29.75. In Madrid's case only 26.75.

Our midfield 30 y.o. Madrid's 24.5!!!

 

[DinhoR10]

I find it funny that some people think we can play without either one of Iniesta or Xavi in there to handle possession (When on form of course), our defenders arent built for constant pressure.

But anyway, i'd just like to remind everyone that Ancelotti lost to Both Atletico and Us before getting his act together in the second half of the season and winning two trophies, and in this case Lucho didnt even have his new star (suarez) to work with before the game. And how was he supposed to know that his holy trinity that basically ALWAYS steps it up for the classico would decide to implode in this match? Its understandable that he wouldn't want to put Rakitic in and have him buckle under the pressure. But he tries learns from his mistakes, He tried Mathieu at LB to help with counters since he identified the problem, it didnt work so he'll try something else now, or maybe keep it and try Bartra-Pique-Mathieu. This is in stark contrast to Tata who didnt have to deal with implosions but refused to try anything different and had to rely on the individual brilliance of either iniesta or messi to get him through tough matches. Most likely we'll still be top of the table come next year but I say wait until the PSG home game to start calling him clueless.

 

[Zincubus]

if only we could get coutinho..

I so agree , he linked up amazingly well with Suarez and his through balls are made for Neymar ..

 

[BarçAjax8]

Reading a lot of comments (good & bad) these 2 matches (PSG & RM) have shown us where we stand. We're having a good season and some of the new players we have are phenomenal (Mathieu, Bravo) but some players are really off form.
I can't tell who is more off so I'll put both Iniesta & Pique at #1. Iniesta still does the basics well but he can't even hit the woodwork from around the box and Pique's form is so bad he creates disasters out of nothing.

The rest is down to Lucho's decisions...
-Mascherano shouldn't be playing at CB
-Busquets just came back from injury should not have started @ DMF against such a pacey team
-Xavi - Busquets - Iniesta was the wrong midfield since 2 are severely off form and Xavi is too old to track all the space Dani is going to leave behind
-Mathieu @ LB is great but not when his back up is Masche as CB
-not playing Bartra
and finally whoever thought it would be a good idea to buy an ALWAYS injured/old cb in Vermaelen.

We also don't have this kind of movement/fluidity in our team at all. Most of our attacks involve one of the midfielders to pass out wide to Alba/Alves and have them run the ball up to the box where we require magic from Neymar/Messi. We gotta bring back the quick passing and movement that slices teams open. Part of that is team management and the other part is the right personnel.