Lliga | Round 22: FC Barcelona - Atlético de Madrid 2-1

dakt

Active member
Extremely happy and thankful for the win and 3 points, but not happy about the process at all. The first 20 minutes aside, Atletico even had the upper hand with one man down and the momentum didn't turn our way until they were two men down. And we were playing at Camp Nou, that is just bad, plain old bad.

The way I see it, we are still cashing in on individual brilliance, this team is very unbalanced, unlike the team we had under Guardiola. MSN is great, period and it seems that we win games by hoping that MSN will outscore the opponent. Our midfield and defense have so many problems: Masch loses his position far too often; the two wingbacks Dani and Alba are great offensively but meh at best defensively; our midfielders panic and produce far too many mispasses upon being pressed and can't maintain possession and control that are badly needed; our midfielders lack the ability to drive the ball forward generally (Iniesta can when his form is good) and Messi has to constantly drops deep to help organize; we seem to have abandoned the middle route and rely heavily on the wings offensively.

Some of you might say at the end of the day what matters is whether we won or not. Yes, we won. But I can't help being worried that our team looks VERY heavy-headed and unbalanced with a great MSN up front and a really underwhelming midfield and defense. We can't always win games by hoping that Bravo and Ter Stegen will have a game of their life and MSN will bail us out by outscoring our opponent, we need to rebuild/solidify our foundation which is our defense and midfield.

This. It's next to impossible to get the ball to MSN without Iniesta (when in form). Opponent just needs to press hard and cut us in the middle. This game could have been lost easily. I don't believe we would have survived second half with all ATM players on the pitch...especially when one considers that most of ATM's goals were scored in that period.

We won because they were dumb enough to play though AND we had a referee to punish that. That wasn't the case with Asspanyol few weeks ago. Also because of some brilliant Bravo moments.
ATM's teamplay and sync is above ours.
 

xXKonan

Senior Member
I'm not really worried about the team.

And as for the Arsenal talk no they don't have the team to effectively pull off what Atletico has shown. Simeone Tactically and Physically shaped Atletico into a Defensive Beast. Arsenal shouldn't be underestimated but lets get real here Mertesacker and Koscielny are not fast enough to pull off a High line and would get torn apart really easily.

Arsenal will be a tough match but like I said they lack the Physical and Tactical Discipline to truly pull of what Simeone has done for Atletico.
 

barcafan161

Active member
This. It's next to impossible to get the ball to MSN without Iniesta (when in form). Opponent just needs to press hard and cut us in the middle. This game could have been lost easily. I don't believe we would have survived second half with all ATM players on the pitch...especially when one considers that most of ATM's goals were scored in that period.

We won because they were dumb enough to play though AND we had a referee to punish that. That wasn't the case with Asspanyol few weeks ago. Also because of some brilliant Bravo moments.
ATM's teamplay and sync is above ours.

Doesn't matter if it is, they are 3 points behind with a game in hand for us

Results matter more then form at this stage
 

dakt

Active member
Doesn't matter if it is, they are 3 points behind with a game in hand for us

Results matter more then form at this stage

And what results can be guaranteed without the form? This result can be very deceiving in term that we'll continue to do well w/o creating some sort of cohesion in our defense/midfield.
 

barcafan161

Active member
And what results can be guaranteed without the form? This result can be very deceiving in term that we'll continue to do well w/o creating some sort of cohesion in our defense/midfield.

Points matter. It's like saying well we played great but failed to win. Who cares if you play great if it doesn't get results. We are looking shaky at the back but that can improve as it did last year after looking in a tough position in January.

Why you still get results while playing like this that's what counts.

It's like people expect this team to play flawless and look great each week. Which in a long season won't happen nor would you want them playing their best in January. Important stages are to come.
 

blaugrana1987

New member
And what results can be guaranteed without the form? This result can be very deceiving in term that we'll continue to do well w/o creating some sort of cohesion in our defense/midfield.
The reason for that is probably the fact that we are playing twice a week for two months already, and we had many players injured and rotated because of it. There was never such a busy schedule as far as I remember, but once we weather the "storm" I expect us to get into April and May swinging.
 

Catalan Fan

New member
We got the two Beards as back up, the remarkable Bob, Munir scoring for fun PLUS the lucky black cat again........

It's all good.:thumbsup:

EDIT; Would it be wrong to name the cat Puskas ? Sounds like puss cat, but..... :thinking:
 
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Ken_rosseneri

New member
It's like this... Barcelona have played a lot of games this year as expected.. We won everything last season so we were going to play a lot more games than any other team so it was going to be hard. Results are what matter at this stage.

Win ugly, win beautifully, win is a win. We know for a fact Barca can turn it around.. We can play better but i wouldn't worry..

I think anyone would be stupid to doubt that Barca can't hit top gear. we're still in February. This month has always been difficult even in the past, together with January. we'll be alright
 

Amir1983

New member
Extremely important win.

1st, we got the better head to head vs Atletico now, so if we end up with same number of points with them we top them.

2nd, Real Madrid is playing against Atletico after this before we play them at Camp Nou, so one of them (or both) will be dropping points.
Barça should not mess up in La Liga now.
 

Icarium

Lifestealer
he didn't, if we win that then we are 6 clear at the top and 10 ahead of real ;)

Real yet to play this round. If they win which they will as it is against Asspanyol we will be only 4 points ahead of real. But by the end of February we can be in much better place if we don't fuck up.
 
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