Luftstalag14
Culé de Celestial Empire
3 points clear at the top and 7 over Real...no issues here
Let's not take Gijon for granted
3 points clear at the top and 7 over Real...no issues here
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.
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.
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.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.
Let's not take Gijon for granted
he didn't, if we win that then we are 6 clear at the top and 10 ahead of real
he didn't, if we win that then we are 6 clear at the top and 10 ahead of real