Lliga: UD Almería - FC Barcelona 1-2

[Neeraj]

It's obvious our management is . Lucho isn't going anywhere till the end of the season. The only way he is going to get the sack, is if he loses the next 5 or 6 games of the next 10-12 games, which, let's face it, is not going to happen with the players we have. He is going to continue with poor wins, losing the big games, but never losing enough to enrage the public into such an uproar that even this board has to take action.

Just wanted to add though, I understand people live in the moment, nostalgia always makes things look better than they were, but come on, to the ones here saying we should have had Tata, jeez. Tata was terrible. That Lucho is so much worse is a moot point, almost anyone would do better with a team like ours, but do you guys not remember how we played crap football for so long under Tata too?

Even in the earlier parts of the season where we were breaking the points tally, why was there a sense of something isn't right with Barca? Because we were not good then either. Those long balls, AIMLESS possession, his refusal to rotate or bench the big names (Tata would still be playing this Pique in all likelihood).

The problem is, if we sack LE mid season, who exactly takes over the reigns? Doesn't Xavi being a player coach seem too ridiculous for a club of our stature? This is such a shitty situation to be in, and we have the greatest player in the history of the game playing for us

 

[Barcilliant]

It's obvious our management is . Lucho isn't going anywhere till the end of the season. The only way he is going to get the sack, is if he loses the next 5 or 6 games of the next 10-12 games, which, let's face it, is not going to happen with the players we have. He is going to continue with poor wins, losing the big games, but never losing enough to enrage the public into such an uproar that even this board has to take action.

Just wanted to add though, I understand people live in the moment, nostalgia always makes things look better than they were, but come on, to the ones here saying we should have had Tata, jeez. Tata was terrible. That Lucho is so much worse is a moot point, almost anyone would do better with a team like ours, but do you guys not remember how we played crap football for so long under Tata too?

Even in the earlier parts of the season where we were breaking the points tally, why was there a sense of something isn't right with Barca? Because we were not good then either. Those long balls, AIMLESS possession, his refusal to rotate or bench the big names (Tata would still be playing this Pique in all likelihood).

The problem is, if we sack LE mid season, who exactly takes over the reigns? Doesn't Xavi being a player coach seem too ridiculous for a club of our stature? This is such a shitty situation to be in, and we have the greatest player in the history of the game playing for us

1)Tata didn't get any players. Neymar was brought in but no dfenders, midfielders. Lucho has pretty much got all the players he wanted bar Cuadrado.

2)The players didn't want to adapt to Tata's style. Lucho simply does not have a style. We look even more disjointed under Lucho then Tata.

3)Tata had no proper pre-season. Lucho had the benefit of a proper pre-season.

4)Tata had no backing from the board, Lucho will be backed even if we finish 4th in the league and win nothing else.

5)Cant think of anything else but please feel free to chime in.......

 

[El_e8]

Lucho would never win against RM, draw Atletico with squad Tata had.
Even Tata so called transfers were much better. I think it was leaked or whatever.. TS, Aguero...

 

[Neeraj]

1)Tata didn't get any players. Neymar was brought in but no dfenders, midfielders. Lucho has pretty much got all the players he wanted bar Cuadrado.

2)The players didn't want to adapt to Tata's style. Lucho simply does not have a style. We look even more disjointed under Lucho then Tata.

3)Tata had no proper pre-season. Lucho had the benefit of a proper pre-season.

4)Tata had no backing from the board, Lucho will be backed even if we finish 4th in the league and win nothing else.

5)Cant think of anything else but please feel free to chime in.......

All these might be true, but they prove that Tata was better than Lucho, not that Tata was a very good manager. With huge problems like losing the dressing room, not being able to impose his style (which was questionable to begin with) on the team, etc. we were never going to go far with Tata either. Saying he was the better of the 2 evils is not where you'd want to be going for a club as big as ours. I think it might be time to break the trend of low key managers and sign a proven manager in the next transfer window. Imagine if the club's ban extended to us not being able to sign new managers either

 

[kilian]

The two biggest mistakes that this board made were :

1.) Deciding not to splash cash on Thiago Silva transfer. He was 28 at the time I think and would be a perfect addition to our squad. In a year or so with decline of Puyol he would become a dominant player in our squad and command our back line. Instead he went to PSG and Barca bought shit. Disastrous management.

2.) Letting Madrid get Modric. Everyone says Gundogan is the closest to Xavi, but Modric is in my opinion currently the best deep lying playmaker in the world. And he would come to Barca for sure, there`s even a picture of him in Barca shirt. And like that stupid mistake wasn`t enough they let Madrid buy Kroos this year. I like Rakitic, he is a good player. But he will never be a replacement for Xavi, he is not and never will be a deep lying playmaker. And then Lucho decides to change team tactics and plays with two central midfielders, without deep lying playmakers and you have Busquets isolated with the ball most of the time. Disaster.

I really hope there will be some changes starting with the board, because as many people said, they are wasting best years of a once in a lifetime talent. Barca became Galacticos. Boundless talent with shit board and manager, without real plan and strategy.

 

[frog-fcb]

You forgot to tata lost his number 1 goalkeeper for about the last quarter of the season i honestly believe if valdes was fit the league would have been ours.

Then there was the death of tito which is bound to have had an effect on the team

The neymar transfer saga an rossell resigning

 

[Roberto]

Anyone know where i can watch the full match?

 

[Behrox]

Anyone know where i can watch the full match?

Just don't its better for your health

 

[i_bleed_blaugrana]

There is no question that the board is 95% of the problem with this club right now. They honestly don't have a clue what they are doing on the sporting side and its really a shame because if we were managed better, we could have continued the dominance we had with Pep. Even when we didn't win, it was clear both statistically and from the run of play, if you physically watched the game, there was no question who the better team was. With some more foresight and actually caring and being receptive of what the fans and team needs, we'd still be dominant.

A few things from my perspective:

-Don't discount how much losing Tito really threw off the trajectory of this club. Its easy to forget him considering how much the club has dealt with in the past two years but had he been healthy, he'd probably a) still be our coach and b) this transition would have been a lot easier. Our 2012-2013 season could have been very different if we hadn't lost Tito in arguably the most crucial point in the season. We were still playing good football, we matched Madrid in a thrilling game at the Bernabeu and put on a masterclass against Milan (albeit without him). I know its easy to say what could have been but its important to keep things in perspective, this club and particularly the players have had a roller coaster of a few years and that's trying mentally.

-From a sporting perspective, the biggest error in my opinion was not adequately replacing our two aging legends in the likes of Xavi and Puyol. Even back then, it was clear how vital they both were in allowing us to play the sort of football we play. Both in my opinion are inexcusable mistakes as there have been plenty of opportunities both now and in the past to get players to fit these roles, roles that are vastly more important in filling than trying to sign another Ronaldinho, no offense to Neymar, he's been a great addition. To replace Puyol, missing out on players like TS, Marquinhos, Benatia, David Luiz, even Verthonghen just made no sense. With Xavi though in particular, I will never understand letting a player like Thiago go. In my opinion, he is the closest player I have seen who can automatically increase a teams possession by 10-15% just be merely being on the pitch. Personally, I am of the opinion that Xavi isn't past it yet by any means but he just can't be relied upon long-term throughout the season. And that is part of our ultimate problem, we are clinging to a style that was purely founded on having a player like Xavi who can control possession and without a player like him, its difficult to execute efficiently. So you either have two options, you either find players to fill his role or you adapt a different style the suits the current batch of players we have and option A is becoming increasingly difficult. We let two of the best prospects to do so walk because Xavi wouldn't accept a bit role then. In my opinion, the only players in the world who could come close to filling his role naturally is Thiago, Gundogan, Oliver Torres and potentially Sergi Samper. Rakitic, I think long-term, will be a better option in a more defensive role. He is a good midfielder who is very well rounded, he just isn't suited to be either a possession hog like Xavi or a creator like Iniesta so I think either trying him as a holder or in a double pivot system is how we will maximize his abilities. So again, we either need to desperately get one of those players, hope Sergi can play a more advanced role or change our approach.

-Lastly, Lucho deserves a lot of criticism right now. He is not at the required level tactically and again, its our board being stuck in the past with Pep-tinted glasses thinking Lucho could be the next Pep. He has the charisma but lacks the tactical nous and its worth considering if there is a tactical remedy for this team short of a fire sale. Personally, I think a tactician like de Boer or Koeman is who we need but if the squad isn't hungry, tactics won't matter.

It has to be top down, we need the right discretion and leadership from the board and the board couldn't be hindering us more. I hate to say it but it truly looks like a lost cause till 2016. Could Laporta get us on the right track again?

 

[BarçAjax8]

I just want to talk about the club as a whole now:

The board deserves the most blame for where Barcelona is today. Lucho deserves a lot of the blame as well but it is the board that hired him. The biggest blame that Lucho should get it is the fact that he has spent an enormous amount of money in the summer and yet this team is worse off than they were last season. The board first made a gamble by getting Tata Martino as a coach despite the fact that he had no experience in Europe and then gave him little backing. And then they replaced him with a bigger gamble when trying to recreate Pep magic and hired someone who hadn't shown at any time that he was ready for an elite and demanding club like Barcelona. I wasn't excited about the Enrique appointment but I wanted to wait to make my judgement but he hasn't shown anything so far to make me believe that he is the right man for the job.

Our midfield was already looking slow last season and Lucho's answer was to get Rakitic whereas Real Madrid went and signed Toni Kroos. The difference between the two players is night and day and Lucho trusted a well past-his-prime Xavi over his new signing in the Clasico. Barca have needed to strengthen the centre of defense for years now but look at the players he has bought: Vermalen, Mathieu and Douglas. Are these the type of players that are going to make a difference at a club like Barca????

Enrique has also shown that it's not just that he can't bring in the right players at the club but he can't get the most out of those that are already there. It's stupid to employ a player like Messi who has scored 400+ goals in his career to play so deep. At times I've seen Messi recieve the ball and there are 5 Barca players ahead of him. On more than a few times, I've seen him play on the wings. Whether it's because that's Messi's own decision or the coaches, but you're not going to get the best out of him there. There are very,very few players in the history of the game that could've scored the goals that Messi did while being given so little space. We saw what Cristiano did when he faced a parked bus in Liverpool at the Bernabeau. How many goals do you think Luis Suarez would've scored at Barca during the last 4 or 5 years??There are some idiots who bought in the whole anti-Messi propoganda that somehow he was the problem and the whole team played for him. If anything Xavi was just as,if not more, important to our system than Messi. Our system was based on a tiki-taka possession style footbal and not on one individuall. Leo was the most important part of a symphony but he wasn't the entire symphony itself. Messi was like the lead singer of a great band but this was not a one man show. There was an over-reliance on Messi for goals but he was the only player in the world that could consistently score against parked buses. We could have made the situation better by adding players that could've been a threat from crosses like Thomas Muller but we keep buying the same small prototypical Barca player and forcing teams to collapse the middle. And it's not necessarily Messi's fault that others couldn't chime in and help with the goals but like I said with the way Barca play and with the way teams defend against us it woud'vel be difficult for anybody. And anyways, even if Messi is playing deeper he needs to work harder off the ball and help out the other midfielders. His finishing has gone down but a lot of it is down to mindset. It's the same reason Cristiano misses on his passes so many times, his mentality is to shoot and score all the time and that's why it's difficult to all of a sudden turn into a playmaker when your mindset is tuned a certain way. Either you use Messi in which you can utilize his abilities or sell him and use that money to get 2 world class players. What i'm seeing right now is Messi playing Iniesta role and Iniesta playing Xavi's role as a more deep lying midfielder. And you're not getting the best out of either of them. Iniesta is a great player but he can't control and dictate the pace of a game like Xavi and he needs to play further forward. I remember watching the PSG game when Iniesta and Messi combined for the goal and wondering where the hell has that been and why haven't we seen more of that.

Anyways, Lucho deserves a lot of the blame but even if we were to get Guardiola tomorrow things still would be difficult. Pep wouldn't have a Puyol or Abidal at the back. Dani alves looks like he's washed up, Xavi is taking his last breaths as a Barca player, Iniesta isn't as dominant and Messi looks like he has aged 3 or 4 years since his muscle injuries (and probably also lacking in motivation). It's tough to stay at the top always and most knowledegable Barca fans were already dreading the day that Xavi would be out of the lineup because of his importance and unique abilities but the Barca board and the managers have made the things worse with their wrong transfer policies for the last many years that has landed us where we are. This club simply doesn't know how to evolve or transition to a new era. Right now, Barca are like one of those old bands that have gotten together for a reunion and like most reunion shows, it's like watching a parody of their original selves. It's really tough to imagine what will happen if the transfer ban remains and if the decision makers remain the same.

Excellent post!
Let's be honest with ourselves: since electing $andr0 the club has just made 1 bad decision after another. We're just lucky we have some of the best players to have ever played the game otherwise we'd be in the same position as AC Milan right now. The "Galacticos" analogy is perfect for our situation. We have phenomenal individual players but absolutely no direction or leadership.

An overhaul is STILL needed but it must start with those who make decisions (the board, the manager) to certain players (Alves, Pique, Vermaelen, S. Roberto etc).