Luis Enrique

[Semi-Neutral]

You notice that Carlo needed a season to "get it going" but in that first won CL and CDR? Do you notice that while Mourinho needed a season he also fought for CL and the title till the end, but now he is cruising towards PL title? Do you notice that you haven't won a fucking thing in like 10 years? Yea yea...FA cup was great, you barely survived through that horror I can imagine being Arsenal fan and seeing my team unable to beat a team that just got back into Premiership. How can you support the guy who is so fucking cheap that he doesn't want to give money that club GIVES him so he can buy a freaking defender? When Arsenal fan says "Give him time", I like to think thats sign from God saying "Get him the fuck off"

Wenger bought Chambers and Debuchy, guess he overrated Chambers's ability at CB, and a lot of the budget went toward securing Alexis and Welbeck (both who have been quite important for us), also doesn't help that Koscielny has been injured most of the season, he doesn't get injured that much normally. And I don't care as much about trophies as how my team plays, and I think Arsenal plays well. Ancelotti and Mourinho did win trophies in their first season, which Lucho still might do by the way, not sure why you've already given up on him, but they are quite a bit more experienced and I'd argue that both of them had better squads than we do now, considering the form our players are in.

 

[Flavia]

@Barca19stats 3 min
Barcelona failed to score in 3 of the first Liga rounds of the season. This didn't happen since 2007-2008

Scoring is a problem this season. They got Suarez, but forgot forwards need a good midfield.

 

[Lomar1o]

Busquets doesn't create. Never has. Xavi's throughball and assists numbers have declined since at least 2012. He had 2 assists in La Liga last season. So he doesn't create much either. Leaves us with Rakitic and Iniesta with the latter in shaky form for well over a year now + coming back from injury at this moment and the former yet to prove himself. The midfield doesn't create because it isn't good enough, not because of tactics. Yes, I fully believe Lucho can't do better with this squad. No tactics will turn Xavi back into a chance creation machine at this point of his career. I can only blame Lucho for not making the necessary transfers but that's not only on him. The sporting director of this club has still not realized that the midfield is an even bigger issue than the central defense and judging by the reactions here neither have the fans who still believe Iniesta and Co. are still GOATs who are just being mismanaged.

while the midfield is a problem the bigger problem is still not having a coach. yes iniesta and xavi have declined, yes raki is a new guy, rafinha is still inexperienced, so on and so on. but players look LOST not because they have declined but because they have no confidence, they do not believe in themselves, they don't have a clear goal, no partnership, no fighting spirit. and this should come from a coach. it's his job to instill the motivation when there is none, it's his job to get the MOST of out the players. while i agree that neither xavi nor iniesta will ever regain their old form, it is also obvious to me that their current level isn't their limit, they can do much better, raki and rafinha can do much better, their ceiling is higher, but they can't reach it, why? because the whole atmosphere in the team sucks, and our current coach can't do nothing about it. that's why he is the biggest problem. if it were me i'd play rafinha constantly and id make him believe that he can do a lot. right now he's on the bench and im sure he isn't confident in his abilities and is sulking. just like our whole team. screw lucho. and everyone who screwed this brilliant team over. the team isnt happy. it's the coaches fault. man im pissed.

 

[blaugrana1987]

Yeah, as I said, you can blame him for the transfer window for sure.

Then what do you expect from a guy who gets 150+ mil budget (in wake of transfer ban) and buys completely wrong? He is clue-less. Seriously, Kroos wanted to come to Barca...My god it hurts saying that.

He doesn't want to admit his mistakes. Yet again he says we played good and created lots of chances when our best chance was messi FK. He is arrogant and stubborn without anything to back him. Actor.

 

[Ryu Hayabusa]

And who bought Rakitic instead of better alternative in Kroos? Kroos is a winner of CL,WC and BL, Rakitic came after good season with Sevilla. Small club mentality right there. He had money to spend, yet he spent it wrongly. Again, he is to blame.

If you had bought Kroos, there would have still been those here on these boards who would have complained. I still remember how many scoffed at the notion of signing him a couple of months ago.

 

[Ghostmaster]

Busquets-Xavi-Rakitic have played quite a lot together. I didn't see a chemistry problem. It's a quality problem. Busquets doesn't create, Xavi doesn't create and ideally should be in the MLS right now and not starting games for Barca when he turns 35 next month, Rakitic might not be good enough to begin with.

Yep, we might as well play Rafinha every match, he clearly has talent, could develop into decent midfielder because we ain't winning anything this season anyway.

 

[NotInHere]

I just hope he finds the right combo so we could start get this rolling and sticks with it, right now I rule out the possibilities of us winning the league, I actually don't remember the last we played well, that might be because I have short memory but at least in the league I don't really remember the last time, Madrid is winning games for fun, have won 19 games straight... they are on a mission, simple as that, they will be the winners tbh. Hopefully we do a better paper in the CL and upset the big teams that are better than us, but that's all I could hope for this season.

 

[blaugrana1987]

Wenger bought Chambers and Debuchy, guess he overrated Chambers's ability at CB, and a lot of the budget went toward securing Alexis and Welbeck (both who have been quite important for us), also doesn't help that Koscielny has been injured most of the season, he doesn't get injured that much normally. And I don't care as much about trophies as how my team plays, and I think Arsenal plays well. Ancelotti and Mourinho did win trophies in their first season, which Lucho still might do by the way, not sure why you've already given up on him, but they are quite a bit more experienced and I'd argue that both of them had better squads than we do now, considering the form our players are in.

You wouldn't have bought Welback if Giroud (lol) didn't get injured. Alexis was no brainer as he was on sale and he was actually good buy. Problem is he has been coasting for 10 years now, buying two 40mil players in last two years aint gonna change that.

 

[blaugrana1987]

I just hope he finds the right combo so we could start get this rolling and sticks with it, right now I rule out the possibilities of us winning the league, I actually don't remember the last we played well, that might be because I have short memory but at least in the league I don't really remember the last time, Madrid is winning games for fun, have won 19 games straight... they are on a mission, simple as that, they will be the winners tbh. Hopefully we do a better paper in the CL and upset the big teams that are better than us, but that's all I could hope for this season.

He wont, he already said it.

 

[NotInHere]

He wont, he already said it.

Rip Barca then

 

[Semi-Neutral]

Not sure what you mean by "coasting", but we had to pay off our stadium debts and just finished last season, that's why we couldn't adequately reinforce our squad, and of course we weren't helped by Nasri, Adebayor, Clichy, RVP etc. deciding to leave instead of staying at the club. But anyway, we were talking about Lucho, not Arsenal. Like Ursegor said, he should absolutely be blamed for the transfer window, but now that we're stuck with this squad there's not much more he can do than he has done.

 

[Luftstalag14]

@Barca19stats 3 min
Barcelona failed to score in 3 of the first Liga rounds of the season. This didn't happen since 2007-2008

Scoring is a problem this season. They got Suarez, but forgot forwards need a good midfield.

Couldn't have said better myself. Unfortunately, something this common sense is just not understood by the lunatic, clueless joker Luis Enrique, the board and is cronies.

 

[bismp]

I don't think it is entirely Lucho's fault.Even if Pep was here,things wouldn't be much better!
Players have aged and declined.Midfield is non-existent in EVERY MATCH!We should have bought Kroos or Vidal additionally with Raki,who should have been a squad rotation player.We have maybe the most lethal attack in the world,but we cannot score goals,because our midfield is nowhere.When attacking,it feels like there is only MSN+Alba+Alves.Midfielders just stay in a position,make no movement etc

This is the board's fault.They should have bought Hummels/Benatia instead of Vermaelen+Mathieu,a decent RB instead of Douglas,buy one GK instead of two,Kroos or Vidal instead of Suarez(yeah i said it)?The problem is not that we didn't/don't have good forwards,the problem the last 3 years is that the midfield is crap.2 years ago Bayern dominated us,but people still believe the 2 year older players can become GOAT again.

 

[Ursegor]

while the midfield is a problem the bigger problem is still not having a coach. yes iniesta and xavi have declined, yes raki is a new guy, rafinha is still inexperienced, so on and so on. but players look LOST not because they have declined but because they have no confidence, they do not believe in themselves, they don't have a clear goal, no partnership, no fighting spirit. and this should come from a coach. it's his job to instill the motivation when there is none, it's his job to get the MOST of out the players. while i agree that neither xavi nor iniesta will ever regain their old form, it is also obvious to me that their current level isn't their limit, they can do much better, raki and rafinha can do much better, their ceiling is higher, but they can't reach it, why? because the whole atmosphere in the team sucks, and our current coach can't do nothing about it. that's why he is the biggest problem. if it were me i'd play rafinha constantly and id make him believe that he can do a lot. right now he's on the bench and im sure he isn't confident in his abilities and is sulking. just like our whole team. screw lucho. and everyone who screwed this brilliant team over. the team isnt happy. it's the coaches fault. man im pissed.

Confidence, believe, motivation. All intangibles. The truth is much more obvious. When Rakitic gets the ball he doesn't play any sort of difficult forward pass. Mascherano is the most creative midfielder these days, no other midfielder plays the sort of long over the top pass Mascherano played to Suarez before Messi's goal against PSG. Which says it all. lol

 

[blaugrana1987]

Not sure what you mean by "coasting", but we had to pay off our stadium debts and just finished last season, that's why we couldn't adequately reinforce our squad, and of course we weren't helped by Nasri, Adebayor, Clichy, RVP etc. deciding to leave instead of staying at the club. But anyway, we were talking about Lucho, not Arsenal. Like Ursegor said, he should absolutely be blamed for the transfer window, but now that we're stuck with this squad there's not much more he can do than he has done.

You ever asked yourself why these players didn't want to stay?

What I mean by coasting is you guys being happy with manager that will get you 4th place in PL and Quarter final exit in CL. He hasn't won single game against Mourinhos Chelsea, what kind of manager is that seriously? You are choke full of money, stadium or no stadium you should have invested in world class players. Bayern did, they won CL and have been in 2 finals in last 5 years.