Luis Enrique

[Behrox]

He had Rafinha on the bench. And I think Lucho got it right with the 3-4-3, why not try it again? Wingers stretching, insteaf of the fbs. And he could try Masch-Rakitic-Rafinha. Xavi shouldn't had started the game. We do have a midfield problem, but I think that's getting highlighted by the tactics employed. It's not the best setup to get Messi and Suarez shining.

and lose the unpredictability factor? Sacrilege.

 

[mssarm]

Yea but I'm positive Pep wouldn't have let it get this far and buy the garbage players we brought this summer under Lucho. He would have and actually did start seeing decline in certain players but the board were to stupid to listen to him.

That's because we have Zubi as sporting director and an office plankton as president. At least Rossel got us Dinho and Neymar, why Barto is the president beyond me. No one elected him and he doesn't have the decency to call re-election.

 

[Kasperroed]

It is impressive how bad we have become. Messi IS this team right now. Nobody else has the skills required at the moment. It is time to change things dramatically! We need more firepower up front to move that bus other teams plant in front of their goal.

Bravo is our best keeper, he should start.
Pique and Bartra for CB. Mathieu has'nt looked well recently.
Adriano or Pedro for RB.
Alba for LB.
I still believe Busi should be our main DM.
CM should be Samper or Rafinha. We need technically strong players who can play tiki-taka between the opponents defensive line. Rackitic is not strong enough at this. Xavi is a great sub.
AM should be Iniesta, for sure.
MSN up front. However, i feel like Suarez is wasted at the moment. He need another striker next to him (sturridge..) to create space for him. That could be Neymar.

-------------- Bravo -------------
Adriano - Pique - Bartra - Alba
--- Rafinha - Busi - Iniesta ----
-------------- Messi -------------
-------- Suarez - Neymar ------

Iniesta and Rafinha going a bit wider than usually. Alba + Alba being wings. Like this when attacking:

------------------ Bravo -------------------
----------- Pique -------- Bartra ----------
------------------ Busquets ----------------
Adriano - Rafinha - Messi - Iniesta - Alba
------------ Suarez ---- Neymar ----------

 

[MagIX]

we spent 154 millions and we are worse than last year........not easy to get a result like that, you absolutely have to understand a fuck about soccer/management/vision !!

 

[Richard.H]

Lol at the panic in this forum when things don't go as planned. Just last week you guys were on Lucho's nuts.


Every match this season that I've watched were due to individual brilliance that got us a goal. Changing tactics every week basically kills of all momentum for the team. Blanc put it best, when he said after the PSG game, "it seemed Barca's lineup confused them more than us".


The guy is trying way too hard to be hipster. The bad thing is he's very stubborn too. I'll give it one more month before Xavi says something to Lucho in the locker room, and that's when things may go bad since we all know Lucho won't listen to anyone.


It's not that he's such a bad coach, it's just that I think a club like Barca may be too big for him.


Also, don't get me wrong, our front 3 is still (arguably) the best in the world. If Messi goes on a 2012 form or if Suarez and Neymar start clicking, we could still see potential trophies.

 

[Mitchell1978]

12 goals in 8 La Liga away games, to little for a team like Barcelona

 

[serghei]

Also, don't get me wrong, our front 3 is still (arguably) the best in the world. If Messi goes on a 2012 form or if Suarez and Neymar start clicking, we could still see potential trophies.

I suppose it's possible, but Neymar and Suarez need service. Who's gonna provide the service? Alba and Alves are pouring useless crosses, Rakitic is a dissapointment so far, Rafinha's good or bad depending on the day he's in (still too inconsistent), Iniesta and Busquets are off form badly, especially Iniesta. We are too average in midfield and in defence to win anything this year. It will be shocking if we actually manage to snatch a trophy (I mean a real trophy, Liga-Copa-CL, not a plastic one).

 

[SeloBarca]

Playing with younger, new generation of players who haven't won any trophies, plus keeping a few of older players.
-- Mats as a choice no1 in that project

-- out: Alves, Mascherano, Adriano, Montoya, Xavi, Iniesta, Sergi Roberto, Pedro
-- probably out: Alba, Pique, Busi

-- staying: Messi, Suarez, Neymar
-- from younger players try with: Bartra, and see how will Munir, Rafinha, Suarez develop

-- so, keep 2-3-4-5-6 current players, add 3-4 younger domestic players
-- and buy 7-8 new players, who will be a core of the team for the next 5+ Seasons, like:
-- Mats, Koke, Kros, Rakitic, Cuadrado+2-3-4 other players

We would have to splash 200 Millions, but we would earn a lot with sales also.

Anyway, something similar will probably happen in a summer 2016 when Laporta will come.
Again, Laporta did exactly the same thing in summers 2003 and 2004.

He will surely repeat it again.
So, it will be bye-bye to at least 10 of the current players.
Imo, that is the only way to start a new cycle.

You need 3 things:
1. a good board
2. a good coach
3. a good team

Currently:
1. our board is horrible
2. a coach is mediocre
3. and a team is past their prime

Most people that have played club football have experianced the "backpatting" "keeping traditions" lobbying for their favorite players to stay and play every game, and general bubble of living in the past based on old merits.
There are way to many players in Barcelona that were part of the Pep era and have anchored themselves into the ground, making it almost impossible to get rid of them.
PLayers like Xavi, Iniesta, Pique, Pedro are all from LaMasia, their part of the "old merits" squad.
Players like Masche and Alves have also anchored themselves quite firmly.
People in the club talk about them as "They have done so much for the club, we cant get rid of them" or general beleif that they are still the best becouse they were the best 4 years ago.
The new LaMasia talents are part of the "we are Barcelona, we create the best players" squad. Tbh, none of them hold high enough standard to play in a club competing for CL title.

I also thought we would se a much larger overhaul of the team this year, with all the talk about spening big and creating a new team to be proud of.
We spend 160mil, and have a crappier defence and midfield then last year. How is that even possible?

I would keep Alba and Busi from our current team aswell, the rest i agree we should get rid of. Although i kinda think Messi might leave if the club got rid of all his LaMasia friends.

Coulda gotten so much better players if we had a better board and sports manager. Benatia, Danilo, Laporte, Hummels, Kroos, Koke, Veratti, Pjanic, Pogba, Gündogan...the list goes on on players better then we got that we had a chance of getting.
Instead we get Raki, Mathieu and..Douglas? Mats and Suarez were decent buys.

 

[Mitchell1978]

If Messi goes on a 2012 form or if Suarez and Neymar start clicking, we could still see potential trophies.

We only won the copa del rey in 2012. We need a well functioning midfield.

 

[serghei]

I also thought we would se a much larger overhaul of the team this year, with all the talk about spening big and creating a new team to be proud of.
We spend 160mil, and have a crappier defence and midfield then last year. How is that even possible?

One word: incompetence.

Coulda gotten so much better players if we had a better board and sports manager. Benatia, Danilo, Laporte, Hummels, Kroos, Koke, Veratti, Pjanic, Pogba, Gündogan...the list goes on on players better then we got that we had a chance of getting.
Instead we get Raki, Mathieu and..Douglas? Mats and Suarez were decent buys.

Bravo is the best signing, oddly. We payed too much for Suarez, that's for sure, not a great buy at all. With those money we could've signed 2 or 3 great players. For Suarez to be a good signing, he'll need to do crazy things, similar to last year. We didn't even judge things clearly, to see in what kind of league and what kind of football did Suarez have those results. We just went for the most expensive player out there, 100% galactico retarded transfer policy.

Sure, Suarez could perform highly, but it could also be a failed transfer if he doesn't produce the numbers. So far, I haven't been impressed with his game. That could change, but call me skeptical. We might experience what Real experienced during 2003 - 2009, having a collection of stars without a team.

 

[hamad138]

One word: incompetence.



Bravo is the best signing, oddly. We payed too much for Suarez, that's for sure, not a great buy at all. With those money we could've signed 2 or 3 great players. For Suarez to be a good signing, he'll need to do crazy things, similar to last year. We didn't even judge things clearly, to see in what kind of league and what kind of football did Suarez have those results. We just went for the most expensive player out there, 100% galactico retarded transfer policy.

Sure, Suarez could perform highly, but it could also be a failed transfer if he doesn't produce the numbers. So far, I haven't been impressed with his game. That could change, but call me skeptical. We might experience what Real experienced during 2003 - 2009, having a collection of stars without a team.

That

 

[Ryu Hayabusa]

One word: incompetence.



Bravo is the best signing, oddly. We payed too much for Suarez, that's for sure, not a great buy at all. With those money we could've signed 2 or 3 great players. For Suarez to be a good signing, he'll need to do crazy things, similar to last year. We didn't even judge things clearly, to see in what kind of league and what kind of football did Suarez have those results. We just went for the most expensive player out there, 100% galactico retarded transfer policy.

Sure, Suarez could perform highly, but it could also be a failed transfer if he doesn't produce the numbers. So far, I haven't been impressed with his game. That could change, but call me skeptical. We might experience what Real experienced during 2003 - 2009, having a collection of stars without a team.

Neymar wasn't great last season either. This season he seems to have adjusted better. Will prolly the same for Suarez.

Also I don't get the notion of Bravo being the best signing. He doesn't do anything special. If ter Stegen had played instead, you would proclaim him to be the best signing now.

 

[hamad138]

Neymar wasn't great last season either. This season he seems to have adjusted better. Will prolly the same for Suarez.

Also I don't get the notion of Bravo being the best signing. He doesn't do anything special. If ter Stegen had played instead, you would proclaim him to be the best signing now.

If u pay 90m, the player needs to be a constant hint...

 

[linetty]

Bravo
Bartra Pique Mathieu Alba
Mascherano
Samper Rafinha
Messi Suarez Neymar

That's how I would line up at the moment. Don't care about results anymore, I just want us to play attractive football.

 

[serghei]

Neymar wasn't great last season either. This season he seems to have adjusted better. Will prolly the same for Suarez.

Also I don't get the notion of Bravo being the best signing. He doesn't do anything special. If ter Stegen had played instead, you would proclaim him to be the best signing now.

Neymar was 21 when he arrived and he arrived from Brazil. Different circumstances again. People say I'm imposing a double standard. Not true. Since the circumstances in which they arrive and their age, I can give Neymar even 2-3 years until he can adjust clearly. With Suarez, he's 28 almost and he'll be 30 pretty soon. He may even have his best part of his career behind him, especially with Lucho on command. I expect a very short period of accomodation from him. A couple of months, half a year tops. Why should I treat Neymar and Suarez the same when they arrived in different circumstances? Neymar has 6+ years of returning the investment. Suarez has maybe half of that. He needs to show what the club has payed 88m. (or whatever it was) for.

Also I don't get the notion of Bravo being the best signing. He doesn't do anything special. If ter Stegen had played instead, you would proclaim him to be the best signing now.

No. I said at the beginning of the season Bravo has more chances of playing in front of Ter Stegen because of his experience, don't make assumptions regarding what I would've or wouldn't've said. Bravo hasn't made a single costly error so far, that's not counting tranining games and friendlies. That's an accomplishment. And he had several amazing saves, like the great one he had yesterday for example. The goalkeeper is the least of our problems atm and I'm sure not many expected that after the Valdes affair. It's one of the few things Lucho deserves credit for tbh.