Luis Enrique

[Flavia]

Still scratching my head over Enrique's subs.

Was Rakitic out of juice (again) that he had to get off so early, and why bring Rafinha for the first time after his injury in such an important match?

It didn't really backfire yesterday, Rafinha played decent enough considering what you could expect from him and we were even lucky enough to get another goal in after the sub.
But our best phase by huge margin had been the first 18 minutes in the second half right until the equalizer and first sub.
Thereafter our pressure went down again somewhat and we couldn't create nearly as many chances in the rest of that half.

Atletico were already camped on their half. I think Enrique wanted a fresh attacking player. And I think he had all the subs planned already, and Bob was coming for Busi afterwards.

 

[Alarcón]

I don't know why you got defensive, I didn't say something controversial, just stated a fact.
Suarez said in an interview, last season, that messi told him to play in the center in a game and then they kept doing it.

That makes it a fact?

 

[Darko]

Yea, true, but in the beginning of the match, Messi started at RW it seemed. Maybe he drifted more in the center once Torres was red carded, in order to allow Alves to go up.

It's hard to draw a conclusion based on this match, because Torres was sent off relatively early.

This, Messi did start RW and I was glad Lucho learned from his mistake.

 

[ThwiX]

Don't know why he switched up our midfield completely during the game. It's a big risk and it backfired the one time he did it previously.

 

[Horatio]

Don't know why he switched up our midfield completely during the game. It's a big risk and it backfired the one time he did it previously.

Fatigueness? Atletico brought in fresh players.

 

[mssarm]

That makes it a fact?

Exactly..they spent that kind of money on Suarez to play on the wing? Messi was smart enough to read the writing on the wall. He knew exactly why Suarez was in the team and kudos to him for not acting like drama queen.

 

[mazp]

He's starting to lose a lot of the goodwill he gained from last season..

 

[Neymessi]

We did peak early this season. Anyway we were utter shit tonight. Some little changes in the starting lineup and we turn crap. How can things change so suddenly when we were playing awesome before intenational break and turned to this just after that.

 

[Flavia]

I think he picked badly the starting 11 today. Shouldn't start Arda, he is clearly struggling to adapt. Rafinha also wasn't very good, and he's coming back from injury. Players looking out of ideas is not his fault, though. But we lack better options upfront.

 

[serghei]

We have 3 points + h2h ahead advantage + the easiest schedule ahead in the league. We should still be winning this fairly easy. We will probably go unbeaten until the end in the league and win the title on Camp Nou against Espanyol.

I can understand losing to Sociedad away, or Madrid, or drawing against Villareal. The teams we are playing from now on are nowhere near that quality.

 

[blaugrana1987]

I have two problems with Lucho

1) Subbing half of defense against already won game in Villareal
2) Putting Messi closer to center (or he is doing it himself?). If he is doing it himslef he should just sub him off.

Still think we are going to win it, maybe even all, but things are looking bad right now.

 

[dakt]

I haven't commented him for a very long time, ever since I joined "pls stop rotating players so much" band wagon during the last season and in the end proved me wrong. I think he missed starting 11 tonight by a mile.

 

[DonAK]

His decision making been a bit suspect lately. Playing best XI at home in easier games. Rotating when it's riskier in away games.

Our and their remaining schedule....

 

[Sorin]

Not looking good for him. Unzue ran the show at the end there. He looked like a deer in the headlights.

He's loosing some credibility i feel, with the insistence to play neymar and messi for every minute of the match. Who cares if Messi is the GOAT and neymar the next big thing. They're liabilities out there. We may not win even w/o messi or neymar but at least show some balls and stir the pot a little. But what if he subs messi/neymar out and we win? He comes out on top and nobody can say shit to him.

Alas that's never going to happen and the 2 of them should at least show some attitude if Lucho keeps them in because they are as guilty as him. Especially Messi.

 

[ThwiX]

We could easily drop points in any remaining away game with this form, especially against Deportivo and Betis. Don't see our rivals dropping many points. RM doesn't usually struggle at Anoeta. Atletico got to visit San Mames, but Bilbao isn't in their best form for quite some time now etc.