Luis Enrique
- Thread starter Barcaman
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serghei
Senior Member
They will drop points too, sure, but it's a matter of who drops more. Every point counts.
ThwiX
Best midfielder around
If he didn't think that they would park the bus and play 5atb, then that is some shockingly bad preparation, indeed. We even got scouts watching every game in the league. Must've been sleeping, because even most people on here knew how Alaves would line up and play.
xXKonan
Senior Member
I don't get benching Umtiti. He's one player the desperately needs the minutes over guys like Mathieu and even Masche.
I know Mathieu, has been reliable for us but with his injury issues and his age he should be nothing more than our 4th Choice CB now. but whatever I guess on to the next match.
I know Mathieu, has been reliable for us but with his injury issues and his age he should be nothing more than our 4th Choice CB now. but whatever I guess on to the next match.
Read the comments and surprised that I am only one who thinks he is not to be blamed for making so much rotations.
If we can't rest key men and give backups a run vs. Alaves, at home, just after internationals, after spending 100 million on backups.. Then I don't know when and where he is supposed to rotate.
Blame is on players. First and foremost on those who are expected and paid to excell like Neymar. Others too failed. Sorry, but Vidal, Denis and others are good enough for Alaves on 9/10 occasions. We also had few individual mistakes that led to Alaves goals and good old complacency kicked in too.
Problem isn't the quality of backups, merely motivation. There wasn't sense of urgency tonight with our boys.
If we can't rest key men and give backups a run vs. Alaves, at home, just after internationals, after spending 100 million on backups.. Then I don't know when and where he is supposed to rotate.
Blame is on players. First and foremost on those who are expected and paid to excell like Neymar. Others too failed. Sorry, but Vidal, Denis and others are good enough for Alaves on 9/10 occasions. We also had few individual mistakes that led to Alaves goals and good old complacency kicked in too.
Problem isn't the quality of backups, merely motivation. There wasn't sense of urgency tonight with our boys.
i_bleed_blaugrana
Senior Member
I don't necessarily disagree because some players simply failed. Vidal, Paco, Rakitic, they simply weren't good enough.
But we severely underestimated Alaves tonight, minnows or not, they brought a game plan which we did not adjust to. That's on Lucho. If your caught off guard by a tactical move by your opponent, you have to adjust quickly and he should have made a change at half time.
I'll just say, I'll take 3 CBs over Vidal at RB. Right now he's a waste of space.
F
Flavia
Guest
Most of the new players have barely trained together. How can you expect them to play well together? So on this circunstance, it was Lucho's mistake. He rotated too much. Only 3 starters today. Resting Messi and Suarez was understandable, but Pique and Roberto wasn't. Or even Alba. And Vidal has showed he's not good enough vs any team.
You're underestimating Alaves too. They drew with atletico in the calderon, and now beat us.
Total-Football
Senior Member
this is not the premier league .. Real Madrid lost the title while collecting around 100 points so let's not kid ourselves .. until Laliga cluelss officials get their shit together this will always be the case .. short version : dropping points like this is very bad for business .. Luis Enrique is the sole reason of this defeat .. Playing Messi and suarez in those circumstances means one thing : they were both ready .. there was no need to rest both of them . the coach ruined my week end
FCBarca
Mike the Knife
I thought the biggest complaint on Lucho, more than the starting lineup, was the naive approach to the match. It was clear Pellegrino had a better game plan while Lucho failed on the tactics side, first & foremost.
Couldn't get behind the Alaves defense and could not create width in that final third so it was the usual congested mess.
Couldn't get behind the Alaves defense and could not create width in that final third so it was the usual congested mess.
serghei
Senior Member
The vibe Lucho transmited to the team was that this was an easy match. And once we had to work hard to fix the fact that we underestimated Alaves, we just couldn't do it, because wanting to win and working hard to achieve that it's not a mental setup you just switch on, but the kind of attitude you have to have from the start. We didn't have that desire, and Lucho is the first to blame because his prepping of the game reeked of arrogance. The tactic comes 2nd, the main problem was that we tought this was going to be an easy match, one we will win just by showing up, and once we had our work cut out for us, we just couldn't climb back and win against an opponent that clearly took this game twice as seriously as we took it.
All on Lucho. Not only did he put in a first 11 with no real connection, and with some big structural issues, but he also disconsidered our opponent, and ended up being outsmarted by it.
Arda never played RW for us, and this was Alcacer first game at CF. That alone means 2/3 of our attacking trio is a novelty, something that hasn't been seen before at Barcelona. Neymar himself is a novelty this season, his first game after almost 5 months. You add to that the fact that Denis Suarez has had a really bad game, and is starting to fade away since the good form he's showed in preseason, the fact that Rakitic is no playmaker, no matter how you loook at it, the fact that the defence had no player who could get things organized in the absence of Pique, that Aleix Vidal is just a mediocre RB, and that Mathieu is an average defender who gets a pass here because he sometimes scores a header (no matter that he alone made 3 fouls out of stupidity in first half, and that his positioning is really bad). Also add that Cilessen is at his first game, and that Digne is pretty good, but he's clearly a level bellow Alba who is one of the great LBs in the game, along with Marcelo and Alaba. You add all those things and you realize the team which played with Alaves is disfunctional, and that has nothing to do with the squad, but with how it was put to use.
Having a great squad doesn't mean you have to go overboard. It's something that gives you options, but they still have to be the right options, not the shit we say last night. You still have to think things through, which Lucho obviously didn't, because he tought this game would be easy.
All on Lucho. Not only did he put in a first 11 with no real connection, and with some big structural issues, but he also disconsidered our opponent, and ended up being outsmarted by it.
Arda never played RW for us, and this was Alcacer first game at CF. That alone means 2/3 of our attacking trio is a novelty, something that hasn't been seen before at Barcelona. Neymar himself is a novelty this season, his first game after almost 5 months. You add to that the fact that Denis Suarez has had a really bad game, and is starting to fade away since the good form he's showed in preseason, the fact that Rakitic is no playmaker, no matter how you loook at it, the fact that the defence had no player who could get things organized in the absence of Pique, that Aleix Vidal is just a mediocre RB, and that Mathieu is an average defender who gets a pass here because he sometimes scores a header (no matter that he alone made 3 fouls out of stupidity in first half, and that his positioning is really bad). Also add that Cilessen is at his first game, and that Digne is pretty good, but he's clearly a level bellow Alba who is one of the great LBs in the game, along with Marcelo and Alaba. You add all those things and you realize the team which played with Alaves is disfunctional, and that has nothing to do with the squad, but with how it was put to use.
Having a great squad doesn't mean you have to go overboard. It's something that gives you options, but they still have to be the right options, not the shit we say last night. You still have to think things through, which Lucho obviously didn't, because he tought this game would be easy.
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Can't blame Lucho, shit like this happens(we lost to Hercules under Pep). Alaves was second division team not too long ago and that was perfect opportunity to test new players. Let's not forget we had Masche, Matthew, Rakitic, Arda, Busquets,Neymar on the starting line up, Messi for almost whole second half. Alaves didn't have a player even close to tired Masche caliber. The fact is we did not got more chances in front of the goal with Messsi, Suarez and Iniesta on the pitch. No one is safe from situations like this, just a day to forget.
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BarçaBarça
New member
I blame Lucho. Fielding this line-up was a mistake. It was possible to rest players if we were leading by a couple of goals at some point. The thing is - we should expect this lineup to beat Alaves - in the spring maybe, where Neymar have played more than 0 games together with Digne, D.Suarez and Paco, who were the ones closest to him! And again - too many players didn't have any rhythm together yet, and it is Luchos job to foresee that.
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