Luis Enrique

[Cool]

Sampaoli most likely will renew. It's probably Bielsa as caretaker/one season manager until Board fully decides on who they want.

Bielsa might not be an option anymore, seems like he's going to takeover Lille.

 

[BBZ8800]

We dont need to play as Pep used to play, we need a gameplan and we simply dont have one. Our goal kicks were more threatening to us than a corner and that shows bad preparation and lack of a plan. They knew who and how to press when we regaind the ball and we didnt know how to keep it apart from the times were somehow we did pass their defensive line and passively started playing between the CBs.

I have seen a pic in one paper where a photo showed:
-- when Mats has the ball, Psg's players are covering Busi AND fullbacks
-- that means that Mats can pass a ball only to Pique+Umtiti, since Mats don't want to boot it upfield
-- then the opponents either let Mats to create some mess with keeping the ball or they press like crazy when Pique and Umtiti get the ball
-- and since Umtiti is scared on a ball, a horror happens

Imo, the same as how the opponents in the past figured out that they need to park 442 bus in defense around their box to kill our Tiki-Taka and wait for counters, now they will figure out how to kill us with that Mats-Pique-Umtiti-back line passing.

For example, remember 5 years ago, when a Cbs had the ball, you could pass the ball to:
1. Busi, he would take it and run with a ball or move it forward to Cms (especially Xavi who was always free to receive the ball)
2. Xavi, who was ALWAYS free. ALWAYS, in EVERY single moment during EVERY SINGLE match ever. He would always make himself available, no matter what.
3. Dani Alves. Give the ball to him and he will run with it forward

Look what we have today:
Mats/Pique/Umtiti have the ball.
1. Busi is covered since he is the only guy who is supposed to take the ball forward and to connect our team
2. Rakitic isn't Xavi and isn't making himself too available
3. Gomes also
4. Iniesta is somewhere near the opponents box
5. Messi is walking in attack
6. Roberto is horrible and if you pass the ball to him, he will just pass it backwards

5-10 years ago, we had 100s of options how to build the attacks and how to avoid opponent's pressure.
Today, teams will cover Busi and two fullbacks, and our team is dead. Midfielders are lost somewhere upfield. MSN is miles away from defense.

That's more or less it.
You can neutralize our current team with 3-4 players and some pressure.

To some extent, it is no wonder that Messi drops deep in the middle and that Neymar has to take the ball at the center of a field and dribble past 20 defenders to create something.

Lucho is guilty, but a lot of players are not good enough or are not our fit.
Roberto is poor at a RB.
Rakitic or Gomes can't move that well off the ball as Xavi/Deco and make themselves available all the time.

Lucho is a poor coach, but our team (players) are the weakest set of players since 2005' imo.
When you remove MSN and put random 3 Cfs upfront, this is a team for 6th place in La liga.

For example, imagine:
Mats
Alba Pique Umtiti Roberto
Busi Raki Iniesta
and 3 Cfs from Athletic Bilbao (instead of MSN)

That team would struggle to claim Top6 position.

 

[Cule For Life]

Agreed BBZ, and that sits on Enrique as much as the board. Since Enrique has joined we've spent €340,47 Mill in 2 and half years now which is about €113,49 Mill a season on signings.

Our scouting, as well as Enrique poor choices have hurt us, there is talent like Dembele, Bernardo Silva, Sidibe, Mbappe, Fabinho, N'Zonzi, but we go for Turan, Douglas, Mathieu, Vermaelen, Vidal, Digne, Paco of the world.

B. Silva would cost as much as Gomes and Silva is a better talent. Fabinho/Sidbe would cost roughly 20-30M and these guys would take roughly the same wages as well, but instead we blow our money on Vermaelen, Vidal, Digne, Douglas, etc.

 

[FlaFCB]

MD, the board's paper, also started turning on Lucho.

This piece here talks about how the team's heavy weights consider Psg prepared the game much better than Barça. That Lucho prepared the game the same way he does in less important matches...

 

[xXKonan]

Worrying signs: The sad confession of one Barcelona star

The frustrating situation transmits itself to the pitch, where Barcelona have gone various

it is worrying that Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets publicly criticised the strategy Barcelona employed in their 4-0 defeat by PSG but also that another important player in the squad has told his intimate circle "I have not been enjoying football for a while".

It is a comment that makes you think abou the situation that the team are in. It's clear that the tactical demands of Luis Enrique's blackboard don't allow anyone to relax, with each role split between attack and defence. A problem, without doubt, for players who are more used to thinking about the opposition goal than their own.

The frustrating situation transmits itself to the pitch, where Barcelona have gone various weeks playing with fire, in some games they have come out alive without knowng how. For example the league clash at Anoeta or against Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey.

Sadly it had to be in Paris on Valentine's Day that everything fell apart.

http://www.sport-english.com/en/new...the-sad-confession-one-barcelona-star-5840247

 

[Cool]

That sounds like Pique.

 

[CuleLife4Life]

Agreed BBZ, and that sits on Enrique as much as the board. Since Enrique has joined we've spent €340,47 Mill in 2 and half years now which is about €113,49 Mill a season on signings.

Our scouting, as well as Enrique poor choices have hurt us, there is talent like Dembele, Bernardo Silva, Sidibe, Mbappe, Fabinho, N'Zonzi, but we go for Turan, Douglas, Mathieu, Vermaelen, Vidal, Digne, Paco of the world.

B. Silva would cost as much as Gomes and Silva is a better talent. Fabinho/Sidbe would cost roughly 20-30M and these guys would take roughly the same wages as well, but instead we blow our money on Vermaelen, Vidal, Digne, Douglas, etc.

This is what really bothers me. The amount of money spent on such average players demanded by Lucho sickens me. He may very well leave this summer but we'll still be stuck with majority of these players on the squad or we'll take a huge loss by selling them.

There also needs to be heavy emphasis on scouting by the board these next few years. We need to find our Varanes, Casemiros, and Kovacics.

 

[MIXA]

Let me try to interpret what has actually happened to this club. We have been dominating world football for the past decade by following a possession based approach which relied on a really strong midfield (i.e. Busi, Xavi, Iniesta). Our biggest rivals draped in white simply could not compete with our style of play. So what did Real Madrid do to address this issue? Well, they simply copied our approach. They bought Modric, Kroos, Isco and James. All technically very good players. Eventually this strategy of copying Barcelona finally reaped its rewards with RM winning 2 CL trophies recently.

How did Barcelona choose to respond to this? Well, we completely abandoned our winning strategy and decided to copy Real Madrid’s old strategy – the one that failed miserably. We decided to give up the midfield in order to place greater emphasis on the MSN. That is a true Galactico approach. We chose to adopt a style of play that our main rivals themselves abandoned because it was not working out for them.

Basically, Real Madrid have now become Barcelona and Barcelona have become Real Madrid!

That’s what happens when two rivals are so intertwined in an ongoing battle. They turn themselves into each other.

 

[FlaFCB]

[tw]832277295108849665[/tw]
"The biggest paradox of this Barça is that they signed defenders and goalkeepers who know how to play with the ball, and midfielders who do not know what to do with it"


That's a good summary of this season.

 

[BBZ8800]

[tw]832277295108849665[/tw]
"The biggest paradox of this Barça is that they signed defenders and goalkeepers who know how to play with the ball, and midfielders who do not know what to do with it"


That's a good summary of this season.

Iniesta, Busi, Rakitic, Gomes, Denis, Arda, Roberto, Rafinha.
8 players and yet one a half decent midfielder (Busi and ageing Iniesta) for Barca's starting 11 level.

Instead of looking for GKs who are good feet, maybe our sporting directors should try to focus on midfielders who are actually good with feet, who can play football and who fit our style

Oh, the good old days...

 

[SeloBarca]

it makes you really sad watching those Xavi videos and then comparing it to our current midfield.
which player plays the most similiar footballstyle nowadays? Verratti and Gundogan are bit more offensive, Dahoud i havent seen much of to judge, Weigl has good passingabilities but plays as DM mostly.

 

[FlaFCB]

[tw]832606130958393344[/tw]
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[tw]832607297767632896[/tw]
[tw]832608019464802306[/tw]
[tw]832608601277681664[/tw]

 

[Cule For Life]

This is what really bothers me. The amount of money spent on such average players demanded by Lucho sickens me. He may very well leave this summer but we'll still be stuck with majority of these players on the squad or we'll take a huge loss by selling them.

There also needs to be heavy emphasis on scouting by the board these next few years. We need to find our Varanes, Casemiros, and Kovacics.

If I'm honest here, part of me is a little happy we didn't go for them. Have we seen Enrique develop any talent? He'd probably ruin those guys.

 

[Ode to Django]

I remember everyone wants him sacked and he wins the treble three months later lol

 

[Neymessi]

I have been thinking so much about our glorious past lately. Never thought I would be doing that 4 months before the season ends.