Luis Suárez

[Devils]

Suarez isn't an excuse for Barca to not compete in the CL this season. The Barca squad is more than good enough to challenge for that trophy. On paper, Barca certainly has one of the best squads in the world this season, if not the best.

It's like Real winning the CL with Benzema or France winning the WC with Giroud, both of these players are inferior to Suarez but were still the best teams in the competition and the manager found a way to make it work despite the majority of the fan-base arguing against the decision of the manager.

Valverde has to find a way to make it work.

 

[El Flaco]

Suarez isn't an excuse for Barca to not compete in the CL this season. The Barca squad is more than good enough to challenge for that trophy. On paper, Barca certainly has one of the best squads in the world this season, if not the best.

It's like Real winning the CL with Benzema or France winning the WC with Giroud, both of these players are inferior to Suarez but were still the best teams in the competition and the manager found a way to make it work despite the majority of the fan-base arguing against the decision of the manager.

Valverde has to find a way to make it work.

Except Benzema is a far superior goalscorer in UCL than Suárez who delivered 4 UCL-goals in 20 games over 2 seasons.

For comparison, the Frenchman scored 3 UCL-goals in 2 matches against Bayern & Liverpool alone.

Benz's goalscoring production in LaLiga is nowhere near as impressive, but that's an another story.

 

[Joan]

Yeah, he'll have to improve but once he starts adding goals to his game, Valverde won't drop him. Not because he's clueless, but Suarez is still probably our best option. I'd love us to test Dembele-Messi-Malcom front three, but don't think it can work without a goal scoring winger like Henry. It's easy to say we can do better than Suki, but not like great players like Neymar, Villa, Henry, Sanchez found it easy to bang 35 goals every season for us.

Last night, was abysmal but should improve with time. Won't write him off after one match, but Lord, it was a terrible one.

 

[Zidane82]

Suarez isn't an excuse for Barca to not compete in the CL this season. The Barca squad is more than good enough to challenge for that trophy. On paper, Barca certainly has one of the best squads in the world this season, if not the best.

It's like Real winning the CL with Benzema or France winning the WC with Giroud, both of these players are inferior to Suarez but were still the best teams in the competition and the manager found a way to make it work despite the majority of the fan-base arguing against the decision of the manager.

Valverde has to find a way to make it work.

He's already working on things .... here's his preliminary team list ...Rakitic , Messi , Suarez , Roberto and some of the others

Yeah, he'll have to improve but once he starts adding goals to his game, Valverde won't drop him. Not because he's clueless, but Suarez is still probably our best option. I'd love us to test Dembele-Messi-Malcom front three, but don't think it can work without a goal scoring winger like Henry. It's easy to say we can do better than Suki, but not like great players like Neymar, Villa, Henry, Sanchez found it easy to bang 35 goals every season for us.

Last night, was abysmal but should improve with time. Won't write him off after one match, but Lord, it was a terrible one.

That front three ( Messi , Dembele and Malcom ) could be simply amazing , I don't see why he didn't start with them last night or even for 20 minutes at the end ... he just won't try things apart from things that clearly won't / don't work ...Couthino on the right wing ....

What do we lose by dropping Suarez who's inaffective and bordering inept at the moment especially given the way Dembele smashed that goal in last night .

I don't think Suarez has played his best ( which was magnificent at Liverpool ) for about 3 years ...

 

[Devils]

Except Benzema is a far superior goalscorer in UCL than Suárez who delivered 4 UCL-goals in 20 games over 2 seasons.

For comparison, the Frenchman scored 3 UCL-goals in 2 matches against Bayern & Liverpool alone.

Benz's goalscoring production in LaLiga is nowhere near as impressive, but that's an another story.

While I agree that Benzema has been a better performer than Suarez in the CL I think context is important in this comparison.

Barcelona has a whole has been very underwhelming in the CL in in the past 3 years, whereas Real Madrid have overall been very good in the CL over the past 3 years.

 

[Judoman]

Yeah, he'll have to improve but once he starts adding goals to his game, Valverde won't drop him. Not because he's clueless, but Suarez is still probably our best option. I'd love us to test Dembele-Messi-Malcom front three, but don't think it can work without a goal scoring winger like Henry. It's easy to say we can do better than Suki, but not like great players like Neymar, Villa, Henry, Sanchez found it easy to bang 35 goals every season for us.

Last night, was abysmal but should improve with time. Won't write him off after one match, but Lord, it was a terrible one.

You think it wouldn t work? Messi in the front, closer to goal would provide other options and he is a lethal threat on his own. Now the game play stops with Suarez. I don t know what the problem is, it s like he lost his first touch somehow.
Don t forget we have an awesome 2nd wave unit coming late in to the box.
I hope Valverde utilises them..

 

[Joan]

You think it wouldn t work? Messi in the front, closer to goal would provide other options and he is a lethal threat on his own. Now the game play stops with Suarez. I don t know what the problem is, it s like he lost his first touch somehow.
Don t forget we have an awesome 2nd wave unit coming late in to the box.
I hope Valverde utilises them..

Not sure really. But a few things are still vague... (1) Messi's preferred area. Yes, he offers so much in the final third, options and all but for some reason he always drops too deep. Which literally kills the team's dynamics, makes a mess out of a midfield... no compactness, no nothing. For example, he'll drop deep trying to create but needs options in front of him so Raki (or whoever) push forward and when the ball's lost, he doesn't defend hence we are easily overrun. Midfield's main job has become not to create but cover for walking players in attack. I don't mind him not defending (what can one do?), but at least stay in the final third, don't drop that deep. (2) Malcom and Dembele's scoring abilities. Self-explanatory. They'd need to execute specific roles and score quite a few. (3) empty box. If Messi drops deep, Malcom and Dembele need to tuck in. Transition game should be great I believe.

Would love to see it, though.

 

[soul24rage]

Not sure really. But a few things are still vague... (1) Messi's preferred area. Yes, he offers so much in the final third, options and all but for some reason he always drops too deep. Which literally kills the team's dynamics, makes a mess out of a midfield... no compactness, no nothing. For example, he'll drop deep trying to create but needs options in front of him so Raki (or whoever) push forward and when the ball's lost, he doesn't defend hence we are easily overrun. Midfield's main job has become not to create but cover for walking players in attack. I don't mind him not defending (what can one do?), but at least stay in the final third, don't drop that deep. (2) Malcom and Dembele's scoring abilities. Self-explanatory. They'd need to execute specific roles and score quite a few. (3) empty box. If Messi drops deep, Malcom and Dembele need to tuck in. Transition game should be great I believe.

Would love to see it, though.

yesterday was the perfect chance to see Malcom-Messi-Dembele against a good side. now I don't think we are going to see that frontline much this season unless suarez is injured

 

[DonAK]

yesterday was the perfect chance to see Malcom-Messi-Dembele against a good side. now I don't think we are going to see that frontline much this season unless suarez is injured

Should try that for one half against Boca Juniors this Wednesday.

 

[Joan]

yesterday was the perfect chance to see Malcom-Messi-Dembele against a good side. now I don't think we are going to see that frontline much this season unless suarez is injured

Can try it vs. Boca Juniors, but a shame we couldn't see it vs. a serious opposition.

 

[DonAK]

Can try it vs. Boca Juniors, but a shame we couldn't see it vs. a serious opposition.

It's prob better to try it against lesser competition to see if it can work and build onto it from there. Boca are a pretty decent team.

 

[soul24rage]

i really doubt we are going to see that 3 vs Boca cuz EV would want to build on Suarez match fitness as much as possible for saturday's game

 

[Ascom]

He is in a deplorable form. It's so depressing. He is one of the greatest strikers football, don't Forget what he did in Liverpool and the first seasons in Barça. He was absolutely stunning but it's sad he doesn't have self awareness to say ''i'm not on my best, i should only play 20 minutes and work really hard to improve''.

Firmino should be a perfect replacement.

 

[Judoman]

Not sure really. But a few things are still vague... (1) Messi's preferred area. Yes, he offers so much in the final third, options and all but for some reason he always drops too deep. Which literally kills the team's dynamics, makes a mess out of a midfield... no compactness, no nothing. For example, he'll drop deep trying to create but needs options in front of him so Raki (or whoever) push forward and when the ball's lost, he doesn't defend hence we are easily overrun. Midfield's main job has become not to create but cover for walking players in attack. I don't mind him not defending (what can one do?), but at least stay in the final third, don't drop that deep. (2) Malcom and Dembele's scoring abilities. Self-explanatory. They'd need to execute specific roles and score quite a few. (3) empty box. If Messi drops deep, Malcom and Dembele need to tuck in. Transition game should be great I believe.

Would love to see it, though.

Well imagine Messi as a false 9. If he drops deep and the CB follows, space opens up behind him/them. Malcom and Dembele are both quick to take advantage of that. If CB doesn t follow, he leads the 2nd line with Coutinho, who is a much much better attacker, than anyone from last years MF, even as a solo instigator. In this case 2 guys would be able to cover any loose balls. I don t agree with ppl saying this is no longer an option, at least not before we see how it performs.

With Suarez we loose to many balls, it s like they just bounce off him for some reason and this makes us vulnerable because with him there are 2 players not covering the counters. I hope Valverde tries this and other variants, like 4-2-3-1 with Coutinho on the wing.

 

[Ripsta]

Is it wrong that I hope he gets a niggling injury that keeps him out for half the season? He's utter shite.