The Official Barcaforum.com MoM-thread award
La Liga, Granada, home (2-0)
1. Xavi (41,8%) changed the game, the team didn't have a leader in the 1st half. his presence was so important ~ abual3bed1
2. Valdés (29,1%) That save before Xavi's goal was crucial. The game could've been lost there ~ Flavia
3. Mascherano (10,6%) Superb game, very solid at the back and blocked many shots and tackled like a god ~ CF4 1899
Interesting top 3 this time where we have a new The Official Barcaforum.com MoM-thread award leader, a defender who in some peoples eyes should gtfo back to midfield and a goalie who, if it was up to around half the board, should be replaced by either Joe Hart, Neuer or some Spurs benchwarmer, who I can't even be bothered calling by name.
Xavi Hernández, certainly the Barca-man of both the match and the moment takes his second top spot in a matter of just 4 days with 41,8% of the votes, and he needed only about 40 mins to do so against Granada. This combined with the fact that Messi wasn't deemed worthy - and rightly so - by the demanding Barcaforum audience to feature in the top 3, means that Xavi alone now has the most top 3 appearances so far this season with a staggering 6 out of 8 possible. That Barcelona has a flawless record in the first 5 rounds of La Liga and the premier of the ChL this season seems to be owed largely to our talismanic midfield maestro.
In second place we have Victor Valdés, with nearly 13% less votes than the top spot, who makes his third top 3 appearance of the season - all second places by the way. This means he's now third in overall number of appearances in the top 3 this season. Not bad for someone deemed far from worthy of wearing the famous blaugrana by what seems like about half the Barcaforum.
To complete the best of the bunch we have a newcomer to the rankings in Javier Mascherano, who notched a total of 10,6% of the votes. So far the former midfield destroyer has had an attrocious The Official Barcaforum.com MoM-thread award season, and has along with Busquets been the worst player by quite a margin with just 3 points of the 1008 given so far (that's about a meager 0,3% of the points that's been thrown his way, ladies and gents!). I can't help but wonder if Masch had made it to this position, had that grave error of his near the end not been rectified by Valdes? Anyhow, hopefully this third place should prove just the mental boost that he needs in order to get his season back on track.
Honorable mentions this week goes out to another struggler in terms of succes in these rankings. Daniel Alves came ever so close to making his debut in the thread, but will have to push just a tad harder in order to make it next time. Vámonos, Dani!
Tune back to the thread in a week where we're going to Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán to face the bane of Los Merengues, Sevilla FC.
A quick recap of what it takes to have your vote count:
1: List the 3 best players of the game. Not 1, not 2, not 4. Three.
2: Do so preferably as soon as possible after the game. I usually count the votes around 24 hours after game, but sometimes a bit earlier and sometimes later.
