Marc Bartra

[The Observer]

@ dv: We don't have anything better than this set of defenders (Pique, Masch, Bartra, Puyol) is what I was implying. Irrespective of the truth of your statement because we all know the short memory syndrom of football fans.

Absolutely immense! He kept our defense like a boss!

THIS! THAT TACKLE on villa!!

Was happy to see Mascherano doing well versus organized and dangerous team like Atletico. Who knows, maybe Pique-Mascherano could turn into a better partnership than we saw last year.

Mascherano deserves a better partner than Pique.

Monstrous performance, he was like everywhere.

Rock solid as usual.

I also like the way he applies pressure before someone in his field of view gets a pass.

still he is the best we have right now.. Kudos Masch

what a player, he eats attackers for breakfast, his pace is amazing, he deserves much better partner than pk, imo hes one of the best cbs in the world but pk makes our defence look like chicken

Lot of people here were bashing him just because he is a converted from midfielder. Blaming him for positioning errors, though masch was saving us on many occasions.

He's comfortably our best defender and a few inches taller or an Ayala-esque leap he would be world class.

This is just 3 months ago.

 

[Flavia]

Seems he will renew before the year ends. According to md, it's well advanced and should be announced soon.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Seems he will renew before the year ends. According to md, it's well advanced and should be announced soon.

 

[MrKnowitAlll]

sarcasm or actual joy?

 

[Luftstalag14]

sarcasm or actual joy?

Why sarcasm? This kid is pure gold who needs a bit more polishing.

 

[Gohan]

Why sarcasm? This kid is pure gold who needs a bit more polishing.

Very well said.

 

[CatalinR10]

@ dv: We don't have anything better than this set of defenders (Pique, Masch, Bartra, Puyol) is what I was implying. Irrespective of the truth of your statement because we all know the short memory syndrom of football fans.

What did you expect .... In the real world , as a football player , you are as good as you were in your last match played. Masche was good in the beggining of the season but after that he had some really bad performances.

 

[serghei]

What did you expect .... In the real world , as a football player , you are as good as you were in your last match played. Masche was good in the beggining of the season but after that he had some really bad performances.

And who says he can't be great again in a couple of months? Mascherano is a good CB who's hit a rough patch. But people don't say that. They say he's never been good and that's what The Observer was pointing out (correct me if I'm wrong).

 

[CatalinR10]

And who says he can't be great again in a couple of months? Mascherano is a good CB who's hit a rough patch. But people don't say that. They say he's never been good and that's what The Observer was pointing out (correct me if I'm wrong).

People know that Mascherano had some really great matches and is a great choice when playing against smaller teams but when it comes to important matches against big teams , he shouldn't be picked in the starting 11. Due to the fact that he isn't a natural CB , he makes a lot of positioning mistakes.

 

[serghei]

People know that Mascherano had some really great matches and is a great choice when playing against smaller teams but when it comes to important matches against big teams , he shouldn't be picked in the starting 11. Due to the fact that he isn't a natural CB , he makes a lot of positioning mistakes.

This wasn't a problem in the past. Mascherano was never a natural CB, but not long ago, he was playing like one. Mascherano is in a bad form, just like Pique was. It has nothing to do with where he plays IMO. You could play him DM and he'd still be bad these days.

 

[Maria]

And that's exactly why Guardiola could get away throwing young Busquets into the lions. He had prime Xaviesta infront and Alves-Pique-Puyol-Abidal behind him to cover for Busquets' inexperience. Tata doesn't have this luxury with Bartra. The backline now is under a lot more pressure than the midfield was when Busquets broke through. Grooming a young defender in an already unstable defensive line is exponentially harder than grooming a midfielder in the most dominant midfield in modern football history.

You say that it was easy for Pep to play Busquets when you are talking about a manager for whom the most important position in his teams is that of DM..plus you say that he had prime Xavi&Iniesta in front of Busi when the reality is that Iniesta wasn't as good in the first half of the season 2008-2009, he also played on the wing many times and all that I could hear in the summer of 2008 is that Iniesta and Xavi can't play together. Also that same season Abidal wasn't anywhere near as good as he was in the next 2, in fact many times he looked like a liability. And I don't think that when Pique came at Barca anyone was expecting him to be a starter for us and to play as good as he did. But he was lucky enough to have found a coach who believed in him from the beginning.
And that's all we're asking from Tata..to give Bartra a fair chance to fight for a spot with Mascherano and Pique.

Irrespective of the truth of your statement because we all know the short memory syndrom of football fans.

Oh, the irony.

 

[serghei]

@Maria, whoever reads your comments is inclined to think Bartra hasn't played for Barca in 6 months. Bartra plays regularly, in a rotation system with Mascherano. To say he hasn't got a fair treatment from Tata is a stretch. And a big one.

 

[The Observer]

You say that it was easy for Pep to play Busquets

Yeah, that's not what I said.

@Maria, whoever reads your comments is inclined to think Bartra hasn't played for Barca in 6 months. Bartra plays regularly, in a rotation system with Mascherano. To say he hasn't got a fair treatment from Tata is a stretch. And a big one.

The situations she's trying to compare are hilarious. Pique got promoted to first division football in 04/05. 4 seasons of top flight experience before Pep used him, training alongside the likes of Rio Ferdinand and Vidic, tutelage under Sir Alex Ferguson, an entire loan season at Zaragoza where he played regularly alongside Milito, even against Barca where he won and kept a clean sheet. All that experience before he joined Barca. Compare Bartra to that. He got promoted last season, started 3 games the entire season in La Liga and got thrown into a record defeat CL semi-final tie. Celta Vigo looked too much to handle for him just last season when he had to resort to using his arms to hold off attackers. That was Bartra's experience level when Tata took over. And yet he plays almost as much as Pique did in his first season under Guardiola. Pique started 10 out of the first 17 Liga games. Bartra started 7. Big deal. Let's just whine for the sake of it.

Xavi and Iniesta arrived in Barcelona in 08/09 as the driving forces in Spain's comfortable European Cup win. Throwing young Busquets in there and asking from that midfield to dominate Anderson and Ji-Sung Park, even in a CL final, is obviously not as much of a risk as throwing Bartra into the current Barcelona defense and "trusting him" to hold off Agüero. But somehow I can't explain that to Maria because she'll tell me that people thought that Xavi and Iniesta couldn't work together back then.

 

[khaled_a_d]

You say that it was easy for Pep to play Busquets when you are talking about a manager for whom the most important position in his teams is that of DM..plus you say that he had prime Xavi&Iniesta in front of Busi when the reality is that Iniesta wasn't as good in the first half of the season 2008-2009, he also played on the wing many times and all that I could hear in the summer of 2008 is that Iniesta and Xavi can't play together. Also that same season Abidal wasn't anywhere near as good as he was in the next 2, in fact many times he looked like a liability. And I don't think that when Pique came at Barca anyone was expecting him to be a starter for us and to play as good as he did. But he was lucky enough to have found a coach who believed in him from the beginning.
And that's all we're asking from Tata..to give Bartra a fair chance to fight for a spot with Mascherano and Pique.



Oh, the irony.

Busquets wasn't a starter that season at all ,Yaya was the starting DM but Busquets was his back up ,he was used a lot but wasn't a starter ,he played over Yaya next year ,and a lot criticized Pep for that because Yaya was still the better player back then and it could have actually cost us some league games
Pique was also a back up CB actually ,it was Puyol/Marquez starting ,but due to lack of depth in defense and injuries for for Abidal and Marquez he played a lot tbh ,probably more than Pep intended back then ,all 3 player were starters
As for Iniesta and Xavi can't play together ,first this is something that Pep didn't believe as he believed in them ,2nd they had already shown they can in Euro 2008 they can
Bartra is in similar situation like Pique in 2008/2009 ,Puyol is almost injured all the time like Milito back then ,he is in 3 man rotation with Pique/Mascherano for 2 spots and he knows he is destined to be starter soon over Masch ,just like Pique was destined to replace Marquez as a starter ,and that while like The observer said there is a huge difference in experience between the 2 of them

 

[Behrox]

Busquets wasn't a starter that season at all ,Yaya was the starting DM but Busquets was his back up ,he was used a lot but wasn't a starter ,he played over Yaya next year ,and a lot criticized Pep for that because Yaya was still the better player back then and it could have actually cost us some league games
Pique was also a back up CB actually ,it was Puyol/Marquez starting ,but due to lack of depth in defense and injuries for for Abidal and Marquez he played a lot tbh ,probably more than Pep intended back then ,all 3 player were starters
As for Iniesta and Xavi can't play together ,first this is something that Pep didn't believe as he believed in them ,2nd they had already shown they can in Euro 2008 they can
Bartra is in similar situation like Pique in 2008/2009 ,Puyol is almost injured all the time like Milito back then ,he is in 3 man rotation with Pique/Mascherano for 2 spots and he knows he is destined to be starter soon over Masch ,just like Pique was destined to replace Marquez as a starter ,and that while like The observer said there is a huge difference in experience between the 2 of them

Hats off to you sir well said