BBZ8800
Senior Member
My "problem" with Pep's teams and Barca's teams over the last 100 years is that they suffer from similar problems.
Both Pep and majority of Barcas from the past:
1. had only a plan A. We are a one trick pony to some extent. Even though, one very, very good pony.
We always had attacking teams, technical players, style beautiful to watch.
But in majority of cases (except when we had Messi), we lacked something due to playing too attacking, playing too naively etc.
We often lack a proper plan B when opponents close us down. We don't have any other options than to pass on the ground till death.
And again, not too mention how we are always fragile on counters, have somewhat physically weaker players, we are weak on defending set pieces etc.
So, my theory, over Barca's last 20-25 years is that the same pattern repeats all the time:
= our style (one trick pony) is usually good enough for La liga, since 90% of teams are inferior to us, and we are "good enough" for winning league competitions with our style.
Also, whenever we face European teams who plays similar to us (aka attacking and with technical players), we are winning against them, because we are technically superior to any technical team out there.
So, in short: we are good enough against Getafes, Levantes and similar.
And we will win in 90% of matches against attacking European teams like Porto, Ajax, Arsenal, Borussia, Roma etc.
Barca's (and Pep's) problem for the last 20-30 years are:
European teams who have strong physical players and who don't play as attacking as us.
That doesn't mean that we will struggle against a team of 11 guys from Sweden who are 200cm tall.
No, that means that we struggle the most against physical-tactical-and yet technical enough teams like Bayern, Juventus, Atletico, Liverpool, Chelsea etc.
For example, teams who knocked us out in the last 10 years:
2007: Liverpool: a physical team
2008: Manchester United: another physical team
2009: --
2010: Inter: Mourinho's physical team
2011: --
2012: Chelsea, bad luck. But another physical team whom we couldn't break down and they killed us on counters (the same as Inter in 2010)
2013: Bayern: physical&tactical&technical team
2014: Atletico: another physical&tactical team. We couldn't break them down, and they killed us on counters, as always
2015: --
2016: Atletico again. The same story as always. We couldn't break their physique and tactics, and they killed our technical players on physique and counters
2017: Psg, Juve: the same as EVERY single year.
So, look at the pattern. More or less, the same was repeating in 90s and 00s.
We never lost KO matches against attacking teams like Lazio, Roma, Fiorentina, Lyon, Monaco, Arsenal, Porto, Benfica, Borussia.
But whenever we faced some physical&tactical top team: ouch, we are in big problems.
Now, let's go to Pep.
He even evolved Barca's philosophy of technical and attacking players even further.
Which means that his teams may be even stronger than Barca in some aspects. But also, that his teams are prone even more to some things as classical Barcas.
Now, let's see against which type of teams have Pep's teams post-Barca winning and losing.
What do you think that we will see in Pep's pattern, lol?
But, here we go:
2014, Bayern, KO matches:
Arsenal, win (lol, attacking team)
Man Utd, win (attacking and crappy team)
Real Madrid, defeat (a tactical team with some physique and who plays on counters)
2015, Bayern:
Shakhtar, win (lol, a crappy team. A perfect opponent for Barcas and Pep's teams and for a possession football)
Porto, win (lol. an attacking team, but an inferior attacking team. Those types of teams ALWAYS lose against Barca and Peps teams)
Lucho's Barca, defeat. A team who played on counters and counters ONE MORE TIME killed classical Barca/Pep's teams. An irony is that a counterattacking Barca killed Pep, lol.
2016, Bayern:
Juventus, win after extra time. This is the only win against one top&tactical&physical team for Pep.
Benfica, win. Lol, an attacking team against Pep. Do I need to comment how will it end?
Atletico Madrid, defeat. Again a physical&tactical&counterattacking team killed Barca/Pep. Surprise, surprise.
2017, Man City:
lost against Monaco.
Monaco is a type of attacking teams which usually suit to Pep's team, but he managed to lose even there.
Anyway, Pep post-Barca played 4 KO matches against top teams who are physical and good on counters.
He won 1 match (Juventus, after extra time) and lost 3 times (Real, Lucho's MSN counterattacking Barca, Atletico).
So, when you people say that City is awesome blah, blah.
Yes. It is awesome. Like all Pep's teams and like all Barcas who were one dimensional.
They are awesome, bit only up to a certain point.
Those teams are strong enough for league championships and for weaker European teams or for too attacking European teams.
But they more or less always have quite poor record against physical&tactical&counterattacking European sides.
So, if Pep's City will be lucky on draws like with Basel, then they could go far.
If they will be drawn with Roma, Porto, United and similar, they can go far.
But if City will face Real/Psg, Juventus, Bayern, Barcelona, there won't be too much fun for Pep.
They could knock out one of these.
If they will face 2 big teams, City don't imo don't have any chances to go through.
To some extent, this is why I am whining about some physical players for our team, about a plan B, about one Cf who can score after crosses, for some longshots, for both possession and counters.
when we play "classical" Barca's/Pep's tactics, we usually always lose in the same way, even though we have Messi in our team.
There is A REASON why Barca won only 1 Champions league in our first 100 years, before Messi.
Because our classical tactics is good, but nott good enough. And we were always losing against more pragmatical teams in Europe.
Also, this is why I like EV and why I do believe that even his "ugly" 442 (with injured Dembele) had way more chances to win us a CL than Pep's attacking, shiny (and naive) football.
But most guys here will repeat the same mistake as Pep, and won't want to evolve.
You will reply: there is nothing wrong with 433 or with Pep's current football.
We just need right players (better players) and we will shine with that style again.
Yea, the same how we shined in the first 100 years of our history with that type of too attacking and too naive football for semis and finals of a CL.
Sorry if I am too pessimistic and too negative about our too naive too attacking style.
But I am having nightmares since my first Barca's CL final which I watched as a kid, Milan:Barcelona 4:0 in 1994'.
We were a huge favorites before the match. But once again, we were heavily beaten by a tactical/physical/counterattacking side. As always throughout our history (except in Messi's times, when from time to time he was able to save our naive asses).
We always looked like a team of kids vs grown men:
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