Neymar - v2

[Maria]

But we must save La Masia guys. THEY ARE THE PRIDE OF CATALONIA!!!!!!

Why do you even care? You're not a cule..and yes, La Masia is something for which every catalan&Barca fan should feel proud.

I somewhat agree. The fact of the matter is Barca as a team and Barca's system is too reliant on Messi. We need to figure out a way to make better use of others as well. The fact of the matter is Messi had the greatest individual season ever last year and yet we still missed out on Liga and CL.

goals scored in CL SFs in:
2009: 1 =>we reached the CL final
2010: 1 =>we were eliminated
2011: 3 =>we reached the CL final
2012: 2 =>we were eliminated

goals conceded in CL SFs in:
2009: 1 =>we reached the CL final
2010: 3 =>we were eliminated
2011: 1 =>we reached the CL final
2012: 3 =>we were eliminated

As reliant as we are on Messi when we talk about scoring goals right now, we are even worse in deffence. And it seems that the club doesn't realize it or doesn't want to..maybe a manita from RM will wake them up.

 

[hellsangel1]

What you could not make up is that RM were losing 10 games with 1-0 until they had 8 players from the other team sent off and received 7 penalties..and that's without taking into account what happend in games like Mallorca-RM, Getafe-RM or Rayo-RM. Meanwhile we had games were the ref was robbing us blind(against Valencia, Espanyol, Sporting etc.). And with this I'm not trying to say that RM didn't deserve the title, but what happend last year was disgusting.

With the way Barca played for much of the away season last year, we didn't deserve any luck and yes, some of the ref decisions could have gone our way but at the end we hardly had any unfair results (perhaps we didn't deserve to lose the Getafe game but we didn't play well enough to win either). We just weren't aggressive enough or had enough penetratrion in the final third to continually put ourselves in goal-scoring opportunites whereas Real did and that was one of the reasons why they got the calls their way more than we did. Yes, in some of the situation the calls Real got were definitely fishy but a lot of their comebacks were legitimate. They played with an intensity and fire that quite frankly we didn't match and a little bit of that had to do with motivation but a lot of it has to do with the fact that teams defensively at least have figured out how to slow us down.

 

[hellsangel1]

As reliant as we are on Messi when we talk about scoring goals right now, we are even worse in deffence. And it seems that the club doesn't realize it or doesn't want to..maybe a manita from RM will wake them up.

The club seems to be more concerned about bringing in defenders that are good on the ball and how they bring the ball out from the back rather than their actual defending skills, I think that's one of the reasons why we were linked with David Luiz, almost nobody in England is convinced of his defending but he's good with the ball and so that's why we were interested.

It hurt to lose the Super Copa but I now kind of wish we had lost by a bigger margin to put some sense into the club and the coaching staff. I mean last year, I remember the first Classico in La Liga when our back 4 consisted of Abidal/Alves/Puyol/Pique. Three out of the Four of them didn't start in the 2nd Copa and the difference was apparent. Abidal is not coming back and Puyol is getting old + injured. I don't think any good attacking side looks at our defense now and feels that it's anything special. It;s really more the midfielders and ability to maintain and hold possession that is hiding our defensive deficiencies.

 

[Daemul]

It was more a case of Barcelona losing the league than Madrid actually winning it.

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[Pepe Silvia]

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Yeah a lot of denial and bitter responses in the last few pages. Our front line has been shaky at best and if not for Messi, it'd be a disaster at times. Madrids on the other hand has been superior for a little while now. Individually of course Messi has the upper hand but collectively they take the cake easily (front line). I suspect that will change this year with Villa coming back, Pedro improving form, and Alexis ready to become a world beater.

 

[Ursegor]

Well, yeah. It's not rocket science that Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuain, Di Maria > Messi, Cuenca, Tello and out of position midfielders (Iniesta, Cesc) and fullbacks (Alves, Adriano) upfront. Remarkable enough that Barcelona still scored more goals than Real Madrid in all competitions.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

Well, yeah. It's not rocket science that Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuain, Di Maria > Messi, Cuenca, Tello and out of position midfielders (Iniesta, Cesc) and fullbacks (Alves, Adriano) upfront. Remarkable enough that Barcelona still scored more goals than Real Madrid in all competitions.

Have you not read the last few pages? There are people who aren't in agreement the way we are about the two teams forward lines. As for the overall tallys, 73 goals was a helpful jump start for Barça no doubt

 

[La Furia]

Well, yeah. It's not rocket science that Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuain, Di Maria > Messi, Cuenca, Tello and out of position midfielders (Iniesta, Cesc) and fullbacks (Alves, Adriano) upfront. Remarkable enough that Barcelona still scored more goals than Real Madrid in all competitions.

The thing is, depth is important and all but have Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuain and Di Maria ever clicked at once? There's obviously some tension on that team, with Tristiano being the most obvious example. Higgers and The Benz have rarely played well at the same time - people on this forum have no tolerance for when a non-forward on this team has a bad spell, if Higgy was having one of his games where he needs 20 chances for 1 goal or The Benz when he's a lump who does nothing, you'd be hearing the same bile you hear when a Barca forward has a bad game.

 

[Beast]

Well, yeah. It's not rocket science that Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuain, Di Maria > Messi, Cuenca, Tello and out of position midfielders (Iniesta, Cesc) and fullbacks (Alves, Adriano) upfront. Remarkable enough that Barcelona still scored more goals than Real Madrid in all competitions.

LOL

yes when you consider that a major part was beating Hospitalat 9-0 in the copa etc

In the league and CL (the elite competitions which matters ) you came short...

but of course it's always been a priority cup for Barca

 

[Ursegor]

LOL

yes when you consider that a major part was beating Hospitalat 9-0 in the copa etc

In the league and CL (the elite competitions which matters ) you came short...

but of course it's always been a priority cup for Barca

Yeah. While we got Milan in the group and K.O. stage and Chelsea in the K.O. stage, you reached the semis by playing the mighty ZSKA Moscow and APOEL (even below Hospitalet standards). Yet both teams scored 35 goals in the CL. And while Real scored 121 in the league, Barca weren't far off with 114. Considering that you had 2 functioning strikers all the time while Barca lost Villa for half of the season and Sanchez and Pedro for at least 1/3 of the season due to injuries, it's just a remarkable record. Let's see how Real would do without Benzema and Higuain, playing Özil and Marcelo on the wings as strikers.

 

[Beast]

Ehm you played Chelsea in the Semi-final when we played Bayern not Apoel and not CSKA and both are way above Hospitalet ...way way above them it's not even funny.. Hospitalet wouldn't go past the group stages.. Apoel did

You shouldn't complain about your forward line as it is your choice none of your forwards are a natural striker except Villa and it is your choice once again so don't expect Sanchez to be a savior neither is Pedro

you like the false 9 (which is again your choice ) but no one is capable of doing it like Messi and it's not like Pedro was in good form the last 2 years.. he regained his form this year and if Ozil played a striker in Bremen like Cesc did couple of times i'm sure we would use him like u did with Cesc and it was Pep's choice with his false 9 idea's
Oh and we did without Higuain for a long time and Benzema was off form back than

Back to the point saying in all competitions record is a beautifying your goal scoring record nothing more..you came short when it mattered the most .point

 

[Maria]

Ehm you played Chelsea in the Semi-final when we played Bayern not Apoel and not CSKA and both are way above Hospitalet ...way way above them it's not even funny.. Hospitalet wouldn't go past the group stages.. Apoel did

WTF? I can't believe you are comparing Hospitalet with Apoel and CSKA, when you played against SD Ponferradina in CdR. But I'm sure SD Ponferradina would beat Ac Milan and Leverkusen so bad in CL that it wouldn't even be funny.

The thing is, depth is important and all but have Ronaldo, Benzema, Higuain and Di Maria ever clicked at once? There's obviously some tension on that team, with Tristiano being the most obvious example. Higgers and The Benz have rarely played well at the same time - people on this forum have no tolerance for when a non-forward on this team has a bad spell, if Higgy was having one of his games where he needs 20 chances for 1 goal or The Benz when he's a lump who does nothing, you'd be hearing the same bile you hear when a Barca forward has a bad game.

They would have a field day with Higuain and his 7 goals in 40 games in CL or with Benzema and his 80% of his goals in La Liga being scored at home(especially when we couldn't score in the away games from home last year). Not to mention Di Maria and his antics..many cules are hating Busi even now, after all he's done for us(Spain-Croatia from the EC was a good example of that). I can't imagine how would they feel about Di Maria after games like Sevilla-RM.

 

[Beast]

ah.. I'm not the one comparing Apoel & CSKA with Hospitalet your fellow cule is.. he said Apoel is below Hospitalet

 

[Ursegor]

Apoel were the runners up in the Cypriot league. A league that is ranked #16 in the world, somewhere behind the Danish, Turkish and Greek leagues. You can nitpick and try to argue if they are better or not than Hospitalet. Fact is: they are way way way way way way way way way way below the standards of a team that can afford to have a € 65 million player sitting on their tribunes. Playing them in the quarter finals was a joke. So before you throw the "but you played crap like Hospitalet" excuse in the room, make sure your own team faced better opponents. Of course I also totally forgot about Ponferradina.

 

[Beast]

Apoel were the runners up in the Cypriot league. A league that is ranked #16 in the world, somewhere behind the Danish, Turkish and Greek leagues. You can nitpick and try to argue if they are better or not than Hospitalet. Fact is: they are way way way way way way way way way way below the standards of a team that can afford to have a € 65 million player sitting on their tribunes. Playing them in the quarter finals was a joke. So before you throw the "but you played crap like Hospitalet" excuse in the room, make sure your own team faced better opponents. Of course I also totally forgot about Ponferradina.

Apoel are last 8 CL team...

Apoel did beat Lyon before they met us so show some respect to a team who did earn their position
they qualified from a group that had Porto , Shakhtar & Zenit ...

you look silly ...you really do if you want to compare them to Hospitalet