Positive Thinking Cules

[MagIX]

The pessimism in this forum is unbelievable. Our squad (if everyone fit and registered) is OK. It's not perfect and of course we can't fight for the CL but it's not a disaster either. If we could sign one more physical midfielder we could challenge La Liga for sure. Real and ATM are also nothing special at the moment.

We have a very good GK.

Our defense is young and has a lot of potential. On the left side Alba is still decent and on the right side we now have Dest and Emerson. Our attack with Fati (if he returns to his previous level), Griezmann, Depay, Dembele and Aguero is still quite good.

The biggest problem IMHO is midfield. With Messi gone we'll need to play faster and I am 100% sure Busi at this age can't do that. Too bad we can't sign one strong box to box midfielder. That type of a player would do miracles for the balance of this team. As things stand right now we only have Pedri and De Jong. All other midfielders are way bellow required level. Busi is old, Roberto is crap and so is Puig. Gavi is still too young and I honestly don't know where should we play Coutinho. This guy is not a winger and not a midfielder. Maybe we should try to talk with Moriba once again as he is probably our last chance to strengthen the midfield.

The way I see things we need to survive first few games and than things could start to improve. I am sure we'll be OK in the long run.

I agree
+ I want to see the 11 players with compact team spirit, fighting like lions, I want to see them leave the field bleeding but proud to have given everything.
VISCA BARCA

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

With Depay, Demebele (if he renews) and Fati (if he gets back on his level before injury) we will have a fast and unpredictable attack. IMHO we should aim for a much faster transition this season. This is the reason I see Busi as the main problem in our squad. This guy is slow as it gets and playing fast doesn't suit him at all.

True and we have players who like to play quicker too, especially Frenkie looks amazing with a quick setup. He could shine. (Think Ajax in CL few years ago)

 

[Raketa10]

True and we have players who like to play quicker too, especially Frenkie looks amazing with a quick setup. He could shine. (Think Ajax in CL few years ago)

I agree. I only don't know how we can solve that DM problem with Busi our only solution for that spot. Busi can still play a good role in a slow and possession based style of play but that's something we definitely shouldn't do this year.

----------------------------------Mats (Neto)------------------------------------
Emerson (Dest) - Pique (Araujo) - Garcia (Lenglet, Minguesa) - Alba(Balde)
--------------------------------Busi (Roberto)-----------------------------------
------------------De Jong (Gavi)--------------------Pedri(Puig)----------------
------------------------------Griezmann (Coutinho)----------------------------
-----------Depay (Demebele)----------------Fati (Aguero)--------------------

IMHO this is more than OK squad considering our current situation. If we could only exchange Roberto for one experienced physical midfielder our team would be way more balanced and compact. We would be more solid in defense and much faster in transition but I guess this won't happen this season.

 

[Messi983]

With Depay, Demebele (if he renews) and Fati (if he gets back on his level before injury) we will have a fast and unpredictable attack. IMHO we should aim for a much faster transition this season. This is the reason I see Busi as the main problem in our squad. This guy is slow as it gets and playing fast doesn't suit him at all.

This is my main concern.

People often blamed "every attack has to go through Messi" to slow us down and it did in some aspects. But in the end it was still worth it because of his brilliance we often did manage to break down opponents. With him gone now I think offensive responsibilites will be shared. No single player can ever individually replace what Messi brought to the team so we shouldn't expect that from anyone. Instead they should step together as a team and try to make a sum of all parts better than they're individually.

Until proven otherwise defense is problematic but with (hopefully) healthy Araujo and Emerson I think we should be improved, not to say having another fresher pair of legs upfront helping us defensively instead of Messi walking around. And until we're building a new offensive identity (after being so dependent on one player for most part of the last decade) it would be nice if we could win some games without needing to score 3 goals. Not saying we should become new Atletico but would gladly take some "ugly" 1-0 wins early in this post-Messi era.

Anyway, back to Busi. He's not just slow physically (his legs have gone 3-4 years ago; I don't question his professionalism and commitment to do the best he can but his body just can't cope with modern football anymore) which limits us defensively but also mentally which was his strength playing alongside Xaviesta. He's still an almost elite passer (and that's why tiki-taka cultists who only see pass completion percentages still praise him) but he just needs too much time to pick up the right pass (tbf to him that's partly also due to lack of (inteligent) movement of players infront of him; most of our forwards are slow and the one who is actually fast has low football IQ and is never where he's supposed to be). It still works against lower quality opponents but not against top teams. And it becomes worse when Busi is put under any kind of pressure which was also his strength in prime years. He needs way too much time to turn around against aggressive teams and either lose the ball (in which case we're usually vulnerable on the counters as he's one of the last "defenders") or gets fouled on the ground which keep us possession but still slow down the game and give opponents time to (re)organize themselves defensively.

Positive news for barca is that la liga is not all that. We still comfortably have the 3rd best squad in the league and should have the firepower, midfield stability and ... to finish 4th/3rd and who knows push on further? In the current circumstances that's a win in my eyes.

Yeah, when we were the last time in somewhat identical situation (at the start of this century) Madrid had their galacticos and Deportivo, Valencia, Mallorca were good teams also having some success in Europe. OTOH Atletico were in Segunda and later a midtable La Liga team for years when Laporta started his first stint at the club. So a strong and stabile Atletico is the biggest difference but overall I think La Liga is in worse state than it was 20 years ago (there is no comparision on the European scale with all the money involved in EPL clubs and PSG right now though) while we have a better team than at that time although I understand if some younger fans think the sky is falling and we'll never get out of our current problems. There are clearly challenging (but from my POV also exciting) times ahead of us but this club has survived worse and come back stronger than ever. We will do that again.

 

[Raketa10]

Anyway, back to Busi. He's not just slow physically (his legs have gone 3-4 years ago; I don't question his professionalism and commitment to do the best he can but his body just can't cope with modern football anymore) which limits us defensively but also mentally which was his strength playing alongside Xaviesta. He's still an almost elite passer (and that's why tiki-taka cultists who only see pass completion percentages still praise him) but he just needs too much time to pick up the right pass (tbf to him that's partly also due to lack of (inteligent) movement of players infront of him; most of our forwards are slow and the one who is actually fast has low football IQ and is never where he's supposed to be). It still works against lower quality opponents but not against top teams. And it becomes worse when Busi is put under any kind of pressure which was also his strength in prime years. He needs way too much time to turn around against aggressive teams and either lose the ball (in which case we're usually vulnerable on the counters as he's one of the last "defenders") or gets fouled on the ground which keep us possession but still slow down the game and give opponents time to (re)organize themselves defensively.

I completely agree but as I said earlier I can't see a solution considering the fact we are broke. If we put De Jong in his position and Pedri in front of him there is still one empty spot in our midfield. I honestly don't think Roberto or Puig should be starters. As we all witnessed Coutinho also can't play in the midfield and Gavi is too young. Furthermore, I have never watched Nico Gonzalez play so I don't know if he deserves a shot. Maybe we can find some solution but I honestly can't see it right now. I am afraid that Busi will start majority of games and he is IMHO the most problematic part of this "new" squad.

 

[FC433]

^
we got plenty of ball-playing CBs. I would try one of them there, particularly when RK seems to like his CDM to drop back in between CBs to form a 3 at the back formation while attacking. Garcia seems the ideal option, followed by Mingueza.

 

[Raketa10]

^
we got plenty of ball-playing CBs. I would try one of them there, particularly when RK seems to like his CDM to drop back in between CBs to form a 3 at the back formation while attacking. Garcia seems the ideal option, followed by Mingueza.

Don't think they would add anything in that spot. I would rather try with Nico Gonzalez. At least this is his natural position. I don't know if he is fast but at least he looks physically strong and good on the ball. To be fair what do we have to loose by giving a chance to our B players this season. What is the worst thing that can happen?

 

[FC433]

Or that. One thing that puts me off of NG is that he relies on only his right foot, which is a huge disadvantage for a midfielder.

 

[snowy]

I completely agree but as I said earlier I can't see a solution considering the fact we are broke. If we put De Jong in his position and Pedri in front of him there is still one empty spot in our midfield. I honestly don't think Roberto or Puig should be starters. As we all witnessed Coutinho also can't play in the midfield and Gavi is too young. Furthermore, I have never watched Nico Gonzales play so I don't know if he deserves a shot. Maybe we can find some solution but I honestly can't see it right now. I am afraid that Busi will start majority of games and he is for me the weakest part of this "new" squad.

This spot could be filled by Cardioman or Yusuf or even Kays (if he gets promoted). For Puig, give him his chance. He performed well so far with the few minutes he got.

Griez started some pretty good actions in the last game from deep in the MF. Good vision, connections and accurate passing through the lines.

I love Busi but even a light contact from a Juve player and he fell to his knees. Dunno if it's just preseason rust but Koe better cue. One of his costlier mistakes last year was to play the out of form vets.

 

[Raketa10]

Or that. One thing that puts me off of NG is that he relies on only his right foot, which is a huge disadvantage for a midfielder.

Didn't know that, but let's be fair so does Modric. Joking aside that could be a problem.

This spot could be filled by Cardioman or Yusuf or even Kays (if he gets promoted). For Puig, give him his chance. He performed well so far with the few minutes he got.

Griez started some pretty good actions in the last game from deep in the MF. Good vision, connections and accurate passing through the lines.

I love Busi but even a light contact from a Juve player and he fell to his knees. Dunno if it's just preseason rust but Koe better cue. One of his costlier mistakes last year was to play the out of form vets.

I have nothing against Puig but we are talking about a strong physical DM player at the moment. IMHO Puig can be a replacement for Pedri.

 

[Zidane82]

Don't think they would add anything in that spot. I would rather try with Nico Gonzalez. At least this is his natural position. I don't know if he is fast but at least he looks physically strong and good on the ball. To be fair what do we have to loose by giving a chance to our B players this season. What is the worst thing that can happen?

Agreed .. he?s a great 60 minute replacement for Busqs .. he actually plays like him !

 

[Zidane82]

I know it sounds crazy or even desperate but I?d bring on Gavi every game at around 60 minutes ..

 

[Raketa10]

I know it sounds crazy or even desperate but I?d bring on Gavi every game at around 60 minutes ..

I don't think that's desperate at all but quite logical. With only De Jong and Pedri as a top classs midfielders we need to find the third one. Considering the fact we are broke we can only do that by giving a chance to our youngsters and hoping that one of them will be good enough.

It's better to give minutes to Gonzalez or Gavi than to Sergi Roberto who is definitely not good enough and will leave for free next summer. Too bad Moriba is an idiot.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

With Depay, Demebele (if he renews) and Fati (if he gets back on his level before injury) we will have a fast and unpredictable attack. IMHO we should aim for a much faster transition this season. This is the reason I see Busi as the main problem in our squad. This guy is slow as it gets and playing fast doesn't suit him at all.

sorry your post is too positive for barcaforum standards, we need malvolio to get the usual level back.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Our defense is our weakest link. The CBs we have (Pique, Lenglet, Umtiti are more or less on the useless side; Araujo is promising but still young and learning, not good with the ball and hope he will stay healthy, Mingueza and Garcia are question marks) are not good enough. We need major reinforcement which won't come in a while.