Yeah I agree I'm not sure why people are downplaying it. All this finish top 4 and that's the objective, for what? To potentially have another poor season without trophies again the season after. Silverware is silverware and you never know when the next trophy is gonna come along.
It's not so black and white as finish top 4 this season have a miraculous rebuild in the summer and think the season after is the season we win trophies again.
For this current state Barca something like this supercopa and CDR are important to boost the morale of the team. Who knows if next season will be better or worse than this one
For me, Copa this season is a big objective. It would be nice to win a serious trophy during rebuilding and not be empty handed 2nd season in a row. That's why I'm not comfortable going away at some low tier team who run like mad dogs and give everything, while having players who are tired and can't run. The difference in quality goes out of the window often in these cases.
Wtf? we literally lost in an irrelevant tournament. If we crash out of Copa and bottle it vs PSG, then yes, the season could be considered over.
1-0 scrappy wins and a penalty shootout doesn't cover up the fact we are in fucking shambles.
His tactics and subs aren't good enough
Wtf? we literally lost in an irrelevant tournament. If we crash out of Copa and bottle it vs PSG, then yes, the season could be considered over.
copa might be an objective, if we get lucky with draws. but personally don't see this team having the kill factor to pull out important wins.
vs psg will have to limit the score, that's all. imagine neymar/mbappe running at the likes of dest/mingueza/araujo/lenglet/alba
His bench for yesterday's game was: Neto, Pena, Mingueza, Umtiti, Firpo, Pjanic, Puig, Trincao, Braithwaite.
Hard to blame him for the selection. His options for Lenglet are inexperienced Mingueza and Umtiti. The only starter you can really discuss is Pedri because he is dead tired and Puig at least a somewhat decent replacement. Pjanic has done nothing in this shirt to justify a start over Busquets. Trincao? Looked like a prospect but seems to be overwhelmed with his task. Braithwaite is a squad player. He does his job but is not someone who creates something on his own.
Say what you want about Pique and Roberto, but squad is missing them as options. There is no way Pique would do worse than Lenglet. I'm sure he'd do better than the French and be a leader for Araujo, who is doing very well.
About Fati, there is not even a discussion. He is missed a lot on the left wing and his scorers are missed.
You can discuss about Coutinho being useful or not. He had a good start under Koeman but looked bad after his injury.
This squad is far from perfect and Koeman is addressing it with his wishes, but looks like there is no money for transfers, even rather cheap players like Depay and Garcia are not doable. I hope he gives Konrad a few chances as Trincao offers nothing noteable and should be loaned.