Ronald Koeman

[Luftstalag14]

Don't want to spoil everyone's fun and rock the boat but we will drop points, as will Atletico and Real Madrid. It is very crucial that we beat those two in those two games to ensure we come up ahead.

 

[cro-man]

Don't want to spoil everyone's fun and rock the boat but we will drop points, as will Atletico and Real Madrid. It is very crucial that we beat those two in those two games to ensure we come up ahead.

Thats the problem because we are not doing well against big teams. We are playing well but we are not winning against them. Against psg we played well in the second leg but we still didnt win. I fell like we wont win any of those madrid matches.

 

[soul24rage]

Thats the problem because we are not doing well against big teams. We are playing well but we are not winning against them. Against psg we played well in the second leg but we still didnt win. I fell like we wont win any of those madrid matches.

We have done well in big games after we changed to a back 3. These are our recent big games since then.

- We played well against Sevilla 2 times
- We saw the match against Sociedad yesterday (when was the last time we scored 6 in a difficult away stadium? 2009 El Clasico??)
- We should have won the PSG match if we had our finishing boots on

I fancy our chances against the 2 Madrid teams

 

[xXKonan]

Atletico are really lucky they had built up a lead as they did.

They are playing like a team that should be fighting for 3rd place right now and not "League leaders".

 

[JamDav1982]

Thats the problem because we are not doing well against big teams. We are playing well but we are not winning against them. Against psg we played well in the second leg but we still didnt win. I fell like we wont win any of those madrid matches.

Sevilla were being counted as one of the big teams until Barca put five past them in two games and won both.

Tactics have changed since all those losses and even then beat Juve away and the games with Atletico and Real were fairly tight and could have gone either way when Barca were having a poor spell.

Real away may not even need to win and draw could be decent result.

Atletico would fancy Barca strongly against right now.

 

[Birdy]

Agree the next two matchdays are important.

Ateltico play Sevilla first, and a draw or loss there (very likely IMO) will place Barca only 1-2 points behind them, mounting the pressure.
A win in the classico means that margin is maintained and RM fall further back.

If the above scenario comes true, I think we win it.
Atletico will slip again before the Barca - Atleti, and a Barca win there will seal it.

 

[Horatio]

Easy there, we're no favorite for La Liga. Winning it would be insane actually and a big fat feather in Koeman's cap.

Actually I'd say we're 3rd favorite.

As crazy as it sounds at the moment I put Real as favourites and us as second. A lot will depend on the clasico. Atletico has to drop points. Would be ridiculous if top 3 wins all their matches excluding what happens in the head-to-head games.

As Jamdav said Sevilla has regressed. But a draw at their home is certainly feasible.

 

[KingLeo10]

Calma, calma. League is in the bag, just like I said Anoeta was in the bag.

 

[DonAK]

Relax.

We'll win the league.

 

[BarcaOG]

great showing at the anoeta. 6-1 there is no joke
man of the match, for me.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

Koemannder on his birthday with a outstanding performance, he peaks on his birthdays

 

[Toecrusher]

This setup has unlocked so many positives
- 3 defenders providing counterattack cover
- Frenkie playing Libero which utilises his unique strengths of press resistance and runs from the back, while touching the ball most often
- Busquets having people to play with and having more defensive cover behind
- Alba and Dest arriving in the final third rather than being statically stationed there. Also less worried about defensive duties.
- Messi and Griezmann both playing their favourite 10 position
- Dembele having free rein to use his pace to get in behind, and not being stuck in a wing trying to do 1-1s against low blocks
- Pedri just being amazing and doing whatever needs doing
- Wingbacks pressing pinning down the wide players
- Plus multiple positional switches with Mingueza bombing forward, De Jong and Busquets swapping etc etc. all very total football-esque

Kudos to Koeman, brilliant to watch!

 

[Jakabor]

Remember the days of the 4-2-3-1 formation?

Yeah, me neither.

I like the new formation, but now that Ara?jo is back I don?t want Koeman to forget the 4-3-3.

 

[Alik]

Nah/
RM is bad, and doubt they can put together a streak of wins.
Even last season when they were clearly better than a woeful Barca, they did that streak unconvincingly with a lot of shadows (refs etc).

Atleti has a slight advantage due mainly to their 4 pt lead, rather than their schedule,
but the way they play and recent performances tells me they are going to drop a lot of points til the end

Madrid have Benzema though.

 

[Messi983]

56 goals from counters is pretty surprising. 11 headers as well.