Ronald Koeman

[mc_lovin]

It was just a gutless performance all around. I would have rather seen us try and loose 5-0 in the process. At least there would have been some lessons to be learned.

 

[delancey]

Players are not the reason for the weak mental game projected by Koeman or his piss poor defensive tactics. We had anything but a winning mentality. While the scar from the 2-8 loss against Bayern still remains, it was always up to the manager to get rid of it by instilling a fighting mentality on our team. Instead we played like headless chickens. At least put up a fight ffs.

Coutinho Depay Roberto

Pedri De Jong Gavi/Nico/Demir/?

Back 4 of your choice, but with Balde starting on the left. Add a top manager to that who believes in his players, someone with a winning mentality. BAM!

Club Brugge played 1-1 against Mbappe, Neymar, and Messi. What is our excuse?

 

[malvolio]

It was just a gutless performance all around. I would have rather seen us try and loose 5-0 in the process. At least there would have been some lessons to be learned.

No, you wouldn't. You can't look better when losing 5-0 than 3-0. These results don't happen by chance and the better team just being terribly unlucky.

 

[mc_lovin]

Club Brugge played 1-1 against Mbappe, Neymar, and Messi. What is our excuse?

I can't stress enough how much I dislike these comparisons.

Back to the game: I thought we showed more heart in the 8:2

 

[Laplacian]

Players are not the issue for the weak mental game projected by Koeman or his piss poor defensive tactics. We had anything but a winning mentality. While the scar from the 2-8 loss against Bayern still remains, it was always up to the manager to get rid of it by instilling a fighting mentality on our team. Instead we played like headless chickens. At least put up a fight ffs.

Coutinho Depay Roberto

Pedri De Jong Gavi/Nico/Demir/?

Back 4 of your choice, but with Balde starting on the left. Add a top manager to that who believes in his players, someone with a winning mentality. BAM!

Club Brugge played 1-1 against Mbappe, Neymar, and Messi. What is our excuse?

PSG have no midfield, and have a slow front 3. Bayerns complete in every single position.

Seriously, I said it before...if you can't handle this might as well stop watching for the next 3-5 years. Our cycle is over and it'll take us awhile to be elite again. Not only do we need money, but we also need every single one if our decisions to work out.

There's no quick fix for this.

 

[malvolio]

Club Brugge played 1-1 against Mbappe, Neymar, and Messi. What is our excuse?

Club Brugge managed a draw against an attack that played its first game together. And PSG had several chances to win but were let down by poor finishing.

But Koeman is a bum anyway.

 

[fergus90]

Brugge was very good value for their draw to be fair.

 

[delancey]

Club Brugge managed a draw against an attack that played its first game together. And PSG had several chances to win but were let down by poor finishing.

But Koeman is a bum anyway.

We can disagree, but lining up in a 3-5-2 formation and bitching about our lack of quality (future stars) won?t save him his job. 😁

 

[mc_lovin]

No, you wouldn't. You can't look better when losing 5-0 than 3-0. These results don't happen by chance and the better team just being terribly unlucky.

I surely would. Give Pedri and Frenkie a true shot at competing in midfield and see where we are. Not the shit we just got served. A defeat can be cleansing - see Madrid in 2011. Anyway, there's still a return game. Hopefully with a full squad then.

 

[delancey]

I can't stress enough how much I dislike these comparisons.

Back to the game: I thought we showed more heart in the 8:2

The comparison is simply made to highlight how important it is for a manager to believe in his players, and to instill a fighting mentality, a can-do attitude. Another example would be the 2-1 result of YB-Man U.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Club Brugge managed a draw against an attack that played its first game together. And PSG had several chances to win but were let down by poor finishing.

But Koeman is a bum anyway.

Brugge had their chances too. Even game overall

 

[Bobo32]

NO, I seem to deem stats misleading when people like you and others throw them in order to make an impression
without explaining what the stat says
or even without understanding themselves what the stat is

So, some introduction to xstats for beginners:

Calculation of xGchain from Statsbomb:
-Find all the possessions each player is involved in.
-Find all the shots within those possessions.
-Sum their xG (you might take the highest xG per possession, or you might treat the shots as dependent events, whatever floats your boat).
-Assign that sum to each player, however involved they were.


What this means?
In a decent game, where a team produced some chances, you can say that the best chances came from plays where X player was involved the most.
It's one of the less meaningful stats, that has to be used with parsimony. Why?
CBs many times come up top in xGchain. Simply because they happened to have the greatest sum in the calculation above.
Does this mean that their involvement is crucial in the buildup to a good chance? Not necessarily, especially for CBs that just start buildups (highlighted part above should be enough)

Now, why YOU throwing that stat to defend Roberto is ridiculous?
Because Barca recorded ONLY fuck'n 0.2 xG in 90 minutes last night.
To make it even more clear to you, Barca had 5 attempts of close to 0 xG value
Just to calculate the xGchain would mean making a weighted comparison between those 5 attempts.
If Roberto touched the ball in the buildup of 2 of those, he has probably topped the xGchain.
Does this mean he contributed anything?
NO

Now you are educated,
you can go back to your ideological agenda using less ridiculous points next time...

I think what the stat is and what it means is very intuitive.
Your explanation is very forced however.
Of course Roberto contributed something. In fact, he was the one most involved in actions leading to the few shots Barcelona created.

 

[MTL_Barca]

Tbh i think if they'd play for us right now people would call Muller an old donkey, fatty Sule not mobile enough, Pavard too limited to play RB etc. I'd bet BBZ would also find reasons to dislike Sane and Musiala

But they built an actual team, that works together as a unit. They have the required physical attributes despite not everyone looking like roided up Goretzka. And of course a good coach holding everything together.

That's something we need as well, and it doesn't require a top 3 player on every single position so it's not impossible to achieve even if we can't compete with the PSG budget anytime soon. But right now we're far away from that, the squad is a clusterfuck and Koeman seems clueless on where to go from here.

 

[Bobo32]

Tbh i think if they'd play for us right now people would call Muller an old donkey, fatty Sule not mobile enough, Pavard too limited to play RB etc. I'd bet BBZ would also find reasons to dislike Sane and Musiala

But they built an actual team, that works together as a unit. They have the required physical attributes despite not everyone looking like roided up Goretzka. And of course a good coach holding everything together.

That's something we need as well, and it doesn't require a top 3 player on every single position so it's not impossible to achieve even if we can't compete with the PSG budget anytime soon. But right now we're far away from that, the squad is a clusterfuck and Koeman seems clueless on where to go from here.

Yep a very good and completely true point.
Barcelona have long struggled with two different mindsets - in fans and seemingly in players.
Some - like me - prefer the technical, safe, Barca-DNA style, while others prefer a more direct, physical style with higher variance and less control.

Since last year, when Koeman arrived, the squad actually turned into a much more coherent Barca-DNA group of players, unfortunately the manager was Koeman...

 

[Porque]

Brugge was very good value for their draw to be fair.

Quoting you to stay on the topic of Brugge, so this is not a contradiction to your post.

Brugge played a similar game to us in setup, difference being that they had the energy and workrate in the midfield to absorb and the pace and individually in the attack to counter.

Depay is fine, as showed a few years ago with Lyon in the CL giving Bayern a good matchup and knocking out City, but Koeman has to understand by now that unless we have pace in offence- or Dembele then we can't play this type of game.

It was only a friendly, but I think the key for our season was the Gamper game where we had Demir start and play almost a free role cutting centrally and overloading the midfield. He may not end up being a prodigal talent but he has good dribbling, is fearless and an unknown for the opposition which makes him dangerous.

Now the good news is we have the majority of our forward line to return, and if Koeman is inclined to try, pace and width through the fullbacks in Balde and Dest. Not to forget a fit Alba of course.

Also as a final point, I didn't think Luuk de Jong was bad initially, but he certainly lacked match fitness and rhythm. But if are have an energetic midfield, and a pacy forward line through the surrounding attackers and fullbacks then he can certainly be an asset as a poor mans Ronaldo or Haaland type of role.

I can't believe I am suggesting building around Luuk de friggin' Jong as opposed to Messi but what other option do we have right now? It is what it is.