Should Barca prioritize the Champions?

[Hektor]

Hi:

There is an interesting article in Mundo Deportivo that conducts a Poll asking "Should Barça Prioritize the Champions League?

http://www.mundodeportivo.com/futbo...ca-lo-tiene-claro-prioridad-la-champions.html

I agree up to a point. La Liga is the most important competition, imho. There is no Champions League without La Liga. The Champions League is a very close second. However, La Copa del Rey has no significance whatsoever.

Real Madrid and Atletico were disqualified from La Copa Del Rey and were not competitive or interested in La Liga a long time ago. Therefore, we should play with our not very used substitutes, players from the Barça B, and La Macia for La Copa del Rey. If we are disqualified, so be it. Who cares? Let the teams that have no prayer in winning La Liga have a chance in winning La Copa de Rey. That has been my position for a long time. We cannot compete on three fronts at the same time. Our players cannot play three games a week. Two fronts is more than enough.

Hektor

 

[serghei]

No. But we should rest players near CL games and prepare for it better.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Yes. Copa should be third priority. League and CL should have equal importance, depending on League situation of course.

Last 3 years you could see a trend happening. Our players look dead tired and th3n we get knocked out from CL BUT after that players look fresh again. They had burden of playing 3 competitions at the same time, it's just too many games to play in the highest level of football and we are not the youngest team anymore. Our players need more rest, mind and body!

 

[malvolio]

No. But we should rest players near CL games and prepare for it better.

This. It's not that Real are prioritizing the CL. It happens that sometimes they are way behind us in the league come spring and so they can play only for that competition.

It surely would be better if we have a strong bench like theirs so that we would play reserves more often in the Copa del Rey.

 

[ronniecro]

no,it would only make us look desperate if we shift our focus solely on CL but we need to improve greatly
and to be honest,i kinda lost enthusiasm for eventual win of CL in the wake of madrids domination,it's like getting the girl after the gangbang

 

[henias]

Just stop treating Copa like some kind of trophy that people are going to give a shit, Madrid doesnt even give a fuck about it. I suggest we just let majority of Barca B players have a go at it and they can have more exposure.

We dont need to prioritise UCL, but at least we should be more smartly prepared for it and not let Copa burn us out for us to get humiliated by European teams again. We are once the top team in Europe and we are better than that. And it's not we arent a good team, it's just we havent been competition-smart in recent years.

 

[Neeraj]

While it's true Madrid doesn't give two hoots about Copa nowadays, it's funny to think back to the 2011 bus parade, when they were celebrating it as if it was the World Cup . That's because we were the dominant force in world football at the time.

Sure with their back to back to back CL success, they can have the stance that not caring about Copa has paid off.

My view is the Copa is a pointless trophy now unless it's a treble. I think the Cup would have a lot more significance if it was a single tie knockout game, like a "Cup" is supposed to be. Then anyone can win and it adds a sense of excitement. With the greed La Liga has shown, it's always going to come to one of the big boys winning it, and frankly, we should be playing our B team in it. It's embarrassing that we need to bring out all the big guns for the quarters and semis of Copa. We should only really play any big guns in the final. Especially considering we've won it enough times now, we can afford to let go of that competition till we get some quality depth in the squad, which looks like it's going to take a few years to come.

 

[serghei]

Copa is important when you win other big titles and add a Copa to make it a Cup double (CL + Copa), a domestic double, or a treble. For a club like Barcelona, Copa alone doesn't cut it, it's true. Copa is not pointless at all, it's one of only the two serious titles you can win in Spain. It's not like there are 5 competitions in Spain that you get to play. It's only the league and the Copa (and the Supercopa, but nobody cares that much since it's a preseason warm-up). But it is smart to prioritize La Liga and CL and let the young players play in the Copa, with 2-3 starters only to provide balance.

 

[pepi]

Cant believe this is even a question. After madrids 3 CL in a row it should be number one priority. Next season should be CL > La Liga > CDR

 

[Devils]

Barcelona do prioritize the CL

Their approach and mentality to winning it though has been terrible in recent years.

I personally don't believe that fatigue was the reason for our recent elimination (Atletico x2, Juve and Roma). While I agree that it would be smarter for us to rest key players at every stage before the SF of the CDR to increase chances, I don't think it would have made much of a difference in the elimination mentioned above.

If you watch those games, were were tactically clueless and our players were walking around looking lost. The team was shell-shocked for the over 90% of the game. That shows much more evidence of poor tactics and lack of mentality than fatigue issues.

 

[fergus90]

I think we do prioritize the Champions League and La Liga, it's only natural that top class players want to win the best competitions. But the cold harsh truth is we've been found out in the Champions League in recent seasons. Barca are a huge scalp still for any team especially whilst we still have Messi, and when we go away especially in the knockout rounds where every result is vital, teams are so intense and focused on beating us .

The intense pressing we can't seem to cope with anymore in reality due to the drop in quality of the personnel, now only Busquets, Messi and to some extent Pique are truly comfortable with the ball in very close situations, in the "Barca" way.

The team looks so vulnerable at any high-intense knockout game, so much to the point that in reality we've taken some real hammerings the last 2 years.

I do however think that if it was any other team than Madrid winning the last 3 years, the Liga and Copa would be celebrated 100 times more than it is. I think it's just extra frustrating considering we won the treble 14/15 and in reality could of kicked on to dominate.

 

[jamrock]

Over the copa? A 100x yes

 

[Neymessi]

Should have been a top top priority when they won back to back not just now. In any other situation I would be ok with our current strategy but with RM winning 4 cl in 5 years, sorry but we have to go for the CL all out and not give two shits about the copa.

 

[Xtroverto]

Just stop treating Copa like some kind of trophy that people are going to give a shit, Madrid doesnt even give a fuck about it.

Actually they do, it is just that they have not done very well in that competition since 2011, every year they get eliminated the Madrid media loose it, this year was no different. http://www.marca.com/futbol/real-madrid/2018/01/24/5a68fb5f22601d9c448b465f.html

 

[Pepe Silvia]

Hi:

There is an interesting article in Mundo Deportivo that conducts a Poll asking "Should Barça Prioritize the Champions League?

http://www.mundodeportivo.com/futbo...ca-lo-tiene-claro-prioridad-la-champions.html

I agree up to a point. La Liga is the most important competition, imho. There is no Champions League without La Liga. The Champions League is a very close second. However, La Copa del Rey has no significance whatsoever.

Real Madrid and Atletico were disqualified from La Copa Del Rey and were not competitive or interested in La Liga a long time ago. Therefore, we should play with our not very used substitutes, players from the Barça B, and La Macia for La Copa del Rey. If we are disqualified, so be it. Who cares? Let the teams that have no prayer in winning La Liga have a chance in winning La Copa de Rey. That has been my position for a long time. We cannot compete on three fronts at the same time. Our players cannot play three games a week. Two fronts is more than enough.

Hektor

If we make smart decisions there is no reason WHY we can't compete on three fronts. We simply need to use reinforcements more often in copa and adjust strategies in CL.