Spanish Super Cup: Barca - Bilbao 1-1 (1-5 agg.)

[Catalan Fan]

I care least about this trophy allthough its a waste. Its logical though if you look at it: ET in georgia few days ago, copa america hangover, lack of fitness, injured key players, weak bench and to be fair a fully motivated strong bilbao side at home.

I hope Lucho rests key players for the return and focus on la liga start. We need to do well untill january and be smart about the rotations.
This is the best game if we were going to suffer a beating, better now than in la liga and best at the start of the season.

This post is correct.

 

[Behrox]

the fucking calendar was literally made to screw us over. Ney getting mumps and Alba injury was just the icing on the cake

 

[raskolnikov]

There is still ample time between Monday and the first round of La Liga on August 23rd.

I don't know what he will do on August 23rd. If we lose again, it will be a crisis.

It will be when we lose 4-0 with all our key players.

San Mames is one of those games which you can always lose/draw and are key to winning la liga imo. If we go all out in these tough games and rotate smart we can do very well. But our squad lacks depth, we didnt stack up well before the ban and get exposed with several key players missing. Fit key players is very important to us. We are not Bayern/Real or Chelsea in that regard. But there is no need to complain about it now, we have to do what we can.

 

[utility73]

To all downplaying what just happened.
Off course liga is way more important than this insignificant title.
But this is also about prestige. Getting slaugthered like this, especially by an opponent which is not top class, is not excusable for a team like Barça.

So yes Lucho should have rested key players but fielding a starting lineup with an amateur midfield and no experienced defence was asking exactly for what we got.
Would have been better to rest Messi and maybe Suarez and at least start with a decent midfield and defence. Then he could have subbed important players for resting if the game progress had allowed it.

But whatever, the damage has been done. Now we can rest anybody in the 2nd leg because it has zero importance now anyway.
And yes the good thing is that Bilbao will at least have no experience against our best lineup for that first liga game ... given Lucho does not get completely crazy and field a top lineup for the 2nd leg of the supercopa.

 

[Flavia]

There is still ample time between Monday and the first round of La Liga on August 23rd.

I don't know what he will do on August 23rd. If we lose again, it will be a crisis.

6 days is not that long. Any injury takes a player out for 15 days, usually. It's clear Enrique is prioritazing the league, and rightfully so, imo.

So you mean rest players at San Mames and play them at Camp Nou in the 2nd leg? Doesn't make sense.. either way it's a game before the first La Liga game with a risk of injury so are you suggesting we rest them both games?

Just do the math. They played 120 min vs sevilla in a very intense match roughly 3 days ago. They barely had 48h to rest. Playing some players today would be a big, big risk of injury.

 

[Kikan]

Lucho took a gamble and didn't pay off. I don't blame him though.

If he had started a full squad, there might have been injuries. Considering the fact that we already have Alba and Neymar out, just imagine starting La Liga with additional injuries.

.

Yes yes yes , it is only the final right ? , So we should never put our strongest line up because they might get injured LOL . If we go by your logic then we should not play period .

by the way that was not a gamble , it was just being plain stupid .

 

[Darko]

Excellent display from Bilbao. Very well organized, disciplined and intense performance; even with a handful of key players missing. As for Barca, there's not much to say really, other than the obvious.

I disagree. Yes they played with intensity but it was a similar game to our 5-2 win last season. Bilbao left lots of space at the back but due to our shit midfield and defence we couldn't supply our forwards. And all the goals they scored were individual errors from our players. That's what hurts the most from this game, We could have easily drawn or lost by just one goal with our reserves and than win it at the Camp Nou.

 

[raskolnikov]

one thing that does bother me is that Barca cant kill a game, we cant just close shop after scoring and chelsea it to the end nor can we play result based football and just get a good result when we lack keyplayers.
We are like an one punch ko type brawler with a glass chin.

 

[puyolman]

Line up was not the best but understandable, they should have never lost by more than 2 goals difference
And as Always there is a good chance we score at least a goal
So we could normally have finished this on Monday
Just take away the error by ter steegen and the penalty and you have an ok result for Monday

squad depth is a problem until we have our 2 signings in January
our only real problem would then be LB
at cb I still think vermaelen and bartra are ok as backup players
up front without Pedro would also leave us with few options but with arda available we would manage

 

[ceefoo]

Lucho took a gamble and didn't pay off. I don't blame him though.

If he had started a full squad, there might have been injuries. Considering the fact that we already have Alba and Neymar out, just imagine starting La Liga with additional injuries.

Even if no one did get injured, there would still be no guarantee that we would win. We have just played 120 mins less than 3 days ago, and the team is clearly unfit. Lucho clearly wanted to ride out the storm and have a rested squad for the return leg.

Anyways, people need to calm down. It would have been really nice to win the sextuple, but losing it is not the end of the world. Bilbao and Barca fans care about winning the Super Cup, but the majority of the world isn't even watching. With regards to the score line, it sucks, but it's not like when we lost to Bayern.



Agreed. We just better win at the Camp Nou. Losing tonight my have positive side effects. Losing again at the Camp Nou will just be bad for morale.

A well considered, rational post.

My sentiments exactly.

 

[Mitchell1978]

at least the tables could be turned (a little) as Athletic has a european game on thursday right before the opening game of la liga so we should be more rested that time around

 

[Alik]

Yes yes yes , it is only the final right ? , So we should never put our strongest line up because they might get injured LOL . If we go by your logic then we should not play period .

by the way that was not a gamble , it was just being plain stupid .

You realize that there are 2 legs? He wanted to manage the first leg because the first team was exhausted to be much better anyway. Clearly he didn't expect to lose by 4 goals.

Well done for ignoring the rest of the post.

 

[bismp]

It is true that the starting XI was really bad,and i blame Lucho for that despite the difficulties he had to face,but the squad depth is indeed not even close to world class.Xavi may have been old,but he was a pretty decent choice,especially because he was the most experienced player i the squad.In other words,he would have been a great choice for today's match

 

[Chong Li]

Starting the game with such a weak defense and midfield Lucho showed how much he cares about the Super Cup. Liga is the priority, and he's absolutely right.

But of course the performance tonught was still totally embarassing.

Now everyone should be rested on Monday.

 

[raskolnikov]

It is true that the starting XI was really bad,and i blame Lucho for that despite the difficulties he had to face,but the squad depth is indeed not even close to world class.Xavi may have been old,but he was a pretty decent choice,especially because he was the most experienced player i the squad.In other words,he would have been a great choice for today's match

Xavi was/is better than any of our midfield backups and did play a lot. He was perfect for our rotation.
I feel we are better of playing Messi in midfield then starting with a midfield like today.