footyfan
Calma, calma
They should've have had 2 penalties for handballs in the first leg. The 4-0 scoreline was absolutely deserving.
Thiago Translantara
- Thread starter IraqiCulé
- Start date
They should've have had 2 penalties for handballs in the first leg. The 4-0 scoreline was absolutely deserving.
El Anti-Galactico
Member
losing to anti-football was like getting punched in the nuts repeatedly. Absolutely crushing.
Just my view though, to each his own.
darthvader7888
Banned
And Bayern should have gotten a lot of penalties. It evens out. Besides, they dominated us, we fully deserved to lose 7-0.
As for Xavi, it's obviously not Tito's fault he's aging, but he should have rested him (and played Thiago) more.
To be fair, the way we lost to Chelsea did piss me off immensely. Domianting the game, missing a million sitters, and losing while Chelsea scored like their only 3 chances (including Ramires' winning goal, which was an individual mistake by Masch). Still, there's no doubt last year's team did far better against Chelsea (and in big games in general) than this year's team did against Bayern.
Last edited:
L
Learo
Guest
I take it that you agree with the main points i made then?
El Anti-Galactico
Member
Yeah, this whole rumor seems to be crap if you look at the original link.
Barcastuff irks me with his sensationalized translations....
jamrock
Senior Member
El Anti-Galactico
Member
Hope you're enjoying being on Pep's jock as well.
DonAndres
Wild Man of Borneo
You really don't understand the influence of a coach on a team do you? As we saw with Roura during Tito's absence, no team can go into autopilot and continue playing at their level without a competent coach to guide them. In reality, Pep's influence on Barca was even bigger than suggested.
Armando929
New member
Pep can't make him move. Plus there's no room for him there to get the starting time he wants.
His best bet is United.
His best bet is United.
El Anti-Galactico
Member
Sure a coach can have a big influence but y'all are really shortchanging this historical group of players. Just look what happened without a healthy Messi, the greatest ever.
. I don't see too much difference between Pep and Tito though, setting aside the disruption of Tito's illness. Tito is more agreessive tactcally but that has ups and downs. I dont think there would be much difference with Bisela or Del Bosque.
The main issue of the team is aging, tired players without clear successors. Noy a ton of depth either like Real or Bayern either. I see that as the main reason the pressing style Pep brought is faltering.
Ursegor
World Champion
That's such a simplistic way of looking at it. If we ignore the 5-0 result for a second when Madrid were still building their project and their players hadn't gelled yet then you'll realize that the results against Madrid got steadily worse already under Pep. After the 5-0, off the top of my head:
La Liga Clasico in the Bernabeu: We couldn't break them down and drew 1-1 despite Madrid playing with 10 men (Albiol red card).
Copa del Rey Clasico: First time Madrid pressed us high up the pitch and we didn't cope too well. Madrid should have taken the lead in the first half (Pepe hitting the post). Lost the final 0-1 at the end.
CL semi-final first leg: We created nothing until Pepe got sent off and Messi dribbled past 16 players.
CL semi-final second leg: We actually went behind 0-1 but a Mascherano dive prevented Madrid from taking the lead. We drew 1-1 at the end.
Supercopa Clasicos: Messi with 3 goals and 2 assists over 2 legs. From this point on it wasn't a team effort anymore and the game wasn't won by Pep's tactical acumen. Messi made the difference.
Copa del Rey second leg in Pep's last season: Extremely lucky to survive it with a 2-2 (+ disallowed Ramos goal) at home and we all know it. Higuain could (SHOULD) have scored after 20 seconds already. A deflected cross coupled with an Alves wonder strike somehow took us through to the finals.
Pep's last Clasico: Mourinho wins for the first time in Camp Nou.
There was a game inbetween there somewhere where Pep did brilliantly with the 3-4-3 in the Bernabeu but overall, as you can see, we were getting worse and worse against Madrid already under Pep with many lucky wins or draws which could have easily been losses. We were shut down by Milan even under Pep as well. We didn't score in San Siro and only won in Camp Nou thanks to 2 penalties.
Tito took a declined squad which was already figured out tactically by Mourinho, he got hit by cancer, the squad got hit by injuries (Puyol said he felt uncomfortable the whole season with his knee, Xavi played through many injuries, Busquets had (or still has?) a hernia injury and even Messi got injured) which accummulated to the shitty end of the season. If your squad has a disadvantage in terms of physical well-being then even del Bosque's team, the greatest coach in Spanish history, will get overrun by a Paulinho-Gustavo midfield pairing. Why are people ignoring all of this?
El Anti-Galactico
Member
Well said
DonAndres
Wild Man of Borneo
They were tighter games but still Barca deserved victories, and you can't act like just because not every goal was a clear testament to Pep's tactical acumen that he declined in creativity and only relied on Messi to take the reigns. As a team we were performing well, dominating the games and being the imposing side. Our victories were convincing under Pep, we were the better team most of the time. A few bad plays or referee decisions doesn't suddenly prove that Madrid were unlucky not to beat us. It goes the other way around as well, with the constant Madrid thuggery to keep us from getting forward when they knew that they clearly had left space for us to create a scoring chance.
Ursegor
World Champion
Did we get steadily worse under Pep or not against Madrid? My time frame is from the 5-0 (before that they were a joke squad, Gago, Guti, grandpa Raul, Drenthe lol) until the 1-2 Camp Nou loss. A simple yes or no will do.
Home of Barca Fans
