BBZ8800
Senior Member
About these "physical" players, I have an impression that some of you think that I would like to play with 195cm tall robots with insane muscles.
No.
But honestly, on a scale from 1 to 10, Xavi and Iniesta probably had physique (height, weight, stamina, pace, strength) around 2/10 or 3/10.
So, we don't need players with 10/10 in physique, but in general, a midfield with physically weak players never worked too well in our history (in terms of CL titles), except in era when we had Messi, so it is hard to tell whether short midfielders ALONE worked even then.
You are mentioning Psg as a team who doesn't rely on strength.
Sorry, but lol.
Our last match, last year, when we lost 4:0 is a perfect example of what I am talking about, when our team filled with technical, and yet short and physically weak players, is eaten alive by any stronger team with decent technique and far superior physical skills.
Out of 6 midfielders and attackers in that match:
Busi: slow as a turtle. He is tall, but he is physically weak and somewhat weak in duels against faster and stronger players
Gomes: the same story. Tall, but slow as a turtle and weak-ish in duels
Iniesta: short, slow, old, weak in duels
Messi: he doesn't defend at all
Neymar: when a wind blows, he will fall on his ass. No need to comment his height, strength and duels
Suarez: not defending too much, even though he is a strongest player out of these 6. He is slow, though
Now, Psg's midfielders and attack:
Verratti: stronger in duels than all of our 6 players
Rabiot: 191 cm tall. Stronger and better in duels than all of our 6 players
Matuidi: 180cm. A decent pace and strength, unlike Iniesta/Gomes/Busi
Draxler: 187 cm tall. Fast and stronger than our 6 players
Di Maria: 180 cm. Average
Cavani: 184: quite fast and strong
So, we had Messi and Neymar, but when you close down those two, our other 4 creators aren't ANY better than Psg's players.
So, outside of Messi's&Neymar's technique, we aren't technically better than Psg.
And then, look at pace and strength, how much better Psg is in that area than our team.
Psg 2017:
Because, I have that impression.
The opponents always outplay us in the middle due to muscles.
We are neutralized and we can't do shit in attack, again because we are one dimensional and we rely only on scoring with feet through the middle (in attack).
Crosses: nothing
Long balls: nothing
Corners: nothing
Long ranged shots: we stopped trying them since Pep's era, lol
So, we are just trying a bunch of stupid actions through the middle. Smart big teams crowd their middle with 2 buses around their box to close down our predictable play through the middle with short passes (and they will leave their flanks "open" for crosses, since we'll never cross, or we have no one to score after crosses). We can't do shit. Then they outmuscle us in the middle and they score in attack, either on counters, or after crosses/corners, where we suck since always.
Now, take a look at these points which I have mentioned (how are we attacking and how easily neutralized we are. And yet, how are they attacking and scoring. And how are they physically stronger and faster in midfield).
Atletico 2016:
You don't believe me?
The same shit is repeating for the last 20 years.
2008 against Man Utd:
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