Lol. Laporta thinks we can win la liga with inconsistent Depay, washed up Aguero, slow Garc?a and a crappy defense and midfield.
Somebody like Trincao deserved a chance. We should have loaned him in January if we needed to. Trincao has the right profile for us age and talent wise.
We can probably still win the La Liga, but we're definitely years away from competing in the Champions League. La Liga isn't that strong of a league anymore, so even with a decent squad like ours, we still have a chance. Although, it depends what signings both Madrid's make. It also depends if Messi has a really good season or not. We're basically relying on a 34-year-old Messi to carry the load once again.
Tbh, we have to give Laporta some slack. He has landed himself in quite the mess. Before he can make some steps in the right direction we have to trim a lot of fat. If we can break nearly even with Trincao I'd take it.
I agree that the problem is the defense. I think the midfield has 2 starters in it that are top players / world class, namely Pedri, and De Jong. That's solid foundation. Then in attack you have Fati, Depay, Messi, Griezmann, Aguero who are players that can and do score goals and are good technically.
The huge weakness is goalkeeper and central defense.
Pique and Lenglet are jokes, Araujo can't stay fit, Mingueza is raw and inconsistent and still a wild card, and Garcia doesn't fill me with confidence at all. And the less said about Stegen's abysmal shot-stopping stats the better.
Top goalkeeper who actually saves the team like the likes Courtois and Oblak do (our competition basically) almost every game + a top defender and we go a very long way.
KunA ??Barcas issue is the defence.
Could line up with a midfield/front line of FDJ/Pedri/Messi/Griezmann/Depay and Fati.
Would need a 4231 for that.. which old amigos push back on every time though.
KunA ??
Clearly but comparing them and saying 'Dembele has had 4/5 years' makes no sense.
Completely different situations.
I agree that the problem is the defense. I think the midfield has 2 starters in it that are top players / world class, namely Pedri, and De Jong. That's solid foundation. Then in attack you have Fati, Depay, Messi, Griezmann, Aguero who are players that can and do score goals and are good technically.
The huge weakness is goalkeeper and central defense.
Pique and Lenglet are jokes, Araujo can't stay fit, Mingueza is raw and inconsistent and still a wild card, and Garcia doesn't fill me with confidence at all. And the less said about Stegen's abysmal shot-stopping stats the better.
Top goalkeeper who actually saves the team like the likes Courtois and Oblak do (our competition basically) almost every game + a top defender and we go a very long way.
Problem is, midfield would have to have 3 Kantes running because they try to protect the slow backline of Pique and Lenglet, then add more legs to the offense for Messi, Aguero, and Depay. Recipe for disaster. No midfield can protect the backline/front line like this. There's just not enough movement or physicality in the roster.
This is why I came around on Emerson. He will bring much-needed power and physicality in defense, and hopefully, he will keep the errors to a minimum. Say, if you play Mingueza + Emerson, and you accept that you are gonna suffer some technical mistakes here and there, I think we'd end up on a plus side going forward, simply due to the added speed, physicality, focus, and work rate.
Roberto - Pique - Lenglet should be on the chopping block. These soft, slow players, some of which are mentally checked-out, should be back-ups. I am worried they will still start because Koeman's youth-favoring has been pretty much forced on him by injuries. He ruined the end of the season because as soon as the vets were back from injury he played them as if they were some key players. I have doubts that if everyone is fit, Koeman is that keen on rebuilding the team.