Rashford is their equivalent to Dembele. Bruno is their Pedri. Both played and made a difference. That is if you care to compare apples with apples. Nobody would've cared much if Barca missed Ferran instead of Dembele lol, and Roberto instead of Pedri and Gavi.
Don't understand why it's so hard to be fair when you compare.
We missed our best players, they didn't. If they had missed Rashford, Bruno, and Casemiro then you could talk.
Why so many excuses?
1. in the last 2 years, we haven't won against anyone in a CL or EL. Pedri and Gavi played million times, they were a non factor in Europe. This is not Cadiz
2. even in La Liga, we struggle to control and dominate matches against opponents who are on Segunda level in a league which is on it's weakest level in 30 years
3. in the first match, we score one lucky header. In the 2nd leg we had a comical pen. Remove those, and this is easily 4:1 or 5:1 tie
Suddenly it sounds as if Dembele is a good player.
Or that missing Pedri and Gavi and is a big deal. I mean, ok, for us it is.
But even when they played, we reached all time low levels of getting KOd twice in a group stage, being unable to dominate against anyone in Europe.
Benfica, Inter, Bayern 4 times, Man Utd, Eintracht.
These players could get a single win in the last 2-3 years.
Our results since Psg:
Psg 1:1
Psg 1:4
Bayern 0:3
Benfica 0:3
Benfica 0:0
Bayern 0:3
Napoli 1:1
Napoli 4:2
Galatasaray 0:0
Galatasaray 2:1
Eintracht 1:1
Eintracht 2:3
Bayern 0:2
Inter 0:1
Inter 3:3
Bayern 0:3
Man Utd 2:2
Man Utd 1:2
Total: 18 matches:
2 wins
7 draws
9 defeats
Goals ratio: 18:35
Our goals ratio is almost 200% negative (1 vs 2 ratio).
A lot of posts here sounds: we were unlucky, or we were close.
While the truth is: this is the worst Barca since god knows when.
We were never this bad even in 90s or 00s during our black days.
Our best players in every year since 1992 were: Stoichkov, Romario, Ronaldo Brazilian, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Messi, Neymar.
We always had creative winger-attackers who were leaders of our team.
Yet, in 2023, for the first time ever we have none and the best players in our team are two overhyped kids Pedri and Gavi (in whom majority of fans still have huge faith), but teams where those two are the leaders are losing time after time against any bigger decent opponent (except Real Madrid, whom we can obviously defeat with any lineup).
Pedri and Gavi had lead us to two CL group stage KOs and early EL KOs.
With Spain, even the likes of Japan or Morocco were a too tough nut for them.
In Europe, was there more than 1 match in the last 2 years where the fans could say: wooow, Pedri and Gavi totally dominated the opponent.
1. the worst Barca's attack since 1991
2. the worst Barca's midfield since 1991
3. outdated tactics from 15 years ago
4. lagging behind European top teams in pace and overall physique for 20-30%
5. psychology: zero