Valdés
Alves
Puyol
Márquez
Abidal
Xavi
Touré (57 Hleb)
Iniesta (66 Keita)
Messi
Eto'o
Henry (62 Bojan)
13 Mario 1-0
yellow cards
Puyol
Eto'o
assists
-
bench
Pinto
Cáceres
Piqué
Gudjohnsen
out of match squad
Sylvinho
Pedro
Víctor Sánchez
injured/coming back from injury/ill
Jorquera
Milito
#
Monday, 1 September 2008
Liga 1: Numancia-Barcelona 1-0
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28 comments:
FIRE FIRE!!! I HATE MY LIFE!!!SHOOT ME PLEASE!!!
I woke up and as usual came to say goodmorning to pep here...and I read a big mess in the last night game discussions, I wrote it there and i repeat here...hopefoly some may read...
Calm down guys:)and welcome to the real world...
Numancia a team just promted playing three games against barcelona, Real, and vilarreal in a raw, with their coach telling them "hey in the foolowing 3 matches, getting 1 point is good, 2 is better 3 is great!!anything more will make me proud of u!then we get to start the serious business"In brief NO PRESSURE!
Playing against a team that made a huge transmition in the squad and coaching staff, still finding the chemistry needed but yet, and no offense, having millions of fans like u!Demanding unpatient and hungry for results(and i understand that)but mostly wanting it NOW NOW NOW and AT THE MOMENT! "BARCA must score 5" "nono...734563478 goals against numancia" its not how it goes in football, and no wonder the players legs were heavey yesterday.
wheather u like it or not, this team need time to gel, and this coach need time to find his perfect combination (and no preseason was not enough-Rather the promotional tour in USA that bring bad things more than good thing on sporting aspect), wheather u like it or not this team can compete for la liga, but for CL its still too early to make predictions, just to make things straight!
Now about transfers, in the following 8 hours, i am not sure if its realistic to try snapping players now and sure its not reccommended to make panic buys (something like arshavine for 20 M), and i dont want the new commers to be labeled as "survivours for the loosers - the current squad" and I dont want barca to change their transfer plans based on a result, what if they lost against racing?there will be no transfer market then!
One thing for sure is that, with time kexvin knowledge about football(and he is an aducated man no doubt) will beat his emotional tie to henry and his belief that this guy can play as a LW, so i will give him and those who believe so their time to figure that out, and i am not saying this based on yesterday performance, and i will not change my mind if "it happened" and henry scored in the next game.
Another fact is that THE GOAL WAS NOT VALDES FAULT!it was the defence bad positioning, in that situation (harder than a penalty) the keeper go forward(he did it) and choose a reflex hoping to be lucky to come on the ball path, nothing else, so stop spanking the guy for evey goal, and give me a better keeper to buy, not a better keeper who play in another team and barca cant even dream to get.
Abidal is not in his form, sylvinho is not the answer as long as alves play on the RB, u need a LB who can act as a 3rd CB when alves go forward, caceres can be an answer till abidal bounce back to form, he is not good, but he is not a trash as some may claim.
as for changes, i prefer hleb beside xavi, because hleb push his passes forward, while having vaxi and iniesta in midfield gained only fruitless possessions.
and i would put iniesta in henry place as LW, let me remind u he is still young and can customize his game and attributes by time, he dribble good in narrow distances when the other team play all deffence so with him on left and messi on right the team can expect lot of free kicks arround the box and hopefully some penalties inside, also give pedro some time on the field when its possible and hopefull till january he will be able to carry more responsibilities.
For a striker, i cant c it happening while barca have henry,eto, and bojan, but the only cheap practical and attainable choice i can think of is -again- crespo, he is the right player to play the larsson role, when u need a head in the crowed to bounce a cross to the net.
This team is not an accomplished finished product, its still under construction, better getting used to this rather than hailing when the team win and moaning when it dont.
The bastards from the capital lost too so its not that bad...:D
i didnt see the game cause i had to attend to a wedding ,i will see the highlights today somewhere.
like ramzi says its not the end of the world and i agree with his points ,i think that in the first camp nou game there will be a ton of pressure for a win.if there will be loss then i dont expect the players to leave the field alive (joking).the fans expect this team to win always.
and in the end look at the bright side even real madrid failed in their first match by losing to depor so we are ok.although these are the chances we have to grab in order to have a healthy advantage in order to play better football.dont forget this team has been through alot and the new guyz need some time to adapt,also every team plays full defence with us so its difficult to find spaces and play our usual style(in the friendlies opponents were more open)
"ok i have seen the highlights and i have to say we were bad.we were very slow and i think this has something to do with the stadium of numancia being small,henry cant find space there and slows us down alot(here capel/silva/arshavin would do miracles but teh hanry is da bast!!@#$!!).i think we will see this kind of game again and we dont have a solid solution at the moment,the only player i think that can help in the left side is hleb/iniesta and we cant get 100% of iniesta and hleb hasnt adapt yet and pep dont trust him enough to give him a starting spot{clearly when he got in we got better})
if someone can post a link to a torrent of the game that would be great,ty watching the highlights isnt enough for me hehe.
hmm.. right now caceres should replace abidal. that will improve security at the back. i think pique's height should be used instead of marquez. maybe marquez could play CDM or not. if we had pique maybe he could have cleared the cross. i think guardiola needs to organise the defense better. i dont like seeing abidal leaving his LB position to get into CB position. i think there were 3 players going for the cross. they all missed it. Mario was left free then.
the 4-3-3 system has become very predictable now. and without a good LW we lack bite. the system is not complete. if they do not wish to buy a new winger its ok. its probably a good decision for the future. but at least the tactics should be changed. maybe a 4-2-3-1.
valdes
alves-----pique--puyol-----caceres
yaya---keita
messi------xavi------iniesta
eto
since we cannot count on valdes 2 CDM could prove useful.
caceres is fast. he can play LB.
what do u think guys?
I was always in favour of 4-3-3 but without any decent player for the left wing, I would now consider to change it in 4-2-3-1 like Amar says with a lot of people coming in from midfield, which would be more difficult to defend, I think.
i agree caceres is fast.but i dont know if he has any experience in the left back position,also in the friendlies he rushes alot to the opponent and that is not good for a side back
if he gets more exp i think his best position will be the left back one cause of his speed.
i found a torrent of the game ,download with your own risk
http://www.torrentlocomotive.com/getTorrentDetails.aspx?name=7AC84894405A5B31AB90C0350C682064750929B2
sorry it didnt save the whole link,maybe cause it was big,anyway type numancia vs barcelona in the search button in the site and it will show,also it shows that there are no seeds,i have 59 seeds at the moment so thats not true ^^
Obviously, it's too early to say anything clever about forthcoming season. Barca didn't impress yesterday but they still can do a lot effort to win la liga this season even I think it would almost be mission impossible. They didn't learn anything from Wisla defeat. If Barca want to win something/anything this season they should enter 100% in every game.
BTW, I prefer 4-4-2, so my suggestion would be:
-----------Valdes------------
Alves--Puyol--Marquez--Abidal
Messi--Xavi--Toure--Iniesta
-------Eto'o--Bojan---------
Get rid of Henry in January, he's total failure.
Well I understand that the team is not showing the best of 4-3-3, but its still the best structure for barcelona. the 4-2-3-1 will offer u more possession, but is that really what barcelona need?having an isolated striker in a game where the other team park thieir bus full of eleven players in their box will not work, u will get to play more with the ball, but u will kill any last hope to score.The team already have problems with those who penetrate to the box from outside, making it even more crowdy, I dont think we need more, beside y having 4 deffenders and 2 DM against a team that play in their own half?even if u use the backwards offensively, still too much.
Some people suggest 4-2-3-1, others suggest 4-4-2 if the team didnt sign a winger, but the thing is if u dont have a winger how will u play a classical 4-4-2, unless if u wana play it diamond then, please forget it!
Barcelona problem is the lack of flavours in their offensive dish, the 4-3-3 will work when the team combine working from the flanks (which require benching henry), plus shooting from outside, and playing one touch game rather than (LOOK HOW SKILLED I AM!I CAN DRIBBLE THEM ALL!"
One of the creative things guardiola can try is to use yaya,keita and xavi in midfield with hleb on the left, but asking yaya to make forward run to the box when the team work on flanks to make crosses, he is tall and have great headings that the team hasnt used yet, i think that will cover the lack of big striker that the team didnt sign.
beside, having yaya and kieta can offer the team better shooting power, i think pepe MUST ask those two to make long range shooting attempts at least in the first 15 minutes of the game, and thats not to score from a shot (though if it happened no one will complain)but the main reason is to force the DMs of the other team to open up to stop the shots, that will create more gaps, aside of the fact that shots may drift or bounce back so others can make the finishing.
To do that, the team need to train on screans for the guys who may shoot, something like messi cutting inside paralel to the box line pulling markers with him deep, before setting the ball backward on the edge of the area to a player coming from behind and already planned where and how to place his shots, just as an example.
Training on setpieces is also crucial, so instead of putting time and effort training on a radically defferent tactical structure (isnt the club struggling enough with trying new things with players and tactics), the best thing is to try to enrich what barca already know.
A duck got fund of the way the swan walk, so it tried to emitate...but the duck failed to walk like a swan and forgot how it naturaly walk...got the hint?
...to ramzi and all of you that said that we don't need another players...i told you...for me,a 1-0 against numancia would be enough...but still having an henry or an badjohnsen is what makes me much more angry...it hurts that i was right...i'm not that kind of a blind barca-fan,me realistic...to loose is not as bad as to see an unable-to-score-henry or a to-worse-to-do-good-badjohnsen for the rest of the season...nothing changed...when we buy players like hleb or keita and hold henry and badjohnsen it's no suprise for an awful attack...none of them is known for beeing a goalscorer...henry was,but he showed last season that he's over...believe it or not,for me,it was clear...same problem we had last year too...poor goalscoring...but instead to bring a real "9",we buy that type of player that we have more than enough...i told you...
hm..u were anonymous...possibly thats y we didnt notice its u who said it:)joking with u dude :))
Relax my friend;)
first, i didnt say anywhere that another signing will not b good, the thing is I was betting on silva and Ade, instead of roni and eto/henry (one of them)...(knowing that ribery is not available).
Gudi is more like a third or forth option, and to judge him fairly, let me know the third or forth option in any other team and compare them "fairly";)ok barca r paying him much but not from my pocket, beside, who said they didnt want to sell him?dont believe the news!the problem is that there was no team that can match what he get from barca so they knew he will end up staying...for now.
if u read my comment well, i said bench henry (gudi is not playing already) but to buy new players now?Thats what i believe not easy to do, or at least the club will get abused to pay much more than a fair price, and here where I dont agree with u, barca is not that despirite to buy, if they managed their resources well they have more than enough, if they didnt?then buying more players will only add to the mess:)
Noting that i still suggested a player who may not be attractive transfer, but realistic one and could be done-crespo.so i wasnt talking about whats perfect, but whats possible.
regarding keita and hleb...all what i will say is,time will tell;)
i just watched the whole game,we sucked big time,we had 5-6 chances we lost them thats it. henry was never on the field.
if we continue playing like this and like the wisla 2nd leg i think we are gonna see changes from the winter transfer.
i've been saying all summer that barca squad is not ready,and that i dont like most of our transfers,and that we didnt get what we clearly needed.
i think we still need a n9(only eto can play in a 4-3-3 in the striker position and if you cant see that your blind).if eto gets injured we are gonna see tah bast hanry play there and suck there,or maybe guddy .......
also we lack firepower in the wings,hleb plays better in the center and can be a great deco replacment but he cant play that well on the wings(he is too similar to iniesta and we shouldnt have bought him).
we desperatley need a left winger and i think in the winter we will sign one for sure.
and yes i will return to henry again ,and ask why didnt they sell him?he was a failure transfer ,he still is and he has to go,dont forget his salary is high and think we can play better even with pedro in instead of henry
skanjos I c u r not with me anymore after u watched the game, u paniced?hehe
FIRE!!FIRE!!!
guys...u mean milan, barcelona, and realmadrid seasons are finished?
anyway i think u all will praise again after racing game...I read the comments of preseason wins;)
The transfers were clinical and the team need customization, not a revolution, but I know its not easy to convince anyone after a defeat and bad desplay so...hope u feel better starting from january, but i think even then barcelona will not win all their games and may not be sexy in everygame, so your mood will keep goin up and down all the way
Note: I hope to hear suggestions :whom to sign and sell in the following 4 hours
i agree henry didn't have the best of games but some of the criticism coming his way is well out of order. he doesnt want to play there he is being forced to, try forcing etoo to play as AM and see how many tantrums we have then! i dont think henry has a bad attitude, almost couldn't blame him if he did being told he would be CF all summer then being stuck on LW position again. he's another player, like abidal, who needs to get some confidence. i do agree that if they consider to play 4-3-3 then henry, and abidal, should, for the time being be benched, maybe play some b team games to get confidence back. while on the bench he offers the opportunity to switch to 4-1-3-2 to stretch defenders. but hating on the guy and singling him out of a whole team that played badly will not help him or us. same goes for valdes.
dude i really wont mind if pep used pedro/hleb/iniesta/bojan in the left wing,the fact that he uses the good for nothing henry because he has a big contract and he is a WArlda clesh pleyar,thats what i dont like.
henry cant play on the left ,if he wants to use him infront thats ok(he will still suck but atleast he wont slow us down)
i wish pep will get this faster and stop using him there.
and i dare you to find a post of mine that praises henry :P
ok its now 1 hour after i saw the match and i have calmed down a bit,we could have easily won that game ,we had many chances ,2 posts,we had some issues in defence (you clearly cant say that it was vv fault,but he should at least raise his hands a bit and not do a celebration{you know the sliding knees one}),at midfield we had alot of bad passes,and the forwards messi tried some balls to henry but he was too lazy to do a move,and eto i think is the player that run the most(also had 2 great chances,a post and a header)
SJP said it best regarding the Henry question. How can people slag Henry, after having watched Messi make ineffective flick after ineffective flick into the legs of the Numancia defenders, or Eto'o lose the ball at his feet time and again, or Xavi play as if he were sleepwalking?
Someone said Henry slows us down. Yet Iniesta's deliberate possession and dribbling keep us moving quickly?
Abidal is also being singled out. Why? On the goal, the defense panicked. It looked as if nobody told anyone who they had to mark. So Puyol, Marquez and Abidal all went for the same cross, leaving the other attacker wide open. That shouldn't happen.
If Alves' man leaks out, Puyol moves to cover, Marquez slides to center and Abidal stays home to prevent the back side attacker. It's simple if a team isn't panicked, as the defense was on that goal.
That panicked scrambling is more distressing than the goal, for me.
I repeat: This was a team loss. Everybody stank. Teams will have those. If we're talking about benching or selling players based on their performance v Numancia, we're going to be awfully busy in the last hours of the tranfer window.
Now, if Henry can't get it in his mind the job of a left winger, get him out of there. Twice he took shots from crazy angles that should have been passes, including one incident in which a square ball would have left Messi with an easy goal.
But it wasn't Henry's fault we didn't score goals, everyone.
Eto'o has to realize he's a striker, not a midfielder. Get in the box and wait for service, then do your thing. Messi has to realize when to pass. When three defenders are in front of you, it's already too late. Group failure.
Numancia played their little hearts out. But also, with zero support from the midfield, our 3 attackers are playing against 9 or 10 defenders. The only way to break that is with movement and multiple attackers, particularly against a team that was playing for a time from the moment it got off the bus.
Everyone held the ball too long, which played right into Numancia's hands.
Practice will be different when the players return from international duty, and they will play better. But all of the real league contenders either drew or lost yesterday. So no worries right now.
The hHnry thing is mainly because it has been like that since he got with us, kxevin. It doesn't get better and it doesn't look like it ever will. At the left, he doesn't fit and in the centre Eto'o is better (well, most of the time). So he's just of no use, even more so if you see he's the best paid guy now. It's difficult to leave him on tht bench.
I hear some Dubai/Qatar entity has bought Manchester City: hope they come after Henry in January. Or even better: today. Nine more hours to go...
I think the problem of the yesterday's defeat was none but guardiola itself. Let me explain myself , barca have the best players possible that a team could have in every single position , the problem is how to make it work. henry and etoo together in starting eleven it just wont work. i mean what the hack is the difference between this game and last seasons with Rijaard we saw an identical rijaarkd's barca, with no clear idea upfront. maybe the 4 3 3 formation wont work for the future, pep must prove he is a good coach as yesterday he failed the test. it not an excuse the luck or they defended with 10 men it is going to be like that in every single game. Pep must find a solution thats why we call him a coach.
there is much more to be said but thats enough from me
cheers to yall
visca el barca FOREVER
granche
kosova
Ok I have had time to relax a bit and I watched the game again....like most Barca fans the first thing I did yesterday was to react emotionally. We havnt changed, we didnt do anything new, we arent gonna win shit, etc.
I have had time to reflect a bit now.Having watched the game again, knowing that we were gonna lose and being a bit calmer about it I think all this doom and gloom is a bit premature. First of all the pitch was a joke, my garden is bigger and the ball was bobbling all over the place. Finding space against teams that pack the box is hard enough but doing it on a ground like that is close to impossible. I would love to see other teams go there and get a goal. We are not going to play many teams on pitches like this, even the small ones are much bigger than the one Numancia have. We still managed to create chances though, which is a positive note. We didnt finish, but sometimes that happens. The post denied us, the crossbar denied us, it was not our night. That is not to say we couldnt have done any better, because we could have, BUT on a night when things might have gone our way we could have won 1-2 quite easily. Another positive is the changes Pep made. Last season subs had little to no impact, but last night it changed the face of the game. Hleb, Keita and Bojan all influenced the game and led to us creating quite a few chances. Hleb on the right is a very good option that provides genuine width. He put quite a few passes in from the right that on a luckier night could have been converted.
Henry is not a winger, he never will be, he is an extremely talented player but playing him LW is foolish. Look what happened to Keane yesterday when Benitez played him as a LW....utterly useless and Keane is a class player. I hope Pep realises this sooner rather than later. If he really wants to play both Henry and Eto'o then it must be in a 4-4-2. I think a better option would be to bench Henry and stick somebody else on that wing....Iniesta/Hleb/Bojan/Pedro....any of them would be more effective! Bojan would be my favourite for this position. may not be his natural pos but he is young and hungry enough to make the most of it. However, considering Henry's stature and wages I dont see him being benched....lets see though.
I love Yaya, I think he is going to be the best DM in the world one day but in games like the one last night he is not the right player. Pep should have started Keita, maybe he didnt in order to make a statement that Yaya was the first choice for that position and I agree that he should be in most games. In games like this though, where the threat is minimal we need a creator not a destroyer.
Messi is Messi and the boy tried his best to open up what was basically a wall of defenders. I think he is deadlier on the wing, but I can see what Pep was trying to do playing him in the hole.
Xavi and Iniesta were both poor last night and it really showed. We lose enough when one of them is not playing well, but when both are having an off night it kills, especially when the other midfielder is Yaya.
So its not all bad, there were positive to draw from this loss and it again shows Pep that he needs to find a solution for these types of games and these types of opponents.I do not think this was a repeat of last season, it may seem that way at first glance, but if you go and watch the game again you will notice one major difference; WE WERE ACTUALLY TRYING VERY HARD! Last season sometimes it seemed like we didnt even try, in a lot of games we didnt even create many chances.... but last night we were trying and we kept trying to the very end, we had our chances but we failed to convert which is a lot better than not creating chances. I would be much more worried as a Real fan because they just got outplayed.
Just want to signthat there are some nice points of view here. It's better to come and read the comments one day after the game.. Certainly when we've lost... ;)
bad start bad attack barca need a rat in a hole but not deco. maybe diego. guardiola shouldn't let xavi "run with the ball" too much. we all see he just slowing up the game and give numancia guys to get back defending. keita did much better than yaya toure. think about henry, he suits arsenal style only. we need berbatov maybe. eto'o not a good finisher for a game like last night. so sorry for him to get yellow card last nite. good luck pep. barca para siempre
Some random things I think:
1.) Most if not all of us have reached a concensus that Abidal just isn't cutting it at left back. But inserting Caceres at that position may not be the answer either - at least not for now for a couple of reasons:
A.)He's not ready to be inserted to the starting lineup just yet. You can imagine that in his first game action he's going to be a ball of nerves. Comparing Recreativo to Barcelona is like comparing apples to oranges. Caceres might physically be able to perform but mentally he's not ready yet.
B.)If it's not already asking a lot from Caceres to be immediately inserted into the starting lineup now you are asking him to play a position that is not his own. So not only is the lad going to be on pins and needles thinking instead of reacting out on the pitch, but now you are asking him to step into a position that is foreign to him. I don't think that really fair to him or the team. I would much rather insert a veteran presence in Sylvinho in there and then next offseason contemplate moving Caceres over to the left back position and see how he handles the transition.
2.)Pep has to choose between Eto'o or Henry on the pitch he cannot play both simultaneously. Henry is NOT a scrub as some of you have commented. He is simply miscast as a winger. If you remember his time at Arsenal he was used to playing from the center out towards the left. NOT the othe way round!
Continuing to play him on the left is just going to decrease our width on that side. Henry on the left provides neither width nor depth. At least playing Hleb there will add depth, even if he's a non scoring factor. In this case I would much rather "sacrifice" Hleb's lack of a scoring touch for the added depth he'll bring at that position.
I think Pep should start Eto'o for now and Henry should be his backup. As far as Bojan goes he'll probably have to settle for being a left wing replacement for Hleb at the moment. Not an ideal fit either but how else would Bojan get on the pitch then?
3.)The midfield should be set at Toure/Keita/Xavi with Iniesta coming off the bench as a sub. Iniesta is a good player, but I've always felt his impact would be much greater felt as a sub "energy" guy. He is not a 90min. man, and yesterday's game illustrated that he's a "dribbler" and how many dribblers do Barcelona need on the pitch at the same time?
Keita's insertion into the starting lineup brings two things:
A.) A more "direct" vertical game. Instead of passing side to side. Keita is a east-west type of player not north-south.
B.) Keita brings can score from distance and has a powerfull leg that he's not afraid to showcase. That's a dimension in midfield that Barcelona currently don't have. Keita's presence would be another threat factor the opposing defense would have to consider, because with a sliver of clearance he's going to fire a rocket on goal. That's something neither Xavi nor Iniesta bring to the table as talented as they may be.
In conclusion replacing Abidal & Henry for Sylvinho & Hleb should benefit the team greatly. Sure you lose Henry's goalscoring threat but you have more consistent free-flowing play from the left. And more movement can only be a good thing. By coming off the bench Henry also get's to extend his career and get's to play his "natural" position at center forward subbing for Eto'o. If Henry is willing to put the team before himself he would agree to such a move should it be presented to him.
what is wrong with abidal
i agree with Cojonudo. me too iv always felt that iniesta was a super sub and not 90 min material. during the rijkaard era we all saw the damage that iniesta was causing when he played as super sub.
Henry proved again that he cannot play on the left. i think its just a psychological problem he has becuz he has the ability to play there. he just does not like it thats all. in arsenal he used to fly on the left wing a lot. wat hap now? he suddenly forgot how to do it? i think he should be benched and get in for eto.
hleb should start instead of iniesta. hleb is fast, good dribbler, good passer.
keita and yaya might provide the midfield with stability with their ball winning skills. keita is also a threat in front of goal. both yaya and keita have powerful shots.
yaya as CDM. xavi as CAM. messi as RM hleb as LM. keita between xavi and yaya. in this way keita can help yaya in defending and xavi in offense.
then 20 min b4 time throw iniesta into the mix.
so with alves having the capacity to own the right flank. who thinks messi could compensate on the LEFT and put hleb on right wing.?
Is kxevin Henry's brother or relative. The guy tries to push this non-biased, statistical, and carefully constructed argument regarding the team and performances, but all i see is a pro-Henry, anti-Eto'o approach. i guessed it might be that until Eto'o leaves Henry will never play in the middle. It's just fact my friend. i mean Eto'o has played on the left for barca and hasn't come close to looking as bad as Henry does. i wish the team the best. henry please watch some tapes of your own self and practise to regain your touch and class.
No, "Anonymous," all I'm saying is that Henry wasn't the reason for that loss, as everyone is seeming to allege by their posts. It's all about fairness. For some reason, he has been singled out as the reason Barca can't put the ball in the net, and it's nonsense. The entire side has equal culpability.
Henry didn't give away the ball at midfield, Henry didn't send every back line player after a harmless cross, Henry didn't pass the ball around laterally, dribbling and screwing around, Henry didn't make runs at three defenders.
It was a team loss. Analyzing Henry's performance as part of that overall loss finds him every bit as culpable as anyone else. But it's still a team loss.
As for talks of Sylvinho replacing Abidal, Sylvinho can't even catch a cold. Does he add a bit of offense? Yes. He's a very nice passer and distributor. But I have nightmares of fast wingers running right past him after he pushes up.
The back line is disorganized as hell. No defender thrives in that kind of environment, particularly Puyol, who is still hoping that step he lost is in the pocket of one of his pairs of trousers.
I think Abidal is fine at left back. So does Guardiola and the technical staff, apparently. I've been watching Sylvinho for a while and he's getting worse, not better. Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings.
The solution is as simple as ball movement. Pass and move. Don't stand around as if waiting for the Barca Bus. It makes us too easy to defend. Pass and move. No dribbling, no admiring the seams on the ball. Pass and move.
Were I Guardiola, I would even fine people 100 Euros for each unnecessary dribble. The pot would make for one hell of a party fund at the end of the season.
Hleb starting for Iniesta makes sense. I'd prefer Keita starting for Iniesta, for the former's long shooting ability and offensive mindset, however.
Brainwashing is going to have to occur. The same essential starting XI that Rijkaard trotted out last season did the same things that stank out the joint last season. We made some signings, let's see how they do.
Everybody wanted the same players left as the core, and you have them. How can you be surpised that they do the same things that they did last season? Guardiola is a coach, not a miracle worker. It isn't until beloved ones start sitting (Henry, Eto'o, Xavi, Messi, Iniesta) that they will see the light.
...no panic...no fire...it's not about winning many games and being good...as a club like barcelona you must have the ambition to be best in all competitions...it would be very nice to see that the youth players can make the difference and integrate well into the squad...but i think there's no more time for experiments...great season needs great players...that doesn't mean we have to buy stars (would be wrong)but starrings...to hope the youth players will do it,is to full of hope...to give henry or badjohnsen another chance is suicide...we made changes,but on the wrong end...before you let dinho or deco go,you must fire henry and baddy...or all together to bring new blood into the squad...we have iniesta,xavi and now hleb who initialize chances...but still an henry unable to score...pre-season was fine against little teams from nowhere,but what i saw vs. boca or wisla was an unfine look into the rest of the season...realistic not hater-like...silva should been bought at any prize...there maybe will be no second chance,when other big clubs monitoring him too...benzema,good but please...the future is agüero...to ramzi...i don't know u...friends?...time will tell...one love...barca forever...leondragon (anony)
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