Valdés
Alves
Márquez
Cáceres
Abidal
Xavi
Touré (70 Busquets)
Keita (70 Gudjohnsen)
Messi
Eto'o (78 Bojan)
Iniesta
17 Eto'o 1-0
23 Eto'o 2-0
59 Monzón 2-1
66 José Mari 2-2
79 Gudjohnsen
assists
Messi
Messi
Alves
yellow cards
Touré
Busquets
bench
Pinto
Puyol
Piqué
Henry
out of match squad
Sylvinho
Víctor Sánchez
Pedro
injured/coming back from injury/ill
Jorquera
Milito
Hleb
Table
1. Villarreal 10
2. R. Madrid 9
3. Atlético 9
4. Sevilla 8
5. Barcelona 7
6. Valencia (3) 7
7. Almería (3) 7
8. Espanyol 7
9. Getafe 5
10. Deportivo 5
11. Athletic (3) 4
12. Numancia (3) 3
13. Osasuna 3
14. Valladolid (3) 3
15. Recreativo (3) 3
16. Betis 2
17. Mallorca (3) 2
18. Racing 2
19. Málaga (3) 1
20. Sporting 0
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Posts
8 comments:
Worrying to see that again they have difficulties to finish the games. If you are ahead against Santander and Betis (at home!), you cannot allow them to come back in the game.
I would advice Guardiola to stop making all those changes at the back and finally pick a fixed back-four and defensive midfielder. You won't make yourself popular with the players but it will give you more stability with players better adapting to their team-mates.
PEP incident with eto!!!!!!!!!
Thats what I like mostly in this game, that show a change I like!
its a goal!!! excited eto run to hug rijkard, may be carry him! take his neck between eto arms and spoil his hair style! and u never know may be pulling down the coach pants! opps!! for a moment he forgot, this is a new coach so KEEP A DISTANCE! its no more players coach, u r the coach players! then pep gave eto that hug that seemed like "congratulation my son"!! piece of art! Still...
NO...This one wasn't right, good that pep tried it now.
Till the moment Gudi got blessed by Godi, I was wondering what will I comment, because with a draw, everyone would have been criticizing everything like hell, and I didn't want to be a part of it, but after the goal, it seems everyone is cheering up, so even though I am the most dedicated supporter for pep, still it wasn't his day.
After the sporting match, I gave pep a rating of 12, AGAIN, not based on the result, but the system, and before this match i explained what I mean when I say "system", in this game pep missed up with the defensive set up of that system (now he has the right to do so, because its still the trial period till January, but at least we need to say that, no, this one will not work).
After the 3 CB defense structure worked like a watch, pep decided to try bouncing back to the same old days, using abidal as (almost) a classical left back, playing on the line, while alves is more a winger than a full back, so what we saw in previous games, abidal playing close to the 2 CB creating depth, turned to a defense with highways, it was so open to be secure.
Now if pique would have been there, he would be able to limit the damage, because what he have and Caceres don't (yet) is that he position himself perfectly to cover most of the space between the middle and the right, the problem was obvious in the first half, I wasn't home or else I would have commented here "there is a problem in defense, lets see how pep will deal with it" pep didn't, betis coach did, and thats actually what made the deference in the second half, no one slept and no one woke up, still the same two teams, but betis simply changed their style.
Now again, I noted something before about reading the game, this one wasn't a pep day:)
The substitutions may be PERFECT, he know better, but I still don't understand it, its easy after you see the impact of the substitutions to try to explain, that will turn to be explaining the impact, not the substitutions itself, I wonder if Gudi was not the scorer how the evaluation would have been:) so to keep myself in safe place, and keep pep in front I say, I simply didn't understand.
I knew kieta will go out (after he did his job) but I thought he will be out, iniesta will take his role and henry will take a place forward, but when you are seeking a goal, to play gudi (who haven't been used since...since...hm...) and leave henry out, again Pep probably had a good reason to do so, a reason that I still don't understand.
Gudi goal wasn't luck, he worked for that luck, meaning he simply positioned himself well in the box and made the right move (slide), being a striker long time ago still there inside him, it seems lucky because it went to hit the far post and get in, but thats unlucky because normally it go directly to the net closer to the near post, it was a cross, and the typical slide they teach in youth academies (my little ball I will slide so bounce on me), that was football, not luck.
Caceres rate is going to be a great name, but in that game, his positioning was bad, his nonsense clearance was too much even when the team needed to slow down the tempo, he was sending back the ball to betis too fast, and caused a penalty(simply playing the style that work when u play with recreativo), Meaning still need time to cutomize his style to fit playing for barcelona, where defence build up the game, not only clear the ball far enough trying to resque a point (again, recreativo style), another defernce is that in lower teans you deffend with lot of "your duds" arround, helping u, closing spaces making it crowdy, while in barcelona u have to cover a space left by the crazy guys (your mates) pushing forward, the first step to succeed doing that, is to know where to stand before you start your move to defend, choosing the spot that keep you almost close to every where in your defense territory, pique know it, Caceres need it, and it will come, he is fast, strong, and he has the "it" to turn great, so i guess patience needed, I mean Fans patience :)
Valdes has nothing to do with the goals, before the free kick he was yelling like hell on the wall, i think it was too noisy for them to listen to the new captain, I suggest for next time that he put some stones near the post, he can use it, in case he really needed someone to respond.
Alves was better, but still need to improve, specialy his defence, because unlike the majority, there is where i care more about alves performance, do me the good deffence (asd a defender) then fly on the flank as needed, dont forget defense, it is happening sometimes, but in general he was good (again I evaluate based on potentials, if it would have been oliguer performing like that I would HAIL!HAIL!HAIL!!!).
Marquez was ok, deserve no medal but nothing to complain about, again, the defense structure in that game make it hard to blame anyone, so as abidal he was ok but now we know the 3CB structure fit him more, no wonder.
Toure, you can say he is not good, you can say he seemd not able to handle the pressure of competetion for places, you can say a lot after a "not a typical yaya performance), I say simply this is his first game in the season, and the player need to catch the tempo before starting to enjoy the party, thats exactly why before the game i was confident he will start it, if pep wana use him later in more complicated game, he need to warm him up first, in this game we saw how important it was to play him, so no one regret using him, that was the best to be done.
Kieta opened on the left with iniesta, making a good flank, opening betis defense and taking their consentration from the typical right wing threat of barca, he penetrated to the box more often, he didnt score but doing that means he will sooner or later, again, he played a role based on "that system" and that makes me happy.
Xavi was also good, not as good as the last two games, but hey, no one keep the same level for a whole season, whats good about xavi is that he is either good or perfect.
Iniesta, again did what needed on the left, in the second half he, little bit, felt he miss midfield old days, so was not opening enough, i think mentaly he still have the feeling that when the team is under pressure he (as a midfielder) have to bounce back deep to help even if that mean living the left flank and "hell who care!!!I will go and get that damn ball no matter where it go on the field!!" so I kind of understand what he was doing in the second half, and again he didn't disappoint me.
Eto, what a goal! is working perfectly since messi started to assist him in the box and around it, he is not a man in the box, not tall enough for that, so he need someone to work with or else he feel too lonely to shine, more to come from the couple, he run like hell, and he is working for the team, its too obvious, and too good and true!
I Understand that here, based on the design of the blog its better not to write long comments, hm.. I mean LONGER comments :) so I apologize I took more space than appropriate in this comment already, so I will leave it here:)
Messi...
In my country a basketball team bought an american player once to help them (his name is tony madisson) and that tony can score 3 points even if he kick the ball to the basket (well not literally :P) can dribble everyone and break to the basket, everyone praised that, but still everyone considered him too selfish, after 3 seasons he fed up and in an interview he draw out some papers pointing out that in each season he did more assists than the sum of the following three players of best assists did in three seasons, got the hint?
I wish if you can also count the assists that the strikers miss to score, like the bojan one for example? I am so glad he started to adapt to his new role -with barcelona, I knew its coming.
For pep credit, its not easy to get gudi in and keep henry out, whether we like this substitute or not, it show personality. And he transmitted his welling mentality to the guys, they kept fighting to the end and it was a deserved win, 3 more points in the basket and...lets move forward.
Ramzi,
You are the next coach of Barcelona. I doubt whether you are already coaching a football team!!!!!
PEP WE WON.. CORRECT THE TITLE...
Changed it, kempe. Every now and then I check if you're still awake... ;-)
Ramzi is ACE!
no matter how much you write, aint no worries. What insightful point of view.
sad but tru, when watching games now, when something happens im always quick to wonder what ramzi thinks and his thoughts. I even find myself writing during matches, just to see if you going to shed any type of analytical thought.
good lookin Ramzi. Best thing to hit the #1 Barca blog on the net. Keep the insight coming....
have me watching and veiwing futbol in total different way.
On a side note...what is going on with T.henry? I think there is much more behind this then were being lead to believe....
First Thanx pepe for pasting my comment from the pre-match posts to this space:)
Kamesh, thanx for praise, I appreciate it and hope to keep meeting your expectations:)
No I am not coaching any team, though u r close, because My initial plan is moving to sweden by the end of the year and will start studying to get a coaching license.
Being both barca fans, lets hope pep hit great success so there will be no need for a new coach in 20 years(though I doubt it in spain;) hm...I will accept being his assistant lol
Till then, I will be here contributing with you all to make pep blog a reference;)
I apologize for spelling mistakes often exist in my posts, its just I am always in a hurry, write, post and go back to my work;)
Jacob, I just saw your post, ny point of view is a fruit of all debates we have here, thanx a lot man:)
If we wana keep this blog special, we need to try to approach the game from deferent aspects, its easy to say this guy played good, that one was bad, the challenge we will all have here is to be objective, clinical, and as less theoretical as possible.
Henry problem...well its a mix of everything, first of all I am not really a guy who feel excited to sign players who are on the other side of their career cycle to join high demanding teams like Barcelona, usually they don't have enough hunger to meet (sometimes unrealistic) demands of the teams fans.
But thats a side note actually, henry still have the quality, the first mistake was playing him in the beginning of last season when he was still injured (don't ever play a player whop is not fit, or not inform), his performance wasn't as expected, so the boosting energy of signing him collapsed, and instead of enjoying the fact that he is the best in the world, he became in a position to prove his worth, thats not something he is used to do, and he feel he is too good to be in that position.
secondly using him as a left wing, he is a player who need space to race the ball and turn defenders to shadows racing a shadow, not available for him in Barcelona where all teams park their busses in their box, his atributes dont fit those of a winger in spain, may be in england he would be able to succeed even as a wing, but in spain, as I mentioned before, scout the great wingers in spain, u will notice some common things between them all "slim bodies", thats not a coonsidance, thats what fit la liga style, a bulldozer will not work on a Spanish flank, u need a shorty to dribble with the ball glued to feet, not a "pacey" who throw the ball 10 meters forward and race it.
then this season, pep wanted eto out, and wanted another striker in, meaning a new guy in the hood, meaning that "this" new guy need time to adapt, and welling to be benched in his first year with the team (at least for the beginnings), and at the same time a new player mean a risk of flop, so pep felt it appropriate to promise henry he will play as a striker, it was obviously happening, but then! eto stayed, was a hit in preseason, so it turned to be the same old story for henry, play on the flank, still iniesta proved being the man for the left, so now henry feel he dont even guarantee a place there, and if he do, it will be as an alternative, i think thats what made him reveal.
I am not sure if he will become a secondary choice for pep, so he will get more upset, or he will rotate him with eto, and that may upset them both... long time ago I said, with all the new transfers, pep has great depth in the team, but also a big challange to satisfy them all, we will see how he will do it, if he did, some people may not notice because there will be no news to read, at that moment we here will give hiom that credit.
He can create a kind of rotation where henry play in iniesta position sometimes and cut inside as a second striker beside eto, while messi play behind them in a flipped triangle, and in other times play in eto place as a striker with messi cutting in as a second striker the way he is doing with eto recently, thats the best compromise I can c, not to satisfy the stars, but MOST IMPORTANTLY for the best of the team, then we will be less predictable and every one will be fresh, fit, and inform till the end of the season. keeping in mind that knowing u have a role make u motivated to compete to become the best in that role (so u get selected in the big games) but feeling u r behind no matter what cause more drop in form, something no coach wish for any of his players.
Note: I hope keeping henry on the bench last night was not a result of that interview, thats a way to explain using gudi and bojan instead, though I exclude that option because when the coach select players for a game he select those whom he know he may use (even coming from the bench as substitute), he never include a player whom he dont want to use.
pst, for all the guys who like this blog, lets promote it to those who don't know it, keep in mind that all financial revenues for every click here goes to donations, every contribution worth.
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