The Ramzi Report: Espanyol

Ladies and gentlemen! That's what a "Derby" means, nothing for granted, full of surprises and a THRILLER!

The team won the derby, how it happened is something we can discuss, but keep in mind this is something for history, records and pride! That's what will remain, in 75 games on that stadium, where it is unlikely they will be the field for any more derides, the two teams draw 25, espanyol won 24, and Barcelona won 26!

Ok that record thing is not for me so…to the game – knowing that I will not be a popular figure in some of the comments I will note here!


The selection. Now let's try to understand how pepe was thinking when he played Gudi instead of Keita, and Henry in Eto'o's place, just so we judge fairly, and not be emotionally driven. You know I was supporting the idea of playing the best you have for this game, but some people are whipping pepe too much for rotations, and demand a stable selection so.

Eto'o and Keita played almost all the games for Barcelona this season, are they exhausted? Not in this early stage of the season, but of course each and every game takes a part of their energy and lower down – by an inch – their fitness level, That's not going to be noticed now, but when the season reach the week 20 or so, something weird will start to happen.

Injury curse will strike the team (we will say we are unlucky for that), a sudden drop in form will become a fashion in the squad (and we will say that its probably a bad preseason preparation), and the team will lose its boosting energy the moment it is mostly needed, the last 100 meter of the season (and we will say those machineries have no winning mentality), there will be nothing related to luck, preseason preparations, or mentality! It's just they became human beings, who got exhausted.

The rotation is not something you start when you reach that point, because then it will be too late, you can't keep Henry, for example, on the bench for half of the season then when Eto'o cannot walk anymore, you smile in Henry's face hoping he feels pity for you and get into the field to do the Eto'o job till Eto'o feels better, it will be too late then! So if you want good games then I agree let's not rotate, but if you want a good season then, get used to this fact in football, titles need rotation.

Pepe in this game was an opportunist! He took advantage of Gudi's moral after that goal he scored, and tried to invest that before it is lost, so he used him in Keita's place, and he also got the advantage of Eto'o's two goals to bench him, how the hell?! Simply because when you bench Eto'o after a bad game, he will consider it as looking for something better, but when you bench him after a good game it means that he is becoming more and more valuable that you cant afford to lose.

Of course I would have preferred Keita over Gudi, and probably Eto'o over Henry but there is always another version of any story, we needed the team not to rotate for right reasons, but Pepe also had his reasons to rotate, keeping in mind that he is the one who follow the guys progress in training so, may be Keita and Eto'o fitness level were not the best to start this game, so I will not consider this one a foul committed by Pepe – there are other fouls to come in this long post.

Every thing else was as expected (gladly), the selection was the perfect one, the defense was working the way that suits the team most, even though Abidal made some runs forward, but he wasn't that bold left back we saw against betis, but more a centre back with Puyol and Pique, the defense line was the best Barcelona have – for now - because it is still long way far from meeting the expectations.

The defensive midfielder chosen by Pepe was Busquets, I mentioned before that Pepe needed to make sure if this guy mentality is ready for a derby, or else use Touré. He made a good game, but there are some stuff that made me feel Yaya was a better player for this game, he was not positioning himself as needed on the field, was more aggressive than needed that he was almost going to get himself an injury or a red card, but still he proves everyday that he is no doubt the future of Barcelona midfield.

It's not easy to dominate derby when you play on the "enemy" field, give the guys the best credit for that! They made Espanyol players ask for mercy from the start, the team starting from the midfield and forward were superb by all means, lot of movements, confidence performance. The system clicked perfectly, and I wonder those who don't like it still, why do they feel so?



I am not a guy fond with numerical ratings, and honestly I don't know how to turn players' roles to numbers so I will comment rather rate.

Valdés. I am not a hater, but when will you learn that "THIS" ball you punch back to the corner, you don't catch, this is not the first time, let's hope it's the last, if it's a foul or Puyol pushed the player on Valdés, this is something else, Valdés need to do his job right, he didn't on this one, but hey, that's the first in the season so far so, lets not be harsh. Knowing that the defense also played a role, Abidal marking, Puyol positioning, and Piqué clearance, it was destined to the net. Yet, The defense in general was well organized, in the first half.

Alves, dreaming of a Kanouté in the box! If Barcelona want this guy to be usefull, they better fix their forwards positioning for crosses. He is geting better and beter.

Piqué is proving every day being the best transfer for Barcelona this season, and the best defender in the squad at the moment, perfect positioning, a great vision building up the game from behind, and that confidence you need to become one of the best central backs in the game, in the second half he was outstanding, covering a wider space that two defenders will be able to close, and being calm on the ball no matter what.

Puyol added the leadership and experience needed for this game, he is still the guy for big games, and we can expect a promising partnership between experience and youth.

Abidal started to forget about the doubts on his quality and getting better and better, though it may need some time for his contribution to be noticed.

Busquets tried to prove being a solid bone, not a greenly buddy, and that's a good sign for the future, even if it caused some troubles, and injuries, from time to time.

Gudjohnsen was ok, but when I knew he is in the selection, I thought he will probably be a more threat in the box than Keita, but for my surprise Keita showed that he makes more runs to the box than Gudi in this game, he was not bad, but certainly not the performance that will grant him a place between the favorites to be selected in future, but again, as I mentioned once, name any player in another team who have Gudi quality and is welling to warm the bench for centuries, still working his best in training to get his opportunity, lets give the credit where needed.

Xavi, I said after last game, in his worst days this guy is good, or else he always perform perfectly, it was a very good game for the maestro, and Barcelona fans need to feel so lucky for having him.

Iniesta proving day after day that he is the left winger of the season, not only for Barcelona, started to become more and more adapted to this position, and he give the bonus of dropping back to the middle when the team lose the ball, certainly will be one of the best news for Barcelona this season.

Messi, honestly it's a great news he didn't get injured in this game, why am I saying that? Because records say that against Espanyol this is the thing you need to be worried about mostly. A typical Messi performance, causing fear with every touch and run and dribble, I noted after the Betis game that we can start counting his assists , and this is not going to be a boring job this season!

Henry, lot of determination, and taking in consideration all the pressure on his shoulders, not playing regularly, and the fact that he is used as a striker only on X-mass, he certainly offered the kind of displays that show he is capable to offer a lot for the team, now I always try not to be carried out, so of course he still needs a lot of form to become decisive, he played lot of wrong passes that if it would have been Abidal, guys here would have flied to Barcelona with knives and banned me out of this blog. But I am satisfied with this performance - FOR NOW!

Eto'o, thought being in after the game turned to become so "crowdy" in the box, but he had the determination needed and tried to open to the flanks, his understanding with Messi proved its worth again.

Bojan, one for the future, tried to create some threat from the left frank.

Keita added the physical value needed in the game especially when the team went all attacking.

Guardiola. The selection was good, the tactics were good, the substitutions, hm.. it worked again, and I know now I will not be a popular guy if I said the substitutions were not the best for me. He took the risk too early, getting out abidal less than ten minutes from the second half start, then playing with only two defenders for half an hour, after taking of even the defensive midfielder, that was too risky, and against some other teams who have a "pacey" striker on the bench, the game could have ended differently.



Some people may argue that the team needed a win, and here exactly where I will be less popular the most, being more dangerous has nothing to do with the number of forwards you put in the box, what actually happened is that the excess of forwards in the box made lot of crowd that the players lost any space needed to create threat, and it became impossible to penetrate from outside the area to cause surprise inside, knowing that this is the way Barcelona are scoring most of their goals so far, the last goal tells the whole story! It was the only time when Barcelona players faced Kameni one on one, and that was after Espanyol went forward, lost the ball, and there were only Messi and Eto'o penetrating the box when the penalty was whistled, in brief, we need to differentiate between dominance and efficiency.

The team really needs to train on positioning the players in the box when going forward, to avoid all the waste-less crosses we saw in the game, there has to be those who move to the far post, near post, and the penalty spot.

About the penalty decision, the referee did something wrong anyway. If it wasn't a penalty then he was wrong to whistle, if it was a penalty then he had to show a red card, now of course no Barcelona fan will be happy to suspend another espanyol player before their game against RM, but that's what written in the books, as far as I know.

Finally I wonder why Alves is not taking the free kicks more often.

I will not comment on that sector of Barcelona fans causing the big mess, it's not something to be proud of.