The perfect result!
Barcelona's draw with Basel Fc, combined with Sporting's win over Shakhtar means:
We qualified for the knock out stages!
Well, don’t jump to conclusions, this is not why I consider the result as perfect, but its really sarcastic that while any team wish to be in Barcelona's place now guaranteeing a place in the draw, Barcelona fans – not all of them but let's admit a reasonable sector- made a funeral after the match.
First, let’s review the game:
In Basel the game we played was different than the game played in Barcelona, in Basel we played against an excited team who wanted to attack to amuse their fans, we had spaces, in Barcelona we played against 10 men behind the ball, they were good in positioning themselves and in closing any space. They also wanted to clear the shame, they were playing with no pressure and no complications so the result is not expected but...yea normal, I saw that happening again and again in the world of football.
The starting line up: Pep selected the “second options” to start the game, and…wait…I will have a look to the selection again:
Valdes, Puyol, Pique, Marquez, Busquets, Iniesta, Hleb, Henry…
If that’s not good enough to win against Basel Fc, combined with talented Bojan and energetic Sanchez and experienced Sylvinho then…we are in a big trouble!
So
Of course they have a HUGE impact, but we are less dependent on our star players than any other team in the world, pick any team and drop their best three players and check what you get!
We didn’t play sexy football, and with Messi, Xavi, and Eto’o out this is understandable. We didn’t have the perfect midfield, Gudi and Keita absence with Hleb not hitting his form after injury yet made things more difficult, but with three young players in the midfield, and the help of Hleb, backed by a defense lead by Puyol – perfectly - we definitely dominated the game, earned back the ball fast, saw a fighting team, And generated scoring opportunities, scored, hit the post, if only Henry made the right runs to the posts to meet the crosses or made the right expectations for the dropped balls, it would have been a win. But with Henry and Bojan upfront, we missed the killing instinct, are they bad? No, but they had a bad game – based on their role as strikers, which happens…
It was the right thing to try Iniesta in the distribution role with the absence of Xavi, I said it long time ago, we need to get ready for the moment when Xavi can't play a game, people say we need to buy a player for Xavi role, but we have the best player in the world for Xavi role (when needed), The problem was that Keita and Gudi were not available and Hleb is not in form yet (now people need to start realizing the importance of this kind of serving players), so it wasn’t easy for Iniesta to run the show, but we need to try this again and again in this early part of the season and while we are in CL group stage – after we win against Sporting may be.
Hleb was unreasonably criticized when signed, then after he played less than 30 minutes he was praised unreasonably as if he won titles for the club, and now everyone is turning the table over him after this game, but based on this I can say after Malaga game we have to release Iniesta for free...
I supported Pep philosophy to rotate before it proved right, and I was one of the massive majority who waved the flags of victory when things turned perfect, and now? Well, Derdiyok will not force me to change my opinion just because he scored!
Man...I think the draw was the best result to put everything and everyone in place, we support a football team, not supermen, we will draw and lose as well as we will win, we cant question the policy (rotation) when it get a knock and praise it when it work, we all knew there will be a rotation, lot of us felt that’s the right thing before Basel Fc scored the goal, and I still believe Pep did the right thing.
Good job Guardiola, but hard luck!
Why is it the perfect result?
After the sequence of games where we hammered our opponents, I started to feel little worried, I may sound like a psycho but I didn’t want things to go perfect and easy all the way this month – November – I wanted some hard times to keep the team alerted before the Bloody December, and with all the “HAIL HAIL!!” shouts we hear every where – even in Marca - praising the Barcelona Gods of the game, I was wondering how would it be possible that the team lose a game without losing points?!! Because that’s what I wanted! My concern was that the team will keep earning victories in November with fives, win against Fc Basel and Sporting draw with Shakhtar this week, so we guarantee heading the group and play to enjoy ourselves in the following two CL games, and that’s how we will prepare for the bloody December introduced by a game against Seville, then Valencia, then Real Madrid, and Villarreal, well that’s not the perfect scenario…
After this draw, I think people will see the players again as human beings, talented but human, no gods, means nothing perfect, or guaranteed!
After this draw, we NEED a win against Sporting in Portugal or else we will most probably ranked second in the group, something we don’t want, Meaning the guys need to sweat in Portugal and I like it!
After this draw, I will not be as worried about the game against Valladolid next Saturday, because I honestly had the feeling it will not be a win, nothing guaranteed yet, but I know the players will be extra motivated now to prove a point! I Like It!
After this draw, and IF Pep noticed that some players must not play together in any rotation because they don’t click, IF he concluded that Sylvinho expired for example, or Hleb is not a winger but a midfielder, or Sanchez is not ready to be a starter yet, it's good that he tried this now and got the message rather than in the Spanish cup, right?
Finally I considered this as a perfect result but not a perfect match, and now that Iniesta got injured, we know that this is a big loss; we will miss the Shy guy!
You know how much I like this player so I better not start discussing this loss or else I will end up typing for ever…you know me…
Ramzi Tanani
Posts
15 comments:
Great to read you again, Ramzi!
Can't agree with you more Ramzi!
As I said to the people on match chat yesterday this is just a cheap, but necessary, scare for us. You can't expect a team to win every single match, not even the possible third Dream Team as they are beginning to call them.
After a massive win away against Babel where Barca blew them away against their own crowd, no wonder they turned up with such a defensive attitude. At the same time it was clear to see on the Barce players that they were too relaxed and overconfident, as any team would, after the first game against Basel.
I can't say that i expected a draw, but i did expect a rather boring and slow match with only 1 or 2 goals. But overall, after seeing the result it doesn't leave me surprised.
Only comment i have to what i wished Pep could have done different, would be to try Hleb out in the "Xavi-role" before putting in the real one. Pull out Iniesta on the left side and Bojan on right side, keeping Henry centre. Iniesta could have given us some more breakthrough power on the left side, and could seek inwards with Sylvinhos offensive runs, just like the Messi-Alves constellation.
But nevertheless, it was clear to anyone that it just wasn't a Barca-night playwise, yet it is only a healthy result for both the players and the overexpecting fans.
That was my 5 cents, and great seeing a post from you again Ramzi, be sure to save some energy for the month of trials!
Ps. When you move to Sweden, make sure to come and see Copenhagen in Denmark at some point. I'll buy you a pint at the Barca-pub here ;)
Oh and what a great day footballwise for me!
Aab, a Danish team, playing 2-2 vs. Villareal so far, and Real Madrid down 0-2 against Juve!
The perfect scenario for next round is that Zenit beat Juventus and BATE hold RM in an away draw, RM will need to win their last game then, the game that will take place two days before the classico, but again we need to beat Sporting to consider that as an advantage.
Thanx Fcbee, and start saving money Stigsby, if its a barca-pub then i will make sure, as a visitor u invited, to make u spend all your money there!
I love you UVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Excellent thoughts mate, I really agree with you. I can't be more constructive then this, sorry. Keep up the great work!
Ramzi i think that Zenit is playing next match at bernabeu and the last match with Juve;)
I checked that again, and based on the UEFA official website, BATE will Play RM next,Nov 25:)
This is a link for all the CL fixtures:
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/fixturesresults/allmatches.html
Then i guess you were right..so sory..my bad=)
What made me disappointed is not the result, this is necessary for the team to continue their hard work and concentration. But I was totally disappointed by the starting line-up (why didn't Pep rest Puyol?) and by how he made adjustments during the games. He was just scaring of a lost and called on both Messi and Xavi (not to mention Eto'o afterward), why didn't he made some minor tactical changes to adapt? We have better players than Basel on the field! In other words, my idea: Pep is not good in tactical manner. Frustrated about Pep!
we understand ur frustration badboy. but guardiola did the right thing. maybe we didnt win, but we needed to rest our players.
messi cannot be used all the time. he has HIGH injury risk. look wat happened to iniesta. thats the real frustrating part.
pep knows wat he is doing. i agree with resting and rotation of players. plus this was not a crucial match. we are already through anyways. u shouldnt be frustrated.
take it positively. now the players have been brought down to earth. if ever they were starting to feel over confident that draw will help.
Dont wory we WILL win this league and i hope we also meet manchester united. We will tear them apart this time..MWAHAHAHAHA!!!
am glad we are still top of both tables. Liga & UCL.
am glad MADrid lost again to Juve. Imagine their camp now.
am NOT glad we lost my fav player, Ini-boy.
an glad we have pep as the coach.
am glad I read Ramzi's review. Nice 1 buddy.
am NOT glad "MEMO" hasnt posted his comments yet..LOL......
Semko, No probs;)
badboy_prez Lets hope next game will end your Frustration and youi will be as excited as Amar :)
noubarca I am glad you are glad!
The rambler is back...
I agree it's better to have a slip now than next month!
Added to noubarca glad's,
i'll be glad if Ramzi continue to ramble here
really nice view Ramzi, & I totally agree with u that the result was the best , even better than winning as u explained
just i hope pepe won't start sanchez again, pep should realize that sanchez is not sergio, he is totally different
hleb should back to his form , bujan has to back to reality
& .. BATE had two draws with juve & zenit .. lets hope they do it & held on RM & the same time zenit wins against juve
that HUGE pressure will shatter RM .. i'm sure they can't withstand the pressure
they wanted to win juve match so they rested their players against almeria, then they lost both matches .. that what will happen next days
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