This afternoon at 5 pm bt,
Barcelona plays the 21st game of the league against Racing Santander.
Barcelona plays the 21st game of the league against Racing Santander.
Santander squad list:
Toño, Coltorti, Marcano, Pinillos, César Navas, Oriol, Sepsi, Moratón, Valera, Luccin, Mehdi Lacen, Colsa, Edu Bedia, Toni Moral, Munitis, Jonathan Pereira, Tchite, Zigic
Barcelona squad list:
Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Piqué, Márquez, Cáceres, Abidal, Sylvinho, Xavi, Touré, Busquets, Gudjohnsen, Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Henry, Iniesta, Hleb
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19 comments:
May be Pep will play Hleb so Hleb can get his revenge on Santander, but I don't think he will... :D
oriol is a little bitch. that said, barcelona is a different beast when messi isn't in the team to take on those last couple of defenders and go those extra ten yards. i would have liked to have seen bojan in the line-up instead of busquets today. i thought he proved his worth to pep during the copa and it's not like he's beat from playing 90min, finally, in a game. he would have been nice to watch on the right.
im really pissed.....
bad game.
good change of tactics...
Messi "changed" the game but if it was any other similiar player (like Silva) who entered, it would be the same cuz the main change was the tactics part, threatning both flanks, as Alves was SUPER-WEAK today, our right wing was totaly useless until messi entered.
First goal was a nice play, credits to henry for the lob.
second was magic.
messi busted another "kobe" today :^)
rafa is out for the next game & we'll see whether puyol'll be ready by then. looks like caceres is gonna have to start bringing his "A" game.
i'm posting way too much shit on this blog. i've got a cold & i want my fucking classes to start up already!
It should be interesting next week... Puyol will more than likely get the start... whether he's 100% ready or not. Otherwise we're looking at Alves, Víctor Sánchez, Cáceres and Abidal... or maybe Sylvinho on the left and Abidal moving to the center... at least it's against Sporting Gijón. On another note, I'd love to say that we don't rely on Messi, but it's just not true... without him today we leave with a point at best. Henry was a little flat today and Sam has been a little off the last few games... I hope he's back soon.
Alves got his 5th yellow, so he is suspended...
Pique and Marquez are suspended for the red cards...
And Puyol and Milito are injured...
Leaving Caceres, Sylvinho, and Abidal as well as Victor Sanchez or some other B team player...
Thankfully next game in La Liga is Gijon...
I don't think you are forced to serve a suspension in the Copa...
Really poor game in my opinion.
A scrappy win at best.
I guess the defense for next match would be caceres, puyol, abidal and sylvinho.. that is if puyol recovers. If he doesn't, then lord save us!
Busquets played a horrible game in my opinion. All the shirt tugging etc. could have easily cost us a penalty.
puyol will have to play RB
so were looking at caceres-abidal at the centre!
sounds weird..
and i gues sylvinho on LB..
maybe some Barca B player will play the match..
i hope our front line starts firing on all cylinders again..
Visca Barca!
True....With our Defence almost wrecked, we hav to depend on the Forward trio ( whoever that ll be for the next Copa game )
It will be silly to rush Puyol's recovery with business end of the season just about in sight.
We need him fighting fit for the CL and the big Liga matches later in the season. I don't think Guardiola will risk it.
Messi n Xavi stepped up again. I wonder if Messi would be as combative a player under any other coach. Coaches tend to protect, pamper n mollycoddle their star players.
The team is starting to look a little tired, its time for the bench-warmers to step up. Pep seems to prefer giving players like Xavi a rest during the Cup matches.
This match was a test of character and we came though maybe not with flying colors but certainly with a creditable result.
Maybe Guardiola will use a 3-4-3 formation with man-marking center-backs for the next game. He has experimented with it before (in the Almeria or Atletico game, cant recall).
Ironic dont you think, all the talk about too many CBs.
The one thing that would be devastating with Puyol injuried was to have suspensions on Piqué or Marquez. Ah well, we roll with the flow. Time for Caceres to show his class, but with Alves also down due to suspension we have very few options..
The Zigic affair
Other than that, the game as a whole was quite bad. Busquets was obviously not a good choise to manmark Zigic. His playingstyle with 50% fouls for, 50% against is hardly suitable within the penalty area. Two or even three times it almost cost us. Why didnt Pep use Piqué or even Yaya marking the 2,02 Zigic?
Yaya made a few mistakes, but was in general his old, strong self. A solid preformance Id say.
Eto'o/Henry/Left Wing
Eto'o was largely invisible, but the balls he had to work with was not very good. I think he could have done better positioning himself on one or two of Henrys crossballs. Had he run for the near post he might have had a shot on them.
Henry did good, not great but good. But personaly I would have seen a substitution bringing in Guddy earlier, perhaps for Eto'o and moving Henry to the centre with Iniesta taking the left wing.
Iniesta
Iniesta, according to me, should be on the left wing. He is but a weak substitute for the playmaker genius of Xavi, and I fail to se his qualities are best used as a 3rd midfielder. Guddy is a far better choice, mainly because he delivers some well needed power/strength inside the box.
Iniesta has his strength in combinations with Xavi, running deep and beating his man one on one.
Playing as a starter on the right wing might have been a good idea, but I think he strayed too far and too often to the left. Perhaps the obvious lack of success on the right wing, including Alves, could be put on Eto'o and Henry aswell. The very fluid positions of the final 3 has been one of the most important strengths of the team so far this season. Perhaps Eto'o/Henry did not follow through with the swap when Iniesta drifted.
Defense
However, the weakest point of the team in this game was without a doubt the defense. Naturaly, with Piqué and Marquez both sent of (right or wrong, doesnt matter), their preformance must come into question. It has been brought up before, and I belive it still holds true: They do not make the best pair. Why this is, I am not sure. Marquez quality in game buildup did not show at all this game. Partly, the fault for this must come to Xavi for not coming deep enough, but mostly due to the offensive 3 not giving enough options for the long ball.
Alves
Another thing that struck me, and Im sure most of you aswell, was how absent Alves was. He did not have enough space, nor enough of the ball. Personaly I belive this is down to the simple fact he has been matched so extensively.
The lack of space can easely be explained with the lack of Messi. The Messiah normaly draws so much attention Alves can have a field day on the right flank.
Anyway...
Well, this might sound very negative. In some ways, I think the critizism is valid. Yet I must say I am not too disappointed with the game. In general, I think we showed we can play without Messi. The midfield did great, ball delivery was good, the options existed. In essence, the final 3rd (and the box in general) play was lacking. With Eto'o off his game, and Henry unable to cut inside we lost a lot of the "edge" we possess. This also, naturaly, ties in with Messi not playing. I might contradict myself but still, the fact remains.
Subs: Hleb and Bojan
I must say I am rather discontent with Hleb so far. He has done some very solid preformances, specialy some excelent deliveries into the box. Somehow I cant feel satisfied, but I am convinced he is a good signing. All he need is to score. Looking at the season so far, we field 4 defenders, 3 midfielders and 3 strikers, not 1 striker and 2 wingers. This makes the two wingpositions the perhaps most demanding in the whole team.
Bojan is another matter that is quite dear to me. Personaly, Id like for him to get more minutes in the league. However, looking at the statistics we have Henry/Eto'o/Messi scoring like there is no tomorrow. I resign to the wisdom of Pep on this one. That said, give the kid 30 minutes every other game...
Looking forward
For those who se this before the game is over, tune in to Sporting vs. Sevilla. Gijon wont be an easy nut to crack, take my word for it.
you guys make it seem as if we lost!!!! why complain when we get the three points! we didnt play great, but playing at racing isnt easy. they just beat sevilla last week! we cant always play beatiful perfect futbol...enjoy our win!!
Most all of you are solid with the comments. For starting Puyol early is just wrong. Total agreement with kamikaze kontiki, still have lot to do.
This game was horrible to watch no matter who you were rooting for. Was horrible referee that got most every call wrong. What should have been fouls for us, were not and visa versa.
The tactics on the field were 'no where', when we were getting decent pressure we could not control the ball and The players who needed to step up didn't.
We looked like we were holding on to the edge the whole game, and I was in absolute disagreement that Messi should of came on...we need to learn to start playing as confident group without him. Last thing we needed was him to come on and get injured.
I am how you would say pessimistic (look at the glass always half full)...i thought it was poor choice to go to Messi, he made it clear he is human and was very tired after the Espanyol and asked to sit out..Lucky for us he was on the bench and not in the stands.
He just proved how super human he really is and how much I think this team is Messi - dependent. We need to secure his place at Barcelona and just give him the keys. Was pure magic and enjoyment to watch 1 man make that much of a difference...I never seen CR7 do this..not quite like this mann....
Also he came on the pitch at what...the 60' min give or take a minute or so...scored 2 goals and made the team click..no mention spotted another mark in the history books at Barcelona with the netted the last 2 goals for their 5000th goal mark!
Who else were you expecting to do it.... ??
kamikaze kontiki
hi i jst want to say that the formation today was not as we tought i would be .. it was not 4-3-3 at all. pep might did some manipulation regarding their positioning.. when i look at the formation i thought iwas like that
valdez
alves pique Rafa abidal
toure
iniesta xavi busquets
henry eto'o
4-1-3-2
like that
that's why we saw iniest was more on the left side ..
Baddest 70min of the season.
Eto'o was invisible.
Ref had is head up his ass.
Nice to see Messi scoring such a goal with his right-foot.
I remember when we played Valencia and villareal people starting to say that messi is slowing our game and he needs to learn to pass, and he needs to learn to play with his right foot. and after the last game he was supposed to score with his head. he was giving 8s in game points because he disappeared through a vast time of the match and without Dani Alves we were not that good (although he was even worse than today in the first couple of games). ... suddenly we depend on El-Messiah again just as in the early start of the season. I think people need to watch football for more than merely 3, 4 seasons to be able to stat their opinion publicly and gain credibility. the comment section in football sites are as crappy as a ridiculous Horror B-movie. let alone crappy articles, like goal.com.
sumaya : I missed the first half and I was watching the match on live streaming where the frame gets stuck every 5 secs, so I couldn't make much out.
So thanks for telling me !
I made more of the 2nd half n it seemed that the strategy to deal with Zigic was that Toure would challenge him for the header while the defenders would immediately push back to cover for Zigic heading it on. It was a difficult game for Pique n Marquez. Man-marking tiny, light-weight squirelling forwards like Munitis n Jonathan isn't their forte.
Anyway this pushes the defense further back n spreads the play out over the length of the pitch. I saw Iniesta on the right as well so i have no idea what his instructions could have been. Busqs was substituted early so maybe if anyone was screwing up on his tactical role it was Busquets.
I got a lot wrong with the Racing formation too. Jonathan n Munitis were used in a front 3 while Toni Morale started at left midfield.
Anonymous: Yea I remember that discussion about Right foot and heading... but I don't know what does it has to do with anything in this game? Messi scored?
Messi is the most talented player who is in the form at the moment, and if Hleb trained his two legs to become a double footed player, then for Messi its a must, just imagine him having a right foot as skillful as the left. At least he will be able to play on the left wing by then whenever needed without losing 50 % of the threat he cause when he play on the right. I dont get carried away by moments of Brilliance, Messi the best player in the world whom I defended all the time and will always do can get better. And the first thing to start with is doing what Zidan did, training his weaker foot to match the strong one.I made some sprints in my life on the left flank and scored a bunch of goals using my left foot but that doesn't mean I don't have "left foot" disability. NOw No one argue that Messi can use his right better than C.ronaldo use his two feet, but when you compare Messi left to Messi right thats where you can see the difference, Messi must only be compared and compete with Messi. but may be I think so because I put him in a higher Class than u do?
the reason for this discussion is the general feeling I get from people that they are dissatisfied by the win and some are even disgusted!!!
and well I put Messi above Zidan and obviously you don't, I don't want him to do anything more than what he is doing and to me that's already the best play I've seen since 1994. I don't want him to play more with right leg or head or pass, if he doesn't find a player making the right move he doesn't kick the ball around like zidan who obviously wasn't the fastest player that if couldn't find the righ move would round the ball to the nearest teammate, Messi on the other hand penetrate the opposition defenders with pace and pass the ball in the far post into the net. that what made Maradona the best ever, and messi is just so close to him.
and to constantly treat a player like him as if he has a "right foot disability" is not justified to me, and it causes unneeded pressure. if he can save us like yesterday with one eye, one arm and one leg then so be it.
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