Tuesday 19 May 2009

Guardiola has made decision on Roma eleven

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola has made the decision on which eleven players will start the Champions League final against Manchester United on Wednesday 27 May in Rome:


Valdés

Puyol - Touré - Piqué - Keita

Xavi - Busquets - Iniesta

Messi - Eto'o - Henry




Catalan sports paper Sport has almost the same line-up but just points out that there are still doubts on the left back position: Sylvinho, Cáceres and Keita would be the three candidates for that last spot.

35 comments:

Vj said...

I prefer Sylvinho as LB, he'e a natural at that position, fouls a lot less (lot lesser than Keita)..

Only problem is that he's not called Gramps for nothing.. he has to keep Ronaldo quiet for 90 minutes..

The players need to play out of their skins next week.. but hey, oppurtunity always lies at the midst of adversity..

jester[HUN] said...

I don't know what to say but it's very interesting so...
no comment but only 2 defenders toure is great but keita over sylvinho
but FORCA BARCA
and I trust Pep

Vj said...

*he's

Andre,Bergen said...

Im really nervous about this final. Im afraid united will beat us on dead-ball errors,or heading in a cornerkick in the 90th minute or something.. Then they are ''best club in the world'' again. Typical United. Especially with four our players unable to play. In this final we cant waste the chances we get,coz united are very solid at the back. You hear that,Samu??!

barcacanada said...

i'm very surprised that pep would have shared his starting lineup with the world so soon; it's very uncharacteristic of him.

i can understand why he would place both toure and keita on the back line though in order to help defend rooney and cr7.

and if indeed this lineup is true - busquets better work his ass off!

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... not sure about Keita at left back... what kind of experience does he have back there? I think I'd prefer Sylvinho's experience...

Anonymous said...

With this...


-----Xavi-----Iniesta-----

-Messi----Eto'o----Henry-

...the rest really shouldn't matter that much. I trust Puyol, Piqué and Touré to cover the back with or without a true left back.

Anonymous said...

We should have faith in Pep. After all, who scored the decisive supergoal against Athletic? Yaya, who wouldnt have scored it if he had played DM. This is the reality. Could Keita at LB turn out to be yet another masterstroke from Pep? Maybe, so please dont critize, but instead have strong faith in the boss.

xaviesta said...

i dont think pep is so stupid to give sir alex the right line up one week before! i guess there will be a surprise in the defensive line in the end! we'll see when they step on the field! hopefully busquets will play a solid game if he plays and he dont act nervous like in some situations in the chelsea second leg!
we know he can!
like yaya said: "this is barcas year"
let's get it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FORCA BARCA

Anonymous said...

Abidal...poor guy...he miss two final in the year because of two wrongful redcard...and Barca really needs him now...

Anonymous said...

sylvinho should play a left back defender. he can defend with less fouls. why keita? that would be stupid. really!!!

Anonymous said...

against chelsea we missed two central defenders and barca played like a team from saudi arabia. if sylvinho plays, we're only missing one defender. sylvinho is as good as abidal but more dangerous in front. furthermore: less fouls -> less freekicks -> less opportunities for manu. with toure as central defender it's pitty because he's soooo good in midfield.

but as written before: i don't believe that's the correct line up.

KluivertsBoots said...

EMD is just speculating. The players wouldn't even know at this point. Pep will only reveal 24 hours ahead at most.

Heaven help us in defense. Passing will need to be very sharp in order to prevent United's most dangerous attacks, counter-attacks.

We are extremely vulnerable to counters no matter who we line up because of our playing high up the pitch. I fear the long ball down the flanks which CR runs onto at full speed.

We need our A game offensively to win. If we play our best, we can win. If not, I see a 2-1 loss.

Anonymous said...

am cool keita at left back,so far he hasn't disappoint. sylvinho is old n will be easily exhausted

Ramen said...

I believe Keita is too slugggish and cumbersome for LB IMO.

James said...

I am not as comfortable as Pep with Yaya playing CB. It's clearly not his comfort zone. And while he's strong and has many defensive qualities, you can tell his inexperience with being the last line of defence. Another problem is his propensity to go forward. He forgets he's not playing midfield and will make a late run forward every once in a while. This might lead to a spectacular play like against Bilbao but it'll leave us completely exposed against a counter-attacking strategy United is sure to employ. If we are going to win he has to be disciplined and stay back at all times.

Puyol is also wasted playing RB in my opinion. Whenever he plays on the wings he's not quite a defender but doesn't offer anything in attack other than a passing post for the winger. I'd rather sacrifice the wings offensively and have Puyol and Yaya play their natural positions to be honest. Let Caceres and Sylvinho take the wings and just try to be solid defensively. Yaya at DM with Puyol and Pique at center makes me a lot more comfortable.

ZenI said...

I agree with you James. The only thing that worries me is Caceres in:

Caceres---Puyol---Pique---Sylvinho

But just as you say, I would be hell of a lot calmer with Puyol as CB and Yaya on DM. But I have no problems with Sylvinho on LB. Sure, Abidal is more secure but anyway. If we go for Pique and Puyol as CBs, Caceres could even in worse case make a mistake or two.

Anonymous said...

keita----pyuol--pique----sylvinho

yaya

xavi
inesta

messi henry
eto'o

cruelsong said...

how 'bout

valdez

caceres - puyol - pique - keita

xavi - toure - iniesta

messi - eto'o - henry

Brandon Polanco said...

puyol - toure - pique - sylvinho ( with the first three staying almost as RCB/CB/LCB,) and sylvinho being LB while playing the Alves role on the left.

keita
Xavi - Iniesta

Messi Eto'o- Henry

Anurag said...

why is everyone SO concerned about our defense? as one anon comment pointed out earlier -
Xavi --- Iniesta
Messi - Eto'o - Henry

will finish off man u. i think they will play a blitzy first half like the one against bayern to finish man u off early.

Marc4barca said...

well manu onc again ruined everyone hopes of a great final, alex will field a 4-4-1-1 formation with
van der saar
o'shea-vidic-ferdinand-evra
anderson-carrick-park-giggs
rooney
ronaldo

very defensive with counter attack in mind with the pace of ronaldo upfront. this will be tough breaking down such a tight mid and defense, especially with rooney playing the trequartista role of support strike and support midfield. this will make yaya's presence in midfield missed even more, i pray to god busquets played like how he started in the first half of the season.

sashi said...

am not gonna fall for this one! hope this line up isn't true. not tat it is not gud enuf but Pep would be a fool (or this can be a masterstroke) to give out the line up to Alex Ferg like this! but who knows. Pep is a total surprise package.

Anonymous said...

this is goooooooooood idea:
1. Keita can play higher so we canchange a bit from 4-3-3- to 3-4-3 Pep likes it too

2 Keita used to play on the left and right back covering Alves and Adriano in Sevilla

3 Sylvinho can not play so high level of fitness let's call it like that probably after 30 maybe 45 min he will be extingusted

4 Pep has put to this team a lot so they will pay it back you will see all!



Hidalgo4

Areign said...

defenitely fake, theres NO way pep would leak the lineup like that, not to say it isnt a fine prediction. i would prefer sylvino wither either yaya in d and busquets in mid or with kieta on the right and yaya in mid. which one do i hate less? busquets in the mid, or kieta on the D? is it early season busquets or late season busquets? is it random header game winnder kieta or is it run like a chicken with his head cut off keita? both could be great or terrible, we shall see which of which, shows up on wednesday.

Aussie Barca fan said...

All of the players need to play their hearts out, and i think they can do this. Although i must admit, thinking about the final makes me very nervous, because i think it would be such a shame if barca lose. United have the kind of players in Rooney and Ronaldo who can make something out of nothing, and barca must be aware of this.

I personally think sylvinho should start so keita can have that midfield position. Dont get me wrong, Busquets is great, i just think we need the most experienced players we have, as they are less likely to be nervous in such big games.

Nderim said...

haha pep must be crazy :D but to be honest the more i think about this lineup the more it makes sens.

I think the formation will look more like this when we play. Theres no way Ronaldo or Rooney can get past Busquets, Yaya and Keita. :D I really hope we play like this and win. :D

Puyol Pique

Yaya Ture Kieta

Xavi Busquets Inesta

Messi Etoo Henry

Nderim said...

As long as we win i dont care about the lineup, But it would be a cool way to win a final :P playing with only 2 defenders haha. But its only a wishfull thinking so dont go hating on me guys :D If barca doesnt win i have to take my friend to dinner so they better win :D and my other friend a RM fan :P I'd love to see his face when we win just like i did against RM and Chelsea it waaas soo goood :)

kamikaze kontiki said...

Defnitely not the line-up I would like to see. I think we need Toure in midfield, slowing Man Y down as they break is more important than beefing up the defense.

But EMD has a point, what this lineup actually does is put all of Barça's best players through the season out onto the pitch. And I think that is what Pep has been inclined towards for most part. He wants the best 11 out there, one way or the other. So while it is horrible that the starting line-up could be leaked so early, I am not sure it is not the most likely one.

Anonymous said...

Isnt it funny... you can predict the attacking force of Barca but as for the defence its a bit of a mystery however for man u its the other way around and you would more likely be able to predict their defence line (van der sar, evra, vidic, rio(if fit but if not then evans), o shea...

anyways... hopefully some first team players get to play in the match againts Osasuna coz not playing for too long may also coz a bit of lag in playing...

BARCA!!!

Manolo said...

YOu saw how it went without Toure at the midfield at StamfordBridge..

I think we realy need Toure at the midfield. He's so powerful and his covering ability is amazing.

In Camp Nou he marked and ereased Lampard,Ballack and Essien from the game by him selft (almost ;P)

In England, they ran how they wanted to.

And will Toure keep up with the acceleration of Ronaldo or Rooney in the attack? he's clumsy u know!


Cáceres-Puyol-Pique-Keita
Xavi-Toure-Iniesta

with that one, the hole midfield have to work and nobody is going to past our midfield, so a worldClass defense isn't needed.

And hey, you guys overrating Ronaldo for gods sake,
Cáceres is very good at man Vs man.
he can handle Ronaldo if he comes at the right flank.

He isn't a 17 years old boy with no experience!

Some bad leftbacks can handle Messi, why shoudl't Cáceres handle Ronaldo?

If Cáceres gets a yellow, change him for Sylvinho.
then hand over the right post to Puyol, Toure and Pique in the middle and Sylvinho on the left.

Grannit said...

The defensive line..hmmm it will be a very big problem,to pick a correct defensive line,but with Keita as LEFT BACK,i just can hope that he can stop CR.Maybe the experience of Sylvinho will be the big point.
But i'm surely that the best defend is the attack.We are more than a club,and we can beat every club,with our spirit and our great football.Manchester UTD with they counter-attack,can let us sleeping.
I really want to win this Cup,but is very hard...

GOD,HELP US !

Anonymous said...

I wish Busquets dont play.He is not for the final .!!!

Unknown said...

First half with Sylvinho on the left and Keita in the middle and the second half - Keita to replace Sylvinho on the left and Busquets in the center.

Anonymous said...

hey all barcelona lovers
we should all go support our team on wednesday for our opponent will be the hardest ever
CR7 is sure giving V.V.1 some bad dreams, but its okay, we go a steel-gloves-keeper
let's make those english lads poop in they're ugly panties, viva barca <333

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