Tuesday 25 November 2008

Can Barcelona do it without Messi?

*Messidependence*


Guardiola:
Why do they keep on asking me about Messi?






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elmundodeportivo.es

5 comments:

Unknown said...

From what we've seen so far certainly not...

Anonymous said...

We've won a difficult away game without him (Athletic). But we needed him to come on against Donetsk.


Iniesta wasn't there either on Sunday, could have been different if he was.

utility73 said...

there is definitely a huge difference without him. his presence alone induces show and awe into opposing defenders. he constantly always draws 2-3 defenders therefore creating much more space for other means of attack. barcas attacking game is much more dynamic with him on the pitch. yes we won against bilbao, but it was close and our offense was rather static. same against getafe. maybe its not messi alone, but if messi and another important offensive player is missing (iniesta, xavi, etc.) than i see a huge drop in creativity in barcas attacking means.

utility73 said...

meant "shock and awe" :-)

Anonymous said...

Iniesta is more important than Messi, to me. Messi comes at defenses from the right, where we already have an abundance of attacking options, since Xavi favors that side of the pitch, as do Eto'o and Alves.

But with Iniesta on the left....that is when we become truly dangerous, because there is someone making the same killer runs on the other side of the pitch. We could (and sometimes do) have that with Henry, if the other players are willing to play with him. He was being isolated/ignored too often during the Getafe match. He could have made more of a difference.

Short answer: Yes, with Iniesta or a fully involved Henry.

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