Barcelona vs Deportivo | Sat March 9th | La Liga Matchday 27

14:00 ET 19:00 GMT 20:00 CET

No Valdes and possibly no Pique. Xavi is still working separately. Haven't seen any news on Puyol.

3 days before the Milan match but with a whole week's worth of rest I don't think we should rest any key players. If anything keep them on until we have a secured league and then sub them off.

Banuz could be called up to play on the bench as GK.

I hope we call up Muniesa, Roberto and Deulo too.

Personally I think Tello, Villa and Adriano should all start against Milan, but I think these guys would be fit enough to play 2 times. No doubt we need to rest our stars. Pique, Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Alves could all do with a breather.

My team:

Pinto
Montoya Bartra Mascherano Alba/Adri
Song
Thiago Cesc
Pedro Alexis/Villa Tello

Completely agree with Kizz here, I like that lineup.

I think we can get away with that lineup and still come out with a comfortable win. Like always if things don't look good we can just bring on Messi and maybe someone else like Iniesta or Alves, which should be enough for the win.

I believe it is at Camp Nou, no? We played at the Riazor earlier this season, I think that was the 5-4 game.

Should be easy then and I think we have to rest our players for Milan. We need them to be at maximum fitness.

Whether we go through or not (and I'm sure we won't), we should rest our players so we have a chance of going through at least. We're still competing on two fronts, not one.

--------villa--------messi-------pedro-----

------------iniesta---------thiago-----------

-------------------busquets-------------------

adriano-------batra-----pique------montoya


No point resting players, they have done nothing for a week and the Milan game is kind of a done deal anyway. I dont even think the players themselves believe in a come back.

Depo are fighting from relegation and so it wont be any easy game.

Kizz no way in hell Roura has the balls to bench Messi after a week's worth of rest.

And we shouldn't take the league lightly. First off anything but a win would reduce our gap, which will undoubtedly decline with Roura at the helm. And a dominant win, which we haven't had in a while, would give us a huge confidence boost. We desperately need that.

There is no way we're losing a 13 point lead regardless of Saturday's result IMO.

It's not giving up to play our key players this game, but it's not optimal, and I'd hate to go out of the CL knowing we didn't do everything in our power to beat Milan, even though I realize it 99.9% will not happen and have resigned myself to that result.

Roura will start his usual 11

our players are more then rested, and if we want any chance on winning against Milan we have to have high confidence with a win against deportivo
the ideal and my first pick would be
--Villa-------Messi--------Pedro
-------Cesc--------Thiago-
------------Buscuit
-Alba---Pique----Puyol---Alves
------------Pinto
take out Villa and Pedro around 60th minute for Tello and Sanchez, take out cesc for Iniesta.

No need to rest players. We need high confidence heading into the Milan game if we have any chance of qualifying through to the next round of CL.
Roura will put out a very strong side. The usual 11 with Cesc in midfield will probably be the most likely lineup.

Barcelona XI: Pinto, Alves, Mascherano, Puyol, Adriano, Song, Thiago, Fabregas, Sanchez, Villa, Tello

No Messi, nice.

I wonder who is in the middle, my guess is Villa who will play as a 9.

Cesc has room too to move so I think he will do well.

The one problem with the team is, without Iniesta and Messi we have no dribblers. Thaigo could, but with Cesc next to him he will be needed to connect the dots in midfield and play safely.

Tello will be important.

Villa is the 9!

Thiago has been great IMO. Cesc has been bad. Song...not much to do but wasn't impressed.

Tello has been OK but nothing special. Alexis was decent before he scored, and then after he scored he was full of confidence and looked quite good actually. Villa missed a one on one and should have done better. I like the positions he has gotten in, but his touches and finishing have let him down this game.

Nothing to say about the defense really except Alves.

Alves in decline

That cross could not have been more perfect.

Nice first half, many created chances and if the players who got them (Tello, Adriano, Villa) had been sharp from properly being rotated in it might of been 3 or 4. Cesc I cant make an excuse for.

But yeah, a nice half which is encouraging if only for 3 reasons.

1. We are actually passing the ball quickly, 2 touches, going side to side, not too much over dribbling in the wrong situations.

2. A sembelence of organasation in defence.

3. Multiple players running in behind.


So yeah, not perfect in terms of finishing and a couple errors in possession but honestly we have to start from 0 if we want to move forward positively and this is a good start.

Oh, and yes I did cum when Thiago did that roulette and pass over the top.

And if I didnt, I would have after the dribble past 2 and then a deft through ball to I believe Villa.

Couple errors deep in midfield with the pass, but we and he recovered well from them.

I always look for that, the reaction after a mistake. His is positive, as a fan I always respect someone who made an error and will work back to try and correct it.

Not everyone does that.

Oh and if Villa doesnt score im changing my display picture, whoever I choose gets the curse and make a mistake or has no luck in front of goal. I hope I have not cursed the poor guy.

Song is defensively pathetic honestly, he cant time a tackle at all.

On the ball, I have no problems, he can escape pressure and he can make accurate passes which choosing the correct passes. He has good composure too.

His defensive game is woeful though, I always new that but still.

Adriano I've seen been winning a lot of tackles one on one and has offered a lot on the left side along with Tello. His first touches or lobbed balls for Tello or switch play to Alves are too heavy... Still playing after two injuries, he has been good.
The passing has been surprisingly quick and more accurately which has been great to see. See link plays everywhere...
Thiago Those turns, moments of magic and vision all in the same play. It's just great to watch. The dribbles are though sometimes he tries too much...
Cesc and Song at times has been our bad players as such.

Why did we pay 25 million for Song?

We could have just bought back Romeu to do his job. For like, what 5 million?

CBarca wrote:Why did we pay 25 million for Song?

We could have just bought back Romeu to do his job. For like, what 5 million?

Agree. If we were desperate for a backup for Busi then Romeu would have been the best choice... The board and Tito not thinking enough...

TBH we could of just played Thiago or JDS (as back up pivot) and it wouldnt be very different. I dont like Romeu, incredibly slow and has a attitude of entitlement about him.

Anyway, much less intensity in the 2nd half.

Either Roura is stupid or he is saving the guys who got subbed off because the changes were wrong.

Tello didnt get past Manuel Pablo once with the ball, so I saw no reason why he didnt come off instead of Villa. Thats Tello's main selling point, his ability to go on the outside with the ball.

Messi came on and our pressing went down a notch, but as you saw with the goal we got more quality.

That 7 minutes spell of Iniesta and Cesc was pretty dire, Cesc loses more balls than Alexis...its infuriating for someone so gifted. He is just so slow its painful to watch.

Anyway, a decent performance and stops the rot which is probably what is most important.

I am not anymore confident for the Milan game though.

I was glad to see our defence much more organised generally, even if the opponant was much weaker, the overall shape, structure and decision making was better.

Is it just me or is Song becoming like an Alonso? Doesn't seem comfortable playing as a lone anchor man but when he has someone beside him in a double pivot, he is much more comfortable on and off the ball.
Second half was sloppy until we brought on Messi, Iniesta and Busi. We also played the ball mostly on the right hand side of the pitch. Tello became almost invisible and poor first touch let him down everyone when he had the ball...
Pinto throughout that game was a spectator. Didn't make a save... Defense was organised and I hope it can bring that to the Milan game.
Alexis could be a candidate for MOTM. Messi is back for those who are so blind... Alves is not in decline...

Defensively like Alonso? Similar weakness but I think Song is still a bit more mobile. But yeah, similar problem.

He is decent as a holding player against static number 10's, when Valeron came into his space it was easy enough for him. When there was some rotation and Pizzi or Nelson came there, he got burnt trying to make tackles.

I wouldnt say Messi is "back", not a tough enough game to come to that conclusion honestly.

Messi is fine really, his issue in recent games has been how long he takes on the ball. It leads to him losing it and us getting countered on. The problem is when he loses it, its in the middle of the pitch and we cant recover with pressing.

If someone likes it in a wider area, we can recover.

Noticed that as well Dani. No pressing from Messi. Been lazy with pressing ever since the season started...

Good call with JDS. Forgot he could play DM. Could probably do a better job than Song IMO.

A pretty good performance. Should have been more than 2-0.

Cesc was awful.

Thiago with that McGeady turn .

Yeah loved the first half.Amazing performance despite the fact that we were only up by 1 but I loved it.Also the line-up was almost the exact one which Is my preferred line up with this team.

Didnt really like the second half.