Barcelona Are Ordinary!

And it shows.

Their midfield is complete shit without Iniesta.

Busquets does what he does well, but he is in no way or form a midfield general.

sergio isn't doing what he does..
he's losing balls left and right, cant dribble out of pressure, doesn't intercept.

those were the three qualities that made him special.

They lack depth and that's down to terrible decisions from the board.
They've spent like 100m on Gomes, Alcacer and Turan. Don't even know what to say about that.

Donuts wrote:sergio isn't doing what he does..
he's losing balls left and right, cant dribble out of pressure, doesn't intercept.

those were the three qualities that made him special.

He had a shit game, but with the like of Gomes or Turan or whoever the mediocre crap you have beside you, it ain't hard to stink.

What the hell Barca

seriously what the hell

Sushi Master wrote:

Donuts wrote:sergio isn't doing what he does..
he's losing balls left and right, cant dribble out of pressure, doesn't intercept.

those were the three qualities that made him special.

He had a shit game, but with the like of Gomes or Turan or whoever the mediocre crap you have beside you, it ain't hard to stink.

do you watch much of barca games or just big ones?
sergio has been horrible all season long, don't take just my word for it, go on any barca forum check his pages it's been consistent.

turan on the other hand has been well over form, is tied for most assists and is among the top scorers outside msn despite small minutes.

what if i also tell you that our tactics heavily rely on sergio's presence.. not only did he suck real bad but pep did everything he could to expose it along.
city did very good on the win, we played overall bad.. it's easy to scapegoat the "terrible" signings we supposedly had but gomes was the best midfielder out today for us.. just getting flak for his miss

umtiti is one of the best transfers done compared to every other team
and digne obviously showing he is useful most saying he should displace alba.
mind you these players we bought weren't met to replace iniesta or pique.. but to replace the scrubs in adriano, verm, bartra.
only new signing that has been a letdown has been paco but i think he'll come around.

Busquets used to be the best press resistant DM in the world for the longest time and it's why he was so special. This season he's been awful though.

Like Donuts said he has been very shit at those qualities that made him resist pressure so well. He loses the ball more often now, don't know what happened to his composed balanced dribbling out of trouble, he gets caught on the ball these days.

Traditional DM qualities Busquets has very few of. He was never a good tackler and was always prone at getting overrun in midfield when Barca weren't able to keep 80% possession.

I dont what happened to Barcelona but Manchester City are little by little redeeming themselves - look what they did to West Ham.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Ordinary GK
Ordinary defense
Ordinary midfield
Ordinary coach

I was holding back at first but now I am slowly forced to admit this.... sadly, Barcelona are truly ordinary

Barcelona's defence was insanely bad last night. I haven't seen anyone in the Prem playing against City be so woeful at defending. Every time Barca lost the ball in midfield, City were able to run at Barca's defence with 4-5 guys and be very dangerous. Barca back-four were shaky in their own right, but there was also zero cover from midfield. Busquets is shit, period. You've got Mascherano in your team; bench Busquets until he can be arsed to actually try hard and play hard again. He's awful as he is now.

I've been also a little disappointed with Messi. The current Messi whenever he hasn't got the ball, he's way too happy to just walk about, waiting to see what happens. He's the best player in the world, he should be looking to actively get on the ball. Make himself available a lot better. He's as good as ever when he gets the ball, but he's too happy to be without it. He would probably have the stamina left to play another 90 minutes after the first 90 minutes, that's how little running he does without the ball.

Every team is struggling atm. Only Atletico are being consistent

This just means when everyone ups their game, that is Barcas time to prove themselves. Personally if you ask me they have CL locked down

it would be good for football if Juventus or Atletico win it this time

Not sure about Juve but Atleti definitely deserves one.

best thing for football would be a Juve-Ludogorets final tbh.

If Dortmund pick up their last season form, it would be a truly glorious hipster final with Dormunt-Atleti and either one winning would be good for football.

Don't call me James wrote:If Dortmund pick up their last season form, it would be a truly glorious hipster final with Dormunt-Atleti and either one winning would be good for football.

Dortmund - Copenhagen would've been a hipster final. I don't think anyone would be surprised if Atletico win it. They are capable of beating anyone.

Atleti has been the best team in the CL this season+plus 2 finals in 3 years. Wouldnt be a surprised at all.

I'd say both Dortmund or Atleti deserve a cup, more so Atleti.

A Dortmund-Atleti final would just fill my underdog soul to the brim. Nevermind it would be one hell of a game. Atleti really would need to pull it off before their squad ages more.

Not to be a debbie downer but one of Barcelona, Real or Bayern will win the CL.

Barcelona and Madrid are simply not as good as the last few years imo.

Bayern are the favorites imo. But if I had to choose the second favorite I would pick Atleti. And given they've had Bayern's number in the last 3 meetings you could pretty much say this might be their year.

I really hope so. Rooting for anybody outside English teams and the usual 3.

Nah, we're not as good as last year, IMO.

There are a lot of tactical changes that have not yet completely gelled, plus the fact we're still suffering from some annoying injuries.

Our wings are older and not getting younger (still WC, though), and a few injuries here and we'd have no depth.

In order to be CL ready we need Robben healthy, Lewa in form and our CBs in shape. Pretty much a lot is down to injuries, because the youth ain't exactly ready for top level as of yet.

Madrid are favorites again, IMO. Cubs just showed us curses can be broken and they have the most seasoned and trophy-metal team. Atleti will always be tough. Barca are Barca.

If Juve balance their midfield, they're also a force, IMO. Allegri is pretty damned good in CL.

The season barely started TBH. Barcelona or Madrid are gonna win it, don't kid yourself

Told ya.

Going to be interesting when Messi retires/declines