Champions League (Matchday #5): Milan vs FC Barcelona

I am done with Milan, not really intrested in playing them again. They make the game very complicated.

Also, while they lack speed in certain areas they have old guys who are just so smart.

At least half a dozen times Zambrotta or Seedorf were outmatched by Messi in a 1 v 1 type situation. But they know how to use their body and position themselves to draw contact which called as a foul. Such high footballing I.Q´s.

Seedorf played very well I agree. Sometimes all you have to do is keep calm and use your head in tough matches. Seedorf did that very well i thought.

After seeing this game I'm convinced that Madrid have to get their width right in the Clasico if they want to give Barcelona trouble. Too narrow and Barca will likely have a much easier time with the midfield battle. Too wide and they risk those deadly through balls coming off (Messi/Iniesta/Xavi the likely providers) however they get it right and things could get tasty IMO.

Milan are not nearly as fast as Madrid are (although they are calmer on the ball) so the drop ball to the flanks strategy coupled with wing play focused on pegging Barca back could win them the game.

Zealous wrote:Seedorf played very well I agree. Sometimes all you have to do is keep calm and use your head in tough matches. Seedorf did that very well i thought.

After seeing this game I'm convinced that Madrid have to get their width right in the Clasico if they want to give Barcelona trouble. Too narrow and Barca will likely have a much easier time with the midfield battle. Too wide and they risk those deadly through balls coming off (Messi/Iniesta/Xavi the likely providers) however they get it right and things could get tasty IMO.

Milan are not nearly as fast as Madrid are (although they are calmer on the ball) so the drop ball to the flanks strategy coupled with wing play focused on pegging Barca back could win them the game.

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I agree. Madrid are going to do a lot of that in the clasico. The game is going to be very very close. I just cant figure out who is going to win that match.

Kind of expecting a draw but any result is possible in theory.

I didn't read the thread but was I the only one that thought Puyol was terrible?

As soon as I saw his name on the spreadsheet I was like this can't be good.

No disrespect he's my favorite defender of all time and he is el capitan, but the circumstances weren't right for him to be playing and it showed IMO.

Overall I was pretty satisfied with the performance. But it shows that a lot can still be done with the Barcelona side. Fix the right back problem and I think we would have been much more solid at the back. We need some inspiration from our wide players, Tiago was playing wide I believe and he was below par...he's young though, had a moment of greatness (if i remember correctly). But shows he still has a long way to go too.

Can't argue with a win, but the scoreline should NOT have been so close.

Also XAVI YOU AMAZING MAN. My hero <3

Great game guys. Milan looked much more dangerous than I expected them to be.

A few notes (already stated but still…):
Will people stop complaining about Keita? The guy brings a lot of workrate and he is always more than decent. A soldier of the team.
Villa and Pedro need to find their form soon. We can’t afford to be without two of our best goal contributors for long.
Thiago and Xavi were the best players in the field. Long live the king and the prince!
Messi’s playmaking abilities are amazing.
I didn’t thing the day would come but Puyol was our worst player. Maybe he would go much better if he was played central but still he cost us a goal and almost a second if it wasn’t for Robinho’s bad luck.

Overall great game

billy_gr wrote:
Great game guys. Milan looked much more dangerous than I expected them to be.

A few notes (already stated but still…):
Will people stop complaining about Keita? The guy brings a lot of workrate and he is always more than decent. A soldier of the team.
Villa and Pedro need to find their form soon. We can’t afford to be without two of our best goal contributors for long.
Thiago and Xavi were the best players in the field. Long live the king and the prince!
Messi’s playmaking abilities are amazing.
I didn’t thing the day would come but Puyol was our worst player. Maybe he would go much better if he was played central but still he cost us a goal and almost a second if it wasn’t for Robinho’s bad luck.

Overall great game

Can't blame him though Thiago barely helped him out defensively.

Anyway the lvl of the tactical discussion pre and post game

Take a bow Dani and Zealous , i enjoyed ur views, although i slightly disagree with ur valuation of Milan's overall strength and tactical strengths.

Still he seemed rusty. Remember an instance where Zlatan slipped and Puyol was so reluctant to take the ball from him.
Anyway Puyol is on of my heroes of the game and I won’t criticize too much. I believe he would be much better in a centre role.

P.S. Barca section is always a great place to talk football tactics and analyse games.
Conspiracies, anger outburst etc? That’s what we have the General section

Ah yes i noticed as much but the problem you see is the time zone i find myself in, as i'm always 6-7 hours late during the peak hours. So i rarely get to engage in this delicious tactical discussions pre and post game.

I think Pep didnt help Puyol much be playing him on the right, as already said. Center would be been much better for him and us.

CB, I dont know why you felt Thiago didnt do well. I thought he was excellent, worked hard defensively and his passing and creativity was as always effective and unpredictable.

Ninja thanks for the kind words. Where do you disagree? I think it would make for a fun discussion.

Thiago Xavi and Messi were our best players no doubt just saying

very impressed with thiago last night, looked completely at home on the big stage which is simply incredible to see from a 20yr old! to see the confidence to attempt, never mind pull off, that pass for cesc is great to see!
dont get how people are saying he wasnt good!! one of our best players!

villa is really starting to worry me now! moment when he chose to shoot, great save from abbiati btw, but a simple cross goal pass wouldve found a completely free cesc for a tap in!
poor decision making creeping in as well as a nervousness in front of goal!

sanchez when he came on showed that he definetely deserves to be ahead of pedro on the basis of performance and probably should start ahead of villa as well!
the tempo up front shot up the minute he was introduced and he caused loads of headaches for the milan defence! also great moment of pressing a lost cause to see him nick the ball from aquilani and then win a free just when we needed to relieve the pressure as they looked for an equalizer!

Couldn't watch the whole game, only the last 20 minutes were nothing happened. I saw a summary: it seems Thiago did quite well as a winger, as I predicted. He would excel as LW IMO. I wasn't happy to hear Keita starting and the 343, but at least Keita was played as CM where he does OK compared to DM. The 343 paid it's toll clearly in Ibra's goal, but it probably also helped us be more offensive in the first half, although without having the control. Still not convinced by 343 a all, we leak a lot of goals when we play it. (2 vs. Sociedad, 2 vs. milan, 2vs. Valencia, 2 vs. Milan again...). Not the way to go.

Alexis came and had great workrate and nice ball control which, as usual, led to nothing and missed a goal. So far, he is like Hleb but with great workrate, which is an important difference.

He is absolutely nothing like Hleb... he got himself into goalscoring positions once or twice too, but his finishing needs improving. I don't really see how he's like Hleb at all and Hleb was used almost exclusively to back up Iniesta from what I remember. Alexis is dynamic.

Thiago didn't play as a winger either. In the first half he was strictly playing CAM behind Fabregas and in the second half there was a lot of flow among the mids, with Cesc dropping or pulling wide, Messi coming inside, Thiago going wider etc. However, just from what I've seen, he can clearly play winger in the same way Ronaldinho did.

Hleb played in the wings, just like Alexis. So far, they are almost carbon copied except that Sanchez is better off course and has a tremendous workrated.

I didn't watch the whole game, I heard that Thiago played in the wings in the postmatch program and it seemed so because of that great pass to Cesc which Thiago started the play on the right, but I believe you, journalists are very usually wrong.

free_cat wrote:Hleb played in the wings, just like Alexis. So far, they are almost carbon copied except that Sanchez is better off course and has a tremendous workrated.

I didn't watch the whole game, I heard that Thiago played in the wings in the postmatch program and it seemed so because of that great pass to Cesc which Thiago started the play on the right, but I believe you, journalists are very usually wrong.

hleb? you mean fabregas?

ah, you already edited or did I see wrong?

harhar11 wrote:

free_cat wrote:Hleb played in the wings, just like Alexis. So far, they are almost carbon copied except that Sanchez is better off course and has a tremendous workrated.

I didn't watch the whole game, I heard that Thiago played in the wings in the postmatch program and it seemed so because of that great pass to Cesc which Thiago started the play on the right, but I believe you, journalists are very usually wrong.

hleb? you mean fabregas?

ah, you already edited or did I see wrong?

No, no, I wrote Hleb, but I meant Fabregas. Lapsus.

Hleb has a great vision i must say. he didnt play so great but he was ok

free_cat wrote:

harhar11 wrote:

free_cat wrote:Hleb played in the wings, just like Alexis. So far, they are almost carbon copied except that Sanchez is better off course and has a tremendous workrated.

I didn't watch the whole game, I heard that Thiago played in the wings in the postmatch program and it seemed so because of that great pass to Cesc which Thiago started the play on the right, but I believe you, journalists are very usually wrong.

hleb? you mean fabregas?

ah, you already edited or did I see wrong?

No, no, I wrote Hleb, but I meant Fabregas. Lapsus.

ah I see

Also: real late reply but lol messi has played RFW before in these 2 year and he also did that in the last game

The only similarity I see with Hleb and Sanchez is neither are superb at shooting, but at least Sanchez is willing to pull the trigger. Hleb simply refused to, which is a major problem because you cant have 11 players passing.

Other then that, I dont really see it. Hleb is like a midfielder posing as a winger, Sanchez is dynamic and more like a real winger.

Anyway, how come you missed the game Free? Training again?

but in life hleb is more successful

A few points.
I thought we played poorly and yet still outplayed them.With better finishing we should have won by a margin of 2,3 goals.
The first half we played quite well but the second half was poor.Gave away possession far too easily.

On the formation,I think it is pointless playing Messi on the wing.He was supposed to play on the right but kept coming in.So Thiago(who was supposed to play no 10) and Messi ending up swapping roles.Thiago played on the right mostly and Messi number 10.This confusion coupled with Xavi playing right of the diamond(where he doesnt stay as he likes to roam) led to our right flank being weak defensivvely.
So from now I hope Pep doesnt play Messi on the wing.He is far too good for it and doesnt play there anyway.

On the players Messi and Xavi were our best players.Messi toyed with the Milan defense in the first half.Played a brilliant ball to Keita who set up the first goal.
And then the pass to Xavi,
An eye of the needle pass and took out 3 defenders in the process.

Villa's finishing is really worrying.He missed 4 chances and twice couldnt finish from simple chances set up by Messi.
As kizz mentioned a while back at Barca he wont find an empty net.Most of the chances will be gilt edged.To score a goal invariably he will have to beat the keeper which he has been woefully poor at.Needs to work in training on beating the keeper 1 on 1.
He is playing well,moving well,linking up well but finishing is just atrocious and not acceptable from a player of his calibre.

Actually messi's pass took out 4 defenders even Xavier would have been proud of it

Also I agree with your comments on villa, his finishing has been atrocious for awhile now, but his off the ball movement is still good and he's still making runs and getting in the right positions which is good But like you said massive improvement is required if he wants to keep playing regularly.

So... if we drop Villa, and Pedro is out of form/injured.... who will score the goals apart from Messi?

The Chilean Hleb?

Ps. Yeah Dani, I was training. Last game I'm gonna miss in CL for training. I will miss training in the knockouts if needed.

Through the match ..