Is Barca's cycle done?

It's just too early for me to make such a call. I believe in this team enough to think they still have a shot and el clasico will tell us a a lot.

cyberman wrote:just mark cr7 and madrid are done, its no big secret to the big teams
theyll be far easier to stop than barca

Completely disagree. Barcelona, like Spain have become far to predictable. Their lack of width is the problem. Theres no surprise they have looked more dengerous when Cuenca is on, Villa being so desperate to score is quicker to cut in now than last season. Fabregas playing in the side makes Barcas MF compact and they are so narrow that it is easier to defend against them. Vila being off form, Ini being injured means that Messi is pretty much their only solid GS outlet. Maybe a slight hint of comlacency, afterall they have won everything. This season for me will define Pep's era, depending on their response.

Madrid DON'T depend on Ronaldo at all, big teams? The only big team that stopped them last year was Barcelona, they wiped the floor with all the other teams the other teams in SPain. Ronaldo is actually less involved in the game now and this Madrid team is playing at a higher level than Bacelona in 09. Xabi Alonso is far more important to that team than Ronaldo.

The fact that everyone is crying doomsday after 1 defeat in like 20+ games just goes to show the ridiculous level that they have set. It's a 6 point gap. Madrid will drop points.

cr7 is their main scorer and assister, they dont have the dynamism of barca that make them so hard to contain
madrid are chelsea with ronaldo and ozil added, they over physical sides in spain

harder to do it v bayern / utd / milan etc

people are just given madrid the no 2 slot after barca when they havent earned it. just because barca might have dropped doesnt promote madrid to cl favourites etc

barca have been accused of lack of width for a long time, but they make diagonal runs that cut you open with abidal / alves providing enough width to compensate

cyberman wrote:just mark cr7 and madrid are done, its no big secret to the big teams
theyll be far easier to stop than barca

You really need to watch madrid. Alonso is our most important player without question.

cyberman wrote:cr7 is their main scorer and assister, they dont have the dynamism of barca that make them so hard to contain
madrid are chelsea with ronaldo and ozil added, they over physical sides in spain

harder to do it v bayern / utd / milan etc

people are just given madrid the no 2 slot after barca when they havent earned it. just because barca might have dropped doesnt promote madrid to cl favourites etc

barca have been accused of lack of width for a long time, but they make diagonal runs that cut you open with abidal / alves providing enough width to compensate

They played Milan last year and were better over both games no? They are very direct yes, but that is why teams find playing them difficult. TBH most teams that play Barca just stay back, where as they have more of a go at Madrid leaving them more susceptible to counters. Barcelona are suffeing from being that good. No one attempts to play tham.

They had more width with Eto and Henry in the side, Pedro gives them a lot of width actually, Alves and Abidal can't do it by themselves. Because of the lack of outwards movements by the inside forwards, Alves runs are easier to track thnan before when they were occupied by Villa and Pedro. Agai with Villa, even for Spain he is cutting in a lort quicker, probably because he is desperate to score abd get in decent positions. The lack of width is a massive problem. I have never seen Barcas MF this crowded before, Fabregas isn't helping either as well.

cyberman wrote:cr7 is their main scorer and assister, they dont have the dynamism of barca that make them so hard to contain
madrid are chelsea with ronaldo and ozil added, they over physical sides in spain

harder to do it v bayern / utd / milan etc

people are just given madrid the no 2 slot after barca when they havent earned it. just because barca might have dropped doesnt promote madrid to cl favourites etc

barca have been accused of lack of width for a long time, but they make diagonal runs that cut you open with abidal / alves providing enough width to compensate

Stats suggest otherwise...

di maria has 10 assists > more assists than ronaldo

both benz and higgy are catching up with ronaldos goals with less playing time

xabi alonsos role for madrid > ronaldos, we dont even have a ronaldo vs barca, he sucks against them

If anything Barcelona are more dependant on Messi than ever. Pep Guardiola seems to try to milk even more out of the little genius for every season. It makes Messis stats bonerworthy but if Messi were to be injured, which he never seems to be, Barcelona would face a very harsh reality. With former great players like Villa having succumbed into their Messi minions role fully and having no idea anymore how to carry a team. Most apparent for Spain since Villa joined Barcelona.

With Ronaldo out Real Madrid puts Benzema in his position with Higuain up front and as a team we barely loose quality even thou we loose a great GS outlet (but gain another one).

Now, Real Madrid with Xabi hustled or marked out of the game is another story, but beware, Sahin+Xabi partnership is coming to town soon enough.

way to early for this crap

They're still competing for all competitions so they're definitely not past it. Imo, they're less motivated than they were the last couple of seasons. Thus Messi appearing lazy and fat.

Puyol getting old and injured
Alves losing effectiveness
Xavi getting old
Villa getting old
Abidal still very effective, but playing CB as much as LB. As a result, LB is weakened.
Pedro is in bad form

That's a lot of WC talent to replace. As much as you project youth to be the next great thing... replacing greatness rarely happens within youth ranks. Barca has to go out there and either buy WC talent or find a gem. Jury is still out on Cesc and Sanchez.

Barca has some holes to fill.

Also, players get naturally complacent and less hungry after winning everything... so motivation is another big mental hurdle.

TBH barcelona dont play worse than last season. But this season theres no hunger anymore especially after beating madrid at supercopa. I wish madrid beat barca at the beginning of the season. Another thing is that mourinho built 2 teams and he is rotating them very cleverly

Mourinho intentionally lost to Barca so that they would lose motivation

Another masterstroke by The Special One

It's Cesc's Fault.....

His addition has made the team unbalanced and now Guardiola has no clue what his best team is and keeps chopping and changing everyweek so there is no consistency.....

Unlike Madrid who know thier best team and are pulling in the same direction for one goal which breeds consistency.

Immaculate_Mole wrote:It's Cesc's Fault.....

His addition has made the team unbalanced and now Guardiola has no clue what his best team is and keeps chopping and changing everyweek so there is no consistency.....

Unlike Madrid who know thier best team and are pulling in the same direction for one goal which breeds consistency.

Spam!

Iceman wrote:Mourinho intentionally lost to Barca so that they would lose motivation

Another masterstroke by The Special One

The thread was started by a Farca fan and no RM fan said, they're in decline
I love your delusions as always

I voted for the curse of Cesc. :dance:

Read the sig, lovelies, read the sig. It was clear in the summer already.

Switches are our way:
- Barcelona has lost motivation (you could see in their celebrations last year, when they won things already, ManU CL final most anticlimatic thing ever)
- Barcelona has no set 11 of magic anymore, Pep is not great with rotations
- Barcelona is aging/injury woes.
- Barcelona is losing sympathy worldwide because of Qatar Foundation + getting boring
- Barca lost the magic a bit in their game for all of the previous factors.
- Real Madrid has collided in a very, very strong team with insane depth.
- Mou's second season.

This is not to say that Barcelona won't win everything again, but they have lost the magic they had. They are by no means unbeatable anymore.

Guiltybystander wrote:They are by no means unbeatable anymore.

Not according to recent stats. The Getafe game was the first loss since April.

kiranr wrote:

Guiltybystander wrote:They are by no means unbeatable anymore.

Not according to recent stats. The Getafe game was the first loss since April.

But teams don't have to go into a match knowing they have lost. They have had a lot of more narrow victories or draws.

Real Madrid was better in Supercopa, AC Milan could have won one etc.

Guiltybystander wrote:

kiranr wrote:

Guiltybystander wrote:They are by no means unbeatable anymore.

Not according to recent stats. The Getafe game was the first loss since April.

But teams don't have to go into a match knowing they have lost. They have had a lot of more narrow victories or draws.

Real Madrid was better in Supercopa, AC Milan could have won one etc.

Madrid were better in one leg. Not in the second leg. Arsenal won against us last season in the CL. Milan is a great team and of course they could have won one. Your analysis is far too short-sighted.

well i agree that real madrid are building a very strong team and are a very dangerous team this season but if we really want to see how strong they are this season they should face one of the big teams in r16 in cl like man utd or city or chelsea if they qualify..
as for barca..
the reasons we have been bad this season
are many things
- we need a new cb our defense looks to weak on the counter an example pato's goal in nou camp
-too reliant on messi in scoring goals due to the poor form of pedro/villa
if that doesnt get solved we have too options 1- is to put either of iniesta/thiago on the wing until they regain their form 2-get rid of one of them (probably villa) and a buy a young winger who can score goals from the wing
- players getting old and the mentality (as mentioned before)
-we should change our style vs small teams a little bit we should stop keeping possesion for a long time and decrease it a bit so we can make fast counters=alot of goals because of their week defense

Since the debacle in November 2010, Madrid-Barca games have all been completely even except for the one CL game that Barca got the benefit of a red card (as usual)...

Madrid were better in one leg. Not in the second leg. Arsenal won against us last season in the CL. Milan is a great team and of course they could have won one. Your analysis is far too short-sighted.

Well I never said that Barcelona was now easily beat, I am just saying that in previous years teams would have this fear of going into a match knowing they had lost it and would be attempting to do damage control.

I think we have past that point now, some of the top teams have caught up rapidly, and Barcelona has declined for reasons I mentioned before.

This Classico is by no means played already. I knew we were going to lose last year, now I am not so sure. We still could, but it is far more even.

Lord Hispano wrote:As long as Xabi keeps getting hampered by father time and Barca don't produce another Xavi immediately then you can't expect Barca to reach the level they were at in 09-11.

Plus, RM have been better than Barca for pretty much a year now and are still going up.

I didn't know one game aged players so much? :lol!:

Madrid better than barca for the past year