Real Betis vs FC Barcelona

Hummels is not better than Pique.Atleast not yet.Pique is still the better player as he has proved it on the biggest of stages and Hummels hasnt.
But Pique's form is a bit of a worry.He has not been playing at a consistently high level since last January.
We need him to step up or,the more likely case need a world class signing to lead the line and keep him on his toes.

Le Samourai wrote:

danyjr wrote:
Spain should worry about their chances in Euro 2014 with Piqué and Ramos as their centre backs.

Ramos leads our back line and is as vocal as they get.

Tactically he may not be as good as Puyol yet but he will keep Pique and the rest on their P's and Q's.

Leading a line is not about being vocal.Sometimes all Puyol needs is a stare.
Ramos has had a great season at CB but I just dont see him as a great organizer or leader of the backline.

alexjanosik wrote:Hummels is not better than Pique.Atleast not yet.Pique is still the better player as he has proved it on the biggest of stages and Hummels hasnt.
But Pique's form is a bit of a worry.He has not been playing at a consistently high level since last January.
We need him to step up or,the more likely case need a world class signing to lead the line and keep him on his toes.

Dont disagree with that at all.

About "leading the backline" for me, its not really about vocal so to speak, its about knowledge and perhaps to a degree personality.

Knowledge of situations allows one to know where everyone should be positioned at all times and can organise everyone.

You do see a lack of it when Puyol doesnt play tbh. Like last night, Both Pique and Machete pushed up, but shockingly both fullbacks stayed back and Betis scored. Someone needs to be telling those fullbacks to get up when the rest of the line does. Though, the fullbacks should know that anyway.

Pique not challanging the first aerial ball didnt help either in that play.

alexjanosik wrote:

Le Samourai wrote:

danyjr wrote:
Spain should worry about their chances in Euro 2014 with Piqué and Ramos as their centre backs.

Ramos leads our back line and is as vocal as they get.

Tactically he may not be as good as Puyol yet but he will keep Pique and the rest on their P's and Q's.

Leading a line is not about being vocal.Sometimes all Puyol needs is a stare.
Ramos has had a great season at CB but I just dont see him as a great organizer or leader of the backline.

He's not a great organizer to be honest, he still is a bit tactically indisciplined for the position....and that tactical indiscipline really doesn't allow him organize the line in the best possible way.

He does alot of direction though, he'll push people up and get them narrow.

Overall he isn't as knowledgeable and experienced, that's why it's a blow, but he definitely won't let Pique fall into the spells where he isn't alert and ready.

To me that's the biggest problem, the fullbacks always have the most (if any ) defensive work to do with us most of the time, just keeping alert and holding the line are the most important thing for the CB's , he'll do both well.

I admit, I rate Ramos higher than most though...but I don't think it'll be a huge problem.

@Dani, he's usually the one telling the fullbacks to push up for us, directing them and so, though it could be argued that he's been a bit unsuccesful in that regard for stretches, but I think that's beacause we've been pushed too far back because of a lack of midfield protection.

The Franchise wrote:

alexjanosik wrote:Hummels is not better than Pique.Atleast not yet.Pique is still the better player as he has proved it on the biggest of stages and Hummels hasnt.
But Pique's form is a bit of a worry.He has not been playing at a consistently high level since last January.
We need him to step up or,the more likely case need a world class signing to lead the line and keep him on his toes.

Dont disagree with that at all.

About "leading the backline" for me, its not really about vocal so to speak, its about knowledge and perhaps to a degree personality.

Knowledge of situations allows one to know where everyone should be positioned at all times and can organise everyone.

You do see a lack of it when Puyol doesnt play tbh. Like last night, Both Pique and Machete pushed up, but shockingly both fullbacks stayed back and Betis scored. Someone needs to be telling those fullbacks to get up when the rest of the line does. Though, the fullbacks should know that anyway.

Pique not challanging the first aerial ball didnt help either in that play.

The 2 fullbacks stayed back,I agree.The line was shocking on the first goal too.On the second goal I think Pique was caught in 2 minds.Whther to push up or to drop and in the end he ended up doing a bit of both thereby leading to our pathetic line.Masch pushed up,went for the ball,got caught out and the fullbacks stayed back.I think thats what I mean about leading the line.He is the senior member of our defense with Puyol out.So the others in the defense will look at him to organize the line.If he is indecisive like he was yesterday,it can lead to poor team defending.Needs to be more decisive.

Funny you are criticizing Pique. IMO Machete was more at fault in both Betis goals than Pique.
Mascherano has ended the season pathetically. Don't know what happened, he didn't cost us goals until now, when it has been more than a season that he has been playing as CB.

Man, you must have seen a different game because I thought he had a brilliant game. He stopped so many goal scoring opportunites and his tackling was word class and not reckless. He saved us from conceding 3-6 goals. About the Hummels and Pique situation well its clear that we need a CB and well we should get anyone we can get for Puyol. If Hummels is the best CB in Germany than he should be good otherwise he wouldn't be rated that high. WE shouldn't worry abotu money. Apparently we have around 100m to spend with new coach Tito. If we need to get someone then money shouldn't be a problem. Come on, as if a CB is going to cost 100m if 50...

Ok, he might have saved us some goals, but he also costed us betis' two goals. In the first goal, what's that of rushing forward nonsensely when there's another CB who rushed forward? Why wasn't he covering Pique after the aerial challenge in the second goal?

Afellay started

It wasn't a surprise tbh Afellay starting. I knew he wouldn't start the whole 90minues because of what happened last time they rush his injury. He has been waiting around 3 weeks or so to play and he has deserved his wait. Better winger than Pedro in that game and its good to see him play and hopefully get a spot in Euro