EL CLASICO: FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid

Double pivot and Iniesta on the wing.....

Kill me now.

No disrespect, I just hate both of those things.

I agree, but i still prefer him on the wing with a bit retracted role than having Alexis there.

Of course i am not saying it could work, but we probably need somthing new against RM. Especially with the defense we have right now.

Why not play Villa? Poor Villa never starts now.

If Pique is not back, we either put Bartra in in the formation I had, or we have to go with our standard 433 and play Villa and Iniesta:

VV
Alves - Song - Mascherano - Adriano/Alba
Xavi - Busquets - Iniesta
Pedro- Messi - Villa

We can win with our magical diamond even with our defence current form IMO.

both Alexis and Fabregas are in a good shape. I think Tito would start them. As much as I like your 11...

Agree with Free.

Personally I would prefer Bartra, but it aint gonna happen.

Gonna post this again because its even more relevant now that Puyol is out. I updated it slightly. This is my take on the XI we should play.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1350878-an-early-look-at-barcelonas-potential-starting-xi-in-next-weeks-el-clasico

Does Villa have 90 minutes in his legs? Or even close to it? Not much point starting him if you know he cant last, your handcuffing yourself into having just 2 tactical moves available.

Anyway, for me Cesc should start..maybe over Iniesta. He is more or less like a striker, if he gets on a scoring run it lasts a while. I think he has a goal in him for sure.

That being said, I want Iniesta to start and exclude notion of playing him on the flanks. So really its difficult to say whats best.

This game to me I am like, I want to see what Tito does and wont say what I think he should or should not do because there are many different ways he could play it.

Thing is... I want to stretch them at the back... vertically and horizontally. Cesc or Iniesta won't do this. I'd personally go with Alexis, Villa or Tello and out of those three I have a clear favourite.

In my opinion looking at it like its removing one tactical option isn't necessary. Generally we take off the same players anyway and if we're going to reshuffle it would be Villa or Pedro coming off. If you look at our subs over the last 100 games, I'm gonna guess that in pretty much every game at least one of the forwards came off.

Pedro won't play rubbish and has good stamina... he'll be fine. Villa would probably be subbed at some point in this game anyway... coming off a leg break or not.

Were going to start Sanchez and Pedro, 60th-70th through sub both for Villa and Tello then bring in either Iniesta or Cesc whichever did not start.
Heard it here first!

BarcaKizz wrote:Thing is... I want to stretch them at the back... vertically and horizontally. Cesc or Iniesta won't do this. I'd personally go with Alexis, Villa or Tello and out of those three I have a clear favourite.

We saw how well that worked last season.

Putting Tello against Arbeola is a NO NO! Tello has been found out already, his kick and run will not work against the Madrid defender...

Okay!, Tito needs to make the team do rondos for like 5 hours everyday until the classico.

Giving away cheap possession is gonna be our undoing on Sunday, I feel.

Messi has been losing possession cheaply of late. If he loses the ball and ronaldo scores from that mistake and does his la calma celebration, honestly, I think I will puke!!

I really hope the formation goes like this

Valdes
Alves - Song - Mascherano - Alba
Busquets
Xavi Iniesta
Pedro - Messi - Alexis
Villa coming in for Alexis and adriano coming on for iniesta later in the game. Tello as the super sub

So is Pique definitely ruled out? Also if Sanchez is to play I don't think he should play on the wings, he'll be easy to handle. I think Villa should play LW with Pedro at RW, making diagonal runs.

Brady2Moss wrote:

BarcaKizz wrote:Thing is... I want to stretch them at the back... vertically and horizontally. Cesc or Iniesta won't do this. I'd personally go with Alexis, Villa or Tello and out of those three I have a clear favourite.

We saw how well that worked last season.

Putting Tello against Arbeola is a NO NO! Tello has been found out already, his kick and run will not work against the Madrid defender...

And yet he still could have scored 2 or 3 goals if he was a more clinical finisher... lol.

And he was stretching the play as well because he stays wide and works.

Arbeloa is a scrub...

That being said, I;d prefer Villa or Alexis, but Tello isnt a bad third choice by any means.

Kevin245 wrote:I really hope the formation goes like this

Valdes
Alves - Song - Mascherano - Alba
Busquets
Xavi Iniesta
Pedro - Messi - Alexis
Villa coming in for Alexis and adriano coming on for iniesta later in the game. Tello as the super sub

Has Alba become our #1 LB? News to me... Adriano is still ahead of him and understands his defensive duties a lot better imo.

Yohan Modric wrote:So is Pique definitely ruled out? Also if Sanchez is to play I don't think he should play on the wings, he'll be easy to handle. I think Villa should play LW with Pedro at RW, making diagonal runs.

If he plays, he should play LW... no f***ing around putting him central... I want width. The inside forward allows him to make runs in behind anyway... Fullback and mid push into his space, Messi drops and Alexis comes central.

He might be better centrally, but that means shifting other players to accommodate him, which isnt best for the team. Id rather Messi play in his usual position.

gondov wrote:
Messi has been losing possession cheaply of late. If he loses the ball and ronaldo scores from that mistake and does his la calma celebration, honestly, I think I will puke!!

Hahaha that is too funny. Do not worry, this is the game where Barca will assert its dominance over Madrid and remind them who's boss. Madrid has simply been taking advantage of some weaknesses in the Barca squad over the past months, but I think Tito's team is ready to make a push and show the country who dominates football in Spain. This is the perfect time for Barca to be back, and they'll smash Madrid 4-0.

I say play Pique on pain-killers. He is a 25 year old ffs.

We have a 2 week international break after the classico + games vs celtic, deportivo , celta vigo. He can recover then. A 11 point lead is worth the risk imo.

_LMG_10_ wrote:

gondov wrote:
Messi has been losing possession cheaply of late. If he loses the ball and ronaldo scores from that mistake and does his la calma celebration, honestly, I think I will puke!!

Hahaha that is too funny. Do not worry, this is the game where Barca will assert its dominance over Madrid and remind them who's boss. Madrid has simply been taking advantage of some weaknesses in the Barca squad over the past months, but I think Tito's team is ready to make a push and show the country who dominates football in Spain. This is the perfect time for Barca to be back, and they'll smash Madrid 4-0.

With this defence? I think they'll at least score twice, but that's not to say we can't win it. It will be very close in my opinion.

If I was Mourinho I would press Barça ultra high in the first half. That CB line is sure to choke under pressure and give away quite a few chances on a plate to Madrid's attackers. After 1-2 goals ease up the pressure and save breath for counter attacks.

I would be pretty confident with a defense containing Puyol though with Song not so. Song is a tad faster than Puyol though has shown to be out of positioned alot. I have faith in him and hopefully he will rise to the occasion. I really can see Fabregas being played. Messi will be man marked for sure and will eventually come deeper and deeper. Hopefully this will allow Fabregas to make plenty of runs in place of Messi and hopefully he takes at least one of his chances. That being said, Iniesta is the key in the build of play. His passing, directness and movement on the ball is so much better than Cesc's. I can see Sanchez starting though if he does then he has to start on the left. He has played better on the left than on the right and Pedro has really caused trouble when he played at right winger against Marcelo/Coentrao. The fullbacks will have to be on their game no doubt. One needs to stay back in case of counter. The subsitutes in the second half will be the key imo.

With Puyol injured, we are in a big trouble.......a really biiiiiig trouble

MY LINEUP PREDICTIONS:

Valdes
Alves Pique Masche Adriano
Xavi Busquets Iniesta
Pedro Messi Villa

Barcelona 3 - 1 Real Madrid

Mark My Words:)

double post... !

_LMG_10_ wrote:

gondov wrote:
Messi has been losing possession cheaply of late. If he loses the ball and ronaldo scores from that mistake and does his la calma celebration, honestly, I think I will puke!!

Hahaha that is too funny. Do not worry, this is the game where Barca will assert its dominance over Madrid and remind them who's boss. Madrid has simply been taking advantage of some weaknesses in the Barca squad over the past months, but I think Tito's team is ready to make a push and show the country who dominates football in Spain. This is the perfect time for Barca to be back, and they'll smash Madrid 4-0.

i like your optimism... but NO

OT: providing depth will be important for barcelona, Alba over adriano? i think he provides more of an attacking option!

I can see a really big upset. Don't underestimate Tito Vilanova. Im sure he has a way to defeat Madrid as much Mou does against us. The pressure is on him and he will produce the odds. He will work on the defense for sure.

A Barca win over Madrid is never an upset

The mind games continue