CL Group Stages: FC Barcelona vs Celtic

Free. Lol, I just said that he was great if not MOTM. As Kizz said, he was rarely tested but when called upon did his job very well. Like your comment about hardening up. Looks like he is a soft potch and also showed that in preseason. Have a Song or Puyol next to him he will play fine though is not at all physical.
After taking a breath, Iniesta was MOTM and there was no question about it. Was shadowed on the weekend but made up for it today. Close ball control was great, linkup play was great and that goal was splendid. The skill to place a shot like that when you almost losing control.
Adriano is frustrating to watch on that right flank because he always has to cross with his left foot meaning an easier ball for the keeper to grab hold or defenders to head to safety. Yes, his cross may have provided the vital assist but it the goal was a combination of bad defending and keeping.

BarcaKizz wrote:I would add to Free's assessment that it seems we play with a little more urgency when we are chasing a game like this. Every time the ball went out they chased it down and got it quickly back into play.

Completely true. We were much more urgent than last season from minute 15 of the second half. Last season, we wouldn't have started to be urgent until last 5 minutes. I liked that very much.

Bartra had a good game, but he has to loosen up and gain confidence: he has terrific balls kills but he let Mascherano build up most of the time. He is much better than Machete distributing the ball, and he showed his quality in the final minutes, when he intercepted the ball, dribled a player and launch the attack that led to the goal.

Donuts, Messi was quite poor for his standars. He missed two goals he wouldn't normally miss and wast tackled a lot when on the drible. But it doesn't matter because he has been good the last matches.

Barcelona's record after 13 games #fcblive
2012/13: 11W 1D 1L Goals: 35-18, Clean Sheets: 3
2011/12: 9W 4D 0L Goals: 42-10, CS: 8

Last season, Barcelona scored more goals, conceded less goals, kept more clean sheets.. Yet This season we won more games #lol

Btw, Samaras was in offside in Celtic goal. Another referee mistake against us.

This game shows that the idea of playing a natural Defensive Midfielder in a Centreback position is highly flawed and needs to be scrapped.

Arquitecto wrote:This game shows that the idea of playing a natural Defensive Midfielder in a Centreback position is highly flawed and needs to be scrapped.

Yet another game... yet another game where I get annoyed at Mascherano.

Steadily I don't like him much. Its not that he hasn't been able to do a great job there, but he isn't good enough to be our #1 defender. #3 at best.

Hey guys. Please have a read of this article I took time to work on.

I chose to focus on stats for this match review. Some very interesting ones from this game.

Please check it out

Match Review: Barca vs Celtic in Numbers---
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1382771-barcas-2-1-victory-over-celtic-in-numbers

BarcaKizz wrote:

Arquitecto wrote:This game shows that the idea of playing a natural Defensive Midfielder in a Centreback position is highly flawed and needs to be scrapped.

Yet another game... yet another game where I get annoyed at Mascherano.

Steadily I don't like him much. Its not that he hasn't been able to do a great job there, but he isn't good enough to be our #1 defender. #3 at best.

Alex despite his liking for Mascherano has had the same sentiments.

Fact is that natural DMs like Masch are developed for a different positional and reading skill set as its only natural that their impulsive and enforcer tendencies will transcend onto the back line (which obviously is lethal to Barca) as only so much early in the career can one hone and adapt between both sets of positions.

Exceptions to the rule are guys like De Rossi and the best of them all, Javi Martinez who is exceptional in both areas.

Arquitecto wrote:

BarcaKizz wrote:

Arquitecto wrote:This game shows that the idea of playing a natural Defensive Midfielder in a Centreback position is highly flawed and needs to be scrapped.

Yet another game... yet another game where I get annoyed at Mascherano.

Steadily I don't like him much. Its not that he hasn't been able to do a great job there, but he isn't good enough to be our #1 defender. #3 at best.

Alex despite his liking for Mascherano has had the same sentiments.

Fact is that natural DMs like Masch are developed for a different positional and reading skill set as its only natural that their impulsive and enforcer tendencies will transcend onto the back line (which obviously is lethal to Barca) as only so much early in the career can one hone and adapt between both sets of positions.

Exceptions to the rule are guys like De Rossi and the best of them all, Javi Martinez who is exceptional in both areas.

Exactly this, his instinctive movements etc are still not those of a CB.

He makes some spectacular tackles etc, but I feel these often gloss over the fact that he's really a DM at heart. I don't want a spectacular CB, but a safe one.

Mascherano rushes too much out of the backline and dives to easily into tackles. I don't know why he looks worse and worse. He was great the first few months as a CB. Perhaps the adaptation has made him more confident and les focused, making him to play more based in his intuitions than tactical orders. I think players can adapt, and if machete improves tactically (or focuses again like at the begining of playing CB), he can be a great CB except aerially.

In the goal, it was not his fault as Samaras was Jordi Alba's man and he was also offside:

nterestingly, of the 23 highest percentages of possession in Champions League history, Barcelona have collected 22.

--> Do you have a list of this?

Where did you get the stats?

Also, the Forster video is down. I recommend you to upload videos in dailymotion, they don't bithc so much with copyrights as youtube.

BarcaKizz wrote:

Arquitecto wrote:

BarcaKizz wrote:

Arquitecto wrote:This game shows that the idea of playing a natural Defensive Midfielder in a Centreback position is highly flawed and needs to be scrapped.

Yet another game... yet another game where I get annoyed at Mascherano.

Steadily I don't like him much. Its not that he hasn't been able to do a great job there, but he isn't good enough to be our #1 defender. #3 at best.

Alex despite his liking for Mascherano has had the same sentiments.

Fact is that natural DMs like Masch are developed for a different positional and reading skill set as its only natural that their impulsive and enforcer tendencies will transcend onto the back line (which obviously is lethal to Barca) as only so much early in the career can one hone and adapt between both sets of positions.

Exceptions to the rule are guys like De Rossi and the best of them all, Javi Martinez who is exceptional in both areas.

Exactly this, his instinctive movements etc are still not those of a CB.

He makes some spectacular tackles etc, but I feel these often gloss over the fact that he's really a DM at heart. I don't want a spectacular CB, but a safe one.

Agreed. Its why I never rated these Physical CBs like Lucio, Kompany, Vidic etc as people don't understand that these spectacular and last ditch tackles are a product of poor reading and back line cohesion. The best CB is one who looks the least perturbed which is why you never see guys like Nesta, Marquez and (in-form) Pique making such actions.

Last ditch tacklers get exposed against the best opposition.

free_cat wrote:............
Messi was quite poor for his standars. He missed two goals he wouldn't normally miss ..................

he played quite bad but he did not miss two goals, those two were awesome saves.....if you consider players from both teams the keeper was MOM.....

Arquitecto wrote:

BarcaKizz wrote:

Arquitecto wrote:

BarcaKizz wrote:

Arquitecto wrote:This game shows that the idea of playing a natural Defensive Midfielder in a Centreback position is highly flawed and needs to be scrapped.

Yet another game... yet another game where I get annoyed at Mascherano.

Steadily I don't like him much. Its not that he hasn't been able to do a great job there, but he isn't good enough to be our #1 defender. #3 at best.

Alex despite his liking for Mascherano has had the same sentiments.

Fact is that natural DMs like Masch are developed for a different positional and reading skill set as its only natural that their impulsive and enforcer tendencies will transcend onto the back line (which obviously is lethal to Barca) as only so much early in the career can one hone and adapt between both sets of positions.

Exceptions to the rule are guys like De Rossi and the best of them all, Javi Martinez who is exceptional in both areas.

Exactly this, his instinctive movements etc are still not those of a CB.

He makes some spectacular tackles etc, but I feel these often gloss over the fact that he's really a DM at heart. I don't want a spectacular CB, but a safe one.

Agreed. Its why I never rated these Physical CBs like Lucio, Kompany, Vidic etc as people don't understand that these spectacular and last ditch tackles are a product of poor reading and back line cohesion. The best CB is one who looks the least perturbed which is why you never see guys like Nesta, Marquez and (in-form) Pique making such actions.

Last ditch tacklers get exposed against the best opposition.

so you mean these guyz have/had poor reading???? ummm cant agree mate. don know about kompany but lucio and vidic certainly cant be commented as poor reader and playing only physical....

free_cat wrote:nterestingly, of the 23 highest percentages of possession in Champions League history, Barcelona have collected 22.

--> Do you have a list of this?

Where did you get the stats?

Also, the Forster video is down. I recommend you to upload videos in dailymotion, they don't bithc so much with copyrights as youtube.

Opta stats collect all stats data and essentially every stats website gets their data from this source.

You have to pay for an opta subscription. However, there are opta reps who tweet the best stats of each game etc. This is generally where u find opta info.

Otherwise B/R sometimes provides a press kit or you can get stuff from the Uefa website, which also provides extensive press kits.

The list I don't have sorry. Would be interesting. It was announced by an Opta rep, didn't provide further details. Just the stat.

Thanks for the vid. I will probably have to simply remove it.

A pitty, it would be great to know which is the other team that had the most possession. Surely, we have the top 1 on that list, no? Can you ask some opta guy on twitter?

neuro11 wrote:

free_cat wrote:............
Messi was quite poor for his standars. He missed two goals he wouldn't normally miss ..................

he played quite bad but he did not miss two goals, those two were awesome saves.....if you consider players from both teams the keeper was MOM.....

The header chance was a great save, the other was a miss from Messi. It was almost an open net chance.
Actually both were misses IMO, because heading wasn't the best option, Messi had space enough to control or let it bounce.

We have to beat Celtic next game. If we do and Benfica defeat Spartak at home (which is most likely), we'll have qualified for the next stage as guaranteed top of the group with 2 games to spare!!

We can then play Barca B at the frozen plastic pitch in Russia and use the Benfica home game to paddle Messi's stats and experiment with our youth.

We should have Pique / Alves ATLEAST by the next UEFA game so no more pressure on us to be honest, we can only get better now.

free_cat wrote:...........
The header chance was a great save, the other was a miss from Messi. It was almost an open net chance.
Actually both were misses IMO, because heading wasn't the best option, Messi had space enough to control or let it bounce.
............................

i watched it after reading your statement......you are totally wrong in both the statements......

anyway, don want to stretch it further...............

Agree with Gondov about winning at Celtic. If we win there, then we are assured of qualifying through which means we can focus on keeping our lead in the league. Not sure about playing Barca B though giving blokes like JDS, Roberto, Thiago, Barta, Pinto, Deuf, Cuenca (should be back for the last two UEFA qualifying games).