Rayo Vallecano - Barça. Saturday at 22:00

I said 3 months ago that with this style Fàbregas will show who he was back in Arsenal and these past few matches he has performed excellently. It is like watching a completely different player than 4 months ago. So confident and seems like he is enjoying it once again.

I have to say, this Barcelona is not like Guardiola's Barcelona at all. Look at the possession today, and the number of goals. There is nowhere near emphasis on possession as before. Some of the football played by Barça these days was forbidden when Guardiola was the coach. There is much more risk taken in attack nowadays (players pushing forward) and less risk taken in defence (players clearing the ball when in little doubt).

Song was poor, didn't feel like he was on the pitch at all. Song's best position would be CM. Oh and Alexis was hopeless. Either offside and missed a few good chances. Jonathan was good, did more in 10 minutes than Song did all match.

eelir wrote:I have an awkward feeling about this game. This: "Vilanova: Rayo is Barcelona's toughest trip so far" did not make it better. Let's hope it is just a feeling.

You sir have fortunately been very wrong. Allout decent performance, but props to Rayo for doing as well as they did.

Why did Tito switch Alba out for Bartra in the 80th minute? Is he injured? Or was this solely to enlarge the chance of a clean sheet (as we have obviously been conceding a lot of goals)?

EDIT: About Song, I thought he was very poor against Celtic as well. Came late a lot and lost a lot of challenges for the ball.

Alexis was indeed also pretty poor. Not more than decent against Celtic. He seems to be aware of this as he was extremely bummed out after he had not used that big opportunity to score near the end of the game.

Anyone else disappointed Bartra only came on when we were winning 4-0? This was a match to start with. Alba was making some reckless tackles and with a yellow to his name he should've left sooner.

Thought Adriano was very solid at CB. Villa's best match of the season.

Happier about the 3rd cleansheet than I am about the goals though.

Madvillain wrote:

eelir wrote:I have an awkward feeling about this game. This: "Vilanova: Rayo is Barcelona's toughest trip so far" did not make it better. Let's hope it is just a feeling.

You sir have fortunately been very wrong. Allout decent performance, but props to Rayo for doing as well as they did.

Why did Tito switch Alba out for Bartra in the 80th minute? Is he injured? Or was this solely to enlarge the chance of a clean sheet (as we have obviously been conceding a lot of goals)?

EDIT: About Song, I thought he was very poor against Celtic as well. Came late a lot and lost a lot of challenges for the ball.

Alexis was indeed also pretty poor. Not more than decent against Celtic. He seems to be aware of this as he was extremely bummed out after he had not used that big opportunity to score near the end of the game.

Alba's yellow and the fact he runs so much with little rest is my opinion on why he took him out.

danyjr wrote:

Song was poor, didn't feel like he was on the pitch at all. Song's best position would be CM. Oh and Alexis was hopeless. Either offside and missed a few good chances. Jonathan was good, did more in 10 minutes than Song did all match.

Funny you mention it, as i got the feeling song was playng DM and Bussi CB this time.

@Madvillan- I am glad i was wrong

Song did okay for me, cz Rayo were pressing very well.

Alexis could have paddled his starts today, such a shame.

Cesc is deceiving all his haters, from early season ago.

Pedro was brilliant, the guy sacrificed himself all night, pace, closing down, deserved a goal.

Dos Santos' orgasmic pass to alexis

Alba and Montoya were good, and directly contributed to 2 goals.

Adriano is proving very handy, LB, RB, CB, directly responsibly for 2 match winning goals so far this season, brilliant!

Clean sheet at last!! Maybe Adriano-Busquets is our best CB partnership atm, lulz

Donuts wrote:

Madvillain wrote:

eelir wrote:I have an awkward feeling about this game. This: "Vilanova: Rayo is Barcelona's toughest trip so far" did not make it better. Let's hope it is just a feeling.

You sir have fortunately been very wrong. Allout decent performance, but props to Rayo for doing as well as they did.

Why did Tito switch Alba out for Bartra in the 80th minute? Is he injured? Or was this solely to enlarge the chance of a clean sheet (as we have obviously been conceding a lot of goals)?

EDIT: About Song, I thought he was very poor against Celtic as well. Came late a lot and lost a lot of challenges for the ball.

Alexis was indeed also pretty poor. Not more than decent against Celtic. He seems to be aware of this as he was extremely bummed out after he had not used that big opportunity to score near the end of the game.

Alba's yellow and the fact he runs so much with little rest is my opinion on why he took him out.

Wasn't he the first to receive his yellow, like early on in the game? Why wait till the 80th or so minute to take him out? I don't know, doesn't make sense. Well it didn't make sense in the first place why Batra didn't start but it worked out for us so w/e.

Tito keeps on experimenting and well to good benefit. Thought Adriano and Song were going to be in the centre of defense but no Busquests played there and coped well. Adriano also played very well still considering he is not a proper centreback.
Passing was sloppy especially early on with Song, Alba, Xavi but then once we found the net a couple of times, the high defensive line began to drop more and more allowing us to flow with our passers. With a team playing the offside trap and having a throughball, direct passer like Fabregas in your team who can pick out runs, its always good to watch. Great advantage to have and its good that he he is keeping up his good performances...
Nice to see some of the youngesters have a few minutes, JDS especially. Great player who impressed me in those last 8 or so minutes.
Great run by Villa to score the opener but I thought after that, he began to shade away. Beginning to become the old Villa and still has that habit of getting into offside positions too often. Alexis was terrible when he came on. Either offside, became a shadow or when he had the opportunity to score, stuffed up his chance.
Good saves from Valdes. Glad to see us keep a clean sheet...

I dont get why people keep saying we are more direct. We aint.

Turning the ball over more, resulting in less possession then adding the fact we score goals doesnt mean we are less possession based.

Correlation and causation are two different things.

We have less possession because we misplace more passes...its really that simple Adriano gave away at least 3 easy passes to nobody, Alba taking all day on the ball losing possession and Xavi passed the ball FAR below his usual level and many of them just loose passes. Of course having Cesc, basically a number 10 positionally and 3 actual forwards rather then Iniesta in the front line gives us a more direct approach but this doesnt equate to more direct...rather, just how we should be playing but with more errors.

I think people are confusing good attacking play with directness.

Anyway, great result and not an easy one as Rayo put up a fight for parts of it. I was indeed dissapointed Bartra wasnt started and I felt Busquets was very much missed in midfield and Adriano looked only okay at the back. His speed gave us good covering, but he plays like a fullback with the ball...takes all too many touches too often.

So happy for Villa...I know I cursed him now putting his pic up in my DP..he didnt do well when I had him up, the day after I took him off of course he gets a goal lol

Alexis was crap when he came on, looks timid in front of goal.

Valdes was crap, Pedro sux, Song is rubish as DM and Montoya is not in better form than Alves, bla, bla bla bla.

Spoiled little fans

gondov wrote:Spoiled little fans

We truly are. We witness the best football and still we aren't satisfied...

another game i failed to watch.
istead i was getting wasted with some friends lol.
Anyways I watched extended pieces of the game and I am raging against Sanchez.
I am a big fan of the boy. He offers a lot especially physically. But if he continues being wasteful in front of the net I think he won't have any future.

On the other hand. VILLA

Btw, I was very happy with the team's attitude yesterday. We seemed to be in extremely good shape. Everyone run their socks off, even Messi was pressing and running all game long! I think we have hit peak form and will enjoy great football for a couple of months.

I want to commend Pedro for his great game: stole the ball that led to the 1-0 and didn't dive when fouled by Chori, created the second goal and assited the third; also put in an awesome workrate (but that's usual in him). I'm surprised in Pedro's evolution: under Tito he is going from a goalscoring winger, to a traditional creating winger. He is dribling and crossing much more than before, and he is doing it very well.

free_cat wrote:Valdes was crap, Pedro sux, Song is rubish as DM and Montoya is not in better form than Alves, bla, bla bla bla.

Whats this point about free?

Your as critical as anyone, you just dont see to like these players being criticised while its okay for others to get it.

The point is that these players don't deserve to be criticized, while the players I stick, they do deserve it.

I dont agree, but fair enough lol

I mean, you might be right to give criticism but I think like anyone, there are players you downplay things and other players you are quicker to give it do. Thats for everyone I think though.

Yeah, I was kidding, you are absolutely right, although I do try to be fair.