Barca today

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Your not Arq that was not aimed at you.

I was responding to the thread in general about Barca only looking good because it's Bilbao.

Fact is they have been ridiculous offensively all season long.

My mistake buddy.

I have a question. In a brief sense how would you differentiate Guardiola's and Tito's Barca in the aspect of their offensive play? Do you find it more impressive from the tactical/aesthetic perspetive? What would you like to see change along with more of? How would you like to see it evolve?

The football barcelona are playing this season. It's majestic. I have not missed a single game and not intending to miss a game. It's what heals me after watching Gervais trying to play football at Arsenal

More impressive tactically? nope not really as for aesthetics it's more easy on the eye to Barca in Pep's last season but the differences between this and Pep's first season are quite similar.

From a personal stand point i would like to see more of Villa and less of Iniesta outwide but when you watch a team like this you cannot complain really

I have been disappointed with Pedro this season though, a lot of people have said how awful Sanchez and Tello are etc etc but Pedro keeps playing game after game and continues to give poor performances.

It's strange as well because his performances for Spain have been outstanding in comparison.

Cesc has improved to ridiculous levels for them this season so that's a bonus.

I also like how Alba has played and has added an extra dimension to the attack but a lot of people don't seem to rate or like him

So bummed, I only got to see a sh****y stream of the last 10 minutes but the highlights looked great. As far as this season as opposed to Pep's time, the team (ESPECIALLY up front) are playing with immense confidence despite the defensive struggles and absences. The Celtic match aside, we're either making a crazy comeback or just dominating through our attack. Pure confidence. Unfortunately I haven't been able to follow every single game. Verizon

I didn't enjoy it to be honest. Athletic are having a poor season and Loco keeps making the same mistakes. I'm convinced, despite how much I want him and Athletic to do well, that he is not a winner. Sure, his teams always play high intensity and fast football but it is obviously not working. Tonight Athletic got absolutely nothing right, and the man on top is too stubborn to change his approach even when he sees it's obviously not working.

I'm sure Caparros would have done better tonight.

The amount of butthurts n this thread...

Barca play the best football. The best possession football. Might not be entertaining at times but its still the best.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Yeah Athletic have been bad this season but Barca have been fantastic as an offensive force all season long and people are just butthurt by it so using the weaknesses of Bilbao as excuse to not praise them.

These performances are nothing new this year, the only real difference between recent weeks and the beginning of the season is the defence and it's no coincidence they have looked stronger since Pique and Puyol came back.

I still can't believe they persist with 2 recognised CB's and use midfielders and fullbacks in the heart of the defence

This ^^^

And for the people asking about Tito vs Pep I think the biggest difference well there are 3 differences IMO,

1) Fabregas has been outstanding this year and no one is giving him the credit he deserves. I don't know if he got used to the players and playing style more or if Tito just uses him better but we play majestic football when him, Messi, Iniesta and Xavi are all on the same page. I mean with those 4 coming at you they exploit the littlest spaces or cracks in the defense and are ruthless when playing together now.

I will go out on a limb and say Tito has found the way to put Cesc in the squad and not upset the harmony of the team something Pep stuggled to do all the time.

2) Tito showed he can win without having one of the best defenses in Europe which Pep almost always had the pleasure of having a stacked defense with Puyol/Pique in there respective primes, Abidal and Alves as well you could say in there primes and Masch / Adriano there to back them up with very little injuries for a couple of those years.

Pep's rein was remarkably injury free at almost all levels, sure there were injuries here and there but nothing very major and the backline could be counted on for YEARS straight. Pep was just never tested to the point Tito has been but on the other hand Pep deserves the credit for keeping his team basically injury free minus the Abidal thing which was not a football injury.

3) Tito wants to outscore teams, period. When the other team scores and the camera pans over to him he looks like he could care less and knows his teams have more goals in them. When Pep would get a 2 goal lead around the 70 minute mark he would usually take some offensive players off and put in Keita or someone of that Ilk to protect the lead and some games Messi and company would keep scoring anyways and others they just kind of shut it down and played tiki taka in a more boring Spain style where Tito really does none of that. HE goes for the throat all game long. Teams look exhausted after playing us this year.

In some games it looked like it might bite Tito in the ass but I think it's more because he was playing with no first team defenders.

With our full team back from injuries pretty much I think you will see Tito's real mark on the team. It was always hard to tell how much he contributed when he was with Pep and I Think people forget he was a major contributer to all of Pep and Barca's success under Pep as the man in charge gets all the credit and takes all the heat so it was hard to tell what Tito brought to the team.

It's starting to seem like he was a big influence on all those trophies

I haven't watched the full game yet, but the first half seemed like any other Barca game.

I said this before Barca is the most entertaining team in Europe this season.

This isn't even the same Barca as Pep's Barca. Tito's Barca is more direct and also has worse defenders. I don't like Barca but when they play that much of entertaining football I can't help it but credit them.

Tito >>>>>> Pep (in terms of entertainment)

Tbh Bilbao weren't that bad today I thought... They've looked way worse in most other games.