Second half:

Alexis had a poor performance, missed an open goal and a great opportunity to score/create another afterwards. Regardless, his energetic performance can still be viewed as a good sign, coupled with showing some balls to take on a few players - successfully.

Mascherano played very well. His long balls should be a valuable asset to Barcelona.

Pressing high up the pitch certainly suits Alves and Alba, especially taking advantage of their endless energy and getting them less exposed to their defensive flaws (especially Alba).

Messi was class and worked quite hard (compared to his standards at least). Villa seems to be slowly getting back on form as well.

Not convinced by Busquets' performance. A match to forget for him. Fàbregas is still Fàbregas, but he showed terrific workrate. Give him a break

Very intense performance by Barcelona. It is quite amusing to see a team that only a couple of weeks ago was crumbling to pieces has gained such appetite once again, dare I say looking better than before their miserable week. Overall I think it was a very convincing performance by Barcelona, playing to their strengths and not giving the opposition much room to breathe. Will they pull off a performance like this against better teams?

"Messi and Villa can't stand each other. Messi always screams at Villa... bla, bla bla".
Screw you Madrid press!

Great to see Villa playing well. I was specially impressed in his second goalscoring opportunity (1st half), where he was very fast. We've got Villa for time, we should keep him next season if he can keep this form. I'd rather have Villa for another season than sell him for 10 milion.

Adriano shouldn't be renewed by sold. He is a very good player, but too unreliable because of his injuries. 4-6 weeks injured again.

Looks like messi is finally back in form. His general play is as good as it used to be. Partly because of his own improvement (like pressing again) and other part due to forwards instead of midfielders ahead of him. Specially Villa who needs to start every big game if not all.

Messi has only been scoring braces (mostly) this season. Not as many hattricks/4goalers(pokers?). Still has more goals than he had last season at this time. Amazing.

Messi Villa link up play was an absolute joy to behold. Villa's unfair treatment looks like it HAS to come to a permanent end now. A great performance in Milan to play a role to allow Messi to dominate. And then today the combinations between Messi and Villa were just breathtaking.

Alexis was positive but shows again that he's not Barca quality. Missing an easy assist and an easy goal. I do think he "made up" for the assist by beating a man convincingly and passing it back to Alves- who really should have scored. But still. I like how positive he looks like he's becoming (so much more than in the past and certainly more than Pedro now) but it's just a shame that his final product lets him down so much. It undoes a lot of what he does.

Yeah Alexis has improved his game, from like a 2/10 to 4.5/10 but seriously, all this "he showed plenty of running"etc. I know as well as anyone how important it is we press but that's not why we have forwards. If all he has going for him is his energy then get him out. He's so ordinary.

Messi-Villa link up is so classy. I wanna see Alba/Iniesta/Villa left side for the rest of the season please.

Also, what are your guys' opinions on Adriano? Can we afford a glass man? Great player, but if he's gonna continue to get injured maybe the time should be given to someone else and we cut him loose.

I felt Alexis was excellent up untill he missed that easy chance, after that, he lost it, hes too fragile, but before that he was doing excellent. He went past players constantly, I really dont know what he has to do to get credit because if you look at the first 45 minutes in isolation, I literally dont know what else you can ask from him.

Aside from that and Adriano im very happy.

Adriano is such a great player, really..he even started very brightly...but there is something seriously wrong with him. I still wouldnt sell him just yet, unless there is a leftback out there I like (there is) and Barca are willing to sign (unlikely).

I thought Busquets had a odd game. He lost to passes, but I noticed straight away why...no Xavi. Xavi is always right there, every single time without fail...if not, Thiago is. Cesc was on the right of him today and while he occassionally dropped into that space, it wasnt as quickly as Xavi is. I think Busquets just was taken a back by that subtle difference, he adjusted though and found his range. Defensively though he was top notch, the amount of tackles and loose balls he won, astonishing.

I felt prior the Alexis's miss, the front 3 worked almost flawlessly..it looks as sharp and as dangerous as its been. Villa and Messi...wow...

I have to admit, I feel a joy when Villa scores which is unrivalled. When he scores, its like a seperate occassion, im delighted for him after everything. I cant believe we have and may still consider letting him go...he's fcking quality.

Also, despite Rayo having alot of shots statistically, all minus 2 (both from set pieces) where from long distance and barely a danger. I felt we pressed very well and when we were forced back to defend, we did that excellent too.

Perhaps this was helped by the odd decision from them not to start Lass, but still.

We got tired and suffered a little towards the end, but I feel that was more the Milan game plus the momentuum they got from scoring.

I guess the only questions going forward is can we keep this level of intensity and pressing for the next couple months and, Cesc...clearly he is a step below Iniesta and Xavi, even Thiago in my opinion..but on top of that, the glaring obviousness that is the need for 3 true forwards is there. What do they plan on doing? My hope is rotating him in the easier games like this one, meanwhile leaving as a sub against the real tests.

I thought Busquets had a odd game. He lost to passes, but I noticed straight away why...no Xavi. Xavi is always right there, every single time without fail...if not, Thiago is. Cesc was on the right of him today and while he occassionally dropped into that space, it wasnt as quickly as Xavi is. I think Busquets just was taken a back by that subtle difference, he adjusted though and found his range. Defensively though he was top notch, the amount of tackles and loose balls he won, astonishing.

I noticed this too. Alexjanosik was great defensively, but in possession...he wasn't his normal self. He lost a couple balls, misplaced a couple passes, and looked a bit slow. I wasn't sure what to make of it. The Xavi explanation definitely does make sense.

Funny when Busquets loses a ball or two and misplaces a couple passes, everyone all of a sudden can notice it. What a player.

The thing about Alexis is- compared to how Pedro has been recently, I really do like the look of him a lot, and he's done well recently, he really has. The thing is, even when he's playing well and confident and beating players for once...he's still missing some golden opportunities. Completely screwed up what should have been an assist, and then missed an easy goal. I mean on one hand you have confidence- which is true. He does lack confidence which I think he is gaining back. On the other, he does this far too much for me to think:

1. He should be a consistent starter for Barca
2. His sometimes ridiculous misses and miscues are mostly a confidence issue

I do think part of it is, but he does it so often I do wonder if it's just a lack of end product.

Regardless, despite his misses, I feel I'm more and more leaning towards Alexis as our best RW right now. Something that really kind of makes a statement about our RW atm.

At this point I'm waiting for Alexis to start putting those goals in and getting everything right for once so he can then get injured and start all over again as has happened time and time again

I completely agree with you Dani about Villa. I can think of only one times where I felt happier for a player to score than Villa against Milan- Iniesta against Chelsea. And on a consistent basis, Villa is just a player I feel very happy for whenever he scores. Probably in part to his passionate and amazing celebrations.

Best player at celebrating in the world at this point and certainly a legend!

True, as I felt, Alexis is fragile..after that miss, he lacked the same confidence, you could see it (well I could) in everything he did...he started hesitating and thinking...where previously he was reacting.

Alexis is a strange player, he is the rare type of player who do better the less time they have and progressively worse the more time.

But as I said many times, I prefer someone who is in those positions to miss them than someone who isnt. I dont have to name names, we know who I mean.

Now if Alexis is doing nonesense, giving the ball away, not trying to take anyone on or playing like he did after that miss..then fair enough, throw mud at him, ill join you...but when that isnt happening, I dont really know what to say.

Its not like he is in competition with Garrincha over there.

I think he can play on the right in some games, like today, but in bigger games, if he ever going to play, depending on the oppanant I think on the left. Villa in the middle slightly to the right, Messi behind, Alves higher.

Depends on the opponant though.

For Madrid, it would be on the right because their leftback is a offensive threat and their right isnt..but normally the other way around for me.

Does anybody know why the pitch at the Camp Nou was so slippery today? Really hindered our performance.

I was very impressed with the way Rayo played today. That was the closest I have ever seen to “beat Barcelona with their own style”. Unfortunately for them, nobody does the tiki-taka like Barca does.

That was probably the worst match Busquets had since… last season?! Not bad but… he did make mistakes, like a human would do.

On a more serious note, I was kind of shocked by Fabregas’ display today. He seemed slow, lacked agility, and often stood too high up the field, forcing the defense to play long balls. He often took way too long to control the ball and pick out a pass. He was genuinely bad today.

I hope his form improves fast, because we need him. For now, I see Thiago ahead of him. But of course Fabregas has the quality to play much better than tonight.

I'll be the first to admit whenever I see him do something bad I'm just like 'R u fkn srs'.

But for me, the whole not losing as many balls as before and him working hard doesn't really make me happy with him. I can ask for more. I can ask that he shows some potential and some good touches. I still don't see them.

The things I remember from his performance are:
a) One glaring skied cross he should have rolled across the face of goal and
b) that miss.

Its not just that he gets it wrong, he gets it horribly wrong. His composure in such circumstances seems horrible at this point. Its almost like... thats your one job, get it right please.

As for starting RW, we need to start giving Tello more chances. Don't see why Alexis deserves it over him if you're gonna give Pedro a reality check.

Tello as RW would be horrific. We've seen that before. I'd love to see Deulofeu take a shot at it, though.

I would like to think, things like this would get some level of recognition.

There was also a couple other plays not here where he dribbled players.


I cant understand how you can say these are not good touches.

Said I'd be first to admit it. I hardly remembered any of this... Dunno how conscious I was during the first half actually. I don't remember Adriano getting injured lol.

Adriano got injured in such a way, it was depressing the level of predictability.

Ball over the top he was stretching to keep in play, as soon as he landed and ddint get straight up....knew he was injured.

The Franchise wrote:

Its not like he is in competition with Garrincha over there.

Hit the nail on the head and that too in a stylish manner.

Unfortunately I missed this match. Shockingly they didn't show it on TV and I was too tired to watch on the web.

Just loved that Villa finally had a star performance. Is there one single logical reason why he shouldn't be a regular starter now? He is quality we know. The crowd love him. His conduct is excellent and there is no evidence of problems with Messi either. Our other forwards are not in blistering form. Almost each and every one of us Barca fans here at the forum swear by his name.

If we win the next 7 games we should mathematically win the league those seven opponents will be in order :
Celta Vigo - away
Mallorca - home
Real Zaragoza - away
Levante - home
Athletic Bilbao - away
Real Betis - home
Atletico Madrid - away

Atletico Madrid would be our only real concern considering we are playing away but Messi seems to love to score against them everytime they meet.
We can see ourselves carrying that beautiful trophy mid May, being that we win the next 7 games, but same applies to Madrid.
if we go on a winning streak of the remaining 11 games we could finish with a grand total of 107 pts beating Madrids record by a whole 7 points.

Unless there is a cheap and willing back up LB available, I recommend we keep Adriano.

I mean he's injury prone but at least we have him as opposed to no one else.

At this point though it's getting pretty ridiculous. It makes me sad because I like him more than Alba tbh

Donuts wrote:If we win the next 7 games we should mathematically win the league those seven opponents will be in order :

Win in next 6 games is enough.

Harmonica wrote:

Donuts wrote:If we win the next 7 games we should mathematically win the league those seven opponents will be in order :

Win in next 6 games is enough.

my bad yeah I counted a total of 39 la liga games accidentally
haha so long as we win the next 10 games we can come to a grand total of 104 points

Not the sort of game I like.We lacked control over the game.I guess I have been spoilt by the vice like control we have over games.Still there were some positives.The pressing was again there.The link up between Villa and Messi. Villa having a terrific game and Alexis playing well too.
The one negative was not seeing Bartra on the pitch.If he doesnt start even games like this,then there is not much hope for him.

alexjanosik wrote:I guess I have been spoilt by the vice like control we have over games

alex, vice like control is not really possible without Xavi and in the last few months even he does not do it consistenty due to deteriorating physicality I suppose. What say?