Barcelona - Levante | La Liga Matchday 1

What did I say, Messi to get subed out

Messi subbed for the first time in all history lol

Tata gave Messi a rare chance for receiving standing ovation  

Donuts wrote:What did I say, Messi to get subed out

Well it is 6 nil, not 1-1 lol

Oh Levante...what you doin lol

wtf was that?

I said this before but after seeing the first competitive game i fully believe it.

Pedro and Sanchez are going to score more this year but Messi will score less.

ya....but i doubt pep or tito would have done so......we had many Manita with Messi playing full .... i like this......

Tello for Pedro.

No hatricks for anyone

I know it is just Levante and I am not praising our defence for it..
but a clean sheet is something to be happy about

Messi sub will not happen again. Today it has a reason. Either he was injured or he himself agreed for sub. Let goalscoring competition start and you will not see it again

It happened today there is no reason to expect it wouldn't happen again. I understand you are Jiopsi's son but there is no need to be upset that Messi was subbed.

Great match today. I think something that says a lot about today's performance is that I don't think I could pick a man of the match, the whole offense fantastic and it was them working together as a team that resulted in all the goals. It's hard for me to say one player was better than any other when talking about our offense today.

Zubizarreta (sports director): "You never know what can happen until 2 September, but we are at this moment not planning to sign anyone."

goodbye CL.... and Classicos  

Messi being subbed is a good thing, he didn't need to score a hat trick and he will be much more fresh against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.. a team he always plays good against

Barcelona with a proper and healthy coach. Been a while I've seen that.

Xavi:"Last season, when Tito wasn't there, we didn't train tactics as much, how to put pressure, we lost our marks."

great game. messi being subbed. proper pressing.
loved it.
although this levante was barelly threatening

billy_gr wrote:great game. messi being subbed. proper pressing.
loved it.
although this levante was barelly threatening

Tbf to Levante they couldn't threaten, every time they got the ball you stole it back instantly.

When you used to press like this in the past even elite teams struggled to deal with it.

Question really is can you keep this intensity up for all the big games?

definitly not in a whole season... let's see

Why not? It's not the first time we play like this over a whole season. We have enough depth. Have you seen Iniesta and Neymar on the bench? Also these kind of game don't really look like they are exhausting anyone. Second half was like a training session.

True, but the midfield (which is obvious integral to the pressing) is older and no longer have the athletes they had in Keita and Yaya.

Plus, more than once the Bielsa disciples have run their players into exaustion by the end of the season with their demands.

But I am indeed hopeful still.

Martino: "I discussed with Leo the needs to rest every now and then. Of course, when the game is tight, not even the biggest fool subs him."

This gives me great hope. This is actually the first time Messi has been subbed out in a La Liga game without having an injury since 2010. No way Martino will run his players into ground like Bielsa IMO.

The player that would concern me is Xavi, the rest are young enough to keep up the intensity over long periods IMO.

The fact Messi is pressing again is a great sign.

Hope so, but people accused him of doing so with Newell's already.

We will see.

our next 5 games  

Atl Madrid
Malaga
Atl Madrid
Valencia
Sevilla

gondov wrote:our next 5 games  

Atl Madrid
Malaga
Atl Madrid
Valencia
Sevilla

4W 1D calling it here

5 W easy.