FC Barcelona - Sevilla | La Liga Matchday 4 | Sept 14, 2013

hes not showing for the ball in the final third.. he needs to be in the box. hard to fault him otherwise.. he is delivering the goods at the end of the day

Dani alves have away so many easy passes, Piqué looked very lazy as usual, tello is going to have a hard time getting into the starting 11 for another game.
Beautiful game by Neymar and Messi seemed tired all game but showed up when it really mattered, Mascherano would be such a good defender if he were taller
Meh game from Xavi and Iniesta

Is it me or is everyone in some odd ass formation now? Before we looked well aligned. Now Messi is like dead in the middle but a bit to the right and running straight towards the goal from way back there making passes with no real striker anywhere in the middle of the box. Might also explain why when we do get counterd every one is completly out of formation and we got bombed on hard. Pique needs to stay back with Masch, with Busi falling back with them to make a back line of at least 3 in the event Adriano and Alves want to stay up front. Also asied from Messi being so far back to the right, you also have Xavi REALLY far back almost next to Busquets most of the match...keeping him farther than usual from his twin Iniesta

Pretty much this is what they are doing (or maybe I'm tripping..)

Neymar
-------------------------Tello
-------Iniesta
--------------------Messi
--------------Xavi---------Alves
Adriano-Busi
--------------------Pique
-----Masch
----------Valdes

honestly our formation constantly changes I tried making sense of it, all i know is our midfield is heavily stacked.

We still lack a proper Xavi back up. We must find some one soon so we can start giving him rest

Nah, we've got Thiag---oh...

i didn't manage to see the game but from the highlights i watched Pique looked like an amateur at times. Damn you Shakira

Why is Shakira's fault? When player's settle down they usually improve or at least their performance doesn't suddenly go to hell because of partying.

merely jocking...

yeah but many people says the same in the streets and Is a line of thought I don't get.

It seems we havent let go of last seasons syndrome.
Rack up a comfortable lead and then let it slip to endure a nervy last few minutes to the game.There were a lot of matches last season where we let 2,3 goal leads slip.This season again the same.We let a 3 goal lead slip against Valencia and now this game.

On the players,I thought everyone bar Neymar and Busquets was poor.Worst player on the pitch was Alves.I think that was his worst ever performance for us.Lacklustre from start to finish and the lack of effort was surprising and disturbing at the same time.All over the place positionally and then was jogging back every single time Sevilla attacked.Left Pique with far too much to do.If he thinks that like his pal Messi, he can get away with not putting in effort,then he can ride the bench.

Tello was non existent.Didnt have one positive play in attack and whats more didnt press.Messi and Neymar pressed but he didnt and as a result our press was ineffective.

Messi had a very poor game aside from the clutch play towards the end.I have said numerous times that he offers zero positive movement.When the ball is wide he should be rushing into the box.Instead he waits at the edge of the D. Numerous times Neymar beat his man only to find no one in the box.The one time Messi did rush into the box,he scored a goal.Also screwed up 3 counters by not offering movement. Neymar was bursting on the counter and Messi stops to receive the pass back:facepalm: Similarly on a Tello counter.
Simply has to offer better movement.He is a false 9 and not a 10.

Iniesta still doesnt look match fit to me.Dribbled a couple of times but had an off game.Xavi had a poor game too.Kept the ball well but too many missed passes.

The less said about our defense the better.The main problem is that we lack a leader back there,someone to organize things.Each of the four was doing their own thing,crosssing over into zones,rushing out when they shouldnt have and making individual decisions instead of collective.The lack of organization was comical and disturbing at the same time.

The one positive from the match was Neymar.By far the best player on the pitch and simply magical at times.I hadnt watched Neymar a lot and the thing that worried me the most was his quickness of decision making.I was expecting a player who was slow in making decisions.I expected him to slow down once he received and then try to beat his mind.I have been pleasantly surprised by his quickness of decision making.Doesnt slow down the play at all and is very direct and also seems to make the right decisions.
The potential in our front line is scary.We have a GOAT in Messi who is in his prime,the young Brazilian upstart who is yet to hit his prime and Sanchez who is slowly but surely finding hhis feet and also yet to hit his prime.If all three click together we will be unstoppable.

Lastly a shout out to Emery.He receives a lot of flak and even though he has yet to win against us,thats an unjust record.Even at our peak,when we smashing teams left,right and center,his Valencia were the only team to go toe to toe with us take us close.Even outplayed us a few times and should have won a few times.Now he does the same with Sevilla.Dont think he quite gets the credit he deserves.

Yep pretty much agree with all that.

Tello I have some smypthahy with, becuase the right hand side really isnt his position.

You think he is predictable on the left? On the right its increased twice over, because he is without question going on the outside and from there he is forced to cross, which isnt something I think he is even confident doing.

He cant come inside because its on to his non existent left foot and he doesnt have the type of juke and hesitation moves of a Alexis who can escape bad situations. He really has no options with the ball and the only thing he possibly could offer was a threat in behind the leftback. But with Messi runing counters, that didnt help.

I dont want to say too much about Messi, in the end he saved the day with his dramatic stuff. Though one could argue if he played the game how it should be played we would of been 3 up and that comeback doesnt happen.

Thats what annoys me about Messi today, he no longer plays the game on equal terms.

When you first play football as a kid, everyone has the desire to run off the ball, they try and help the teammate by moving into a different space. Especially on a counter attack.

Sometimes the awareness isnt there at a young age and they dont get it, but the desire isnt the issue. And Messi played like that as a grown man, he made those runs, he stayed out of the way when it was called upon...but thats gone now. What I saw on those "counter attacks" deeply bothered me.

I didn't get to watch the game, but if this video didn't ignore any major snafus I think we can all agree that when Puyol recovers match fitness it is Pique that should be benched.

Mascherano has gone a very good defensive job and I have minimal complaints.

I dont think it matters who gets benched though, Puyol wont last.

But yes on merit, it should be Pique thus far.

Also it seems to me that Masche is instructed to clear the ball more than usual? Or is this the impression I get just by seeing his entire game condensed in 3 minutes?

I didnt notice it, but I wouldnt be surprised.

The Valencia game he got us in trouble twice in the last 2-3 minutes because he tried to dribble out of danger when a pass or even a hoof was the order of the day. Valencia got chances out of both of those so im sure it weighed on him.

Also in this game Adraino really didn't seem all to convincing defenselessly maybe it's because he just came from injury.. but Alves had the same problem.
the only stable defense we had was really Mascherano, and to say the least that's a rather bad thing when our DM playing as CB out preforms everyone else.

I felt like the game changed completely because we didnt finish the game after 2-0.

The trouble Sevilla caused, they could of caused any time, but we controlled the game up untill 2-0. Didnt get the third, Sevilla confidence grew and they began to believe in the comeback. Thus troubling us more defensively.

The 2-1 could've been prevented by either Xavi or Fabregas if they would have actually ran to cover defense and stop the second wave, yet they were just jogging slowly back.

Most Barcelona's defensive problems are clear consequent of midfielders not holding their defensive duties.

Mascherano should definitely be dropped instead of pique. He can't play CB because:
- he is atrocious in aerial balls (a CB main job and our weakness)
- He allows a clear chance every game after a missed sliding tackle Instead of containing the opposition (see Rakitic goal)

Meanwhile Pique is at fault for about 1/3 of the chances we actually get scored on.

Last season
Pique = Mash (both equally sucked nads)

This season
Masch > Pique

free_cat wrote:Mascherano should definitely be dropped instead of pique. He can't play CB because:
- he is atrocious in aerial balls (a CB main job and our weakness)
- He allows a clear chance every game after a missed sliding tackle Instead of containing the opposition (see Rakitic goal)

lol wut.
your Catalan bias is too much my friend but to save argument realistically both need to be benched.

Benching either one is pointless question, as they will need rotation and Puyol most likely wont last too long.

That's a nice team goal, counted 8 players interacting.