I thought we played well.We are not going to smash every team out of the park.Considering the fact that Messi got injured early on and that Neymar was rested,it was a good win.
I am still not convinced by Iniesta and Cesc in midfield.Our midfield play was very poor with those 2 in midfield.Play improved significantly once Xavi came on.He had another good game continuing his excellent form this season.

Its Iniesta who is a bit worrying.Had another poor game.Sloppy passes and poor decision making.I think he is still not fully fit.
Messi scored a great goal but went off injured.These injuries are worrying.Give him a proper rest this time and dont rush him back in a week no matter what he says.
Thought both Pedro and Alexis played well.Alexis had a couple of nice dribbles.

Pique:facepalm: He is the worst header on the team despite being the tallest.Every single game,Xavi finds him perfectly from a corner only for Pique to head it 20 yards away from goal.Yesterday Messi finds him perfectly from a FK and he misses a simple tap in header.If he is poor at it,then he should practice.But no,he thinks he is Beckenbauer and doesnt need to put in the effort in training.
The less said about his bumbling efforts at tackling,the better.
Guy thinks he is Nesta at tackling.What a joke.Slides to the ground 5 seconds too early.The player sees him comoing from far off and simply takes the ball away making him look like a fool.
When will he get the message.There are poor tacklers and then there are the atrocious tacklers.Difference being that the poor tacklers dont get the ball and end up taking out the man.The atrocious tacklers end up swinging at air and looking like an idiot. Pique falls in the latter category.
He is a classic example of a player who ends up believing his own hype,stops putting in the effort and then becomes a joke.
If a good offer comes in the summer,I wouldnt mind selling him.That would mean buying 2 CB's.So be it.

Bartra had another encouraging game.Looks a good defender.And I dont think his forward runs a problem.Against teams that park the bus it can be a good weapon.Besides yesterday,the couple of times he went forward there was nobody in his path as everyone else was covering others or blocking off passing lanes.So it was a smart decision.he had an unhindered path to their box.As long as he picks his moments correctly and he is covered,there is nothing wrong with it.
When Masch gets back,pair him and Bartra together.

billy_gr wrote:

free_cat wrote:Messi injured himself hard pressing Almeria's goalkeeper in a not dangerous play. Thanks tata. Three Messi injuries in two months. What's his plan, to get Messi injured 12 times a season?

Why's this Tata's fault?

Muscle Injuries under:
Guardiola: 4 years, 0 injuries.
Tito: 1 year, 1 injury.
Tata: 2 months, 3 injuries.

Messi injured hinself pressing a not dangerous at all ball that the GK collected, following Tata's instructions to press all the field. Hence...

@alexjanosik: Xavi's form it's better than expected bur far from excellent, come on.

free_cat wrote:

billy_gr wrote:

free_cat wrote:Messi injured himself hard pressing Almeria's goalkeeper in a not dangerous play. Thanks tata. Three Messi injuries in two months. What's his plan, to get Messi injured 12 times a season?

Why's this Tata's fault?

Muscle Injuries under:
Guardiola: 4 years, 0 injuries.
Tito: 1 year, 1 injury.
Tata: 2 months, 3 injuries.

Messi injured hinself pressing a not dangerous at all ball that the GK collected, following Tata's instructions to press all the field. Hence...

You could equally say, those 5 years with him insisting playing every game, no matter how unimportant is the reason and now the results are here.

What your doing there is assumption at worst and correlation at best. Causation is a mystery.

It isn't about pressing, it's playing against Bolivia and getting injured after, and then getting recurring injury against PSG. Iniesta had the same when doctors said he could risk his career playing the CL-final, and then spent in and out injured the next season.

First i want pressing back.... now your blaming the pressing for injuries couldn't make it up

No doubt Free wouldn't utter a word if Guardiola was in charge though.

Free didnt want the pressing back, if you meant "you" rather than "I"

Messi has suffered different injuries, it's not all the time the same muscle. Also, there's no way he is getting injured for playing too much years ago, muscles don't have such a long memory.

Messi will get injured often if asked to press all the time. I wanted him to press intelligently, only after losing the ball, and not the whole pitch and when there's no chance to get the ball as it was in the play he got injured.

alexjanosik wrote:Pique:facepalm: He is the worst header on the team despite being the tallest.Every single game,Xavi finds him perfectly from a corner only for Pique to head it 20 yards away from goal.Yesterday Messi finds him perfectly from a FK and he misses a simple tap in header.If he is poor at it,then he should practice.But no,he thinks he is Beckenbauer and doesnt need to put in the effort in training.
The less said about his bumbling efforts at tackling,the better.
Guy thinks he is Nesta at tackling.What a joke.Slides to the ground 5 seconds too early.The player sees him comoing from far off and simply takes the ball away making him look like a fool.
When will he get the message.There are poor tacklers and then there are the atrocious tacklers.Difference being that the poor tacklers dont get the ball and end up taking out the man.The atrocious tacklers end up swinging at air and looking like an idiot. Pique falls in the latter category.
He is a classic example of a player who ends up believing his own hype,stops putting in the effort and then becomes a joke.
If a good offer comes in the summer,I wouldnt mind selling him.That would mean buying 2 CB's.So be it.

Woah, sup with the Pique hate. He's one of our own. Has his weaknessess just like everybody else but you don't get to talk like that for one of our own. He's not some mercenary that joined the team a year ago. Show some respect.

Pique has poor jump timing. he usually jumps a bit early. I can't understand why he hasn't work on that in training. Also, i agree with alexjanosik comments about Pique attitude... don't know what you mean by "show some respect".

It means you don't get to trash talk our own players. Madrid section that way ->

Pique came from La Masia, has been an important first team player for 5 years now, helped us win so many trophies, and some guy on a forum comes out and calls him basically a clown and asks that he be sold? Show some respect, how hard is it? If you got issues with his performance, explain in a civilized manner and cut out the knee-jerk reactions. They don't belong in the Barca section imo.

One of our own? Get out with that.

This is football here, every player has to be held to a standard or they arent worthy of playing for Barca. Its not a right to play for a team of that level, its a privilege.

Dont care who you are or where your from.

If you were here more than 30 posts, you would know Alex opinion is not "knee jerk", he been saying the same thing for ages. And while I dont completely share his opinion on this subject (dont exactly disagree either mind) I know completely he believes it and has reason for it.

Talking about what Pique has done for 5 years means jack, especially since at least the last 2 have been nothing to brag about from him.

Look Stejo, i propose you spend some time reading this forum before you go on a rampage against some of our best posters

I think it's kind of funny how you invoke seniority to argue against a post doing exactly that. And to answer your question I've been reading this forum here and while it was still the original goal.com forum for quite a few years. I just don't feel the need to post often. Maybe because of posts like the above.

Anyways, whatever. You wanna trash talk our players, it's your prerogative I guess. Looking for maturity amongst football fans is an oxymoron by itself either way.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

First i want pressing back.... now your blaming the pressing for injuries couldn't make it up

No doubt Free wouldn't utter a word if Guardiola was in charge though.

this.
Messi starts pressing and results to more goals - we all go crazy praising messi
Messi starts pressing and injures himself - we blame Tata?
Come on

Stejo wrote:I think it's kind of funny how you invoke seniority to argue against a post doing exactly that. And to answer your question I've been reading this forum here and while it was still the original goal.com forum for quite a few years. I just don't feel the need to post often. Maybe because of posts like the above.

Anyways, whatever. You wanna trash talk our players, it's your prerogative I guess. Looking for maturity amongst football fans is an oxymoron by itself either way.

No one is trash talking Pique. We are just being objective, he was poor in last two years. He is good when partnered with Puyol, but he has not shown commitment. So, we cant glorify a lazy ass Pique for having 3/5 good seasons when 2/5 were mediocre.

Stejo wrote:I think it's kind of funny how you invoke seniority to argue against a post doing exactly that. And to answer your question I've been reading this forum here and while it was still the original goal.com forum for quite a few years. I just don't feel the need to post often. Maybe because of posts like the above.

Anyways, whatever. You wanna trash talk our players, it's your prerogative I guess. Looking for maturity amongst football fans is an oxymoron by itself either way.

There was no invoking of seniority, I merely pointed out you were wrong to say "knee jerk reaction", when if you was around for any length of time, you would be aware that clearly is not the case.

You been reading the forum for a long time? Then you should surely know its not knee jerk, because Alex has consistent said the same thing for a while.

Talk trash? Pique isnt around, nobody's feeling are hurt. Whats the big deal?

Again, you say you have been reading for a long time. Then you surely already know all the things Alex has a problem with him?

About Iniesta a while ago Martino claimed that he arrived exhausted due to his involvement with the confed cup, short vacations and the team's irregular pre-season and he would have to slowly regain fitness. It is a bit worrying that he is playing no better now than 2 months ago though.

About Bartra's match:

http://www.totalbarca.com/2013/opinion-pieces/a-matter-of-confidence/