Barça - vs. AC Milan - tonight at 20:45 CET

Iniesta was better, yet people criticise Iniesta and praise the average game from xavi.

free_cat wrote:Iniesta was better, yet people criticise Iniesta and praise the average game from xavi.

I feel same here. The problem with Xavi is that, he rarely takes risk.There was countless moment where Neymar and Alexis made forward run, instead of playing over the top long pass, Xavi chose to pass nearest team mate. IMO Xavi should't play against park the bus team .Fabregas would be better choice.

Xavi uses short passes so much that when he gets the ball all barca forwards run towards him instead running opposition defense

Xavi is not taking risk means he is safest player on field for opposition team. Some will say possession helps team as opposite team doesnt get ball. But its wrong

You should give the ball to other team.they will attack.when they lose it its great opportunity for Barca to counter attack

But unluckily Barca forgot how to counter attack even when theres a chance. Forwards used to break parking defenses with short passes. Time by time they forgot what counter attack means. When it happens they dont know what to do.3-4 years ago they were great at it.but now no

vanos1 wrote:Xavi uses short passes so much that when he gets the ball all barca forwards run towards him instead running opposition defense

Xavi is not taking risk means he is safest player on field for opposition team. Some will say possession helps team as opposite team doesnt get ball. But its wrong

You should give the ball to other team.they will attack.when they lose it its great opportunity for Barca to counter attack

But unluckily Barca forgot how to counter attack even when theres a chance. Forwards used to break parking defenses with short passes. Time by time they forgot what counter attack means. When it happens they dont know what to do.3-4 years ago they were great at it.but now no

True.

one more issue why messi doesn't make forward runs anymore. Instead he comes deep to get the ball, that's not always smart choice.He use to have fantastic off the ball movement.Always coming deep to get the ball make him way more predictable. And honestly sometime it's annoying.

free_cat wrote:Iniesta was better, yet people criticise Iniesta and praise the average game from xavi.

Iniesta is my favorite player, but even that doesn't blind me from thinking that Xavi had a better game last night.

Beautiful Football wrote:

free_cat wrote:Iniesta was better, yet people criticise Iniesta and praise the average game from xavi.

I feel same here. The problem with Xavi is that, he rarely takes risk.There was countless moment where Neymar and Alexis made forward run, instead of playing over the top long pass, Xavi chose to pass nearest team mate. IMO Xavi should't play against park the bus team .Fabregas would be better choice.

While that has been true in the last 2 seasons, I don't think that Xavi was that bad last night. I mean, compared to how he has been in these last 2 seasons, last night he made lots of beautiful long passes. He even made the best pass of the night to give Neymar a 1-on-1 with the keeper, only for the referee to call for a incorrect offside..[/quote]

vanos1 wrote:Xavi uses short passes so much that when he gets the ball all barca forwards run towards him instead running opposition defense

Xavi is not taking risk means he is safest player on field for opposition team. Some will say possession helps team as opposite team doesnt get ball. But its wrong

You should give the ball to other team.they will attack.when they lose it its great opportunity for Barca to counter attack

But unluckily Barca forgot how to counter attack even when theres a chance. Forwards used to break parking defenses with short passes. Time by time they forgot what counter attack means. When it happens they dont know what to do.3-4 years ago they were great at it.but now no

Though i might agree with you on other points, but the one in bold is plain crazy. You should never give the ball to the other team. You might want to take risky passes that might result in a ball loss, but you never should loose the ball just for the sake of "maybe they loose it as well in a good position and we can counter". I have had enough of this kind of posts in GS, now i see it here? Some, people here have really short memory.

Officially in the Last 16, we need just 1 from the 6 remaining points to finish 1st in the group.
In terms of results, its a great season so far [all comps]. Overall play we should improve. I think our defense is doing good so far [can still improve, pressing better should also help], in some games we have to finish better and kill the game.

Pique has been doing very good since the Celtic game last September,he was just unlucky with the own goal vs Milan (not a big deal)!

By the way, Fabregas has to play such games. He could have killed Milan's defence with his through balls. Iniesta and Xavi need to play more through balls and be more sharp in the final third.

Good news that Xavi will be rested and won't play with Spain [2 weeks rest !! ].
I expect to see this lineup against Betis, which is a very tough game (the toughest from the remaining games in 2013 with the away game vs Bilbao).

I expect a lot from Cesc in this game, he'll play in his favorite position ahead of Xavi [he should have fun assisting Messi & Neymar in this game]:

Valdes
Alves Bartra Puyol Adriano
Xavi Song Cesc
Pedro Messi Neymar

*I think we should start with Neymar get a comfortable lead and than give a chance to Tello and maybe Sergi Roberto. Montoya should start against Granada at home after international break to give Alves some rest!

note: People who were criticizing Messi for not scoring in 3 consecutive game "Go to Hell"!

For our next match I would like to see your lineup as-well but start with Montoya in Adriano's place as he just came back from injury.

anyone got news on jordi alba?

Jordi Alba is out for more than 3 months apparently though don't take my word for it!
Since we have qualified to the Round of 16 I'm hoping to see more game time for the likes of Montoya, Bartra, Tello, Roberto (possibly even Pinto as well).
As for next game I'm expecting Bartra to step in and Puyol even starting or at least coming on. Montoya will play the next two games (one on the left and the other on the right) and more minutes for Tello.
-------------Valdes---------------
--Alves---Bartra--Puyol--Montoya
--------------Song------------------
-----Xavi---------------Fabregas---
---Pedro------Messi-------Tello/Neymar