Squad v Ajax: Pinto Oier Montoya Pique Cesc Puyol Xavi Pedro Iniesta Neymar Masche Bartra Busquets Song Roberto S.Gomez Patric Adama Dongou

Xavi back, Alexis (suspended), Adriano (injured), Cuenca (not called).

Injured players: Valdes, Alves, Alba, JDS, Tello, Afellay, Messi.

Lineup Prediction:

Pinto
Bartra Puyol Masche Montoya
Xavi Song Cesc
Pedro Neymar Adama

[or Neymar on LW and Dongou CF].

Tata will probably start with:

Xavi Song Iniesta
Pedro Cesc Neymar

We should rotate a lot to have fresh legs vs. Athletic IMO. This game is almost a friendly.

free_cat wrote:We should rotate a lot to have fresh legs vs. Athletic IMO. This game is almost a friendly.

Please show some more respect for your brother club. We gave your club everything, it would be nice if you could post with some dignity. One of the most disgraceful posts I have ever seen on this forum. I expected much better from you free_cat.

IIRC, we have already qualified for the next rounds, no? So maybe that's why he said that it's almost like a friendly.

Clockwork Orange wrote:

free_cat wrote:We should rotate a lot to have fresh legs vs. Athletic IMO. This game is almost a friendly.

Please show some more respect for your brother club. We gave your club everything, it would be nice if you could post with some dignity. One of the most disgraceful posts I have ever seen on this forum. I expected much better from you free_cat.

It has nothing to do with Ajax, but with the fact we have the 1st place done and dusted.

Also, tell that to your fans, who spent the whole game at Camp Nou insulting Barça and Catalonia in a disgusting manner. While I've never heard an insult to Ajax from our fans.

Adriano is out, along with Alba and Dani Alves.

Curious to who will play our fullbacks and how we are going to play our forwards.

Khaled wrote:Squad v Ajax: Pinto Oier Montoya Pique Cesc Puyol Xavi Pedro Iniesta Neymar Masche Bartra Busquets Song Roberto S.Gomez Patric Adama Dongou

I would go for:

Pinto
Patric - Puyol - Bartra - Montoya
Sergi - Song - Iniesta
Pedro - Dongou - Adama

But given that the unbeaten streak is at risk I doubt Martino would go for such a weak line-up

I think Tata will play:

Xavi Song Iniesta
Pedro Cesc Neymar

we still need one point to assure our 1st place, if we're leading he'll give Roberto and Adama some minutes, maybe Dongou too!


Against Celtic at home, He'll play the bench and Barca B players!

I wonder if Adama is a few good games away from making the team consider selling Tello in the summer. Tello hasn't been doing much this season, I understand he's injured but Adama looked more impressive in his one little stint than Tello has looked in almost any of his.

another injury. great. I only hope Sergi and the other young players get some minutes. it has nothing to do with respect. it's about preserving our players who go down like flies these days

Pinto
Patric Bartra Puyol Montoya
Cesc Song Sergi
Pedro Dongou Adama

Doubt we will see this but I would reallky like to.

Not been able to watch any Barca match properly because we play on the same day

FCB vs Ajax: Pinto, Puyol, Pique, Mascherano, Montoya, Xavi, Song, Iniesta, Pedro, Fabregas, Neymar

Looks like equaling Pep's invincibility stretch is more important than rotating the squad...  

Well we still need to get atleast a point to seal the top spot in the group vs an Ajax team thats desperate for a win. It's not like we have the top sealed already.

Is this the line up tho?!

---------------Pinto
Montoya-Puyol-Pique-Mascherano
---------------Song
------Xavi-------------Iniesta
-Pedro----------------------Neymar
--------------Cesc

that's a horrible back line tbh...good lawd

^ Puyol playing as a RB and Montoya as a LB, so it's not that awful.

is Bojan playing at all in Ajax?

Ajax schooling Barça on how to play possession football

I don't know what to say but Mascherano and Song have had worthy performances so far. Not that the rest of them have been much better.

lol imagine if that was Bayenr

Mascherano

Oh yeah, we dont need a CB at all.

I am not sure what positive can the most optimistic Barcelona fans take from the first half, but I can surely mention a few dozen things that have been wrong with this team, from a tactical standpoint and team selection.

There is a golden rule in football that says if you can't press, don't press. Barcelona clearly can't press. Blame lack of athleticism in their midfield. Sending players forward with no purpose has more side effects than advantages. Pressing is not about sending headless chickens forward. It is about pressing the passer and it involves a high degree of man marking in the midfield and tactical understanding. The Barcelona midfield trio don't have the power, pressing speed or recovery speed to perform any of that. Song has already been caught in no man's land 3 times when pressing.

PS: Come on BC, give Éder a call for Barça's sake

Why would you play current Puyol at RB when you have Montoya there and a LB (Patric) on the bench?

danyjr wrote:PS: Come on BC, give Éder a call for Barça's sake

I wish I had Eder's phone number, although I suspect he is actually quite a dull person.

I wouldn't care if we lost playing the all-sub eleven I posted, but with this team of mostly starters this is a disaster

V wrote:Why would you play current Puyol at RB when you have Montoya there and a LB (Patric) on the bench?

Totaly agreed.

Even more than that, why would you play both fullbacks out of position and therefore neither can overlap comfortably.

At least save Montoya and keep him in his normal position.

At the moment, we have to wait and age to get any overlaps because Puyol and Montoya are uncomfortable doing so.