Barcelona - Athletic 21:00 CET

Very tough game. This one is a test for Tata, the biggest after Madrid game probably. Alves, Puyol, Messi, Valdes out.

I read Bartra will start for Mascherano

Thank god

Will be interesting game. I've always enjoyed watching Bilbao and have loved playing them despite some games that have turned ugly.

Pinto, Montoya, Piqué, Mascherano, Adriano, Sergio, Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc, Alexis & Neymar Jr

I won't be upset taking a point here. Won't be surprised if we do either.

A point at San Mames with the likes of Alves, Messi and Valdes out? Yeah I'm OK with that.

No Bartra Had two good scoring chances.

Neymar too wastefull

He's costed us a lot today.

Our gameplan is shit and boring.

These rubbish cross field balls work 1 in 10 tries, the other 9 half end up in 50/50 balls and half put us in a position hardly better than original position of the pass.

Sure, I went out last night and went football in the morning resulting in 5 hours sleep but I shouldnt be falling asleep watching my team.

By the time Messi returns were going to be in 2nd, or 3rd place.

xavi seems awkward with Martino's game

I think we need to think about purchasing a back-up RB and getting rid of Montoya.

RB of Abidal's style is a must!

Only positive from this game is that it makes it 2 losses in a row and maybe there's a glimmer of hope that Martino will get booted while the team is still salvageable. He took the greatest side of all time and reduced it to this pathetic mess. Seen enough long balls to last me a lifetime, my eyes hurt.

Can't say this is a completely unexpected result. I did not expect that type of performance though. Bar some pretty football early on, we were absolute shite.

Even our passing and our touches were bad.

I thought the Ajax game was a one off thing and that we would bounce back, but clearly the team needed more than that. Neymar really....really needs to work on his finishing. It has been horrible. But to put this defeat solely on Neymar would be unjust. Our whole team was crap. Ajax and Bilbao did two things in common: they all pressed high to force us into a mistake. And mistakes we made. It's frustrating because we had a few chances to take the lead and in the end it came back to haunt us.

Let's see what Tata does about this.

Well, I'm going to be harsh for the first time with Tata.

If he is going to pick the players based on status alone, as he has been doing the whole season, he can *bleep* off right now.

I'm sick of him playing Mascherano, who sucks and sucked today, over Bartra, just because he has a higher status and he is Argenitne.

I'm sick of him playing Cesc as false nine just so he can fit Xavi, Iniesta and Cesc. Cesc has performed well this season as a midfielder, as a false 9 only when the opposition is rubbish.

I'm sick of him playing Xavi ALL THE FRIGGING TIME. Dude is 34 years old. Play him sporadically, look for a replacement. He is my idol, but he is past it. Cesc, Robert or Song should start over him.

And we need to put Neymar on a finishing training.

Something fundamentally wrong with this team. Got a coach from outside with a completely different mindset. Got Neymar. Still can't score a goal against Athletic Bilbao without Messi, just like last season. Martino will be burned for irrelevancies like "why not play Bartra" but it's not his fault. The midfield of this team is finished even more than the central defense. Xavi and Iniesta take 40 passes to transition to attack, neither do they add much defensively. Alexis, despite his goals this season, still can't get past a defender. And Neymar suddenly looks totally short of confidence for whatever reason. Rosell is the main man to blame I guess. Bar Neymar there hasn't been any proper reinforcements in the past 4 years. We have 2 centerbacks who have cost € 3 million together and 0 strikers in the squad. And when we sub off Xavi, we bring on Sergi Roberto to win us a game.

I have to say, that defensive performance looked pretty shocking. Also the way you couldn't cope with pressing, the balls given away at the very back.

Neymar goes to ground MUCH too easily. He has to change that. And that's why also for example he doesn't get the defender red-carded in that one instance, as he just looks to much like he falls at every contact, makes it hard for referees to give a red, even it can be argued itshould be one

Pinto - had a good game in terms of saving balls. In terms of passing and getting rid of it, very nerve wrecking and rather terrible
Montoya - Horrible game, offered nothing in offense, defensively got wrecked
Pique - Actually thought he was the only one doing anything all game in terms of defending,
Mascherano - Horrible game in terms of getting rid of the ball, positioning is still as bad as possible.
Adriano - not impressed at all by him, offers nothing to attack and haven't seen one good tackle from him let alone getting rid of the ball.
Buscuit - started off very well then went downhill, his tackles were sloppy, his passing sucked
Xavi - like Buscuit, started off well had one or two good throughballs all game but that was about it..
Iniesta - I don't know why he shoots so often if he does it so badly, his dribbling was okay, passes were good his 1v1 chance was wasted by a bad first touch
Neymar - All I remember is him slipping all game, shooting very off target and not being able to pass well, if you guys think this guy is going to take over Messi's job you are all sadly mistaken.
Cesc - one word, Disappeared
Alexis - Did nothing all game.. except whine

Tata - waited till minute 80 to do some changes? and his first change was taking our Xavi for Sergi Roberto not pedro.. or a winger? Also starting Mascherano over Bartra two games in a row is weird and unexplainable.

This team misses Messi, Dani Alves and Alba.

futbol wrote:SMartino will be burned for irrelevancies like "why not play Bartra" but it's not his fault. The midfield of this team is finished even more than the central defense. .

It's friggins Martino who decides to play finished Xavi and out of form Iniesta in midifield! He has world Class Cesc, Song and promising Roberto.

STATUS STATUS STATUS

*bleep* off!

futbol wrote:Something fundamentally wrong with this team. Got a coach from outside with a completely different mindset. Got Neymar. Still can't score a goal against Athletic Bilbao without Messi, just like last season. Martino will be burned for irrelevancies like "why not play Bartra" but it's not his fault. The midfield of this team is finished even more than the central defense. Xavi and Iniesta take 40 passes to transition to attack, neither do they add much defensively. Alexis, despite his goals this season, still can't get past a defender. And Neymar suddenly looks totally short of confidence for whatever reason. Rosell is the main man to blame I guess. Bar Neymar there hasn't been any proper reinforcements in the past 4 years. We have 2 centerbacks who have cost € 3 million together and 0 strikers in the squad. And when we sub off Xavi, we bring on Sergi Roberto to win us a game.

I'm not in a position to judge as i rarely see you play, but I'm inclined to agree that maybe the problem is not the coach.

It looks to me, simply said, that your team is past it. Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta, PIQUE.

And who could blame them. They've won everything, they've constituted one of the greatest teams ever and dominated world football for years.

But they've got a really tired and burned out look about them. At least that#s my impression.

The way you reacted to the conceded goal was not good.

Cesc SUUUUCKS as a false 9. HE SUCKS, unless the opposition is rubbish.

STOP playing him there just to play all the STATUS midfielders (Cesc, Xavi, Iniesta).

No, can't blame the players for this. It's painfully obvious that this "playstyle" is coache's orders. He doesn't seem to understand how this team works, how to make proper use of the very strong midfield, how to implement a false 9, nothing. Cesc is getting lost in space, Xavi wanders around aimlessly, while the fullbacks are putting in 60 yard crosses to marked wingers. It's a horror show.

I'm sure Tata is not telling his team to pass so sloppy, or telling his team to miss horribly.

The players are to blame just as much as Tata if you watched this game.