When: Just started

Pinto, Montoya, Puyol, Mascherano, Adriano; Song, Cesc Fàbregas, Sergi Roberto; Pedro, Neymar y Tello.

Savu, Álex Cacho, Zurdo, De Lerma, Astrain, Mariano Sánchez, Segura, Carlos David, Menudo, Megías y Eric López.

why start adriano in this game? he will get himself injured

Neymar having fun

great diagonal pass to useless Montoya. Montoya finds spaces but he has really a poor touch.

Pedro's crossing has been very off today.

So, next we play Getafe.

Tello makes it 2-0 from a Nerman assist.

I never want to see Cesc in the middle again.

I was happy with alot of what Sergi Roberto did, he is one of the few with the energy and desire to win the ball back quickly. Need more with his attitude.

The Franchise wrote:I was happy with alot of what Sergi Roberto did, he is one of the few with the energy and desire to win the ball back quickly. Need more with his attitude.

The pressing as a whole has intensified the last few games. Villarreal had 1 corner chance all game. Looks almost like old school Barca again.

For me it looks like we have cruised the first half of the season without ever hitting top gear. Nerman is hitting the net consistently now, Messi will be back, Alves will be back, Iniesta looks much fresher than at the start of the season, Xavi sat out lots of games first half of the season, Alexis is playing well consistently. Baring injuries we'll be golden second half of the season I think.

Looks like Tata is slowly ditching Mascherano as well. Bartra sitting out today means he'll start next La Liga game again, no doubt.

futbol you are forgetting that as soon as messi comes back our pressing will go back to being sub-par

Well there was still times where Cartagena passed their way out of the back, once with some superb one touch stuff (so you cant really complain much about that) only for Puyol to put a hault to it.

Not trying to turn anyone's point into something negative, just saying.

Well, Spanish third division teams are better passers than most Italian, English or German first division teams anyway. That's my take on it.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:futbol you are forgetting that as soon as messi comes back our pressing will go back to being sub-par

But but but ... DEM 100 goals he will score.

futbol wrote:Looks like Tata is slowly ditching Mascherano as well. Bartra sitting out today means he'll start next La Liga game again, no doubt.

Mascherano is a better DM than Song will ever be. Martino must stop playing Mascherano at CB. He was deployed there as emergency option 3 years ago and for some reason he's stuck there despite not being made to play CB. I honestly don't get it.

Maybe for most teams, but not for Barca. You be playing someone so bad with the ball that high up the pitch.

Regardless of that, he's an upgrade as DM to Song.

Again, not for us.

The sooner he is kicked out the better to be frank, he seems a nice guy and a great attitude but on basically football terms, enough is enough now. He can only possibly play 1 position and he cant play it well anyway.

danyjr wrote:Mascherano is a better DM than Song will ever be. Martino must stop playing Mascherano at CB. He was deployed there as emergency option 3 years ago and for some reason he's stuck there despite not being made to play CB. I honestly don't get it.

Not for Barca, if one thing about his Barca experience showed is that Masche cannot play lone DM and never will. Doesn't have the positional awareness to do it. He'd rather chase down the player with the ball, tackle him and get the ball back than stay in position. When there is no one else to cover for you this can't be done.

boring game :-)

I remember when we had Keita, I wanted nothing more than for the club to get rid of him. And it seemed as the years went by, the club would just troll everyone and continue to keep him around when it was obvious his time with us should had passed. Not only that, he was in the way of Thiago. Now I feel the same way about Mascherano. The club will continue to troll us by using him in the big matches, when it's become obvious Bartra is better. I at least hope the rumors of Musacchio are true. I would trust him over Mascherano any day of the week. Hell, I would love to see a Musachio x Bartra back line.

and jesus, when does Alves get back? Montoya isn't good enough to trust in the big matches. Good thing things will be easy for a bit

It's true that Montoya final pass/shot needs improvement, he needs to decide 1 second faster.

However, none of you are considering the fact that whenever Montoya plays as Right Back (not as Left Back obviously) he is always one of the most dangerous players in the pitch for us, usually more than our forwards. His overlapping, timing and off the ball movement is excellent, much better than Adriano's, Alba's or current Alves.

Alves used to be fantastic too, but 2 seasons ago he decided (or was instructed by our coaches) to play as a kind of false winger, ocuppying the flank instead of attacking by surprise, and this limited his attacking options to receive a wide pass and to cross from far/pass back.

Definitely, Montoya needs improvement in his defending and his final ball, but his ability to find space (even vs. park the bus defences) is exciting, and the fact that he is out-assisting Dani Alves, with limited minutes and playing many games as left back, is telling something.

free_cat wrote:It's true that Montoya final pass/shot needs improvement, he needs to decide 1 second faster.

However, none of you are considering the fact that whenever Montoya plays as Right Back (not as Left Back obviously) he is always one of the most dangerous players in the pitch for us, usually more than our forwards. His overlapping, timing and off the ball movement is excellent, much better than Adriano's, Alba's or current Alves.

Alves used to be fantastic too, but 2 seasons ago he decided (or was instructed by our coaches) to play as a kind of false winger, ocuppying the flank instead of attacking by surprise, and this limited his attacking options to receive a wide pass and to cross from far/pass back.

Definitely, Montoya needs improvement in his defending and his final ball, but his ability to find space (even vs. park the bus defences) is exciting, and the fact that he is out-assisting Dani Alves, with limited minutes and playing many games as left back, is telling something.

Exactly, although he has 3 assists this season in the few games he played... give him time, he'll improve.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Not for Barca, if one thing about his Barca experience showed is that Masche cannot play lone DM and never will. Doesn't have the positional awareness to do it. He'd rather chase down the player with the ball, tackle him and get the ball back than stay in position. When there is no one else to cover for you this can't be done.

You consider Song to have positional awareness?

Much more than Masche, yes, last season Song was quite good as DM, something Masche has never been for us.

Don't know why Danyjr hates Song so much. I learnt recently that Danyjr is kinda an Arsenal closet fan. It might be he is butthurt because he left them for our bench, but I'm not sure. Truth is that Song has been solid and more than ok as a back up for Busquets for us, much more than Mascherano ever was.

To be honest I'm surprised BC thinks Song is a better DM than Mascherano. Does he watch Mascherano play for his country? Hopefully he'll answer that but for me, Argentina's Mascherano is el Jefecito. He commands the centre, he organises it, he tackles well and brings steel in midfield despite his small stature. He's a hot headed guy (hence his positioning isn't world class) but his performances are miles different to Barça's shapeshift CB position. How many chances have Sáncehz, Tello, Fàbregas, Pedro been given to prove themselves? Mascherano has barely played as DM for Barcelona as far as I know (how many times in the last three seasons?)

@free_cat Regardless of me being a fan of Arsenal or not, I never rated Song. I would scratch my head for eternity trying to find a position where he'd work well. As a CB and DM, he certainly doesn't. As a CM he's meh at best. And I consider his positioning one of his biggest weaknesses. A good reason Arsenal's defensive record has improved so much since he left (but his departure is not the only reason).

I guess I see a very different Masche than you because for Argentina a) Masche has help from Gago/Banega so he is allowed to chase the ball and b) he is consistently our weakest link in midfield (not his fault, he doesn't play there every Sunday anymore). Even some River fans even want him out of the team.

In any case Masche for Argentina is alright, but for Barca that's not the case.