CL: FC Barcelona 2 - Manchester City FC 1

fair enough

alexjanosik wrote:On the players I was impressed with everyone bar Neymar.

Can't believe you were impressed by Fabregas. Everytime he passes the ball to a teammate he puts him under immense pressure. He a) doesn't read the game well enough and passes even when teammates are being heavily closed down and b) doesn't pass accurate enough. Take a quick guess who played the sloppy pass which caused Messi to sprint back to defend Agüero. He also played the throughball for the first "goal" and the pass for Messi's goal (although it was simply a defensive *bleep* up) but that doesn't make up for his general sloppy play throughout.

Iniesta is a better midfielder than Cesc and Neymar is a better LW than Iniesta. Tata needs to stop trying to make everyone happy. If we want to play this asymmetric formation with a hybrid midfielder on one flank and Alexis and Pedro are too uninvolved for Tata in big games then it makes a lot more sense to have a left-footed playmaker like David Silva on the right wing. Our very own Rafinha fits the bill (for next season).

Good video compilation by allas

http://allasfcb.blogspot.com/2014/03/fc-barcelona-vs-manchester-city.html

CBarca wrote:Just because he's criticized a lot doesn't mean he should get credit when he plays decently. I only saw the second half, i thought he looked decent. I dont know where he was for he golden opportunity Zabaleta spurned.

Otherwise he looked decent. Again, i didn't see tne whole match, but I can't see any real reason he deserves more praise than anyone else. Or praise in general beyond what I've said.

All I am saying for the shit he gets for the smallest mistakes I would expect at least some consistency, was the best in the back 4 over both games.

and i highly do suggest you watch the full match you would enjoy it.

If you want to get pretty accurate player ratings go to www.totalbarca.com After every game they open a rating poll and about 24 hours later they publish the results. Usually you have 500+ Barca fans participating which makes it quite accurate IMO. Couldn't disagree much so far as long as I've followed it. For example for yesterday you have:

Messi: 8.71 / 10
Iniesta: 8.4
Alba: 8.09

These 3 were universally regarded as the standout performers with Messi being the MOTM so they all got ratings over 8.0.

Then you had Valdes' (Dzeko save, very good distribution on the night) and Alves' (mostly due to the winner IMO) contributions acknowledged as well with 7.99 and 7.95 ratings respectively.

Xavi was a good 7.31 which I would read as did everything well but nothing special. Fabregas was acknowledged as the worst midfield performer but overall still "okay" (6.89).

Sergi Roberto was seen as the Flop Of The Match with 5.87 which is aparently down to both playing time and the way he messed up the offside for City's goal.

The centerbacks were regarded as solid with 7.09 and 7.24.

Neymar was regarded as the flop of the match of the starters with 6.32 but still not a desastrous knee-jerk rating like 3/10 or something like that.

http://www.totalbarca.com/2014/matches/view-your-ratings-fc-barcelona-2-1-manchester-city-fc/



Seems bang on.

Donuts wrote:

CBarca wrote:Just because he's criticized a lot doesn't mean he should get credit when he plays decently. I only saw the second half, i thought he looked decent. I dont know where he was for he golden opportunity Zabaleta spurned.

Otherwise he looked decent. Again, i didn't see tne whole match, but I can't see any real reason he deserves more praise than anyone else. Or praise in general beyond what I've said.

All I am saying for the shit he gets for the smallest mistakes I would expect at least some consistency, was the best in the back 4 over both games.

and i highly do suggest you watch the full match you would enjoy it.

Fair enough. Apparently I did come in and start watching the second half, where the first 20 minutes we had our shakiest 20 minutes, so my view is limited.

I will download and watch the first half this weekend. I hate how my school interferes with my ability to watch CL I only have one channel that shows CL too, so I have to pray they show Barca so I can record it or I miss the majority of the game.

Fußball wrote:

alexjanosik wrote:On the players I was impressed with everyone bar Neymar.

Can't believe you were impressed by Fabregas. Everytime he passes the ball to a teammate he puts him under immense pressure. He a) doesn't read the game well enough and passes even when teammates are being heavily closed down and b) doesn't pass accurate enough. Take a quick guess who played the sloppy pass which caused Messi to sprint back to defend Agüero. :lol:He also played the throughball for the first "goal" and the pass for Messi's goal (although it was simply a defensive *bleep* up) but that doesn't make up for his general sloppy play throughout.

Iniesta is a better midfielder than Cesc and Neymar is a better LW than Iniesta. Tata needs to stop trying to make everyone happy. If we want to play this asymmetric formation with a hybrid midfielder on one flank and Alexis and Pedro are too uninvolved for Tata in big games then it makes a lot more sense to have a left-footed playmaker like David Silva on the right wing. Our very own Rafinha fits the bill (for next season).

Its difficult to be agree with you on something...but there i join you every word....