Paris Saint-Germain vs F.C Barcelona

Barcelona are lucky PSG strikers are jokers. Cavani and Pastore could have added a couple more had it not been for their complacency.

sportsczy wrote:Rakitic had his breakout season at Sevilla as a 10.  He CAN play a lower role and has done it pretty well in the past....  but i still don't understand this concept of buying players and playing them in roles where they're not at their best.  Madrid does this all the time too and it drives me crazy.

That's why i also hope the Mathieu stays at CB.

Finally, is Suarez going to play central striker or move to the right?  Again, buying a guy to play him out of position.

I generally agree with what your saying, I find this highly annoying too. But I am not sure about those two examples, well in attack anyway.

Rakitic for example I think is fine. He has some pros and cons obviously, but I think he can play in the midfield just aswell as the 10. Its not like when you play other 10s in midfield (say Cesc, or Ozil) and they dont have defensive competence (both) or they dont come towards the ball and spend too much time in between the lines (Cesc).

Suarez, if we played like last season I would agree. But Munir has given us a glimpse of Suarez role I think. Unlike Pedro, he gets himself into goalscoring positions and plays in between the leftback/centerback space. Its in defensive I have no idea about though.

Problem though Dani is that Suarez is going to naturally cut in almost all the time and Barca will become automatically very narrow... and making him stay wider is a complete waste.

Rakitic... he played this low role in the WC with Modric playing higher and he looked like this too. I don't think he's a top class CM. Just pretty good. On the other hand, i thought he was great at playing a 10. His best skills last year were his scoring ability and final passes... you're taking that away from him.

Anyhow, that's just how Madrid and Barca work. We buy the most talented guys, play them out of position and then criticize them for lacking the same productivity...

Munir is even worse because he cant use his other foot and only goes in one direction. I think with Munir it works well because he moves well and doesnt over hog the ball. He plays like a real striker and yes it is very narrow. Basically all im saying is it cant work any worse than Munir (which is quite well) but with more quality.

I agree, Rakitic is not a top class CM. I think he would be great as a 3rd option.  

I dont agree we talking away his goals though, he scored 2 goals in the last 4 (?) I think. He is getting some chances.

I still can't get over the fact that Verrati, who at 165 is shorter than Messi, scored a header against us

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I still can't get over the fact that Verrati, who at 165 is shorter than Messi, scored a header against us

Didn't Piatti score a header against you guys last season lol?

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I still can't get over the fact that Verrati, who at 165 is shorter than Messi, scored a header against us

Who was marking him? Was it suppose to be Rakitic?

Ridiculous tbh

So I only watched the 2nd half and from what I gather we must have been way worse in the 1st half or you guys are seriously overreacting.

From the second half I thought both CBs were solid, Busquets was a turnover machine, Alba, Alves and Pedro were useless and that the team seriously improved after Xavi came on. Not sure if this last point has more to do with Xavi being there or PSG getting tired, but it was noticeable. We had several chances where we could have equalized the match (Iniesta, Sandro, and Alba all wasted good opportunities, Munir had a close shot as well, Neymar almost scored if not for overpriced Marquinhos pulling a Masche last second tackle-block on us).

Not sure whether to blame MaTS for some of the goals or not but it seems clear to me that our CL GK should get regular playing time, not only get minutes in the biggest stage. That's ridiculous and it's no wonder he was nervous.

Going forward I agree that Mathieu should play the Abidal role and Pique should start since he steps up his game in the CL and important matches.

windkick wrote:Who was marking him? Was it suppose to be Rakitic?

Ridiculous tbh

Yeah Rakitic

Oh and also credit must be given to PSG. I've always said that the way to beat Barca is to press them rather than park the bus and PSG did that very well for (what I gather) was most of the game. It's refreshing to see teams play like that against us rather than just sit back and defend deep, and it clearly works.

windkick wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I still can't get over the fact that Verrati, who at 165 is shorter than Messi, scored a header against us

Who was marking him? Was it suppose to be Rakitic?

Ridiculous tbh

We half mark, half zone. Rakitic is one of the better aerial defenders so he has a zone. Nobody marked Verratti and he ran behind Rakitic zone.

So yeah, it was Rakitic who has blame as it was in his zone but he didnt outjump anyone and he didnt have to because nobody at any point marked him. We had just Iniesta, Mascherano and Alba marking 4 players. Busquets at some point was marking someone, but then dropped into a zone and there was a chain reaction of players swapping markers and Verratti picked up by nobody.

@BC

Well look at the goals in the first half. Both came because both fullbacks were trying dribble instead of pass. Busquets did the same thing all night, trying to shield the ball and draw a foul which never got called instead of trying to play the ball.

3rd goal was a mix of Alba inability to defend plus poor pressing shape.

So I dont think there was much overreaction. The first two goals were so very avoidable and I dont understand what the hell our defensive shape was...well I know what it was, but if that's the plan, my opinion of Enrique's tactics went very down after today.

All this talk of pressing is again going to be hogwash if we do what he did today, both in terms of shape and in terms of the role of certain players.

I am of the belief we could have won this game if we didnt make mistakes my 14 year old kids rarely make and we had any sort of sensible defensive shape. I dont even think PSG are that good, or at least in the defence. We never hardly ever looked lost for ideas, we could create chances..but we rarely built real momentum because we lost the ball so poorly at the back and didnt press them in well.

I was looking for how we conceded the goals but unfortunately most highlights only show the assist and goal itself, not the entire buildup.

Smh..

Yeah, often is the case.

First one, I think Busquets got into trouble and lost the ball. PSG counter attacked the right wing and crossed. It went all the way across the box to Alves who used some decent composure to control it and dribble it out.

Instead of playing an early pass he continued to dribble...instead of passing down the line (more understandable), he keeps dribbling..eventually all passing options were gone and he had dribbled directly into the path of perhaps Pastore (may have been Matuidi). He tries to dribble Pastore and it deflects randomly and as he tries not to lose the ball he fouls Pastore and PSG win a freekick.

Which by the way was a routine cross in the box with Luiz 1 v 1 with Mascherano (how does this happen on a side freekick?!) and he overpowers him as you saw.

Second goal I forget what lead to it, but Alba tries to dribble and concedes a corner when he could have passed earlier and didnt, or at worse clear the ball.

Feel bad for Messi. Bar Neymar in spurts he was virtually a one man team tonight. I mean it's incomprehensible how good he is.

P.S.: Rakitic was absolutely awful today and got dominated by Matuidi while Cesc was running the show AGAIN in Lisbon.

I can only imagine how bad it would have been if we had Cesc lost ass out there

The Franchise wrote:I can only imagine how bad it would have been if we had Cesc lost ass out there

Bin Busquets and Iniesta and replace them with Matic and Oscar and the result would have been reversed.

Getting dominated by old man Motta, a bootleg Ramires and freaking Verratti.

Cesc would have been dissecting that PSG defence with ease ffs. Imagine not being able to create anything against a team with clowns like Lu17, VDW, Maxwell and Marquinhos at the back.

Most assists in Europe this season after picking up his 8th tonight.

Gil wrote:Most assists in Europe this season after picking up his 8th tonight.

Fabregas has 7, Messi 8. If you come here to gloat, then you should at least get your "facts" straight.

Gil wrote:Feel bad for Messi. Bar Neymar in spurts he was virtually a one man team tonight. I mean it's incomprehensible how good he is.

P.S.: Rakitic was absolutely awful today and got dominated by Matuidi while Cesc was running the show AGAIN in Lisbon.

Gloating our trash is working for you...against Lisbon?

Gtfo our section.

Gil wrote:

The Franchise wrote:I can only imagine how bad it would have been if we had Cesc lost ass out there

Bin Busquets and Iniesta and replace them with Matic and Oscar and the result would have been reversed.

Replacing quality, skilled players with work horses

Harmonica wrote:

Gil wrote:Most assists in Europe this season after picking up his 8th tonight.

Fabregas has 7, Messi 8. If you come here to gloat, then you should at least get your "facts" straight.

Dem imaginary stats. They both have 7 u pos.

windkick wrote:

Gil wrote:Feel bad for Messi. Bar Neymar in spurts he was virtually a one man team tonight. I mean it's incomprehensible how good he is.

P.S.: Rakitic was absolutely awful today and got dominated by Matuidi while Cesc was running the show AGAIN in Lisbon.

Gloating our trash is working for you...against Lisbon?

Gtfo our section.

Don't you dare get self-righteous with me. You guys don't hesitate to get in digs at Cesc. Let me bask in the glory of Iniesta and Rakitic getting dominated by a pub footballer.

The Franchise wrote:

Gil wrote:

The Franchise wrote:I can only imagine how bad it would have been if we had Cesc lost ass out there

Bin Busquets and Iniesta and replace them with Matic and Oscar and the result would have been reversed.

Replacing quality, skilled players with work horses

Matic a workhorse? Aren't you a Porto fan?

PSG did play well no doubt about it, but are poor decision making made them look like gods out there.

not too concerned with the loss, if it weren't for alves and alba we would of won easily 2-1 or perhaps 2-0
also gotta remember this is our 4th game in just a matter of 10 days also away from home and if this were a semi/quarter final this result would of actually been favored considering we got two goals away from home so there are many positives to come from this.

also lol at gil still pimping out cesc

also would be interested to see mascherano play a DM game for us, infront of Mathieu, and Pique.. honestly after that performance from buscuit.

[quote="Gil"][quote="Harmonica"]

Gil wrote:I spit hot Garbage

Come back in the 2nd half of the season, when shit matters, and tell if you are still sucking off Fabgregas and your win in Lisbon.

Watching Alves with the ball frustrates the shit out of me. He and Alba basically cost us the game. I wish the former left, last summer.

Also, a disappointing performance by MaTS. He was at fault for the 2nd goal, and while he wasn't for the 3rd, you could argue he could have intercepted the cross as it was pretty much within his reach but I could be wrong.