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Barcelona line-up (official): Bravo - Alves Pique Mathieu Alba - Xavi Mascherano SergiRoberto - Pedro Messi Neymar

Bench Barcelona: Ter Stegen, Bartra, Adriano, Iniesta, Rafinha, Munir, Sandro

Bravo

Oh snap! Mascherano in midfield! I'm missing the game, how does he look?

And whats with Sergi starting ahead of Rafinha

Xavi makes it 1-0 what a pass from Messi. And Pedro screws up a solid chance SMH

Holy shit, Messi was determined to break that record some brilliant plays from him. Xavi tho Bravo had a few good saves this game. I kind of wanted to conceded if we do to Madrid I feel we may panic a little (PSG like) and end up hurting our chances. Hopefully Enrique learned from PSG mistake.

Anyways I find it funny how Messi isn't included in the best striker in La Liga last year despite having 28 goals and being second, according to the La Liga officially he missed 2 months thats why they didn't included him, but put Vela there instead.

Masch actually had a good game in DM. Granted this was against Eibar.

Mascherano deserves to start over buscuit in the classico, tbh based on form alone.
Mathieu is so far proving to be worth the 20m our most stable defender


Alves/Sergi Roberto/Alba/Pique/Pedro truly have no place in this team it's shocking how bad they have been lately.

I personally didn't think he was that useful in DM and wouldn't start him in clasico over Busquets.

We've scored 24 goals in all competition Messi has a hand in 17 (8 goals and 9 assists) we scored only 7 goals without him (this sin't including him setting up key passes etc).

Xavi much better than Rakitic today. Then again, it was Eibar. But I wouldn't be opposed to see him start. Hell, if anything it's Iniesta the one that should be benched so far.

How many free header Pique got in this game, if only he could improve those
Pedro should move on for his own good....
Mathieu almost flawless (i can remember one occasion when his mistake left pique alone with the striker). wondering when did we buy the last decent defender before him.
I think iniesta was much better after subbed in. i hope he starts in classico, we need his magic. That means rakitic has to sit. because i dont see anyone replacing Xavi for this game. Hope we rest him in midweek and play Rakitic.
Dont know whats wrong with Messi finishing, he is playing very well but cant score. how many goals he missed in last 2 games alone. Though that goal and the solo run that ended in a save by the keeper were priceless

neuro11 wrote:How many free header Pique got in this game, if only he could improve those
Pedro should move on for his own good....
Mathieu almost flawless (i can remember one occasion when his mistake left pique alone with the striker). wondering when did we buy the last decent defender before him.
I think iniesta was much better after subbed in. i hope he starts in classico, we need his magic. That means rakitic has to sit. because i dont see anyone replacing Xavi for this game. Hope we rest him in midweek and play Rakitic.
Dont know whats wrong with Messi finishing, he is playing very well but cant score. how many goals he missed in last 2 games alone. Though that goal and the solo run that ended in a save by the keeper were priceless

If we had a Ramos or a Terry we would score far more from corners and setpieces.Every single time,we get a setpiece and Xavi goes over to take it,more often than not he has just one target in the box in Pique.
And almost unerringly,Xavi manages to find Pique only for Pique to blast hopelessly over.This game also,twice Xavi found Pique and twice he blasted over.

Messi's finishing will come good.The important thing is that he is moving and hitting the box.The goals will soon flow.

What did you make of the game overall, alex? Still criticial of the mids?

Pique wasting headers is nothing new. It's been a weakness of his game for a very long time.

Well with Xavi playing,the midfield was involved more.He looks for the ball too much so the midfield is bound to get involved.
I think thats one of the reasons Enrique prefers Rakitic over Xavi,aside from Rakitic being defensively better.
Rakitic will stick to that RCM zone,while Xavi likes his positional freedom.You could see that in this game.
Xavi tried sticking to his zone.Played positionally restrained to start with but every now and then he would be drawn towards the ball and move from his zone.Became more pronounced once Iniesta came on.Then he could be seen a lot more on the left.Interchanging and exchanging passes with Iniesta.
If I had to guess,probably the reason Rakitic starts.

But yeah,better midfield play but still a little too much crossing for my liking.

Look at that first goal.

I dont want to be told we cant play through the middle of a crowded defence..because thats exactly what we did there.

Eiber or not, numbers are numbers and they had alot of numbers in there and we are able to play through. We have the players for it.

And the crossing thing obviously just doesnt work.

Mascherano did alright but start vs Madrid? Pls no lol

We talking different levels here. He was hardly ever under any ball pressure, Madrid covers ground alot faster and it will shock him into errors.

That first goal was a typical Xavi-Messi moment. See 5-0 Clasico where he just hit the side net (and Villa complained to leave it for him) and his goal against Milan, group stage 11/12. Exact same run, exact same Messi pass. Iniesta and Rakitic don't do that.

Also Busquets seems injured. We might see Mascherano in DM against Mehdrid. I have my doubts of course but if he actually succeeds that would be grand for the rest of the season as he would be a realistic alternative in meaningful games.

Then one of them can sit their ass down as far as im concerned lol

But I dont exactly agree, I dont think Iniesta/Rakitic and Messi arent capable of the same/similar things. Because it was a fairly simple move, Messi on the ball after some possession deep in the opponents half and the danger of Messi causing ball watching and a Xavi off ball run creates a chance. I can picture a similar run from Rakitic, less so Iniesta.

And overall I just think we created alot of chances all playing within the width of the box.

I think we can actually stop Alves crossing if Messi plays like this, alot more movement towards the ball. Messi is the one player in the world Alves will turn down a cross to pass to, and here we see Messi coming towards his side more and it leaving to him playing it short and us still creating some chances.

Again, ofc just Eiber and more stubborn defences will make it harder (that Alves-Messi 1-2 wouldnt happen vs most teams for example) but numbers and numbers and we played through them and I still believe we are very capable.

like fuball said, buscuit seems injured wasn't even called up for the ajax game on tuesday, samper took his spot in the team apparently.
mascherano offers morme mobility in the dm role which is nice of course he doesn't have the abilities of buscuit but it wouldn't be too bad to have him there either.

Is it true that messi refused to be substituted during the weekend? Or are they just rumours?

Video seems to suggest Enrique asked him to come and he didnt want to.

Or perhaps Enrique was asking if he wanted to and he declined, there is a small difference.

This is what Enrique said about the incident :
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"Before we make substitutions we like to ask the players how they're feeling, whether they've take a knock, whether they're in trouble, we make decisions depending on what they tell us.

"Particularly when it's the last change as it's the last one you've got. I think people have interpreted things the way they wanted to about what happened the other day.

"But for me it's all about the confidence I have in the players, what I see on the pitch and what the players have told me is happening. I won't change that, that's how I will act during my tenure as Barca coach."

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It seems Enrique was asking whether he needs to get subbed .............

Such a non story. Even more cringe worthy that people on Barcaforum are completely flipping out how this is all Rosell's/Bartomeu's fault for not doing anything and comparing the "media manipulation" to the Franco times, as if there is any legal ground to stop gossip magazines/shows/pundits from overdramatizing stuff. "Uhh, Messi didn't want to get subbed off, or did he?"

lol. Indeed a non story.

If Enrique wanted to sub off Messi he would have put his number on the board.
If you ask Robben, Ribery, anyone if they want to go off, they'll say no too.