Eibar vs Barcelona

MY predicted lineup:

---------------------Bravo
Douglas---Pique-------------Bartra-----Adriano
--------------------Masch
-----------Rafinha----------Xavi
--Messi------------Suarez-------------Neymar

sub in montoya, rakitic and pedro

if mascherano gets a yellow we are *bleep* for el classico.

no way Mash will be playing this game. he is at the heart of every barca coach whether we like it or not. and lucho, as i understand will not risk that. its difficult to believe that mash will not get a yellow in a game. so my prediction is lucho will not risk him. Also cant believe douglas playing over montaya.
Also Suarez can be rested and get some game time at later hours.

my prediction is ....
Bravo
montoya pique Barta Adriano
rakitic
rafinha Xavi
Pedro Messi Neymar

montoya just yesterday was training individually after injury still hasn't trained with the team, i'd be surprised if he starts tomorrow over douglas.. will really confirm whether or not lucho trusts him or not.

fair enough...was unware of the recovery of montoya...

Eibar has built an entire castle ...what a boring game

messi that dribbling

Handball to Penessi, will he flop it?

Pensessi scores

(keeper still guessed right though)

keeper guessing it right does not matter. what matters is whether keeper can reach it or not. low far corner weak ground shot are the ones stoppable which Messi takes most often. and then he looks at keeper far too long. this time he did none of them. not a great penalty though you can expect most of these to go in...

well confirms that we have 0 trust in douglas
rafinha isn't convincing
sergi roberto gtfo
why was neymar subbed after a weeks rest..

and messi with his dribbling

Montoya is SO bad it's ridiculous. Like wtf, the idea of using him until the winter next season is terrifying.

And if anybody should of been subbed off was Suarez, time to give the big 3 up front some rest with the two big games coming up this week. Would of also been a good game to give Samper a try, even as a sub. Sergi and Rafinha combo is attrocious btw, we need a proper DM to anchor in order for Rafinha to look good. But today that midfield of ours just wasn't getting it done, all over the place and Eibar was fighting every ball plus there was rain.

Great header by Messi btw; even though by his standards had a ver bad game. Gave the ball away allot for careless dribbling/passing which every time resulted in a counter

meh he was actually pretty good today in the dribbling department, some meh passes to his standard though i agree.

i thought Messi, Rakitic and Rafinha all together were giving away those possessions in the first half that allowed them to counter. fortunately. it could be the reason of horrible pitch as well. but that mid trio is horrible and we could loose vs any decent teams with this mid. Don know the reason to sub Neymar. He needed game time and between him and suarez, suarez was actually quite bad.
But very important points because the game was no way easy. its not like Eibar was going to score anyway, i was afraid we might not be able to score.

Not a good performance but we got the job done in the end.
The midfield play was particularly worrying and this game again illustrated the problem with Enrique's system.We played yesterday without our normal fullbacks.There was Alba to provide the overlapping runs which meant that Neymar was easy to mark.And Montoya is just plain garbage.Which meant that it was all on Messi.And Messi was poor.Cant recall another game when he was thwarted so many times on the dribble.Apart from a couple of mesmerizing runs,he was stopped every time so credit to Eibar I guess.
His passing was also off and as a consequence we were atrocious.We created nothing all game and were fortunate to win.Cant recall a single good chance we created.
This is what happens when the playmaking is left entirely to the forwards and fullbacks.
I actually thought Roberto played well.As the DM,he did an admirable job in an unfamiliar position.I am still not convinced rafinha and Rakitic are good enough for us,especially considering who they have replaced.Rafinha drives with the ball well and is a good hustler but he is a scrub passer and is not very creative.I cant recall a single good pass he has made all season.Same more or less for Rakitic.Guy hustles well but is an average passer especially under pressure.

Against Eibar we saw again one of Luis Enrique (or his assistants) strength's.
Messi's goal from a corner is a fantastic set piece strategy goal. You put your two best aerial threats close to the penalty spot (Pique and Bartra) who move forward drawing their makers (almost grabbing them actually), leaving the least aerially threatening player in the team completely unmarked around the penalty spot, Messi, who can head completely free and he is actually a good header when unopponed.

Very good goal and we have already scored like 10 goals from set pieces this season. Luis Enrique is on par or better than Guardiola in this particular area.

Donuts wrote:well confirms that we have 0 trust in douglas
rafinha isn't convincing
sergi roberto gtfo
why was neymar subbed after a weeks rest..

and messi with his dribbling

Sergi Roberto was fantastic as DM... he is taylor made for that spot, wished he was Busquets sub. Had a great game.

Rakitic being an average passer is a good joke, alexjanosik.

While I agree that Roberto had a very good game,saying he is tailor made for that spot is extremely premature.We need to see him more there to make an informed decision.
On Rakitic,he is average compared to the guys he is replacing.He is not very good at passing under pressure and misplaces simple passes quite a lot.Passing between the lines almost non existent.His standard pass is the one to the RB.
Has produced a couple of great final balls but so did Fabregas.
IMO he is not that great a passer.

He's only a worse passer than Xavi, but then, who isn't? He is better than Iniesta who has never been that great at it and everyone else on the team. I disagree that he has produced " a couple" of great finals balls, he has been very prolific.

free_cat wrote:Against Eibar we saw again one of Luis Enrique (or his assistants) strength's.
Messi's goal from a corner is a fantastic set piece strategy goal. You put your two best aerial threats close to the penalty spot (Pique and Bartra) who move forward drawing their makers (almost grabbing them actually), leaving the least aerially threatening player in the team completely unmarked around the penalty spot, Messi, who can head completely free and he is actually a good header when unopponed.

Very good goal and we have already scored like 10 goals from set pieces this season. Luis Enrique is on par or better than Guardiola in this particular area.

well said....Agreed

Such a boring game. I am struggling to stay awake watching Barca recently..not a joke, I am literally closing my eyes for moments of the game and have to be woken up by some kind of action in the game which draws the interest of the commentary or crowd.

When I was awake, I saw basically what I expected considering the line up and how we have been playing. More important games coming up so I cant criticise so much of anything.

What I will say is, I feel like Mascherano is our 4th best centerback. And he hasnt done anything especially bad (except for his annoying and inaccurate long balls and needless fouls).

Montoya obviously isnt good enough, but this isnt news.

I am fairly happy with Rakitic, he has some good ideas. I liked his chest one touch control pass to Suarez, he is good at making a surprising play from one touch.

Why is Neymar always getting subbed off by Enrique? It seems like its often him. He wasnt especially great or anything, but it seems often he is the first to go off.

But yeah as I said, boring game but cant criticise too much. Goals came from a set piece and penalty, not very entertaining but result was more important in this situation.

Come on free.Besides Xavi,there are 4 players who can pass better than him.Messi,Alves,Iniesta and Busquets are all better passers than Rakitic.
Messi,Alves and Iniesta are comfortably better passers and Busquets is a shade better.
No way Rakitic is a better passer than any of those 4.

free_cat wrote:

Donuts wrote:well confirms that we have 0 trust in douglas
rafinha isn't convincing
sergi roberto gtfo
why was neymar subbed after a weeks rest..

and messi with his dribbling

Sergi Roberto was fantastic as DM... he is taylor made for that spot, wished he was Busquets sub. Had a great game.

Rakitic being an average passer is a good joke, alexjanosik.

still needs to gtfo
he has no real role.
with the likes of Samper, and Halilović coming sergi just needs to go.

alexjanosik wrote:Come on free.Besides Xavi,there are 4 players who can pass better than him.Messi,Alves,Iniesta and Busquets are all better passers than Rakitic.
Messi,Alves and Iniesta are comfortably better passers and Busquets is a shade better.
No way Rakitic is a better passer than any of those 4.

Oh, I forgot Messi of course. He's in another level. I disagree about Alves and Iniesta, none of them are really that great especially in long passing, same as Busquets who only has a 20m range. This three are better than Rakitic at short passing, more neat, but definitely not at long passing and high passes, and if you include crosses, which is a kind of passing, he's just above them.

Alves is a wonderful long passer.I respectfully disagree.Lets just agree to disagree.