LFP | J31 | Sevilla FC vs FC Barcelona

anybody else notice how easy the hell month of April is for Madrid compared to ours?

04/5 : Vigo 0 - Barca 1
04/8 : Barca 4 - Almeria 0
4/11 : Sevilla 2 - Barca 2
4/15 : PSG - Barca <-UCL
4/18 : Barca - Valencia
4/21 : Barca - PSG <-UCL
4/25 : Espanyol - Barca
4/28 : Barca - Getafe

Not to mention we still have Atletico, Real Sociedad and Bilbao to play in league

vs there schedule..

04/5 : Madrid 9 - Granada 1
04/8 : Rayo 0 - Madrid 2
4/11 : Madrid 3 - Eibar 0
4/14 : Atletico - Madrid <-UCL
4/18 : Madrid - Malaga
4/22 : Madrid - Atletico <-UCL
4/26 : Vigo - Madrid
4/29 : Madrid - Almeria

Sevilla, and Valencia are the only 2 tough La Liga games they have left for May (which when you look at the schedule, those are the only 2 tough games left for the rest of the season since the Clasico)

I would be shocked if we can hold on to the league looking at our fixtures vs theres.

It is unfortunate that the 2 goals came from individual mistakes from Bravo and Pique.
They have both been outstanding this season.Feel a bit sorry for them.

What a bad luck. We deserved to win by several and we tie. Extraordinary first half, bad second one, still we could have scored a couple if Suarez put on his good boots.

Everyone is saying how great the first half was (I missed it) and after having watch the second I cant help but wonder what the hell happened.

Because the second was really bad from my viewing. It must of been until around 20 something minutes into it did we actually put 4-5 passes together inside their half. Before that it was direct counter after direct counter (which failed after 1 pass or even less) in between spells of Sevilla attacks which Mathieu and Pique defended quite well against I should add.

But the team wasnt keep the ball, nor was it creating danger on the break. So, bringing Xavi made total sense but not for Neymar.....I dont get why he is almost always the first sacrifice. He is the one with genuine speed on the break and makes off ball runs, and generally was defending his flank also. With Messi you know he wont run off the ball nor was he defending and with Suarez you dont really have so much speed in behind plus when he defends on the right he really doesnt understand positioning (his bad positioning on the flank gave Sevilla a great chance).

I dont think Suarez was having a bad game or a great game, at least of the second half I saw, but I defiantly think he wasnt doing anything well enough to make him unotuchable in this game. Of course, Messi wasnt either but nobody subs him, for whatever reason.

But this is the problem with 3 superstar players who play in the same line...you almost always eventually at some point in the game want to change one player in the attack line of the team. If its for better defending, a different attacking variation or simply someone not playing well. But with 3 players like that, its hard to sub one off because they all have been the most important player on a team and still are on the national team...so subbing them is not something they will ever take well. Especially when one of them is playing well like Neymar was. So Enrique can call it "nonsense" if he wants, but the problem is real.

http://gfycat.com/BlindEnergeticHogget

I didn't see the match so I've stayed out of the conversation , but this doesn't look like walking around for like you own the pitch to me... Of course, a single moment does not capture an entire match but much of the criticism being levied on him seems hyperbolic.

idk, Messi had an okay game. Not great, but certainly not bad as alex is saying. I don't think we would have gotten the draw without him and I think that had our finishing been better in the first half, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

That tackle tho BC Banega and Messi are good friends. Messi apparently really likes defending against his friends lol.

I often wonder if we are too harsh on Messi. He literally plays as a winger, a false 9, an attacking midfielder, and holding midfielder and practically has the entire teams tactics built around him. On top of that he is also being double/triple teamed every single game (plus has a bad foot at the moment, a foot that Mbia stepped on during the match).

And then we complain he doesn't also spend all game running around tracking back on defense.

I don't think the problem is Messi as much as it is our midfield positioning. Iniesta in this set up is a shame to his skills (plus looks to be on tired legs), and a midfield of Rakitic, Iniesta and Busquets isn't going to control games. Rakitic and Iniesta are too similar in mold, and both play so far apart from each other because they are obviously being asked to cover for the full backs. This pretty much leave Busquets to control allot on his own, with Messi and Neymar drifting in to help out in the midfield. Then you have Suarez up front missing SO many chances its absurd. That's 3 games straight now in which we went LONG periods of time not being able to touch the ball or string any passes together, pressed up in our own half. That's just not going to cut it. And tbh we just don't have the players in midfield to actually improve.

I would suggest playing this midfield though, to see if it helps...

-----------Busquets
------Xavi--------Rakitic
-Messi-----Suarez----Neymar

I think Iniesta (or even Rafinha) off the bench for Rakitic might be better for us at this point. Rakitic is allot faster and looks to fit Luchos midfield allot better. Xavi with Busquets covering for him might not be the end of the world, as I feel Xavi still has allot of quality to offer. Then late in the game we can bring in Iniesta for Rakitic, Mascherano on for Xavi (and play with 2 DMs to finish the game)...with Pedro to come on and run like crazy to finish the match for the usually misfiring Suarez (which would move Messi to his usual false 9 role)

------Masch-----Busq
-----------Iniesta
-Pedro-----Messi-----Neymar

Which means I am insinuating that Pique, Mathieu should be our every game CB's with Bartra as the back up. Vermalean is back this month in reality he could be our 2nd option behind Bartra for the smaller league games....so Mascherano's job as a CB should really be coming to an end for us as we don't need him there anymore. Mascherano would come off the bench to help make things ugly late in the game for the midfield which at this moment needs more help than our CB's.

idk, just trying to think outside the box as seeing us game after game get controlled is bothering.

WK please explain what Rakitic does...

Plays football and has nice hair.

windkick wrote:Plays football and has nice hair.

I'm serious, what does he bring to the team, he is slow and is always late when opposition are countering, he is never in mf and always goes forward and stays there, never really a free man, takes the occasion long shot. For me he was the worst player in that game.

Who would you suggest replace Rakitic jibers? The problem with Barca is the fans want to control games but they have absolutely zero depth in midfield and the only player still capable of controlling games against top teams is Busquets. Rakitic and Iniesta won't dominate away against Sevilla, regardless of the system. And without any other options Enrique is right to adapt and basically resort to giving the ball to Messi.

windkick wrote:I often wonder if we are too harsh on Messi. He literally plays as a winger, a false 9, an attacking midfielder, and holding midfielder and practically has the entire teams tactics built around him. On top of that he is also being double/triple teamed every single game (plus has a bad foot at the moment, a foot that Mbia stepped on during the match).

And then we complain he doesn't also spend all game running around tracking back on defense.

Im sorry, its just impossible for me to agree with this.

Nobody asks him to run all game, they ask him to at least make a fair effort. Nobody is expecting him to be Olic, but sometimes he plays like its 1962 and he doesnt have to do anything when he doesnt have the ball.

Its part of football and I dont care how good you are, but when an opponent is literally 3-4 steps from you....how can you just stand and watch? It would embarrass me to see my team mates running hard and im just standing around.

The thing is, he shows he can put effort in...I have seen him sprint 20m to close down a goalie when we are 3-0 up. So why cant you just sprint a couple steps to press? Or at least jog...get out of a walk for christ sake.

I dont see what bad foot and all the other things which come with being great as he is (playing different roles, getting double marked) have to do with basic effort. I see him run really hard when he has the ball at his feet, but its totally inconsistent when it isnt.

My point is I don't think him not helping is the issue. It's our midfied.

Its all connected. We gave them (and other teams) many chances in games because of this issue.

Every time someone (Messi or Suarez, they seem to take turns defending the flank) fail to defend properly it forces the right sided centermid (normally Rakitic) over and creates more space in the middle.

It also hurts us when trying to controlling games.

Because Rakitic just covered the flank, he is more fatigued and not in the middle when the ball is eventually recovered. So the first forward pass from defence is always harder because Rakitic is not there and if it even went to him he just got done defending and is a little more fatigued.

On top of this, we have Messi, Suarez and Neymar at least 35m higher up than the ball so its very easy just to play direct to them instead of forcing into the middle where there is less options. And thats fine, Suarez, Neymar and Messi are obviously very dangerous in space...but they are also risk takers with the ball and it means we turn the ball over more and even more fail to control the game.

All of this is "fine" too, you can still win games without controlling them...but you put yourself in much bigger crap shoots against other good teams because they can really hurt you and against weak teams its easy to look really unconvincing because they can end up with more chances than you expect.

Right, I'm not dismissing the fact that Messi needs to show more effort or the fact that he blatantly picks and chooses when to press/defend and when he just walks and waits for a moment to attack/help in attack (which is the majority of the match)

While I fully agree him not committing to helping defend and keep possession is a huge issue, I also was mainly trying to point out the personnel we have in midfield and how they are aligned and what duty's Lucho has given them which is causing us to get controlled for big periods of time by teams like Celta, or Sevilla. I was trying to experiment with maybe using Xavi as a starter again, and using Rakitic to start instead of Iniesta. Also using Mascherano off the bench to create a doulble pivot with Busq (well you can read the rest of my previous post). Over all, even beyond who starts, Lucho has to change his approach and realize his mistakes or we will continue to decrease

Lmao at this possesion bullshit. We would have raped City and walked Madrid and won Sevilla if Neymar and Suarez had their finishing boots on. It's about getting chance's more than the opposition, but you have to finish them when they present themselves or they can change the game. Yet some tikka takka fanboys want to change that to a all-around possession game? Please go find some other possession yawn to support.

I'm not saying we should posses the ball like we used too, what I am saying is we should try to do something about us getting pushed back in too our own half for large portions of the game. Not asking for possession, I am asking for control. It's ridiculous to just be absorbing pressure like that. At the end of the day yes Suarez needs to finish better, and the 2 goals were results of errors but that doesn't excuse the pressure we couldn't get out of for 3 straight games now

Ill just ignore the Messi fanboy. This is a bit of a tactical discussion and whoscored dont cover actual tactics as far as I know, so he is probably lost. His amateur post indicates as much.

But to you windkick, I agreed with the rest of your post which I didnt quote. I mean, I dont know if I think we should do exactly the same but I agree with your logic there. I just didnt agree with the Messi part. I cant help but tire of him sometimes, because I know what he is actually capable of and I think just a little more effort, or actually just more consistent effort, would do alot for the team.

The Franchise wrote:Ill just ignore the Messi fanboy. This is a bit of a tactical discussion and whoscored dont cover actual tactics as far as I know, so he is probably lost. His amateur post indicates as much.