Spanish Super Cup: Bilbao-Barcelona

Need a superb performance at CN

WIll be interesting to see

gave up 8 goals last 2 games, we will again be with only 3 days rest. I don't expect us to score 4 and not give up anything. Bilbao deserve this cup

Btw Alves had a Brazil level game for us today.

Supercopa is gone, I would play Barca B and instruct then to kick Bilbao all night, and then smack then to kingdom come in liga start.

I think we'll win 5-0 at home.

No Neymar no party though.

It's alright. Look at it as the wake-up call the players needed.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I mean you go into a final with that midfield... You deserve to lose just for the disrespect shown to the other team. Scruberto has no business starting for Barça at all.

alfred, I had similar thoughts. Firstly that it was incredibly gutsy/stupid to do this. Secondly that indeed it is disrespectful to the opposition.

Alves directly responsible for 3 goals. Without a shadow of doubt the worst defensive performance I ever seen on a football pitch by anyone. Period. David Luiz against Germany comes 2nd. What was he even doing to give away that penalty? Ball is sailing over to the far post and he pushes the guy at the near post 10 yards away from where the ball is going? Why?

0-3 could have been fixed in Camp Nou. 0-4 without Neymar not so much. Need to win 5-0. Just play the B team and then roll them over in the first La Liga game.

B team lol. A club of this stature can't just give up. We'll trash them on monday

windkick wrote:Btw Alves had a Brazil level game for us today.

I had the exact same thought. It may have been Dani Alves' worst ever game in a Barcelona shirt. The only times when I have seen him play anywhere near this badly is some of the times when he plays for Brazil. That's not to slight him though since there were too many at fault for too many things.

A question being asked is will we go full throttle in the return leg. Will we select the best possible starting XI and will we ask them to give their all in every way including physically? Since the season is just starting would we be risking major injuries to key players in what is already quite a thin squad.

It'd be fcking pathetic if we hadn't fielded our strongest eleven and at least tried.

I'm actually quite positive that we can turn this around.

Enrique wasn't arrogant. He had to rest most of the players after exhausting 120 mins three days back.

He made too many changes though. Pique and Iniesta should've started.

My post from the general section:

Jonathan28 wrote:We got raped



Long gone are the days when a result like this would make me depressed for a month, now IDGAF. Life goes on.

This team of ours, the defense is worse than ever before

Gerard Piqué ‏@3gerardpique
90' i el Camp Nou. Jo hi crec.

Believe like Geri.

You always try to give our idiot board and coaching staff the benefit of the doubt. The problems are evident and are shown on the pitch.

Me? I'm not giving them the benefit of doubt. I'm just stating facts. Enrique HAD to rest most of the players, BUT he made to many changes.

I'm not going to start blaming everybody all of sudden. It's clear that you can't win every single game especially with such a busy calendar.

That's the beauty of football. Sometimes you laugh, sometimes you cry.

linetty wrote:Enrique wasn't arrogant. He had to rest most of the players after exhausting 120 mins three days back.

He made too many changes though. Pique and Iniesta should've started.

It's better to start the A team and sub out players on the 60th minute after securing a lead than to go in with many non-regulars and then have to bring in the starters. Enrique should know this, it's what we did under Pep all the time.

.

Just shows that Barca cannot afford a single injury in its defense, especially at CB. Bartra was absolutely shameful in this game.

Was also god awful during the pre-season friendlies and during Sevilla. Same goes with Mathieu. Mascherano's height got heavily exposed vs this tall, physical Bilbao and Sergi and Rafinha were constantly out of position or misplacing passes under pressure. Won't even mention how crap Alves was today, as he was easily battling Barta to see who could play worse.
Same story as the Sevilla game, our midfield misplaced balls, our full backs would be caught bombing forward and we would eat a counter right in the ass. Also doesn't help Ter Stegen isn't as steady as Bravo. Pretty much these last 2 games were the perfect storm, difference being Bilbao's defense plus some bad shots on our end didn't win us the game.

The transfer ban is really hurting us. Not that I think a midfield of Turan and Rafinha would of been any better as I don't believe Turan should even be on this team, but it would of been better than having Brady Bunch (Sergi) out there.

windkick wrote:Was also god awful during the pre-season friendlies and during Sevilla. Same goes with Mathieu. Mascherano's height got heavily exposed vs this tall, physical Bilbao and Sergi and Rafinha were constantly out of position or misplacing passes under pressure. Won't even mention how crap Alves was today, as he was easily battling Barta to see who could play worse.
Same story as the Sevilla game, our midfield misplaced balls, our full backs would be caught bombing forward and we would eat a counter right in the ass. Also doesn't help Ter Stegen isn't as steady as Bravo. Pretty much these last 2 games were the perfect storm, difference being Bilbao's defense plus some bad shots on our end didn't win us the game.

The transfer ban is really hurting us. Not that I think a midfield of Turan and Rafinha would of been any better as I don't believe Turan should even be on this team, but it would of been better than having Brady Bunch (Sergi) out there.

Ter Stegen is a conundrum. On the one hand, he is the best passing goalkeeper I have ever seen.Just on another level with either keep. But on pure goalkeeping skills, Bravo is much better right now.
And I dont think it is a coincidence that we look much more assured in defense with Bravo in goal. For one, Bravo is much better at organizing his defense. You can see him constantly talking to the defense in front, telling them what to do, especially during set pieces. Ter Stegen doesnt communicate a lot and seems rather meek. He doesnt communicate with the defense as much and cant organize them. Hence why we concede more set piece goals when Ter Stegen is in goal as opposed to Bravo. Leads to him coming for balls when he shouldnt and staying back when he should come out and claim the ball.
I have also noticed that Ter Stegen gets caught flat footed a lot.Too often, I see him rooted to the spot while the ball sails past. Maybe,it is because he just doesnt bother diving when he has no chance of getting the ball. I would like him to dive nevertheless. He had a reputation of being a brilliant shot stopper while at BMG. I have yet to see an out of this world save from him. It would help if he actually tried diving for some shots deemed not savable.
Based on what I have seen so far, I would say Bravo is a better shot stopper than Ter Stegen.

Maybe Ter Stegen just needs more time.He is after all quite young and it musnt be easy playing for us in such high pressure games at such a young age. It also doesnt help that Enrique doesnt trust him enough to make the undisputed number 1. Goalkeepers need the confidence of the coach to perform well. Maybe playing week in week out will give him more confidence and make him more authoritative.
But as of right now, I am still undecided on whether he can be our number 1 for the next decade.

I agree that we should just play the B team in the return leg. The Supercopa is a meaningless trophy that nobody cares about.
We have a long season and we dont have a deep squad like Madrid. We need to pick our battles carefully. Cant afford to go all out now. Last season we were incredibly luck and had almost no injuries. Wont be as lucky this time around.
So it is better to be prudent and play the B team. The one good thing Enrique did last season was rotate heavily to keep everyone fresh for the business end of the season.Hope he does the same this season.

If we have the chance to make history and be the only team to win the sextuple twice I say we take this opportunity. I would start our strongest 11, and if things look bleek I would take our best players out and surrender. But there is still that chance we can start strong and work our way back in, 4 goals seems like allot but Suarez and Messi can pull those figure out of thin air on a good day.

We start a B team and get smashed at home it would be humiliating. That's now how you want to start the season, and the fans in attendance and around the world deserve to see the squad go out on its shield.

Not to mention our B team is weaker than last season with some departures, and that B team alone wasn't even strong enough to stay in the 2nd division. We would surely get slaughtered and we must defend our crest. We should not concede defeat with 90 mins still let to play.

When I say B team,I dont literally mean the B team. I mean the Scruberto's,the Scrubinha's, the Bartra's of the team. Basically the team that played the first leg.

Every trophy is important.

We need to go all out and if we fail to quickly turn around the score sub out the three players that need rest the most on 60th minute as BC said

4-0 isn't that far-fetched especially with CN crowd behind and the desire for revenge.

Busquets and Pique are completely rested. Rakitic and Iniesta played only in second half. We should be fresh enough.

Just start Bravo instead of Stegen and we'll be fine.

The arrogance

First on here, reading through the first page on this thread.

Then Enrique to play such a terrible team. You can already see the team struggling all through pre season and against Sevilla to defend properly. We have Sevilla 15 shots I believe. Many think the preseason means nothing...I dont. I think if you play poorly in preseason you wont suddenly turn it. You have to play preseason with an desire to improve, not run through the motions and "gain fitness".

They defended poorly then and they defend poorly now.


On an invidiually level I dont understand the Mats criticism.

If we look at the goals one by one, I am not seeing what he did so wrong. The first one, he headed the ball to the half way line...what more can he really do than that with a header? It was just a fantastic shot, once in a career for someone like San Jose.

2nd goal Mascherano got owned...because he isnt a CB. Like he wasnt a CB since the last 5 years. The ball went into the sides, I dont know what chance he was supposed to have to save that.

The 3rd is a question. I dont think he should have saved it, but it wasnt in the corner. It would have been a super save but the truly elite might of had a chance, but I doubt it.

4th was a pen.

Likewise the Sevilla goals. Had zero chance was any of them.

The only thing I agree with what Alex said about communication, that is viable.

This notion of changing Bravo in and "we'll be fine" is a laughable one. Goalie is the least of the issues.