Athletic Bilbao - Barcelona

Also losing Alves and Busq would be pretty terrible.

Would also be pretty terrible if we don't give Samper a shot right now off the bench.

windkick wrote:Suarez should be handed the PK's. Simple as that, Messi has no claim and shouldn't complain. He missed like half of his PK's las season and is already up to missing them again this season.

We were pretty stale most of the game.

Wtf are you talking about? Messi is the best penalty taker in Barca, and it's not even remotely close.

Messi

League 37/42 88%
CL  8/11 73%
Competitive NT 10/10 100%
Total 55/63 87%

Penaldo

League 57/64 89%
CL 9/14 64%
Competitive NT 2/2 100%
Total 68/80 85%

Nice win after a hard fought game.
Happy with the effort of all the players except Messi who was garbage barring that run. I dont expect him to run every game but it wouldnt hurt him to put in the effort in tough games such as these. Especially when the rest of the team is busting their guts for the 3 points.
Pathetic penalty attempt too.I think it is time we let Rakitic or Neymar take penalties.
Very impressive from Roberto after he came on. Defended well and provided plenty in attack. Rakitic's passing continues to worry me.Missed 6 or 7 easy passes.But defended extremely well as usual.

Bartra is just useless. We were rock solid until he came on. Same problem as usual.Going out for balls he has no business going for.I hate such kamikaze style of defending. If he goes out aggressively, then he needs to get the ball. With him,just ends up looking like an idiot.
Masch used to be the same but has cut it out of his game to a large extent(to his credit).

The biggest positive of the game was Vermaelen who was an absolute rock. Calm,composed and won almost every header against Aduriz. Even more impressive that it was his first real competitive game. If he can play like that, then we have a good CB option.

MOM was Suarez. Held the ball up well, won countless fouls(won a few of them when we were on the ropes towards the end), excellent first touch passing(one brilliant ball to put Roberto through) and a great volley for the goal.

Suarez was carbage, he's the most useless player in passing game, countless of time's attack was fked because of him.

sergio and terminator were great. hopefully they keep it up

We dont win the game without Suarez but continue with your delusion.
Messi got owned and was garbage.Why dont you deal with it?

Only idiots care what you say...

BTW if Busquets has a broken bone,we might as well throw in the season.Hope it is just a sprain.

Sergi Roberto like prime Cafu.

Alves should apply ointment on his ass cheeks if Roberto continues like this.

alexjanosik wrote:BTW if Busquets has a broken bone,we might as well throw in the season.Hope it is just a sprain.

Broken bone? WTF?!

Luis Enrique: "None of the two injuries seem really bad, we'll see later for how long they will be out."

If Alves is out for a couple of weeks,then it gives us a chance to try Roberto at RB.
Seems like he is here to stay. He is a scrub in midfield. Might as well try him at RB. If he can excel ,then he can compete with and push Alves.

The impact was severe. The ankle didnt twist so didnt seem like a sprain. Just fearing the worst I guess.

Sergio just a knock

ALves looks worse. Could be out for some time

Hopefully roberto keeps up the high level then

Roberto sucks in CM but Lucho has done well to figure out the DM and RB position for him where he does perform surprisingly.

One mark of a good coach is the ability to develop players and make them excel in positions where they arent natural at(or werent brought up having played there).
Lets see if Enrique can do that with Roberto.

Rakitic: "Sergio seens to be better, he picked up a knock. But Dani's injury seems to be a bit more worrying." #fcblive

Dani Alves, who has a thigh muscle injury, would be out for at least a month #fcblive [tv3 ser]

Good, I can live with that.

S.Roberto showed tenacity and good awareness. And he's deceptively quick. Surprised me. Now if Alves is out for an extended period, would you trust him against CL opponents?

I really really hope we sell Bartra, Mathieu, and Adriano, and use those funds towards capturing Laporte next summer.The kid can cover both CB/LB.
Don't think it will happen tho.

Alves is clearly out of form anyway so a break would do him only good.

ROberto looked fantastic tonight. If he play like that once again i'd defo trust him in CL.

ALves can be pretty awful at times and it'd be difficult to do a worse job tbh

It's weird that Messi's shape looks the best he's ever looked around this time of the year yet performance-wise it's his worst start to the season IMO. I could've sworn he scored braces in the first game of the season all these previous years.

futbol wrote:It's weird that Messi's shape looks the best he's ever looked around this time of the year yet performance-wise it's his worst start to the season IMO. I could've sworn he scored braces in the first game of the season all these previous years.

There has never been such treble marking in consecutive 3 games, and because Barca is out of form anyway, team can't really take advantage of this space left for others. There was some some ridiculous scenes today of how many players Bilbao got on Messi alone.

Bilbao's orginazation was superb. Messi got locked in a telephone box every time he received the ball.

Was far from his worst game anyway. Some great passes and runs

Did not watch the game but it seems , most of the team look out of the form.

Sauraz is going to nail everyone this season. Sergio and Verma HAS to perform this season , this is their chance. Else they will get replaced anyways.

Good start is all i have to say.

Yea man, we were SUPER stale the first half. Weren't really doing anything to gain a proper attack, or working passes to even move forward. Of than just just preferring to look around, not see anything they fancy, and would pass the all back to Bravo who would then launch the ball forward and then repeat. Only real chance came with Suarez diving for a PK that Messi missed.
Second half we sorta improved but we still do not look ready to take on any big teams. We are lucky Bibao have had allot of games recently and are heavily injured or they could of caused us trouble, instead they looked like they were just trying to contain us as oppose to trouble us. This team needs to get back in form soon, but I'm sure things will change with Neymar back next game. That will make Rafinha a power sub which is not so bad considering he can play in allot of positions. Not sure I like him on the wing though, would rather Sandro or Munir out there and Rafinha helping out to back up Iniesta/Rakitic.

I'm also all for letting Sergi be the RB back up option, and having Samper being a midfield back up option. Sergi has never looked as good as he has as a RB, so I'm all for him moving out there and not blocking other players progress by scrubbing it up in the midfield.
But knowing Lucho he will have Gumbau be that back up option; I mean Gumbau shouldn't even be on the B team, that guy has no sign of ever being Barcelona quality. Let alone being on the first teams bench...

My 2 cents.

windkick wrote:Yea man, we were SUPER stale the first half. Weren't really doing anything to gain a proper attack, or working passes to even move forward. Of than just just preferring to look around, not see anything they fancy, and would pass the all back to Bravo who would then launch the ball forward and then repeat. Only real chance came with Suarez diving for a PK that Messi missed.
Second half we sorta improved but we still do not look ready to take on any big teams. We are lucky Bibao have had allot of games recently and are heavily injured or they could of caused us trouble, instead they looked like they were just trying to contain us as oppose to trouble us. This team needs to get back in form soon, but I'm sure things will change with Neymar back next game. That will make Rafinha a power sub which is not so bad considering he can play in allot of positions. Not sure I like him on the wing though, would rather Sandro or Munir out there and Rafinha helping out to back up Iniesta/Rakitic.

I'm also all for letting Sergi be the RB back up option, and having Samper being a midfield back up option. Sergi has never looked as good as he has as a RB, so I'm all for him moving out there and not blocking other players progress by scrubbing it up in the midfield.
But knowing Lucho he will have Gumbau be that back up option; I mean Gumbau shouldn't even be on the B team, that guy has no sign of ever being Barcelona quality. Let alone being on the first teams bench...

My 2 cents.

I think it looked like we were stale because LE requested a mega careful approach. Bilbao's pressing and general organization is better than most top teams IMO.

Also i love Rafinha (no homo). I think he does pretty well on the wing. He's sexy everywhere on the field