The first international break of the season is mercifully behind, which can mean only one thing: FC Barcelona are back in La Liga action, welcoming newly-promoted Alaves to the Camp Nou.

FORM GUIDE

Barcelona: WWWW

Alaves: DD

LAST MEETING

FC Barcelona 3-1 Deportivo Alaves – 28th November 2012 – Copa de Rey

The visitors took an unlikely lead on the night through Borja Viguera, but a strong Barcelona side boasting the likes of Carles Puyol, Thiago Alcantara and David Villa were ultimately too strong. A brace from Villa finished off the plucky challenge after Adriano’s first-half equaliser.

LIKELY LINE-UPS

Barcelona (4-3-3): Massip/ Cillessen; Vidal, Pique, Mascherano, Alba; Busquets, Rakitic, Denis; Rafinha, Alcacer, Arda

Alaves (4-2-3-1): Pacheco; Kiko, Alexis, Laguardia, Hernandez; Garcia, Llorente; Torres, Camarasa, Ibai; Deyverson

Edit:
Ter Stegen is definitely out for today’s fixture, while the goalie’s availability for the rest of week will depend on how the injury progresses. He had only played one competitive game so far this season – the 1-0 win at Athletic Club at San Mamés in which he set a record for completed passes by a goalkeeper.
He missed the Spanish Super Cup games and the visit of Betis due to a knee injury. With Claudio Bravo having left the club, the goalkeeping duties against Alavés will be assumed by either Jordi Masip or brand new signing Jasper Cillessen .

ter Stegen is injured Where did you get these "likely" lineups from??

Looking forward to Alcacer debut.

Also hope Denis does well, got HUGE hopes for the kid.

Let's look at negatives first:

Aleix Vidal - I've said it once and I'll say it again: how on earth is a player who couldn't get a match last season replace one of the best right backs in the history of Barcelona? Poor technique, lack of intensity and susceptible in defence. I think he didn't win a single challenge all game. Out of question for me, Barcelona need a RB and it still boggles my mind how they didn't sign one over the summer.

Neymar cutting in and not having Messi's vision or creativity with passes. How many times did he waste an opportunity that way?

Don't know what Luis Enrique sees in Denis Suárez. He is young, sure, but I don't consider him an intelligent midfielder.

Busquets has been on decline for about a year now. A poor performance by him in my opinion.

Positives:

Digne, definitely an improvement over Alba. But he needs to stop crossing on sight

There are only two negatives in this game.

Mascherano single handely losing the game, and Lucho illogically playing Mascherano today.

When losing half of the squad is not barca quality. When winning they are underrated superstars.
I expect similar comments after every lose. But for me the true reason was international break. Its a syndrome

missed the game, lll try to catch a replay

windkick wrote:missed the game, lll try to catch a replay

Would not recommend for your own health


Mascherano is shite and i've been saying this for a while now.

Not to mention mathieu who should have made it 2-1 and settled the game but an open net is too easy of a goal for this genius I guess!!

Mascherano and Mathieu are one of the worst CBs in Europe right now.

Garbagethieu should be replaced by a Masia kid and Masch dropped immediately for Umtiti. Otherwise Lucho is blind.

Well, our future still looks in good hands (as long as Lucho opens his eyes).

Mathieu and Mascherano are both getting over the hump age wise. Mathieu is 33 next month and Mascherano is 32.

Pique is 29, but given how he plays I think he will play well into his mid 30s and maintain a good solid level. He has never relied on his athleticism, but instead relies on his tactical ability and ball passing, while Mascherano makes up allot of defensive mistakes by being able to work 110% and run his ass off if he's caught out of position. So it's pretty telling that if Masch starts to lose a step that he will get worse as a defender. Mathieu is hot garbage and it's baffling he's still on the squad. A B player should be promoted like we did with Muniesa, Fontas and then Bartra over the years to get that distant final CB spot on the bench, no reason to waste it on Mathieu especially when he only puts in a good shift once out of every like 6 games he plays.

Umtiti at 22 and Marlon (Barca B) at 21, along with Pique at 29 and that right there is a solid 3 piece for the back line. We can pretty much comfortably weed out Mascherano and Mathieu and it wouldn't be a problem at all.

I must also say, from what I've seen of both Gomes and Denis, I would go as far as to say I like what I see in Gomes more. Yet Lucho hardly uses him and uses Denis ALLOT. Nothing wrong with that, I like Denis as well, but I don't get why he doesn't use Gomes as much.

Turan proved that unless he's playing LW, he fkng sucks crap balls. Lucho likes players that can play all over the place, but the issue with that is that most players we have excel primarily in one position even if they can play in multiple roles. Also, Lucho plays guys out of position and it hinders some guy on the bench who should be starting in instead.

For example...

Mathieu, best position CB. Can also play LB so Lucho likes him because he has a versatile payer. The issue? He blows ass over and over again at LB, and instead of using Adriano he would continue to use Mathieu ahead of him. We now have Umtiti and Digne, so there really is no excuse for Mathieu playing at all. He should be behind Pique, Umtiti, Mascherano, Digne in the peking order. Which should equate to him watching games from the bench but for some reason Lucho still gives him playing time.

Turan, best position LW. Can also play CM/CAM/RW. The issue? He's proven over and over again that both with us and Turkey, that anywhere other than LW, and he is a Stoke City level player. Yet, Lucho insists on using him all over the field, when we had guys like Rafinha, Munir, Sandro and now Denis, Gomes who excel in all those secondary positions Turan can play. Now that Neymar is back, and with our new found strength on the bench with our new signings, I see absolutely no reason for Turan to play any other position other than back up LW. When Neymar is stinking it up, we now have someone we can bring on for him and add something new. If we need to play a RW other than Messi, it should be Rafinha or even Vidal, not Turan. Same goes for the midfield, we have plenty of better options that should play ahead of him. Lucho seriously loves Turan though, judging from what I've seen of training and interviews, he is always showing nothing but love 24/7. In Lucho's eyes, Turan is the ideal football player.  

Vidal, best position at Sevilla was at RM/RW. He played at RB when Sevilla had injury issues and it worked out but that wasn't his main position. The issue here? We keep trying to play him as a RB since last season he proved he wasn't good in that role. Somehow Lucho and the board thought it was ok to keep him as a back up when in reality, he could easily be our back up RW and he would probably be allot better for us. Interestingly, we have only used him at his weakest of his 3 positions he can play (strongest to weakest for him are RM, RW then RB judging by where he excelled for Sevilla)

Mascherano has always been a DM, and we currently STILL don't have a back up for Busquets. With Pique, Umtiti and Marlon (and even Mathieu) on our bench why not just use Mascherano at his strongest role? If he makes an error and someone gets past him in midfield it won't hurt us as bad as it does when he makes an error in the back line. He literally only played CB for us out of emergency because of Puyol's injury and lack of options. Here we are 6 years later, and we are still using him in that role which was only given to him out of emergency? That would be like Yaya Toure was still playing CB because he played there out of emergency in the 09 season. We have options now, and Masch has made it clear he prefers the DM role, so let him have it.

The ONLY player that was moved to a new role and excelled for us, was Sergi. In midfield I never thought he was anything special for us, but at RB he has excelled (still can't believe Spain used him ahead of Bellerin). That's ONE player, and now Lucho want's to to have players playing all over the place because they are versatile, when our bench clearly has guys that play those other roles and excel in them.

Messi can obviously play in many roles (and does through out the game), but he doesn't count because he isn't human and he can't be judge like the rest of the squad.

Cillisen I won't judge, because once Ter Stegen is healthy he will only play Copa games. But honestly before the game I couldn't help but think that I would of started Masip just because Masip understands the teams language and has been playing with us in pre season while I didn't like the idea of just tossin Cillisen in. But whatever.

Paco needs to gain rhythm and he will be fine imo.

---Sorry for the long post.

One thing that does worry me is our form. We got wrekt by Liverpool, then not soon after scrapped by Bilbao (those are 2 tuff matches though), and then we lose at home to Alaves. We need to turn it up and keep it up.

So much for our "depth" and "best squad of all time".

Paco Alcacer, it's like didn't even play.

Whole team played like shit so you can't expect a newcomer to shine in his first game lol free cat i'll have to stop taking you seriously for real now.

Interesting how much Mascherano's level has dropped over the summer after he didn't get his move to Juventus/a pay rise. Never seen him do such an amateur mistake before as for that 2nd goal.

free_cat wrote:So much for our "depth" and "best squad of all time".

Paco Alcacer, it's like didn't even play.

For the record I wanted to keep Munir instead of getting Paco. I don't think Paco is some world beater for the cost, essentially Munir is at a similar level than what Paco already is. Seemed like a pointless purchase to me. I was ok looking for another forward, but some onethat could add something new other than what we already had. Munir at least could also play the wings, while Paco is just a pure 9. That's what also bugs me about Turan, I feel we already have Rafinha on our squad who essentially is the same player with potentially a higher ceiling (or will at least maintain his prime longer given his age vs Turans).
So we buy Turan and it hinders our Masia players growth. We buy Paco and we boot out one of our brightest Masia prospects. We could of easily used what Turan and Paco cost and got Bellerin back, and kept Munir and used Rafinha more. I'm already reading reports that Rafinha is for sure gone in the winter. Like wtf...why not sell Turan and keep Rafinha? It's not like Turan is gonna be a beast for us for many years to come (I wouldn't even call him a beast now)

Myesyats wrote:Whole team played like shit so you can't expect a newcomer to shine in his first game lol free cat i'll have to stop taking you seriously for real now.

I agree with this, but I think the issue here is not starting a better 11, and then subbing guys out for new guys as the game progressed. Suarez should of started for example, and once he scored or what not, bring him out for Paco. Umtiti should of played in the back line, etc. Lucho practically tossed in a ton of new guys, some of which have never even played a single game with us, all in the starting 11 at the same time. As mentioned before I would of even considered using Masip, given Cilissen just arrived while Masip has been training with us for years and did pre-season with us.

It's not like Celtic are a terrifying team, we could of afforded to start a better 11 is all I'm saying. Lucho looked at who we were playing, knew we were at home, and he didn't respect them and it bit him in the ass.

Lucho even said he did not expect Alaves to play 5 at the back. I get the Feline's cynicism on squad depth considering the result but the truth is Lucho messed up and didn't prepare much or at all. He, like myself and probably a lot of others, totally underestimated Alaves. I mean, 8 (or 7) changes to your starting 11 against a side that showed really good tactical discipline in their 1st two games despite being a promoted team should have at least given him 2nd thoughts on the line up.

In any case, this loss is just a minor set back. Atletico and Madrid would drop points and considering Barcelona are far more consistent in the league than them, I don't think it would affect all that much. I do get to laugh at Futbol's man crush a bit though (or a lot).

Agreed Windkick.

If Lucho wanted to rotate hard he should have started the strongest XI and then with a comfortable lead step by step take Messi/Suarez/Iniesta off.

Lucho admits that in the press conference aswell. He said he takes all the blame on himself for the loss.

Well that happens, footballers and coaches are only people too. We'll bounce back.


IMO the only issues right now are Neymar's form and Mascherano's decline/Mathieu's ineptness.

Both should be resolved soon enough.