Re: Match Day Thread

[Myesyats]

Also, Semedo is a wasteman. He offers nothing apart from great technique that he doesn't make use of properly anyway.

[Myesyats]

Friendly starting in about an hour, Alena

[Myesyats]

Kits for next season. Look almost exactly like 11/12. I love this look so I'll probably buy, especially if I'll be able to find one without sponsors

[Myesyats]

damn, looks sexy as hell. The colors are on point

[danyjr]

Strange midfield being deployed against Sociedad.

[Winter is Coming]

Outside of Busquets our midfield is quite garbage. We really are resting our hopes on Arthur right now to come good.

[Myesyats]

Starting Roberto and Rafinha at anoeta lol

Sometimes Valverde is an utter bellend. We always struggle there even with our strongest eleven

Rest players in home games you pleb

[windkick]

Not crazy about Sergi in midfield, even though I know that's his first position it seems that when he plays for us in midfield we in general don't play as well. That kid can have some good moments but in general he worries me. Much rather have him off the bench.

Anyways, hope we get today's match off on the right foot!

[windkick]

2 things

1. Dembele is a better goal scorer than i expected.

2. We are not playing good. We look slow and lazy out there and relying allot on 1-2 set ups and seem to hope magic gets created out of it for a goal while on defense everyone has been pretty meh. And not to mention Umtiti will now miss the match against Spurs.

[Kebab]

New season's tactic is "Dont look for Messi, play yourself"
Genius coach thinks that by reducing Messi's involvement will make them a better team

[windkick]

Valverde has zero fire in him and his mindset is slowly oozing into the team

[danyjr]

Agreed he's a beta coach.

[Myesyats]

His football makes you fall asleep, that much I agree with. I'm not gonna fool myself though, that's how our whole season will look like - lethargic.

[zenmaster]

^ Who is this guys ?

[windkick]

Ideally, and realistically, if Valverde shits the bed this season who would be brought on next season?

[windkick]

Well....Pique is in horrible form lol

[Kebab]

Every match new style of play, team didnt find what works the best yet. They played long ground passes which most of the time didnt find its target
Umititi would do better in Pique's situations, means team needs a new defender instead of Pique who is slow and distracted by his new shaved face

[windkick]

We have a very talented team, I just don't think Valverde has the fire in him to inspire this team to play at it's potential.

Last year we played boring, but stayed composed most of the season and got results. This season, we are playing boring, still relying on some magic for some players, but we aren't staying composed. So if we are playing boring and struggling to play winning, composed fluid football then the blame has to be on Valverde. it's not even just the results, its the way we are playing first and foremost. For the amount of talent we have it's inexcusable. And time and time again, his team selection and starting 11 are very questionable.

Since the loss to Roma, the board should of hopefully started to consider other options to Valverde. Because it's pretty evident this guy can probably continue to win us some leagues, but no way we can win the Champions League with this guy in charge.

I can't help but be annoyed that Xavi is STILL playing. By now he could of took over a team in the 2nd division or something, testing out his coaching chops. Because I honestly can't think of any guy that could step in mid season

[windkick]

Boy this section has basically died. One of the biggest clubs on the planet and we can't get a solid conversation going on here.

Anyone recommend another forum that's super active I can join? That's not full of idiots

[Harmonica]

Bigsoccer Barca section has more activity and better discussions. What ever you do, never go full barcaforum.

[Myesyats]

Whats there to discuss? We only go backwards with Valverde and every match is as boring as the other.

Messi's last years of prime wasted.

[BarcaLearning]

What the hell happened? I thought he been decent this season... I tried to watch back the game but only managed 30mins of it... I watched the goals, and Pique has been on and off for a long while now... and we didnt have Suarez and Alba, but still.... we took the lead and then just lost it? Real are going for the title this year, and luckily they lost to Sevilla, but thats one of the hardest fixtures... so we lost 5 points in two game, if we go on like this we will lose the league...

[windkick]

Valverde is a twat.

Last year we were boring but we played with his preferred set up with what he thought worked best with the players we have (4-4-2).
I feel this season, he is trying hard to make our old set up (4-3-3) work and it's not his thing.

He is clearly trying to incorporate our two super expensive signings into a formation that is basically putting everyone out of their best position. Honestly I'd rather we just stick with the 4-4-2 if thats what Valverde can use best, or *bleep* trying a 4-2-3-1 because honestly I think that would be best for what we have to work with right now.

Dembele is best on the right but Valerde is using him on the left, even though he can clearly use both feet.
Coutinho is best as a LW, even though Valverde is using him as a CAM.
Messi at this stage in his career likes to walk around and focus on attack, and likes to fall back to create chances with his amazing passing, making him an ideal CAM yet we continue to play him as a RW
Suarez has been hot or cold, and I feel unless Munir starts to get regular mins he isn't ever going to progress and we will end up with two non reliable strikers.
Vermalean sucks nads as a LB, yet Valverde continues to trust him over Miranda which clearly showed in Verms lack of help in attack with his lack of speed and sense of position at LB which caused to the goals against Leganes.  
Sergi has started at midfield when at this point we have other players superior to him for the midfield, and it's shown he isn't that great in midfield vs as a RB where our possession allows him to venture around more. Also Semedo might not be the passer that Sergi is, but his speed makes up for it in defensive counters.
Lenglet for all his potential, has looked pretty meh in preseason and regular season. He isn't like Umtiti who from the second he played his first match with us it was clear he was good enough to be a starter, and be trusted in big games. This is an issue because Pique seems to have aged over night and now we don't have two reliable CBs in the squad at the moment.

All in all, if we are going to play 4-3-3, I think they should consider a midfield of Busquets, Rakitic, and anyone other than Coutinho. I feel Authur, Vidal, Rafinha or Denis are all better options than Coutinho in that role for Barca. Not only are his attacking threats being wasted but he isn't a Iniesta who can stay in the pocket all day and control a game. He should be up front. Our wings should be Coutinho on the left and Dembele on the right with Messi starting at the striker and Suarez being his back up (at which point we would switch to a 4-4-2 and have Messi and Suarez up front to finish off games).

Starting

---------TerStegen
Semedo-Pique-Umtiti-Alba
---------Busqu
-----Rakitic--Vidal
Dembele-------Coutinho
----------Messi

Later in the game to tighten the defense, like we were last year

---------TerStegen
Semedo-Pique-Umtiti-Alba
-------Rakatic--Busqu
Malcom----------Coutinho
------Messi---Suarez

Which bring up my next point, given all that, it's clear a 4-2-3-1 would work best

Plenty of options for rotations, with Rafinha being able to cover the wings, Malcon rotating with Dembele, Rakitic rotating as a CAM, Arthur roating for Vidal and Munir for Suarez.

---------TerStegen
Semedo-Pique-Umtiti-Alba
-------Vidal--Busqu
Dembele-Messi-Coutinho
----------Suarez

[Winter is Coming]

1-0 down to Bilbao

Boy this section has basically died. One of the biggest clubs on the planet and we can't get a solid conversation going on here.

Anyone recommend another forum that's super active I can join? That's not full of idiots

what could we possibly talk about, our incompetent board or how clueless EV is?

[Myesyats]

ffs why do you need to rotate half the squad in one game. Rotate 1 key player at a time you moron or we'll keep dropping points.

Valverde is an utter melt and needs to go.

[Lucifer]

I need to stop getting wasted like feck on Saturdays ffs. Missing lot more games this season smh.

[Sponsored content]