Round 29: Barcelona-Athletic Bilbao

Sunday, March 18, 16:15 CET

Missing players: Iniesta, Busquets, Suarez


should be interesting to see how we manage without Busi and Luisito

4-4-2 , with this midfield.

Coutinho -------------- Dembele
------ Rakitic ------- Paulinho

Actually I would like to see more of Vidal and let Paulinho rest for more important games.

Also Alena is called up so perhaps we'll see a couple minutes of the youngster although I doubt it lol

Bilbao ain't doing so well this season

Barça XI v Athletic:

Actually its 4-4-2 on paper but will be messy when Coutinho and Dembele runs in the final third.

We really gotta look for a WC midfielder in the summer

Arthur is a big question mark, and even if he turns out to be good, he won't be enough

Good half of football. Should have been 4 or 5 up with the chances we had.

Good game without Sauraz , Iniesta and Busquets.

Poor second half. Problem is that there is no emphasis on ball retention. Ball retention needs good positional play and we have none. The structural issues are there for all to see.

On a player level, Coutinho was terrible. He played as a forward. His focus should be to play as a wide midfielder in the formation and help maintain possession. Play one twos , tuck in inside to help the midfield and then wait for the opportunity to attack.
Impressed with Dembele though. Much smarter use of the ball.

Fantastic first half, energy saving second half.

Pretty standard Valverde win that looked more like a training session than an actual competitive game.

3 points is all that matters.

Would of liked to see Aleña come on instead of that completely useless Vidal. I don’t understand how the club decided to keep Vidal but send Deulofeu out (i know he’s injured at the moment, but comparing those 2 and Deolofeu is clearly better with a better upside)

Also Dembele is starting to get into rhythm while Coutinho is still struggling to adapt to how we play

That second half was another "soak up the pressure and learn how te defend" instruction from Valverde. I swear he makes us sit back and take the punches.. It makes us stronger in the long haul. We have to learn how te defend in blocks somewhere. Happy to see him doing this.

Ive always said Dembele has the potential, whereas Coutinho is very good, but seems too individualistic and 'small minded' as in he lacks vision enough... maybe Im demanding too mcuh, but so often it shows.

Anyway, cant be more happy about Dembele, he looks to have improved a lot in the short amount of time since hes come back. This season its more important that Dembele hits top form though obviosuly for the CL. Coutinho has have a bit more time for that.

Bilbao used to always give us a hard time, and its good to see recently we are outplaying them... although the second half we were forced to defend a lot again...

Coutinho needs to work on his final ball but he could have had 2 goals in that game as he hit the crossbar twice

Fantastic player that brings much more threat up front than anyone in the team bar Messi and Suarez obv

Ideal go-to guy when we need to break a bus.

Not very happy with the Countinho not doing dirty job at midfield.

I already said this as well when the coutinho vs mahrez debates sprang up, mahrez would've been a better option for you guys, better touch, much better defensive workrate, and a better dribbler.

FennecFox7 wrote:I already said this as well when the coutinho vs mahrez debates sprang up, mahrez would've been a better option for you guys, better touch, much better defensive workrate, and a better dribbler.

Not to considerably mention cheaper...