Re: Uefa Champions League 2018 thread

by Kebab Wed May 01, 2019 3:31 pm

I cant believe how Liverpool lost this match 3-0 Very Happy

They are clearly the second best team in the world right now

by danyjr Wed May 01, 2019 3:34 pm

Your team is Messi.

Coutinho :facepalm:

Dembélé

by windkick Wed May 01, 2019 4:29 pm

What a game. People can argue Pool could of/should of scored 1 or 2 goals; but the same argument can be made that so could of Barca.

This shits over. Pool will have to open up and go ham attacking, and yeah they might get 1 or 2, but it’s time like that we can counter and get 1 ourselves. At that point Pool need 5. Just can’t see us bottling it on the level of PSG lol.

Check my previous post a page or so back; as mentioned teams that play like Liverpool usually don’t beat us. It’s the tough, rigged physical with technical ability like Juventus, Atletico, Chelsea that give us real problems.

by Myesyats Wed May 01, 2019 4:36 pm

Our midfield is atrocious though. Busquets is finished, Rakitic has always been mostly decent at best and Vidal is Vidal. Arthur is good but not really capable of elevating the team.

The upcoming summer should be very midfield focused. De Jong is a good start but thats clearly not enough.

by alexjanosik Wed May 01, 2019 6:38 pm

Great game of football. Not a visual treat but it an intense intense game from start to finish.
I dont get the criticism. This is not Pep's Barcelona but ironically we are better suited for CL knockout ties right now than at any time since Pep.
We set up like we did against Betis. 2 blocks of 4. Coutinho left and Vidal right and looked to play on the counter from the start. It is not my cup of tea but we are a much better conventional defending unit now than in the past. For all their possession, they didnt create a ton of clear cut chances.

Valverde is an underrated tactician and one of the top managers in the game, if not the outright best right now.
Barring the freak Roma result, he has not lost a single big game. I read a statistic that he hasnt lost against the top 6 in the league over the past 2 years. That is a stupendous record. Makes me rue the freak Roma match even more. We could have won last year too.

Only gripe was Roberto starting. Should have started Semedo and then brought on Roberto in the second half. Roberto is a great tactical substitution in the second half.

A shout out to Messi who had a performance for the ages. An all time all time performance. As good a dribbling performance as I have seen. Makes it more special that he was dribbling elite players every time he got the ball. Robertson, Fabinho and VVD are some of the best in their position and he made them look like complete mugs. Passed well, created chances with his passing. An all time great freekick. Great motivation as a captain and never stopped running. As I said, a performance for the ages. And when he plays like that, he is an unstoppable force of nature.

by alexjanosik Wed May 01, 2019 6:58 pm

Dont get the De Jong doubts. Last night he showed another element to his game. It wasnt a silky smooth dominating the midfield performance. It was a scrappy defensive performance with interceptions, tackles and grit. After Sissoko came on, ball was in the air a lot and it became a scrappy game. De Jong showed that he is up for the physical intense games as well.

by BarrileteCosmico Wed May 01, 2019 7:19 pm

No one is really doubting De Jong except for futbol, who likes to be contrarian, tbf

by futbol Wed May 01, 2019 8:16 pm

Neymar is an idiot. With a player like him and this current setup we would win the CL until Messi retires. All that is missing is that 1 elite goalscoring wing-forward to make the counterattacks count.

by windkick Wed May 01, 2019 9:24 pm

Myesyats wrote:Our midfield is atrocious though. Busquets is finished, Rakitic has always been mostly decent at best and Vidal is Vidal. Arthur is good but not really capable of elevating the team.

The upcoming summer should be very midfield focused. De Jong is a good start but thats clearly not enough.

Busq was solid, and say what you want about Rakitic but he cleared the ball off the line before it dropped to Salah who hit the crossbar. And not sure where this De Jong hate on this board is coming from, he has been great and has yet to have a terrible game against the (and away) vs some great, veteran teams. And he’s only going to get better.

by windkick Wed May 01, 2019 9:30 pm

I agree about EV. He doesn’t play ‘current ajax’ football or anything, but he knows the limitations our current squad has and he has set them up in ways to win. Mind you for all this “our attack sucks/messi slacks off/midfield sucks”, we are currently the team with the best defense and the most goals scored in then ucl. Yet somehow everyone is crapping all over this team. I’m thoroughly impressed what this squad.

I honestly think we can pull of another sixtuple

by zenmaster Thu May 02, 2019 2:41 am

Think EV kept a physical side in the game by keeping Coutinho and Vidal in the starting XI. Then post 50 minute , he brought Semedo in for Coutinho. Giving Semedo a room at right wing which he barely used.

The overall defense was not good but somehow the crowded backline nullified the chances created by Salah and Mane.

by Myesyats Thu May 02, 2019 2:49 am

Busquets is rarely solid these days, mostly poor. De Jong should gradually phase him out of the squad (BTW the only guy hating on FDJ is futbol)

Rakitic is solid but that's not enough. At Barca you need that extra something, being just a solid, decent player doesn't cut it conceding that the other 2 midfielders are colloquially speaking- donkeys.

Being dominated by Liverpool's trash midfield is embarrasing enough. This needs to stop.

by Kebab Thu May 02, 2019 4:22 am

Physicality is not because of players, its the style of play. Barca style is tiki taka, no matter who they buy they will not play like Liverpool or Roma. and when you dont play that style every week you forgot how to play physically. Arda Turan was a godzilla in Atletico but became a school boy in Barcelona. Let Rakitic play under Simone in Atletico he will become a godzilla too

I think everything is great team destroys everyone, there are problems but you cant make a perfect team.
Busquets is great under pressure and his diving helps to win lot of free kicks. He is very slow but i will take his technique over physically strong player who cant make decisive passes

Suarez should stop dribbling, he loses 90% of them but still trying again and again. His is a perfect fit for Barca but when he gets the ball i lose all my hope. Because he works hard and runs a lot this problem can be forgiven, not a big problem

Coutinho is a great player, but in the last 2 matches when he subbed off the games changed. I dont know why, but maybe he holds the ball too much and loses it, he shoots instead of looking for a free player in better position. For an attacking midfielder his final balls are not good. 5 assists in 51 matches is bad and his last assist happened 4 months ago. If he changes his attitude and makes one touch passes instead of holding it and making selfish dribblings and selfish shoots he can be great

If you look at problems of other big teams you will probably kill yourself

by Myesyats Thu May 02, 2019 4:51 am

Also wanted to say the one thing EV nailed was to instruct the team to sit back and slowly build from the back without putting many men forward which did not allow Liverpool to use their pace and directness to pick us apart.

But that was again because of the state of our midfield. It's so bad we can't afford to play a high line against any half decent team. This has to change.

by windkick Thu May 02, 2019 8:39 am

The thing is, that will need to be addressed in the summer. Right now, that horrendous team your talking about, has the best defense and best attack numbers wise in the UCL, won the league, and is in the Copa final. I agree, as well as I'm sure everyone who watches Barca day in and out, that the team is aged and needs to be revamped and is currently extremely unbalanced. But to EV's credit he has figured out how to make these guys get results.

by BarcaLearning Thu May 02, 2019 8:52 am

We cant expect our midfield to be like it was as time passes and the key players age. Although I think the club has done well to get the replacements, Arthur and then De Jong, Arthur has proved himself, although he needs to improve his attacking final balls, and De Jong if all the praises are true he should be great for us to replace Busquets hopefully. I think many players like Rakitic and Vidal has adapted to our team and style of play as much as they can and they are doing well, we should give them more credit instead of saying they are crap or just keep wanting them to dominate every game. This was Liverpool at their best with a gameplan designed to wrest control of the midfield. Sure we are weaker too often in midfield than we would like, but we cant always expect somethings that unrealistic.

by BarcaLearning Thu May 02, 2019 8:59 am

We cant expect our midfield to be like it was as time passes and the key players age. Although I think the club has done well to get the replacements, Arthur and then De Jong, Arthur has proved himself, although he needs to improve his attacking final balls, and De Jong if all the praises are true he should be great for us to replace Busquets hopefully. I think many players like Rakitic and Vidal has adapted to our team and style of play as much as they can and they are doing well, we should give them more credit instead of saying they are crap or just keep wanting them to dominate every game. This was Liverpool at their best with a gameplan designed to wrest control of the midfield. Sure we are weaker too often in midfield than we would like, but we cant always expect somethings that unrealistic.

by zenmaster Thu May 02, 2019 11:59 am

Barcelona was Struggling in midfield despite being tectical good players in the midfield. Liverpool with physically strong with a lot of pace was dominating the midfield. We all saw it yesterday. The midfield is not good and failed to deliver.

Just remove Messi from the game and see if Barcelona would have still the same scorline.

by Harmonica Thu May 02, 2019 12:11 pm

Kebab wrote:Coutinho is a great player, but in the last 2 matches when he subbed off the games changed. I dont know why, but maybe he holds the ball too much and loses it, he shoots instead of looking for a free player in better position. For an attacking midfielder his final balls are not good. 5 assists in 51 matches is bad and his last assist happened 4 months ago. If he changes his attitude and makes one touch passes instead of holding it and making selfish dribblings and selfish shoots he can be great

Well he's not playing AM rather than mostly LW. And I probably don't need to bring up how awful example Iniesta looked playing the same wrong position.

by alexjanosik Sun May 05, 2019 12:30 pm

Given Dembele is out, we lose a major tactical option off the bench. They will dominate possession so might as well go with 4 proper midfielders. A midfield 4 of Rakitic, Arthur, Busquets and Vidal. Semedo RB. That is very solid and hopefully should contain the Liverpool onslaught. I dont like when Roberto starts but he is a good tactical change option. The 3 potential subs can be Coutinho, Malcom and Roberto.

by Harmonica Sun May 05, 2019 1:40 pm

Dembele out might be a tactical disadvantage, but I don't think that matters much. He was clearly scared coming on for Liverpool, so I don't know if he would even be ready for such stage this season. I counted at least 5 individual mistakes in the dying minutes alone, which all were from lack of confidence.

by neuro11 Mon May 06, 2019 2:41 am

Firminho probably out. Salah will undergo another test today to confirm if he can play (that's what I have read in the news). If both out it will be a big blow for Liverpool.