For what it’s worth, you seem more willing to spend money than we do on «assumed, immediate improvement». And that would be a good thing if, aside from Suarez and Neymar, your scouting department/DoF had a better record of finding players that would actually make you as competitive as you were before you bought them. Our lack of spending on established talent has been frustrating, but what we’ve spent, we’ve mostly spent wisely. Of course, the Spanish youngsters we’ve signed over the past decade have been largely underwhelming.

Abidal officially revealed that Barca are looking to sign Lautaro Martinez, by the way. He’s looked like a legit talent for some time now, despite his young age.

Reasons might be different, the board, coach, over-reliance on Messi... but the fact is I feel no thrill watching this team. Only frustration.

I mean it was frustrating watching Pepcelona trying to break a well organized park-the-buss team, but still the game had many awesome moments even without the goals. The team was dominating, there were cool interplays and it seamed as if there was a purpose to the play. Right now, shit we can't score! Pass -> Messi!!??? [pray]

I cant watch this team play in a regular day. Messi magic part i miss the build up and clinical pass. Rest of the team apart struggle to even do a 3 consecutive forward pass.

I agree with fussball in this thread. Bartomeu is the best president Barca had in last 20 years. Young president who is trying hard to win the hearts of fans and players. Wrong or correct what he did he did it for the team. At the beginning he made some mistakes, but now he is more experienced and his transfers are almost spot on.

I dont know why you complain, this team is still considered the best team in the world on paper, and top-3 team in reality. What makes you want more than that? only messi maybe? you think if we have best player we have to destroy every team. or you live in the past with nostalgia of gold generation which comes once in a lifetime. I live with that nostalgia, and feel sad. but i also understand that this is life and every cicle has an end, so i dont blame the board, president, coach or players, i just accept reality

You watch Liverpool , who barely have any Superstar. But as a team, they function very efficiently. They press together , they keep possession and they do counter. Then we have Man City who play free-flowing game and a game does not depend on a single player.

What do you mean by they «barely have any superstar»? They bought Van Dijk and went from having one of the worst defenses in the league, to arguably having the best defense in the world. Van Dijk is now a Ballon D’or candidate, and their fullbacks are very, very good as well. Things just fell into place for them defensively after they bought the dutchman, and he’s undoubtedly a superstar at this point in time. Some would say their fullbacks are the best in the league.

Their midfield isn’t quite superstar-level, but it’s industrious and compliments the team’s playing style well. Liverpool are a hardworking team, and I believe they benefit more from having workhorses in midfield, than some tidy, passing maestro in the mold of Toni Kroos, for instance. Their forwards are world class, superstars. They certainly have more star power than Barcelona, at the moment. I can’t think of a Barcelona player they would benefit from having. Needless to say, the raw talent of Messi would give any team an edge, but his low work rate would likely alter Liverpool’s playing style for the worse, over the course of a long season.

Wow, Futbol is that part about Arthur true? Since I've been wondering why hes always either out or just manages to play 70 or so mins whenever he starts a game Lol. I think hes only completed full 90 mins in one game iirc ffs... damn, I hope he sorts himself out, if he works for it he really can become something like Xavi imho, otherwise its another wasted talent.

Overall I dont think we as a club, a team, or even the manager is that bad, but the result has been the team being in the state it is, due to various reasons as everyone has said. And we cules are accustomed to success and demand so much all time I guess its easy to criticise, fair or not. One thing I know though, when I see Real this season with Zidane now, I see one thing - PROGRESS. I see IMPROVEMENTS and a team being BUILT, many players intergrating, old players regaining their hunger and form. With Valverde we just done get that, or not enough anyway, and havent for way too long. Whether its his fault alone or not, I thought he had to go in the summer, but he didnt so we are stuck with him for this one last season. I just hope he and the team does enough to let us win something, and not empty handed. Our older players dont have much time left at their best anymore. After that, the next manager can come in and being some badly needed fresh ideas and motivation to the team.

I don’t think many in the Real Madrid section would agree with me on this, but I really believe our improvement from last season has more to do with our veteran players shaking off physical and mental fatigue, as well as a few players coming in and gradually adapting and becoming more accustomed to the team, country and league, rather than Zidane waving his magic wand, like some seem to think. Also, I think it’s far too early to say that we’re suddenly back in form. We looked good against Galatasaray, but I wouldn’t assume that anything’s changed as a result of a single performance against relatively weak opposition. We’ve been relying too much on Benzema since the start of the season.

As for Barcelona, the overall quality in the team just seems to be significantly below your usual standards, from what I can tell. I’m sure your players will find form eventually, but it will be difficult for you to compete for anything as long as you’re reliant on Messi being a deciding factor so often. I don’t think Real Madrid have played particularly well since the start of the season, but it’s been inconsequential since everyone else are playing relatively poorly, as well.

For you it's not much of a problem. Ronaldo was a non factor in the league for you anyway in his last few years. Something like 5 goals until Christmas at some point, was it? He popped up in CL knockouts though so you gonna miss that for sure.

Our problems are big so I'm actually surprised we're still doing so well overall. Look at the holes we have in the squad at the moment:

Démbéle never stays injury free for 5 games in a row. So we have 0 pace and counter thread upfront. Two slow oldies are carrying the attack.

Midfield we have De Jong and that's it. Busquets is done. Rakitic is done. Arthur is busy getting STDs from hookers. What do we have? One 21 year old talent. That's it.

Fullbacks? Alba is getting old and was always a one trick pony to begin with. Semedo is mediocre, Roberto is a bit better attacking wise and that's that.

CBs are okay. Pique is rock solid for the most part and Lenglet is also solid. Remember, we were never prime Milan defensively so Pique-Lenglet is a good partnership for us.

Ter Stegen is as good as we could get. A bit overrated as he tends to let in stupid goals on the international stages for whatever reasons but can't complain much in that position.

Now people comparing this to the Pep or even Lucho days where you could confidentally say all 11 players were either #1 in their positions (Pep era, bar Victor Valdes of course) or top 3 (Lucho era, prime MSN arguably the best attacking trident of all time). Joke.

BarcaLearning wrote:Wow, Futbol is that part about Arthur true?

Of course not lmao

Hapless_Hans wrote:

BarcaLearning wrote:Wow, Futbol is that part about Arthur true?

Of course not lmao

It's true. lol He has Tripper. Can't train and not in the squad as the antiobiotics he is taking are on the doping list.

https://www.foxsportsasia.com/football/la-liga/1209179/barcelona-star-to-miss-el-clasico-due-to-std-infection-arthur-melo-real-madrid/amp/

Also, this:

futbol wrote:

Hapless_Hans wrote:

BarcaLearning wrote:Wow, Futbol is that part about Arthur true?

Of course not lmao

It's true. lol He has Tripper. Can't train and not in the squad as the antiobiotics he is taking are on the doping list.

https://www.foxsportsasia.com/football/la-liga/1209179/barcelona-star-to-miss-el-clasico-due-to-std-infection-arthur-melo-real-madrid/amp/

It's true why? Because FoxSportsAsia is quoting "The Sports Rush"?

Get a grip

It's true as long as it suits my argument.

futbol wrote:It's true as long as it suits my argument.

Happy to inform you that I have already it to told a couple of other people too now lmao

Signing big players is great... but it has to happen in the context of building a team.  Big signings should be the cherry on top that gets you over the hump.

I get the feeling that Barca's board are not football people.  They're not interested in non-PR moves that are important for the team.  Reminds of Madrid in the 00s tbh.  We always had splashy players; but we never made the obvious moves (we still don't if I'm honest ; but at least there's some thought to it now).

As fennec mentioned, fullback and midfield (not DMs but guys who are technical) are glaring weaknesses.  Also, a backup to Suarez.  Neither Messi nor Griezmann can play CF.

And yes, there are some available players. Aubameyang would have been nice. Cavani is available (although PSG would rape Barca in a sale just because). Madrid would sell Bale and James to you no problem; 50 mil each; they're great players.

Looking forward to watching again