Re: Match Day Thread 20/21

[CM Pep]

I would start Girezmann and I think Koeman will too. The rationale being that if he plays well, he gets a confidence boost which should probably ignite his season.

He's wasted on the wing, true, but his finishing has been abysmal and that's more a confidence thing. Him scoring in a classico might help with that.

The flip side is that if he misses in classico too, then his days are probably numbered.

Dembele/Trincao off the bench makes sense then.

[Winter is Coming]

Ansu is the future.

[alexjanosik]

Disgusting match. Continues a pattern from last season when decisions go against us. We were clearly going to win and were outplaying them. Right on cue, disgusting penalty.
Dest
Take a bow son. We have got ourseleves a football player.

[alexjanosik]

Said Madrid were trash and they are even worse. We seemed really up for it and would have won if it was a fair game.
Messi with a good game on the ball. First Clasico in ages where he looked really good on the ball.

[farfan]

What a weird analysis. That game was closer to a 1-4 trashing than a Barcelona win.



How is this not a penalty? can shirt pulling get more flagrant than this?

[windkick]

Busqs is done. Frenkie was great but Busqs is not a good anchor for us. What’s up with Pjanic I thought by now he would be starting next to Frenkie

[danyjr]

Unfortunately Pjanić is slower than Busquets and also more error prone.

[FennecFox7]

Dest is an animal. Very exciting times for the USMNT.

[alexjanosik]

What a weird analysis. That game was closer to a 1-4 trashing than a Barcelona win.



How is this not a penalty? can shirt pulling get more flagrant than this?

Yeah right. Messi missed. Coutinho missed before the penalty. Even first half and we were dominating the second half and out of nowhere Ramos dives and the ref awards a penalty. Game changed after that. Stole that one. Clear that a decade of thrashing Madrid around left, right and center has had its effect. Decisions don't go our way.

[Myesyats]

Disappointed by the team selection.

Trincao should have started instead of Pedri since we had no width, no attacks came through the right again, depending on Ansu all game

Pjanic over Busquets too, the latter is an embarrasment not only to Barca but also to the entire Leauge.

[farfan]

What a weird analysis. That game was closer to a 1-4 trashing than a Barcelona win.


How is this not a penalty? can shirt pulling get more flagrant than this?

Yeah right. Messi missed. Coutinho missed before the penalty. Even first half and we were dominating the second half and out of nowhere Ramos dives and the ref awards a penalty. Game changed after that. Stole that one. Clear that a decade of thrashing Madrid around left, right and center has had its effect. Decisions don't go our way.

So your team collapses with 30 minutes still left to play and you're acting as if you deserved more out of this game?

Decisions go your way all the time btw. just last year in this very same fixture you got away with two penalty calls, including this obvious shirt pull by Lenglet.



Even in this game there was a questionable challenge from Lenglet in the first half. If referees had it for you they would've awarded that one, which in my opinion was more obvious and featured less theatrics by Ramos.

[neuro11]

I see no point for fighting...We had our chances. We also dominated part of it. That's clearly not sufficient. We can't win big games relying on 17-year wonder kid, 33-year-old legend and so-called Bag of Talents. Then there is a beloved disciple in the mid who is never benched, out of mind CB in defence, and 2nd keeper.

A standout performance from Dest. It seems to be the only good purchase in ages.

The game gave us the opportunity to clap again for Fati who shined again and Messi who finally defended moved a bit faster than walking and dribbled opponents left and right. That's the satisfaction level for us and will be this season.

[FennecFox7]

Barca played well. No shame in that performance. I don’t see messi as a problem, he has been pressing and defending well. I think the main issue is busquets. Guy is well past it and slow as a snail.

[alexjanosik]

I see no point for fighting...We had our chances. We also dominated part of it. That's clearly not sufficient. We can't win big games relying on 17-year wonder kid, 33-year-old legend and so-called Bag of Talents. Then there is a beloved disciple in the mid who is never benched, out of mind CB in defence, and 2nd keeper.

A standout performance from Dest. It seems to be the only good purchase in ages.

The game gave us the opportunity to clap again for Fati who shined again and Messi who finally defended moved a bit faster than walking and dribbled opponents left and right. That's the satisfaction level for us and will be this season.

I see reason for optimism. I think most of us knew this was going to be a transition season. My expectations for the season were phasing out the seniors, get back to our core philosophy and building a new team around exciting youngsters. While I would have liked us to move on from Busquets, Messi, Pique and Alba as well; it's a start as we got rid of Suarez, Rakitic and Vidal.
On getting back to our core philosophy, Koeman is probably not the right person. His teams play a more defense oriented style. But lets face it, we cant play an attacking on the front foot brand of 4-3-3 with Messi. No matter who the coach is.

It's the third aspect which I am most excited about. Wanted us to develop youngsters for the future this season and so far Koeman has done a very good job. Ansu is now a starter. You could argue he was sort of last season as well. But there were games he was benched in favor of the old guard. Ansu is an undisputed starter under Koeman. He brought in Dest and benches freaking Roberto in a Clasico no less. Something unthinkable under Valverde and Setien. And Dest repays that confidence by playing a blinder of a match. Ansu scores in a Clasico.
Now we come to Pedri. Pedri has had significant minutes already this season. And Koeman starts him in the freaking Clasico. Out of all the youngsters, Pedri is the one I am most excited about. Kid is an Iniesta/Thiago level talent. It's always difficult to predict the future for prodigies and we have seen many fizzle out. But Pedri is special and he seems to have high football IQ. And he seems to have Koeman's confidence. That's 3 elite youngsters Koeman is developing this season. We also have Araujo who is getting minutes. Sets us up nicely for the future. I think it's a really nice core. Dest, Araujo in the backline. FDJ and Pedri in midfield. And Fati up front. Let's not forget Dembele who can still come good imo. We just need some strategic and well thought out investments like Dest over the next couple of years.

All in all, I am fairly happy if the youngsters keep playing and developing.

[CM Pep]

Yes, those are reasons to be optimistic.

What has shown no signs for positivity: our defensive solidity.

Pique and Lenglet have had a poor start to the season. Doesn't help that they have a way past it Busquets in front of them.

Our transfers are so pathetic. Even Torreira on loan (like ATM did) would be an upgrade to Busquets. In fact any half decent ball playing DM would be better, as long as they have some legs in them.

[BarrileteCosmico]

I was traveling so didn't get a chance to watch, but judging by this article it sounds like nothing changed...

Judging from the statistics alone, this was vintage Sergio Busquets.

Despite being substituted with nine minutes remaining, the Barcelona midfielder made 83 passes in Saturday’s clasico; eight more than any of his team-mates and 17 more than any Real Madrid player. Ninety-two per cent of them found their intended recipient.

On the ball, Busquets remains a masterful midfielder, retaining his ability to find Lionel Messi with disguised penetrative passes, and still wily at buying free kicks when under pressure from an opponent.

Off the ball, though, it was a different story. This was a worryingly passive, sluggish performance from a player who, having turned 32 in July, must now be considered a veteran. Madrid’s midfielders constantly stormed past him en route to goal. Barcelona won’t face midfields as slick as Madrid’s every week, but this was a footballing buffet for Toni Kroos and Federico Valverde, who helped themselves again and again throughout a 3-1 away win at the Nou Camp. Busquets simply couldn’t keep up.

The perfect example was the game’s opening goal, when Nacho fed the ball into the path of Karim Benzema, dropping deep to link play. As the Barcelona centre-backs followed Madrid’s attackers, you could literally see Valverde looking over, sizing up Busquets’ ability to track his run, and determinedly getting on his bike.

Busquets was with him… and… then he wasn’t…

…and then he actually stopped running, out of sheer resignation.

By the time Valverde put the ball into the net, Busquets was fully 20 yards behind him. Gerard Pique, who had been concerned with tracking Benzema, turned around and screamed in his direction.

https://theathletic.com/2159313/2020/10/26/clasico-barcelona-real-madrid-busquets/?source=dailyemail

[Myesyats]

What can change if core players are the same? The same slow, unathletic Busquets

The same careless Pique

The same Messi who stopped scoring and goes missing for most of the game

So in summary: all three formations depend on players who are way past due date: Pique in defence, Busi in midfield and Messi in attack.

The entire structure can't work if it's leaning on these three unreliable players.

The fact that Koeman keeps starting that trainwreck Busquets now that we have Pjanic is shocking. He is both tactically and physically useless in the middle.

[Myesyats]

with Coutinho injured for 2-3 weeks, I hope this will be the lineup @ Juve

Neto
Dest Araujo Lenglet Alba
Pjanic FDJ
Trincao Griezmann Ansu
Messi

Griezmann doesnt make sense on the wing. But sadly I fully expect Koeman to play Griezmann-Pedri-Ansu and shut off the right wing completely so that Juve's defence only have to worry about Ansu

[BarcaLearning]

Not sure but generally speaking managers usually prefer to field out teams with more focus on the midfield during CL games, so wouldnt be surprised to see Pjanic together with Busquets and De Jong all together. I dont see how hes gonna drop Coutinho though, and Pedri seems to be so preferred atm, anyway, Im trying to actually remind myself it doesnt really matter this season with Koeman, its all useless since we wont get anywhere whatever team he puts out lol.... so treat it more like a chance to watch which of our players deserve to stay or not...

Feels like another case of if which team will be more shit come the game lol, strange times....

[BarrileteCosmico]

For Juve: (match 20 mins underway already)

Neto; Sergi Roberto, Araujo, Lenglet, Jordi Alba; Pjanic, De Jong; Pedri, Griezmann, Dembélé y Messi.

Roberto over Dest seems a bit unfair given his performances.

[Myesyats]

I hope we keep up the pace in 2nd half.

Good game.

[alexjanosik]

Dest should have started. Deserved it after the MOM performance against Madrid.
Juve are not a very good side. We should have won by 4,5 goals with better finishing. Had Ansu started, we would have. Pedri with another mature and polished performance.

[Myesyats]

Even better 2nd half. Kept composure all throughout, every pass with a purpose.

The only negative was being so wasteful with clear-cut chances. Need to practice scenarios within the penalty box

Should have been 4-0 or 5-0.

[Myesyats]

Dest should have started. Deserved it after the MOM performance against Madrid.
Juve are not a very good side. We should have won by 4,5 goals with better finishing. Had Ansu started, we would have. Pedri with another mature and polished performance.

Leaving dest out was a tactical decison, he is more offensive and Koeman wanted someone who would stay back to keep the defence tighter. Understandable imo since we weren't sure how good juve would be on the wings.

[alexjanosik]

Dest should have started. Deserved it after the MOM performance against Madrid.
Juve are not a very good side. We should have won by 4,5 goals with better finishing. Had Ansu started, we would have. Pedri with another mature and polished performance.

Leaving dest out was a tactical decison, he is more offensive and Koeman wanted someone who would stay back to keep the defence tighter. Understandable imo since we weren't sure how good juve would be on the wings.

Debatable whether Roberto is the better defender. He is certainly more tactically aware as Dest has a tendancy to drift inside and leave his man. Dest is probably the better one on one defender. You are right probably though.

[Myesyats]

I'm not saying Roberto is the better defender, just that he is more experienced and wouldn't have the urge to constantly join the attack instead of staying at the back like Dest would being young and inexperienced.

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