Re: Match Day Thread 21-22

[danyjr]

The state of expectations when registering zero shots on target at home is not considered humiliating. Sorry, I forgot Barcelona are Slavia Prague level now.

The key ingredients to failure, the common denominators to humiliation are still here: mediocre coaches and poor recruitment. These are what cost Barcelona humiliations, not Messi.

Was Messi innocent during those matches? Sure he wasn't, for his greatness he has a few big weaknesses and much like the rest of the team he is to be blamed in those matches. But when someone refuses to criticises anything but Messi I'd say maximum irrecoverable levels of insanity is reached.

PS: the money spent on Messi wasn't in any way shape or form Messi's fault. If he was asking for too much money your director and president should have said no, but he agreed knowing the only thing that would save his presidency would be having Messi around cause from a sporting perspective he ran the club to the ground. It is like when Argentinian people blame Messi for being a bad captain. Is it his fault that he was selected by the coach to captain the team?

[Casciavit]

In the grand scheme of things, the 8-2 and 3-0 were very similar performances. You kept saying those kinds of performances wouldn't occur when Messi leaves, but it still did. That's why you are being called out.

Don't spin it now and try to make excuses. No one on here said Messi's lack of work rate wasn't an issue, but for years you pinned the blame primarily on him. Like you said in that post Barca would instantly improve, but the same performance happened. What gives? Aren't those the same supporting cast that Messi played with? I thought he was holding them back?

So yes, this forum is going to laugh at you. Even if your original post was hyperbolic in nature the fact you are willing to go down with it is incredibly amusing.

[Casciavit]

The state of expectations when registering zero shots on target at home is not considered humiliating. Sorry, I forgot Barcelona are Slavia Prague level now.

The key ingredients to failure, the common denominators to humiliation are still here: mediocre coaches and poor recruitment. These are what cost Barcelona humiliations, not Messi.

Was Messi innocent during those matches? Sure he wasn't, for his greatness he has a few big weaknesses and much like the rest of the team he is to be blamed in those matches. But when someone refuses to criticises anything but Messi I'd say maximum irrecoverable levels of insanity is reached.

PS: the money spent on Messi wasn't in any way shape or form Messi's fault. If he was asking for too much money your director and president should have said no, but he agreed knowing the only thing that would save his presidency would be having Messi around cause from a sporting perspective he ran the club to the ground. It is like when Argentinian people blame Messi for being a bad captain. Is it his fault that he was selected by the coach to captain the team?

The money argument would make more sense if he didn't act like PSG or City wouldn't have paid him that much in 2017 or whenever he renewed his contract. They likely would have paid him more. Also, it's not like Messi's wages stopped Barca from signing players. Since Neymar left they spent 750M. I repeat 750M LOL.

The club was incredibly mismanaged. They signed players who didn't fit in. They hired inexperienced coaches at the top level. They overpaid every player in terms of wages including Messi. Perhaps, Messi's massive wages had a knock-on effect as other players expected to get paid more as a result. Despite that, I still think it's more egregious that Umtiti and Sergi get paid 12M a year compared to Messi's 50M a year. Greizmann making 30M a year also didn't receive nearly half the complaints from Alex despite Griezmann wishing he showed 1/10th of Messi's quality on the pitch.

Yet, after every big loss, that clown came on here and pinned the blame on Messi alone a lot of the time. No one here said Messi walking around wasn't an issue. However, the fact Barca still lost big by playing in a similar manner to the way they played against those big teams when Messi was around proved him wrong. Barca's issues ran a lot deeper than Messi being lazy, but the clown will never admit that. He said it himself and on numerous occasions that once Messi left, Barca would INSTANTLY improve. He blamed Messi for Barca being incapable of playing modern football. Yet when Barca played their first big game without Messi and with a team similar to the one Messi had they still got embarrassed.

Now he's trying to cope and spin his arguments by saying it's better for the long term. Of course, it is. But that's not what you were saying all those years. He said with Messi gone Barca will see instant improvements. Now I'll be waiting for those instant improvements. Messi had Barca winning a double almost every season, so should I expect post-Messi that Barca will win trebles every season? Or will they still not win the CL, but they won't be embarrassed by the eventual winner like when Messi was around?

[danyjr]

The club was incredibly mismanaged. They signed players who didn't fit in. They hired inexperienced coaches at the top level. They overpaid every player in terms of wages including Messi. Perhaps, Messi's massive wages had a knock-on effect as other players expected to get paid more as a result. Despite that, I still think it's more egregious that Umtiti and Sergi get paid 12M a year compared to Messi's 50M a year. Greizmann making 30M a year also didn't receive nearly half the complaints from Alex despite Griezmann wishing he showed 1/10th of Messi's quality on the pitch.

Correction: Griezmann received zero complaints from him until this season. I remember all those god awful performances by him going unseen because everything was Messi's fault, like some guy blaming Mahrez for any City underachievement

And yes the board wasted 750 million on total mismatches like Coutinho, Griezmann and Dembélé, bringing totally inexperienced yes-man clown coaches like Vilanova (RIP), Tata Martino (the guy who coached MLS afterwards), Valverde (another yes man small club pessimist), Setién (lol). There is a reason why these guys were never appointed by a big club again. Luis Enrique was Barcelona's best coach in 12 years and he isn't world class by any measure. Like Messi said in the post-burofax interview, there was no sporting project in this team since Fartomeu came to power.

However, I can see a bright future for Barcelona in the coming seasons. And that is not because Messi has left. It is because the president has changed and he seems to have taken the correct decisions so far. It will take him a minimum of 2-3 seasons to get the team back competing but IMHO he is the right man for the job. In fact I voted for him in 2015 right after Fartomeu's "team" had won the CL for Barcelona.

[The Franchise]

My thoughts on this hasn't changed, the Bayern result makes no difference and was entirely predictable. I know the discussion has taken a different turn, taking aim at Alex but anyway, my stance on the wider issue has not changed.

If you asked me to predict the score, after seeing this 532 line up especially, I would have predicted a 3-1 loss in a game we were clearly inferior in. Better offensive performance and more successful in high pressure I would have also expected.


Regardless, last season with Messi we achieved 3rd place, mildly competitive but poor performance losses against La Liga's elite (who themselves are a step below the Europe's elite) and out at the 1st serious CL challenge.

This season, I believe we will achieve very similar results without Messi. I think with a different coach, we could actually beat Atleti, Madrid but as is, I expect the same as last season.

But Messi leaving, is entirely a positive from my point of view for reasons we have already gone over.

It simply had to happen, shame it couldn't have been in another way.

[Myesyats]

Luuk Ding Dong on the bench. Unbelievable

Ter Stegen
Dest Araujo Garcia Balde
Roberto Busquets Frenkie
Demir Depay Coutinho

[Myesyats]

The average age of Barça's defense today is 20 (Dest, Araújo, Eric and Balde). The team's average age is 24 tonight. Only one player is over the age of 30, Busquets. [@AdriaAlbets]

— barcacentre (@barcacentre) September 20, 2021

[Myesyats]

Depressing. This team is really a bunch of rejects led by a retarded coach.

Dest, Coutinho, Garcia, Roberto, Luuk, Puig should be nowhere near this team

Messi is really superhuman. He carried this team literally, he must be suffering from lumbago now. He almost won the leauge with this bunch + Koeman.

Be lucky to qualify for CL now.

[alexjanosik]

THe thing is Alex is now swaying away from his original point though.

The claim being disputed here is:

We will instantly become more competitive in the CL once we get rid of him. Easily through to the knockouts and no more humiliations. At most going out by 1 goal.

Now he's saying (more or less) that it's better to have a hard-working, well-oiled machine like Bayern instead of a clump of randoms around an alien Messi who's in the centre of everything. And of course, at this moment in time, he is right. Because Messi is now old and not as decisive, doesnt run as much etc.

But that was not the original point. He says we will instantly be more competitive (EASILY through to the knockouts) but the reality is with Messi it was impossible for us to go down to EL and now myself (and I assume many others) consider finishing 3rd in our CL group as a REAL possibility that would've been unthinkable with Messi on the team.

We already suffered a big loss and we will suffer more. Bayern was in 1st gear all game so the 3-0 is flattering. The entire direction and structure of the club was at fault for the humiliations over the years, not Messi himself. To pin it down to one individual is very shortsighted, its an issue stretching from the top of the management to the very bottom on the pitch.

So not sure where the disconnect is. If you go back through my post history over the past 9 years (back half of 2012 when he started walking), the theme has been the same. I have said constantly that football has changed drastically over the past decade. Pep revolutionized the game. And then some managers came and took it a step further. The earliest sign we saw was maybe Jupp's Bayern or Klopp's Dortmund. The emphasis was on high intensity, high pressing, 11 man football. What this meant was that there could be no passengers in the game. Attack and defend with 11 men. A game where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. We however went in the opposite direction. Only team in modern pro football which didnt move with the trend and if anything went back to playing 80's, 90's or early 2000's football. Messi started playing like an old school 10 like a Platini, Maradona etc and the team revolved around him more and more. So, when the rest of Europe had learnt from Pep and took it a step further, we went further back. Only team in modern top level football which played a game 20 years after its time, didnt press, didnt attack or defend with 11 men and the physical side of the game was an afterthought. The result was humiliation after humiliation.

In my mind, we had one impediment to playing modern football. Messi. He was the reason why we couldnt play the way the rest of Europe was playing. Not that we didnt have coaches who could help us play that way or the right players. The likes of Valverde, Enrique, Setien are all good coaches who can certainly get a team to play modern football. And we definitely had a world class team.

The conclusion for me was quite simple. If we wanted to stop playing stone age football and move on, we had to remove the impediment which was standing in the way. That's why I have been insisting that we needed to get rid of Messi. Because it was painfully obvious that we couldnt adopt a more modern approach with Messi in the side. One only needs to watch the PSG vs Brugge game to understand what I am talking about. Slow laborious football, players standing around watching Messi on the ball. And ofcourse the usual suspects blaming Nyemar.

Coming to the quote and "instantly better", things have changed a bit since. I have readjusted my expectations for this season given the precarious financial situation. We have let go a lot of players without backfilling. Griezmann has also left who I thought could have played better in the absence of Messi. Dembele and Fati are injured. AND MOST IMPORTANTLTY:
For some strange reason, Koeman is playing likes of Busquets, Pique, Garcia that too at the same time. One huge reason why we went on a terrific run of form in the middle of last season was the influx of good athletes into the team. It can be overstaed enough the impact the likes of Araujo, Mingueza had on a team devoid of athletes. Dont think it s a coincidence that we looked better and went on a good run of form with Araujo, Mingueza and Dembele in the team. Cut to this season, Dembele is injured, Mingueza is benched for some strange reason and Koeman starts Busquets, Pique and Garcia. My expectation for the season have also realigned. Top 4, develop youngsters and reach the knockouts. And I think we will do it.

To summarize, over the last decade football evolved drastically while we went backwards and played with an old school 10 who did jack off the ball. The only way for us to move ahead was by getting rid of the impediment.

[alexjanosik]

Araujo is a champ and a warrior. No idea why Koeman thought it would be a good idea to start with Garcia and Pique beginning of the season.
He is a mental giant unlike the mental midgets we have had and still have. Likes of Roberto and Alba and Busquets who cry in the dressing room.
Araujo and Mingueza need to start every game. They bring fire, edge and a competitiveness to our game. More players with edge and less mental midgets.

[neuro11]

what happened to Balde? another addition to our injury list?

[BarcaLearning]

THe thing is Alex is now swaying away from his original point though.

The claim being disputed here is:

We will instantly become more competitive in the CL once we get rid of him. Easily through to the knockouts and no more humiliations. At most going out by 1 goal.

Now he's saying (more or less) that it's better to have a hard-working, well-oiled machine like Bayern instead of a clump of randoms around an alien Messi who's in the centre of everything. And of course, at this moment in time, he is right. Because Messi is now old and not as decisive, doesnt run as much etc.

But that was not the original point. He says we will instantly be more competitive (EASILY through to the knockouts) but the reality is with Messi it was impossible for us to go down to EL and now myself (and I assume many others) consider finishing 3rd in our CL group as a REAL possibility that would've been unthinkable with Messi on the team.

We already suffered a big loss and we will suffer more. Bayern was in 1st gear all game so the 3-0 is flattering. The entire direction and structure of the club was at fault for the humiliations over the years, not Messi himself. To pin it down to one individual is very shortsighted, its an issue stretching from the top of the management to the very bottom on the pitch.

So not sure where the disconnect is. If you go back through my post history over the past 9 years (back half of 2012 when he started walking), the theme has been the same. I have said constantly that football has changed drastically over the past decade. Pep revolutionized the game. And then some managers came and took it a step further. The earliest sign we saw was maybe Jupp's Bayern or Klopp's Dortmund. The emphasis was on high intensity, high pressing, 11 man football. What this meant was that there could be no passengers in the game. Attack and defend with 11 men. A game where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. We however went in the opposite direction. Only team in modern pro football which didnt move with the trend and if anything went back to playing 80's, 90's or early 2000's football. Messi started playing like an old school 10 like a Platini, Maradona etc and the team revolved around him more and more. So, when the rest of Europe had learnt from Pep and took it a step further, we went further back. Only team in modern top level football which played a game 20 years after its time, didnt press, didnt attack or defend with 11 men and the physical side of the game was an afterthought. The result was humiliation after humiliation.

In my mind, we had one impediment to playing modern football. Messi. He was the reason why we couldnt play the way the rest of Europe was playing. Not that we didnt have coaches who could help us play that way or the right players. The likes of Valverde, Enrique, Setien are all good coaches who can certainly get a team to play modern football. And we definitely had a world class team.

The conclusion for me was quite simple. If we wanted to stop playing stone age football and move on, we had to remove the impediment which was standing in the way. That's why I have been insisting that we needed to get rid of Messi. Because it was painfully obvious that we couldnt adopt a more modern approach with Messi in the side. One only needs to watch the PSG vs Brugge game to understand what I am talking about. Slow laborious football, players standing around watching Messi on the ball. And ofcourse the usual suspects blaming Nyemar.

Coming to the quote and "instantly better", things have changed a bit since. I have readjusted my expectations for this season given the precarious financial situation. We have let go a lot of players without backfilling. Griezmann has also left who I thought could have played better in the absence of Messi. Dembele and Fati are injured. AND MOST IMPORTANTLTY:
For some strange reason, Koeman is playing likes of Busquets, Pique, Garcia that too at the same time. One huge reason why we went on a terrific run of form in the middle of last season was the influx of good athletes into the team. It can be overstaed enough the impact the likes of Araujo, Mingueza had on a team devoid of athletes. Dont think it s a coincidence that we looked better and went on a good run of form with Araujo, Mingueza and Dembele in the team. Cut to this season, Dembele is injured, Mingueza is benched for some strange reason and Koeman starts Busquets, Pique and Garcia. My expectation for the season have also realigned. Top 4, develop youngsters and reach the knockouts. And I think we will do it.

To summarize, over the last decade football evolved drastically while we went backwards and played with an old school 10 who did jack off the ball. The only way for us to move ahead was by getting rid of the impediment.

Unfortunately u are so obsessed with Messi and playing youngsters being the reason u have it just wrong There are countless players like Messi in teams going back forever and even today that due to what they bring in attack they are allowed to 'not press or defend'. Its true though Messi is really bad in some games, but its not like he walks around every game, he often does his fair share and win the ball often too. They just dont blindly do it all the time since they do need to save energy for when the team attacks and they are key when they do. There r so many examples - CR, Ibra, Neymar, any of the traditional no.9 types that are too slow for todays game and hence outdated, but they still exist. They save their energy to do what they do best at, otherwise it would be stupid frankly. Do u expect all these types of players to be one of the 11 and press all the time? Dont bring up Pep, thats why his teams dont have these types.

U talk about playing youngsters but are they good enough to win us trophies, or even just compete without getting beaten by oppositions? If it were that simple any Barca coach would have just picked out a bunch from B side and the club would save money. There is a really why top clubs like us spend those huge amounts to sign the top players around the world, they offer us bigger chances to win things. Cant fault the Eric Garcia vs Araujo/Mingueza comparisons, but in general u are overrating youngsters at every opportunity. Reminds me of a poster long ago actually - Freecat, r u guys the same person? Loi...

This one is fun - so would Enrique/Valverde/Setien got us trophies or even just better results if they dropped Messi and played a youngster who was hard working and pressed instead? By your logic he did stop us from "playing modern football like the rest of Europe".

Again its clear u r beyond help but I say it more so for other posters or just myself I guess Messi's pros far outweigh this so called con, it would be the same at PSG, just a matter of time proving it. Also Im glad Barca despite all our teams problems, still generally control the ball and center of the field pushing oppositions back (not as much as we used to of course and except the Bayern game obviously), is genuinely surprised and quite happy with that, but thats due to our underrated physicality and work rate as a team... but its not due to Messi gone lol, its been our game since Pep really and we've done well to keep that.

[The Franchise]

An eye sore of a game. 50+ crosses with 2 CB's and De Jong in the box against Granada. Even a win in this circumstances isn't forgivable.

This game and the Bayern game are 2 huge land marks for me. We have played 2 games in a way we absolutely cannot do. Not from a moralistic, nostalgic viewpoint but from a strategic and logical one too. We simply do not have the players to play this way, it is not within their mental make up to do it.

Koeman is trying to sell that this is the best they can do, it's absolutely not true. We have more than enough evidence of this, even in this down turn period.

Koeman has frankly become a pragmatist. He was coached by Cruyff (as he reminds us) and yet seems to have ignored all the lessons. His short sighted attempts will lead nowhere, not even short term results.

He is failing the test in my opinion. He had to prove he was the man to lead the club forward on the pitch, he most certainly is not doing so.

We aren't getting results this season, that should be obvious to everyone, but we can achieve a way of playing to build upon. This is not being achieved and in fact we are going in the wrong direction on this process.

I feel for Balde getting hurt. I wanted him to prove just how average Alba is by out performing him as just a 17 year old.

On the plus side. Araujo, what a beast. He has the absolute right attitude, spirit and quality. Hopefully, this has waken up the few who had some doubts about what he can do.

[Myesyats]

Can you comment on the positioning in this game. I mean sure maybe the players aren't WC as Koeman makes sure to point out at every press conference but the lack of tactical preparation doesnt help. This is a total mess what Koeman is doing

Veo que no era una sensación. pic.twitter.com/Ubs7U0TA7x

— Universo FCBarcelona (@UNIVERSO_1899) September 20, 2021

BARÇA 1-1 GRANADA, CRÓNICA DE UN DESPROPÓSITO

Vamos con #LaLupa del peor partido de toda la era Koeman. Un dolor de muelas de inicio a fin. La pizarra que no genera, el vacío exterior y, claro, la noche de Araújo. Del Titán.

Con imágenes de @futbol_diferido pic.twitter.com/oTVlv1B9oZ

— Albert Blaya Sensat (@Blayasensat) September 21, 2021

[Winter is Coming]

Another piss poor game. The fact we have links to Martinez after Koeman doesn’t fill me with confidence either. But we need to move him a long.

[CM Pep]

Yeah... it's bad. Koeman self-sabotaging like a pro.

[The Franchise]

Regarding those images. Its always tough and a bit unfair to read into still images. Because a few seconds later you could see a few people move and it look like a structure you could see in Pep coached team.

1st image for me isnt so bad, relatively speaking.

Opponent are very compact and deep. Very small spaces between all players. So my complaint here would be, why are Barca players so narrow on the right and why is noone looking to move behind with a run? You may argue though, if the ball get transferred to the right, players may then position themselves wider. But still, we are unable to access the wide right of the field where the opponent is giving alot of space. The man on the ball has alot time, so why is nobody looking to run behind the left of the back 6? Other than that, it isnt so bad. They have a back 6 in this moment, so we have a front 5. But looking at everyone's body shape, they are all moving toward the ball or are looking to receive it in front. It is easy to defend. The players generally are not positioned ideally, the first line of 3 isnt using the space they have at all, therefore not creating good passing angles. They dont look well drilled, teams who use more position play would almost never look like this.

2nd image is painful.

You have the leftback on the ball and that red line of 4, are 4 players who are positions it is impossible to receive a ball in this area. Worse still is, the closest players are in front of the line of midfield. You need players behind the line of midfield and players who are on the last line, this will create space for someone. I think this is another example of them not using positional play, which is what people want.

If you have a couple players looking to play behind the defence, the defence are forced to drop deeper, or are oriented in terms of body shape to drop back. If you have players behind the midfield line, you pin the midfielders in place, or a big space is create as the defence line does as i said, looks to drop deeper. If you pin the midfield and defence back and together, you completely control the possession and then if you have good movements you can attack and even if you fail, the opponent is so deep and compact (and you are so high up and with so many players) you can easily regain the ball again before they escape.

3rd image, the notes helped. So the complaint here seems to be Coutinho has slowed the play down to dribble which has allowed the defence to shift across. Therefore, the triangle of 3 Barca players (Memphis, De Jong, Roberto) cannot be found. If they could be found there, they could create an overload. Also, on the right there is nothing. Demir is offering nothing in this position, he should be wider and/or be looking to move behind the leftback. This is actually a potentially great situation to create danger but its poorly executed by Barca.

4th image, maybe worst of all. 4 players in the 1st line in front of 2 opponents who arent even pressuring. This job could be done by 2 defenders and an advanced GK for safety. Instead we have 4 players, 2 (De Jong, Busi) really doing nothing. If this was in our own box, I can understand it more, because they would be applying alot of pressure. But we dont need this many players to do the job they are doing. A 5th (Roberto) has been highlighted because he, De Jong and Busi have all left the center midfield zone. There is no forward pass into the midfield. When teams are like this consistently (Man Utd under Ole) they end up playing in a U shape around the opponents block and struggle to break through.

5th. Not as horrible. Demir has come inside too early, so the right side is empty. Even if Mingueza is better positioned (wider, higher) he will not surprise the opponant and will be forced to dribble 1v1. The left mid of the opponent 442 can easily see him and is positioned deeper than him, so will easily beat him.

Demir should have his boots on the right touchline, an our right number 8 (we dont have one on the pitch) should be where Demir is. If the ball gets passed from Araujo to where Demir should be, the leftback has to run 8-10m to meet him, as Demir dribbles inside using his left, our right number 8 could run between the opponent leftback and leftback and Mingueza can run on the outside of Demir along the line and now the left midfield of Granada may have a difficult decision to make.

Overall these images are to me, a display of no use of positional play. Players are moving just according to their attributes. Demir isnt fast or strong, so wants to play inside, De Jong knows he is the only midfielder who can run behind, Coutinho needs to move in the center to do anything...so they are just doing what they think they should be there is no structure, there is no reason for these movements and therefore they are effective or efficient. They are not moving in accordance to one another in a way which may open teams up.

[The Franchise]

Another bad game, especially the 1st half.

The 2nd half started alot better, but of course everything is going against us and the referee shows just how low a quality he has and send off De Jong just "because". The standard of officating this league really is a joke.

But this should not distract from such a poor peformance again. The players are lost. They dont lack effort, but they dont actually know what to do.

De Jong is absolutely useless as a starter. It is basically impossible for him to be involved in the game, he doesnt have the mobility to touch to recieve passes in these small spaces. Now obviously I dont expect him to be Lukaku, but look how he pins CB's behind him and can recieve passes into his feet with ease. De Jong as a target man, offers none of that. He is literally in the game only to get on the end of crosses. May aswell of got Falcao tbh, same use except he is an elite finisher and de Jong is not.

Poor game from Memphis in front of goal, but we can surely all see that he is simply going down the way the team is. They are in a bad moment and therefore so he is. I am sure at the start of the season, he buried a couple of these chances easily.

Demir was also poor, he doesnt understand where to be and when. Then ends up turning it over in frustrating of trying to make an impact.

Araujo continues his assent, quickly on his way to becoming a dominant CB. I havent felt as comfortable in 1v1 duels with any CB in a hell of a long time. Unless you are a top end talent, you are not going to touch him in 1v1 situations.

Koeman really has to go in my opinion, but we simply cant and even if we did, its not like we would achieve something.

[BarrileteCosmico]

Koeman's defeatism making itself felt in the rest of the team. This is where the leaders need to step up and guide the team, but our captains are not up for the task (nothing surprising considering the leads they have blown in the past).

[Myesyats]

Overall these images are to me, a display of no use of positional play. Players are moving just according to their attributes. Demir isnt fast or strong, so wants to play inside, De Jong knows he is the only midfielder who can run behind, Coutinho needs to move in the center to do anything...so they are just doing what they think they should be doing there is no structure, there is no reason for these movements and therefore they are effective or efficient. They are not moving in accordance to one another in a way which may open teams up.

Exactly what I wanted to say but couldnt find the right words.

Demir is not a winger btw.  He feels out of place at RW and clearly Koeman is,again , not helping this young lad to understand his role. My thoughts exactly is that there is zero teamplay. Everyone, instead of being instructed, is just doing what think they should be doing. Its not a "team", its a clump of individuals doing their own thing.

And then Konman goes out at the presser and says the players are not quality enough. Its not entirely true, and often not true at all

[alexjanosik]

Excellent game of football and a game which I think encapsulates what I have been saying. We played a team game. Great pressing, everyone defending and attacking and pressed Levante back. A Paco team which likes to press themselves and we had them pinned back. Would not have been possible last season.
Game also showed that the pessimism amongst the fan base is completely unwarranted. No, we are not relegation candidates without Messi. No, he did not drag us to glory. We are a really good team with the best group of youngsters in Europe. Last game, the average age was 24. Exclude Busquets and De Jong and it would have been even less. We have 17, 18 year old future stars who are learning fast how to play first division football. What we need is patience. There are going to be growing pains but the future is bright. Araujo, FDJ, Pedri, Gavi, Dest, Fati, Memphis, Mingueza. That's a really strong core of players. And then you have players like Nico, Garcia( who despite my reservations is a good option for certain games), Demir, Puig,  Dembele etc.
We need to be patient with the group. 12 points out of 18. I will take it to start the post Messi Era. Top 4 for the season , keep developing future stars and scout for cheap smart additions. And drop the negativity cause we have got a real football team on our hands.

[BarcaLearning]

Knew would have to hear this kinda post soon after a good result Levante was so bad, especially in the first half, those two goals were gifts to us, one pen, one they tried to play offside and failed, not surprising they have Mustafi in their back line, says it all really. Even Luuk looked decent in this game, what more is there?

Sure we got some good youngsters, but lets not get too excited? Lol, anyway, apologies, but all too predictable, n I'll stop And I know now to get used to these types of posts here...

[alexjanosik]

Mingueza also with a great game. Lots of interceptions, went forward smartly, great passing and created chances. He is probably our best RB and I think he should get an extended run there. He is athletic, fast, strong, plays with fire and brings a lot of intangibles.
Should be Mingueza RB and Dest LB moving forward. Dest had a blinder at LB and should get an extended run there.

[alexjanosik]

It's fans like you who are the problem. Can't see or appreciate good football. Why don't you run off to PSG? Would be good riddance.

[Myesyats]

Didnt see tthe match but I wouldnt get excited either since its Levante. Theres no doubt though that we will be better with Ansu, Dembele and Aguero back. Having those three up front means teams will think twice about pushing up...as to not get countered

I will try to rewatch the game in its entirety

[BarcaLearning]

Haahahahahhahaha so Alex yea u r replying to me directly finally? When u hadnt for so long? Finally have the balls to eh? After we get an easy result vs a bad Levante, man ur pathetic Loooool. Man I was gonna stop, but ur just asking for it XD

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