La Liga is BACK.

Kudos to Valencia, I suspect we would be more angry if real madrid won their match today but they didn't so it's not that bad.

Also, if we ever wanted an understudy to busquets then it should have been Banega. Unfortunately banega plays really good against us and inconsistent otherwise. Pity.

I think what really killed us off today was playing keita instead of thiago and/or Adriano. Adriano generally has good games when he is played more forward. Keita did absolutely nothing for us, and I believe that we don't need his kind of qualities right now. At least not in these big games.

Decent result, especially considering the tactical mistake. Real Madrid drew so dropping two points against the top team in the Liga atm isn't a big deal, away from home.

I saw the importance of playing Thiago as a substitute for Iniesta, brought the ball up better than Cesc. Thats why Messi had to drop deep, because Cesc wasn't bringing the ball up well enough.

Adriano was excellent as well. His pace and trickery on the flank means he offers a different option to Villa and Pedro and he has faster feet than Afellay. Disappointed not to see Afellay, but Adriano should definitely be considered in that role...would be giving me some thoughts at least. Particularly as Pedro and Villa didn't look too effective.

Abidal's out of form too... so Adriano should be genuinely considered there too. Don't agree with those who think Abidal 'must' start in big games. If in form, Adriano is just as effective.

I've been telling people... La Liga looks very solid this year. Atleti, Valencia and Malaga all looking strong... then there's the likes of Sevilla, Villareal and Bilbao who haven't started well, but are good teams too.

If TV rights were fixed, this would be a sustainable league... doing a great job in spite of the horrible organisation... Going to see some excellent football this year.

La Liga (Week 4 Standing):
1 Valencia 10pts
2 Malaga 9pts
3 Betis 9pts (- 1Game) !!!
4 Barcelona 8pts
5 Sevilla 8pts
6 Levante 8pts
7 Real Madrid 7pts
8 Atletico Madrid 7pts
9 Real Sociedad 7pts

Honestly, i'am confused.. it's not a bad result (2-2 awya against Valencia) who were better in 1st half, Guardiola made a mistake by playing 3-4-3 formation in this match & Valencia"emery" knew how to make /score their chances..

But we played way better in 2nd half, missed some easy chances.. i wanted to have a 3pts lead on realmadrid, anyway, we has a very gd advantage, we have 8pts (already played vs villareal & valencia away), while realmarid has just 7pts (yet to play vs big teams in laliga)..

not bad, but we could have done better.. now lets hope to win vs atletico (campnou saturday).. its a must win..


Visca el Barca

Khaledbarca wrote:
But we played way better in 2nd half, missed some easy chances.. i wanted to have a 3pts lead on realmadrid, anyway, we has a very gd advantage, we have 8pts (already played vs villareal & valencia away), while realmarid has just 7pts (yet to play vs big teams in laliga)..

That seldom matters. Madrid has problems with small teams that park the bus, but will probably beat easily Vilareal and Valencia as they do every season.

exactly people who are hoping that madrid would drop pts against valencia etc are fools.i would hope on gijon,bilbao,osasuna away matches.

Yes, it is usually small teams that make troubles to RM.

Kizz, la liga looked similar last term as well, remeber, Valencia were on fire in the beginning until the sunk fast and Barca and RM took the lead.

I’m happy with the game.
We showed we are superior once we got our tactics right.
Guardiola made a huge mistake and Valecia exploited it. Kudos to them.

The key point of this game is that Pep should indeed learn his lesson.
Both teams could have scored more goals. A special thanks to Soldado

eelir wrote:Yes, it is usually small teams that make troubles to RM.

Kizz, la liga looked similar last term as well, remeber, Valencia were on fire in the beginning until the sunk fast and Barca and RM took the lead.

I'm looking long term and at the quality of the teams. Not the points on the board.

Valencia's team is so much stronger this year...

Guaita is now established and is a talented keeper, vey talented. His competition Diego Alves has been long considered one of the best in the league. In fact... I wonder why they need 2 such good goalkeepers... if he had faith in Guaita, they shouldn't have bought Alves, what a waste of ability.

Their defence is the main area of improvement... Huuugely improved. The difference between Rami-Ruiz and Costa/Maduro-Stankevicius is just ridiculous. Miguel's a bit inconsistent but is showing he can play well again with decent CBs. They have 2 of the best LBs in the league.

Midfield has greater depth this year with the additions of Parejo, Canales etc. Mata is gone, but they have the quality to replace him, and their game will function much the same way anyway with the likes of Canales, Piatti, Hernandez, Mathieu etc. feeling the gaps nicely.

Up front, they now have Soldado established and gunning, as well as Jonas, who is now also settled.

Match Stats (in details): https://goallegacy.forumotion.com/t6061-barca-stats-2011-2012#233006

Have always maintained that under the Pep era,Valencia are the team that have played us the best by far.
It seems Unai Emery has just one goal every season.To play well against us.
But as mentioned above they will just bend over for Stoke.

free_cat wrote:

Khaledbarca wrote:
But we played way better in 2nd half, missed some easy chances.. i wanted to have a 3pts lead on realmadrid, anyway, we has a very gd advantage, we have 8pts (already played vs villareal & valencia away), while realmarid has just 7pts (yet to play vs big teams in laliga)..

That seldom matters. Madrid has problems with small teams that park the bus, but will probably beat easily Vilareal and Valencia as they do every season.

I'm sure this season is different, Real Madrid will drop points especially vs Valencia/Atletico...

BarcaKizz wrote:Adriano is bossing it... he should be considered as a winger more considering Villa and Pedro haven't been in best form and Afellay hasn't been fit. Great player, been one of the best since coming on.

Yes kizz. Adriano's introduction while surprising had a real impact on the game. Since then we were comfortably the better team on the pitch.

alexjanosik wrote:Have always maintained that under the Pep era,Valencia are the team that have played us the best by far.

Agree completely. The same thought came to my mind last night. Villarreal is probably the second best if we ignore the 5-0 from match day 1 this season.

My short analysis of the match.I thought we started the match very well.
First 15 min we were very good.Their goal came against the run of play.
Also imo the 3-4-3 in itself wasnt the problem.Problem was the way it was set up.We played 3-4-3 against Osasuna and it worked just fine.So then what changed.The personnel and with it the position changed.
Thiago played against Osasuna and he played on the right of the diamond.
And he strictly kept his position.He was almost hugging the right touchline and Alves played in front of him.This meant that we had defensive cover on the right side and werent exposed on the counter.Thiago was there to cover defensively down the right.

Against Valencia most of their chances came down the right.And this was because Xavi was playing the right of the diamond.He kept coming into the center.And there was no one on the right.Alves was playing further upfield.
So Valencia kept attacking there and since there was no defensive cover they kept finding success.Some slack passing also didnt help.The first goal came about due to a poor Puyol pass.

Pep should have changed the tactical setup and I blame him.He could have done one of 3 things in the first half itself.
Drop Alves to RB.Cesc goes to CF.Messi goes to RF and we go back to 4-3-3.
Or Keita goes to the right of the diamond,Xavi to the left and Keita is asked to strictly cover that wing.
Or he should have taken Keita off,brought Thiago on and asked him to play strictly on the right sort of hugging the touchline.
He did none of this.

I've only glanced at this thread and didn't watch this match (I had class during it), but conspicuous by it's absence is criticism of Villa. He cost us the last match, and according to my roommate he missed a clear shot in this one.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I've only glanced at this thread and didn't watch this match (I had class during it), but conspicuous by it's absence is criticism of Villa. He cost us the last match, and according to my roommate he missed a clear shot in this one.

Tbf, the shot was good but the keeper was just better, unlucky, but I do agree he could have done better, he's a world class striker he should finish those chances every time.

My first post. We I could tell from this game is that 3-4-3 tactic was a good tactic to use but it is best to use the old tactic 4-3-3. The first half was sloppy. Abidal wasn't at his best, Alves was playing in a position that he is not use to, Kieta and Busi were getting confused whether to come forward or go back and Mascherano was playing in Alves position. Messi didn't look at his best but as always does something amazing (2 assists). The own goal was caused because of the lack of communication of Valdés. Throughout the whole game Mathieu was making runs and crossing it in and making it hard for the defenders and this is why we should have played the 4-3-3 tactic becuase we would have had Alves guarding Mathieu instead of Mascherano there and leaving only 2 defenders in the box. 3 defenders is better than 2.
Cesc played well as usual and as usual he linked up with Messi to getting that equalizer. We were lucky but 1 point is better 0.
I am expecting the 4-3-3 formation to be back because Athletico's attack is much stronger than Valencia's and we were struggling against them. Good luck Barca!

Nice to see you join us paxtonpale, where in Spain are you from?

In Girona near Barcelona. Love going to the cheap matches!

Cool, I've been to your airport on my way to Barcelona

Its not a real big airport but it is good enough!

Welcome to the forum paxtonpale