This is true too. Every forward player needs goals to regain confidence and get back into form so it's no different with these two who really need some right now. But these changes under Tito have also meant that they don't get into the box as much as they did under Pep now so they don't get as many shots away like in previous seasons. They are now pure wingers under Tito, not even wingforwards (even though he may instruct them to shoot and get in the box in certain games, like in a Chelsea game situation). Tito said a long time ago that he was going to play a classic 4-3-3 at Barca with everyone playing in their favored positions and that's exactly what we've seen so far. Pedro and Alexis have taken a hit and don't score as much because of that, but they now contribute more to the buildup and team play overall as a result. Neymar would fit in excellently in this current setup, actually. We've seen Tello dribble and outpace his man so many times in the past year while Neymar is obviously a better, more matured, composed player than Tello. He's much more fitting to play on the left wing than Villa is while he'd guarantee more goals than Tello and Alexis would as well.
true. but take a look at these numbers: pedro 10/11 -53played-22goals-8assists-83shots-42shots on goal pedro 11/12 -48played-13goals-6assists-58shots-31shots on goal alexis 11/12 -41played-15goals-5assists-58shots-31shots on goal pedro 12/13 24played-2goal-6assists-37shots-20shots on goal alexis 12/13 29played-1goals-4assists-15shots-9shots on goal not sure how much we can read into these numbers. both players are on course to at least double their number of assists, but their goals have clearly dried up. interestingly, the stats don't seem to suggest that pedro is taking fewer shots, but the quality of his finishing has obviously been poor. whereas alexis is clearly taking fewer shots, although he is only one assist away from matching his assists from all of last season. so i'm agreeing with you that they are both lacking in confidence in front of goal. but i just think that there's more going on than that. i do think tito has deployed the team a little differently this season, but what i'm not sure about is wether the tactical changes are the cause of their lack of goalscoring, or if the tactical changes are a response to their lack of goalscoring. either way, the results speak for themselves and full credit to tito. i also think tito's tactical switch from playing with wingers instead of forwards does partially explain why villa hasn't played more - being a world class forward but a pretty average winger. i've re-watched all eight goals villa has scored this season, and what was interesting to me was that almost all the goals were scored from central positions. in only three of his eight goals did he recieve the ball on the wing, and on two of those, he got the ball in a wide position then exchanged a few passes with an overlapping iniesta so by the end of the move iniesta was wide and cut the ball back to villa who had taken up a central position. and villa only has one assist to his eight goals, so it doesn't seem like tito is deploying villa in the same way he is with pedro/alexis.
What's crazy is that at this point in la liga (J17) we have scored more than we have in the previous two seasons despite the lack of forwards scoring who aren't wearing #10. The fullbacks and the midfielders have really gotten into the scoring act. I also agree that Jordi Alba's crazy workrate has opened up all kinds of action on the left side where previously it was just Iniesta trying to make something happen. Now this theory may be met with derision but hey what else is going on. Maybe P-Rod and Alexis subconsciously wanted Messi to get that crazy goals record and it made them get those yips in front of goal. Now that it's over they are going to pick it up in 2013. Especially in the CL and late in la liga when the other Spanish clubs are playing for European spots are fighting relegation. These teams will have to commit more towards containing Messi which will free up the wingers to take shots.
Don't buy that theory because at this point last season Messi had 17 goals in 17 league games. As we know he ended up with 50, so that means he scored 33 in his last 21 Liga games. It wasn't just after the record was in sight that Messi scored like crazy. The imbalance between goals by Messi and the rest of the forwards began around the time of Villa's injury. BTW, that means that Messi has scored 59 goals in his last 38 Liga games (one season's worth of games). PS... Falcao is suspended this weekend so he will miss a chance to play against one of the weaker defenses in La Liga. Messi can extend his lead a top the scoring race.
Pedro had a similar(ish) first half of the season last season as well. He looked out of form and low on confidence. But towards the end of the season he found his form, so much so that from looking like he had no chance of being in the Spanish squad for the european championships he made it in. The way I look at it is that we are top of the table with a 9 point lead over Atletico, 16 points over LPB having won 16 out of our first 17 La Liga games. On top of which we won our CL group and are in the Copa Del Rey. If we can do that whilst some of our players are still under performing, think what we can do if/when those same players hit form.
Speaking of breaking records (thread -title), Barca need 4 points from their next 2 Liga matches to achieve their best first-half of the season ever. Actually I'm surprised they still need to do that much to have their best ever first-half, but that's what I heard on the La Liga preview show. When did Barca have 52 points after 19 games?
I share your surprise that we need that many points to beat the all time record but I do recall that it was only a couple games (wins) ago that we set the record for best Barca start ever, so perhaps that same season. And we wound up not winning title that year. Hmm, I looked briefly and found this - our all time Liga mark for best start topped Real's record and we won the title that season (by one point): Barca have now put together 13 wins and a draw from their first 14 matches to beat the previous best start set by Real in the 1991-92 season. Harder to find our prior best start, but if memory serves it was also in a year we did not win the title.
Taking this post from the "Barca meet-up" thread because probably not everyone here reads that thread, but this is of interest to most here: Here's a preview of the one on CBS: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138176n
"best of Sanchez this season" video: Only one goal but still a bit of a look at his skills, though nearly all footage of him with the ball, he is also great moving without the ball on O and D.
I and about 100 million other Americans watching Colts and Ravens play pointyball just saw the 60 Minutes teaser for the Barça piece tonight. "They may be the best team in the world, but how they got there may surprise you. Tonight, on 60 minutes."
I'd love to see this. I hope someone uploads it later. I saw this bit on their website: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138176n Edit: And this one: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138175n
Just watched the CBS 60 Minutes segment... aside from the ridiculous comparisons to Yankees baseball, not a bad report, trying to pack in so much basic info about Barça into just a few minutes.
Still got two hours for it to air out here out West, I'm guessing it will be posted somewhere online well before that though.
For a moment I actually thought Messi was about to speak English, but no didn't happen. No surprise there. It was a fairly decent report of things, just watching those 8 year olds play the same football as the senior side is fantastic. Who knows where we'll be in ten, twenty years from now? In good hands surely with the crop of talents we have coming up.
I did too. Pretty good introductory report for all those who don't know about FCB. My friend said it was very interesting. I was trying to pick out the matches the highlights were coming from.
Was there anything surprising about "how they got there" to us serious fans? I'm assuming it was all about La Masia? Is 60 Minutes on the air in Canada?
No there was nothing surprising about "how they got there", in fact there was barely a mention at all. They spoke about La Masia in greater depth than other aspects (such as Catalan independence/politics, the success of the past 4 years and of course, Messi). Yes, 60 Minutes was on the air in Canada (on the East Coast). I imagine it will be on again on the West Coast in Canada around 10 pm EDT. We get CBS, I don't think we get showtime, at least on regular cable. The Skins-Seahawks game ended at the perfect time for me to switch over.
So what will be the difference between tonight's lowdown on Barca and the one that will be on Showtime on Wednesday? And will I be able to find it on the internet? I don't have Showtime anymore unfortunately.
I think the difference is the one on Wednesday on Showtime will be Messi specific. This was a general Barca piece on 60 Minutes.
Yeah, I guess that teaser was just thrown in to catch the audience's attention as if they are doing some ground breaking investigative journalism work instead of rehashing a million articles and videos. I hope my question about Canadian TV didn't sound patronising - I had no idea you get CBS, but then again I'd never thought about it. I've been to Canada a couple of times, but I guess I never turned on a TV while there.
Maybe the Wednesday program will be updated with footage of Leo collecting his 4th Ballon d'Or tomorrow.