Canaries in a coal mine - the other teams thread

I'm really impressed you're so polite that you haven't posted a photo of Fabregas lifting a trophy with Barca

 

Racism ultimately undid Barca in the end.

 

The only thing Fabregas is going to lift this season is his twiter account to congratulate us with our FA Cup trophy.

 

lol we dont drive the ball b

Expound

 

It's not condescending, I was only calling BS on his opinion. I hate losing big to our rivals too, but it happens sometimes. Pool and city have devastating counter attacks and good pressing against us which we have trouble with. The Chelsea game was a bit flukish for me...we should've had an early goal and no red card. We might not have won, but should have been much closer. City, Chelsea and especially Pool will always play better against us than Sunderland so I don't think it would even be possible for us to take a lesson from them. Besides, I'm sure Sunderland tried the same shit against us, spuds and Swansea on the road and look how well it worked then.

 

Euro 2012 was a big trophy imo

 

the fact that Arsenal could've won the Premiership without better play against the big teams is a point against the single table, not a refutation of the argument that Arsenal should play less shamefully against teams that aren't worried about relegation


Bale ran an NFL kick back for a TD and only had to beat one guy in a final tied 1-1. Barca are not set up compactly enough to win. those legs have played the max # of games in every tournament for half a decade. they can't sustain the high press, so they can't sustain the high lines. they need to sell a lot of the romance. next year will b interesting if the authorities have the backbone to enforce the transfer blockade. they won't b able to convince themselves that reality can b suspended by a genius winger

also they broke their Messi with overplay. still wild to c how he can bypass his first defender from a standing start every time

 

Busquets and Fabregas aren't going anywhere. I agree they are vulnerable on the counter especially when pushing for a goal... it did take an Usain Bolt-like run to get that winner though. A smart CB just takes that foul/yellow.

 

Tbf, I think that's exactly what Bartra tried to do. He just wasn't able to actually knock him down and/or didn't think Bale would be able to run as far as he had to and still beat him easily.

 

Yeah you might be right. It was a very good run.

 

"It happens sometimes".

21-4. Twenty-one to four.

That sadly is no fluke and can't be brushed off, quite so easily. If this isn't a "sound the alarm" moment, what is?

21-4 requires serious soul searching and a major roster overall over the summer that involves the culling of several players from the roster who are not good enough.

 

They could have played essentially unchanged, but they insisted on Busquets over Yaya. Its been basically down there from there.

Obviously "down" is relative, I've noticed they issues when teams defend just outside the 18, and keep their lines clean. I really started paying attention when we started having master class defensive displays against Barca, started noticing the trend. If they can't pass into the box they literally have no other method of scoring. People say we have no Plan B, but when healthy we literally can score from almost any position on the field. When Barca are healthy they just do their plan A a little bit better. That and they are getting called for fouls a more when they press now.

 

Their getting called for more fouls is a big part of their defensive decline. They foul like crazy, but they're all small so it doesn't look like much. On the other hand, when they get touched they fall down and roll around.

 

Yaya is my favorite player but there is no way they'd be better off with him plodding around than they are with such an energetic runner and tackler as Busquets. Busquets has to cover too much ground, as it is

 

I'd rather the squad be bigger. IMO I don't think we have an above average number of meh players. I think we often have too many average players playing together, too often. Something the others don't,ignoring Liverpool who have been able to play an almost unchanged starting 11. That being said even the squad we have is big enough to have had some squad rotation over that terrible Christmas break.

 

the goal took a tremendous run but track meets are fairly predictable. Usain Bolt wins a lot if you give him 100m to run into. likewise, given a huge green patch to run in, Madrid created a lot of chances. every time they got the ball in the 2nd half I thought they were going to score. they got behind Barca in 2 passes, tops

 

Im not sure what this post has to do with my point? Barca's era of dominance ended in 2012 against Chelsea.

And the tiki taka stuff was done. They struggled at that Euros too for the most part.

 

Speaking of Fabregas, has he signed an extension at Barca recently? If he doesn't sign something soon, prepare yourself for insanity a year from now.

 

Unfortunately that's been a big part of their problem the last two years. Tata's persistence with a 4 midfielder formation to get Fabregas on the pitch has been one of the biggest issues with Barca this season.

 

I thought you were talking about tiki taka, more generally, when you said "tiki taka been dead". Spain won that tournament, and were the only team to win that tournament.

also numero 1 tikista Pep is coach at Bayern, which seems very much post-taka

 

they struggled?! ffs they won it.

 

Fabregas isn't going anywhere, and there's no chance of Barca selling him, because they have no other young midfielders ready. Fabregas will be better once Xavi is gone, but he's too similar to Iniesta who's a better player.