It isn't Alexis' fault, its Tito's fault for starting Alexis? hmmm... I mean yeah Barca should've started a stronger team. OTOH, Tello and Montoya were very strong. Pinto a bit at fault for the first goal, but that's also something VV does regularly. I still put the shoulder of the blame on Alexis. He was terrible! Not just his finishing, but couldn't even complete simple passes in midfield. It's ridiculous how many minutes Alexis gets. I would guess probably more minutes than everyone except Messi, Iniesta, Xavi and VV. Anyway, sometimes these games are good. Reminds you that you're never flying that far off the ground.
Yep, better this stuff happens in meanignless CL ties or in the 1st lef of a Copa tie rather than when it counts. We drew which is not the worst result in the world given our away form this season. I don't want to turn this into an anti-Alexis thread, I really don't, but he missed 2 absolute sitters and that obviously did affect the outcome of the game. I just wonder how many more chances the guy is going to get.
I agree. The thing just is that I put Barca above Alexis. Like, I want us to do what's good for Barca, not what's good for Alexis. I want to be patient with Alexis, but I don't want to see him getting a spot higher than he should over players who are more deserving of those minutes. Of course, sometimes you gotta play a player who is not delivering 100% because you wanna "wake him up" and also you gotta rotate. But yeah, for a player who plays so much, he simply doesn't play well enough. It's interesting what will happen in the summer. I predict him or Villa out, not both. But as long as he is our player, I support him. That doesn't mean though that I'd be happy seeing him getting major minutes while better players don't get to play enough - especially if the results aren't good. I mean our Liga success has favoured the misfiring players so far (like, when the team does well, even the more mediocre players get the pass - but when we don't win, it's different). And I don't want to sound like a dude who sees his team draw once, and immediately picks up a knife and wants to sell the attackers who missed their scoring opportunities etc. But the bottomline is: Alexis doesn't play well enough, and either he changes that, or he has to go. It's like that with every player though and only fair: you wanna play for Barca? Cool, you can do that as long as you play well. Here's hoping Tito handles his mental block right, and here's hoping he steps it up asap.
After Alexis scored those 2 goals I thought it would boost his confidence (admitedly one of the goals he scored literally just hit his leg and went in) but it's not had an affect at all. He still appears to have no confidence at all in front of goal. I just think that at the end of the season and Barca will be looking to off load players to enable them to bring other in, then he would be an obvious candidate (unless his form improves dramatically in the second half of the season, which it could). He still young and would probably fetch a decent transfer fee, although Barca are not going to recoup the money they paid for him.
He doesn't. He hasn't played as much minutes as Cesc, Pedro, Busquets, Mascherano, Alves, Adriano, Pique, or Alba so he's not one of the ones who plays almost every game. And I agree on the second part. With the schedule we have coming up as well, it might be a good thing that we had a game like this to get us ready.
Guys, lets not mutate into the LPB forum and panic at the first sign of inperfections. Clearly Alexis had a terrible game, but he gets not more consistent opportunities than any of the other forwards (Messi aside), so to berate him and Tito for getting a start in a Copa game against another team who fielded a weakened side is...shortsighted. This years version of Barca (more so than last seasons) has demonstrated time and again that it can overcome deficits. Apparently some of you doubt that this Barca can put on an even better performance at La Rosaleda than they did this past Sunday and win...I don't.
So do the players named and even more since those guys usually start. Alexis doesn't always, even if he makes some sub appearances towards the end sometimes.
Where has anyone doubted that we can do better? Clearly we are capable of it since we've done it on numerous occasions this season, so it can be done when we need it in a very important match too, I'm convinced. I'm not berating Tito for starting Alexis yesterday, but I am berating him for not putting out the best possible side and getting the job done in the first leg. Winter break only just passed and most players got a rest for the Cordoba match last week so there should be no excuses of tiredness or fatigue right now. If we get the job done next week, then all is good again I suppose.
Well, we could have a repeat of what happened in the CdR in 2010 vs. Sevilla where defensive mistakes at home dug us a hole we couldn't get out of in the return leg away. But this team has been incredibly effective in must-win situations. And this year's edition started the season with a few great-escape acts. Malaga is going to scrap and claw at home, but we've got the firepower to win and advance.
It doesn't matter that the winter break just passed, I think we need to rotate players well before they are tired, so they don't get to the point where they are an ineffective in a match or two and then we rest them. I am not attacking anyone's opinion, just stating my own. I still think the league is the most important, then the Champions League. Even if we won 3-1, I think we'd field a very strong lineup for the 2nd leg. That's just the way it is these days. In any event, I'm sure that most people here were happy with the lineup that we trotted out, and let's not forget they fielded a weakened side too. Most people would have thought we would have won based on the starting lineups. The players who went out there didn't get the job done (especially my friend Alexis....yowzers) for us yesterday, but we should have won by two clear goals at least. Weakened side or not, we were up a man for 15 minutes with a lead and we couldn't hold it. Even against Sevilla that year, we threw everything at them in the 2nd leg, but keeper heroics saw Sevilla through. We actually won that match if I remember correctly, 1-0.