PBP: La Liga J21 | Villarreal CF vs FC Barcelona | 28 January 2012 [R]

I'm going with the theory that Tito is a crucial member of the coaching staff. When he is not around, the team performs inadequately, like yesterday.

I was very surprised this result. You can point to a few instances, one being Messi maybe not trying to chip the Lopez in the first half and rounding the keeper, but looking back at one angle it looked like it was a good bet for him to chip the keeper. Anyways, it didn't come down to that one chance, but once Tello came on we had about four chances in the next 10 minutes. Cesc played horrible again, and that miss with the open net off a Messi rebound was very poor.

I know I questioned why we dropped points in depth last time, but I think its lack of a formal preseason and (mainly) fatigue. Why else would you see Xavi coming off when we need a goal? It's more than that obviously that led me to that conclusion but you can see the slow pace we played at early in the game when we needed some pace on the wings (like the pace that Tello showed later on). Good for Villareal I want them to stay up, just didn't want them to pick up any points yesterday against us haha.

In the league, there's been no doubt we've been second best, but the Copa and Champions League we've been in great form.

question, how many times this season have we played our first choice XI from last season? (V-APPA-BIX-MVP)

this was the lineup that could tear any opposition apart, but i don't even remember the last time we saw this, maybe the home leg of the super copa??

cesc, alexis, and thiago have been fantastic additions to the squad this year, but they can't be blamed or singled out for not being able to fill the gaps left by the injuries to the likes of iniesta, villa, pedro, puyol.

the absence of a pre-season continues to hurt us, as others have already mentioned. i don't think la liga is over yet, but i'm looking forward to seeing more of tello, cuenca, s.roberto, and JDS.

I was listening to Radio Catalunya while watching GolTV. I also followed the text commentaries of SPORT, MD and MARCA as the game progressed.
In the 38th minute Mascherano was fouled (both Marco Ruben then Gonzalo slid in on the tackle) and the ref pulled out a yellow card. On the video feed a graphic went up that Gonzalo had received the booking while on the radio they first said Gonzalo was booked but a colleague quickly made a correction that it was Marco Ruben who was booked. SPORT, MD and MARCA right away had Marco Ruben down with the yellow.
In the 40th minute on the video feed a graphic went up during a stoppage in play showing that Marco Ruben had received a booking although they didn't replay the reason why. So it led many to believe that Gonzalo was booked for the Masch foul while Marco Ruben was booked two minutes later for some unknown reason.
The match report on RFEF has Marco Ruben with the 38th minute booking.

^^^ thanks for clearing that up (and repped, since I finally had one to give )

Re: Xavi, IIRC Pep has given Xavi and Messi and possibly some others the decision of when to play and when to get subbed. If that's true, Xavi must've taken himself off for fatigue or some other reason.