Tata is a idiot.. Iniesta on Left when you have Neymar.. Neymar on right when you have Alexis/Pedro. He's playing the players according to wages or their names even if it means they're out of position. You can't play Cesc/Xavi/Busi in midfield.. That trio is the slowest and least creative atm. You need Iniesta in AM not as winger. How hard is that to understand?! Iniesta in AM = amazing pass.
that injury to diego costa could turn out to be very significant in la liga, ATM will be praying he's back in time for villareal. i guess it's no surprise that the tie will have to be decided in the calderon, everything to play for still in the UCL. it was a good performance from ATM, but risking diego costa could end up being very costly for them in la liga. iniesta was really brilliant. and neymar looked really good too, especially on the left where he looks much more comfortable, he goes down too easily but it was good to see him getting heavily involved in the defending as well. it's no surprise tata started out with the same lineup that he used successfully against man city and in el classico. cesc offers more physically than iniesta does so playing cesc in the middle adds some muscle to our midfield and frees up iniesta (who is in brilliant form no matter where you play him) from his defensive responsibilities and allows him to play closer to messi so they can combine like only they can. it also helps the team hold on to possession for longer periods, having all the best passers out there. with valdes out (and pique now too) that makes it even more important that the team starves their opponents of the ball to deny them opportunities. somehow ATM managed to bag a bit of a freak golazo that came out of nowhere, that had nothing to do with the lineup but it did change the situation so barca needed to attack more aggressively, so alexis came on for cesc. but alexis didn't really add all that much, the more significant change was neymar moving to the left where he is much more dangerous and confident running at defenders - and shooting. stalemate so far, but it was a good hard fought battle and still very winnable for either side. mad respect to Atletico and Diego Simeone especially.
You guys would have won if it wasn't for some good defending by us, lot's of luck and a freak goal (which I will gladly take). I don't see us holding you to a 0-0 draw, which what we will try to do. We need a freaking miracle ,especially that Costa will probably going to miss the next tie. Oh well.
Spoken like a bona fide Atleti fan. Welcome, and thanks for not trolling. Not that the game gave much to troll about.
Maan, Pique must have something worse than bruise because he will be out for 1 month. Last year vs PSG it was the same. With the defence in stiches right before the second leg of the QF. But this time Barca should have done better. Get one CB at least in the January because they knew that Puyol is done
Well it would have been awfully nice to get that 2nd goal. However, as long as we avoid getting shutout our chances of advancing are pretty strong. Considering we absolutely have to get at least 1 goal, hopefully that will make Tata start Iniesta in the midfield with 3 true forwards. I personally would like to see a front 3 of Messi-Sanchez-Neymar, I think Sanchez through the middle could stretch them out and get on the end of a cross, Neymar moves over to his more comfortable left side, and Messi on the right will have more space, see more of the ball, combine with Alves, and can move inside often as Alves gets forward. I think there's a decent chance we see those 3 start, but it will be Sanchez-Messi-Neymar like usual.
Entertaining match for sure. Pinto gifted them a couple early chances, and then they scored that wonder goal out of the blue. However, that period of 10-15 minutes around the Neymar goal was beautiful to watch. Busquets had a solid chance before that. I think the Fabregas experiment was a failure today too, and if Electric Sanchez was able to get that shot off, who knows? We weren't too bad on the corners, Bartra seems pretty good at headers. He had an immense match along with Alba. Iniesta was amazing as usual, and Neymar started slowly but played much better in the 2nd half. Still they have the advantage, and based on the play, I don't think they deserve it. However, they are well coached, tactically astute and continue to cause us problems.
I thought the performance after your goal was pretty good. The result wasn't fine though. However, with how tight it has been between you and Atleti this season, I'm sure it will be something like 1-1 over there and this will be decided by penalties.
I can give him City but not LPB... That game could have gone any 100 ways and Barca didn't win due to Tata's brilliant tactics.. Was Di Maria raping the right flank part of Tata tactics cause he knew Neymar would make a run later in 2nd giving a penalty and red? Or Benzema failing to get those 2-3 other great chances in 1st Half? No. El Clasico was all down to circumstances. And please don't tell me Iniesta on left and Neymar on right is best option?! Perhaps Barcelona would have won yesterday 2-0 playing them in their natural position where they are best.
Your post was quite wague and didn't leave much for interpretation other than that smarty pants. There must be a name for you too then... why don't you ogle it and enlighten us. It'll surely earn you a few cheap reps
well could having bought no new GK or defender screw us over and go from having 3 cups to no cups now as Pique is also out from having a hip fracture I hope Bartra plays really good and maybe even Puyol coming back ASAP
You're missing the point. You're ascribing a point-of-view to people here that no one's actually asserted, and then complaining about them having that point-of-view that they haven't actually espoused. Would it be better if we'd scored more goals? Of course? Would it be better if AM hadn't scored? Of course. But we *are* capable of winning at the Vicente Calderon; and so the result wasn't a disaster by any means. Somehow that position, adopted by a lot of fairly rational people here, gets morphed into being happy with the result and derided, and that's a strawman argument.
I think overall we played well enough to get a win, but that doesn't always happen and Courtois was a monster when they needed him to be. The last 30 minutes of the match was almost like watching us play Inter several years ago in the semis. That's how dominant we were in the 2nd half. They created one or two chances, maybe the entire match and their goal came out of nowhere. It wasn't a terrible display by any means. Edit: If you visit the Bayern forums some people are complaining that Pep needs to learn how to break down the "parked bus". I think top teams in Europe, who are well organized and have tactically astute and skilled players (like Atletico have) make it extremely tough to be broken down. Imagine playing a team with eight players hanging back in their own box all the time, how many possible ways could you try and get them out of shape? You can try and spread the field, by playing it side to side. You could try clever one-twos, or you could shoot from distance to try and draw them out, and what else? My point is, some of you have been going on and on about buying this player and that player, getting a target man and the best team in the world at the moment wasn't able to beat a poor Manchester United side that dug their heels in and played defensively. Sure luck plays a part, but some of you act like it's a simple solution to break down top defences. This isn't a FIFA video game.
Cesc is not the problem. The problem is the sacred cow Xavi who is a zero defensively and contributes less and less offensively. He's even starting to lose balls in midfield. Fabregas is just being forced into your lineup in a out of position no man's place when he should be replacing Xavi who should be sitting. bth, Iniesta seems to be playing better than he ever has in his career. Barca actually played well though. Besides what couldn't really be helped - Pinto's goofs and the wonder goal (although Xavi couldn't have done a bit better there) - Atletico created only one decent chance.