PBP: UEFA CL Semifinal Leg 1 | FC Bayern München v FC Barcelona | 23 April 2013 [R]

no one said anything about dortmund

 

The solution to our problem is really not soo hard. We need better defenders who are tall and can head the ball, we need atleast 1 striker/attacker who can dribble and go past players. Pedro/Villa/Sanchez/Tello just play the ball backwards when they get the ball on wings, they don't have any ability to penetrate organised defence. Due to this, our attack only goes through Messi And Iniesta.Therefore the oppsing team can simply wait until we loose the ball and run straight towards goal when they get the ball as our midfielders are slow as turtles to cover the midfield and to make the case even worse we don't have any defender who is good one on one.

It was painful to see how easily Bayern were dragging Busquets to the left/right side of the field and lay off simple pass to another Bayern player in the middle of the field. Seeing this our "incompetent" defenders were dragged all over the place.

If it was to me, i will sell Pique this summer and I guess more people would like to see it happen as well. But being the grandson of a previous Barca president is surely helping his cause.

 

I don't understand the piqué selling..

I consider him among the best cb out there.

Xavi, Puyol are aging players and maybe it's time to transition away..

Hummels is a 1st priority pairing with pique..

Also Alves/alba..

I like alba but I am not a fan of Alves much, if they both play too attack minded.. Against a top team that can deliver devastating counters: Real Madrid, Bayern, bvb, juventus, etc.. There will be times when your left with biscuits and 2 cb..

Also as you mentioned, maybe a top striker again. Back to the old days of etoo, ibra, Henry..
Some big target man to take pressure off messi..

This team has become so reliant on him it's scary, if you look at the goal stats. Messi is miles ahead of his nearest teammate.
That's great for messi but ultimately very bad for the team in the long run.

What if messi is having a bad day, injured or marked out of the game and your playing the very best of Europe deep into a CL game.... Who else is going to step up?

Of course I am just an observer. All of you will know a lot better then me about your own team

 

Selling Pique and Alves right now would be a big overreaction. We can't just buy so many defenders at the same time, especially when you consider how much time they need to get used to how we play and their positioning in a high line backline. Both have been good this season, not great, but still good enough to start for us. I'll admit I wanted Alves gone a few months back because he was seriously underperforming but he's gotten better and is still one of our fittest players at this stage of the season so he should stay another year.

Pique just needs someone to keep him focused out there, someone like Thiago Silva could make sure of that.

 

Why would you sell Alves when he is your only sideline attacker. Barcelona has no high caliber Wingers. Bayern has Ribery & Robben, Dortmund has Reus & Kuba, and Real has Ronaldo & Di Maria. See what happened when Real didn't start Maria vs Dortmund

You need to bring in a young Puyol to cover for Alves when he's attacking

 

For the second leg, obviously turning the 4-0 result around is next to impossible, but for even the slightest chance of doing it I think the only option is to take risks, have a very attacking mindset with an all out emphasis on being high energy, high tempo, attack minded, and looking to penetrate and press throughout the whole game. I would love to see this lineup:
---------------------Valdes------------------------
-----Alves----------Abidal----------Adriano-----
---------------Xavi---------Thiago---------------
---------------Messi--------Iniesta---------------
Pedro----------------Sanchez----------------Alba
These are all players who are mobile, can press with energy, recover balls, and then play quickly looking to penetrate. Obviously this is a very risky attack minded lineup, and I know we need a shutout, but I don't think we have a choice but to be overly attack minded here needing 4 goals. Hopefully our pressing and ball recovery will help us get the shutout and makeup for the lack of defensive players.

 

Alba is out next game.. Suspended

 

That's right. I'm expecting we'll see Valdes-Alves,Pique,Abidal,Adriano-Busquets,Xavi,Iniesta-Villa,Messi,Sanchez then.

 

Apart from his endless runm Alves isnt much helping on attack and defense. His surging run on the right seems to be easily neutralized by opponent these days since he didnt play tiki taka anymore like he did during Pep era. So that makes him less effective.