Ernesto Goes to Work: The 2018-19 Season Thread [R]

Messi/ARG will not get far in Copa America, they are a disaster. CL would have sealed his 6th.

 

Many are torn between Messi and Cronaldo especially as the only real tangible measure is the World Player award where they are both tied on 5 each ... Messi would have won last year's if we'd have won CL ... same this year ..

I just worry that with Cronaldo winning awards in Italy they may just give him this year's trophy .


I'd suggest it will be the last chance for both of them ...

 

Penaldo will not get the Ballon for his so called achievements in Serie A. I say best chance is Virgil and or Salah if they are decisive in the final. I think those morons voting are tired of voting for Messi and Penaldo, they'll just give it to someone else if they can.

 

Yes but doesn't change the FACT that Messi DOESN'T get it if they pull same shit. Just like the LPB CL, people only see and remember 3 in a row not how the got it.

I hope he doesn't have a stinker with Arg because that's the last thing people will remember.

 

They remember this [emoji23]

#ARG pic.twitter.com/xqapRY2X6D

— Barça Worldwide (@BarcaWorldwide) June 26, 2018

Just looks like an old drunk man to me 😂😂 #Maradona pic.twitter.com/fupNPtARsu

— Julio Garcia (@juliogarciaSA) June 27, 2018

 

Wasn't the Real Betis manager the favourite to replace Valverde ???

He's just been sacked !?!?!?


We can get him now guys without paying compensation

 

I thought it was Koeman.
Or Xavi.
Or Frank De Boer.
Or Wenger.
Or Jordi Cruyff.
Or whoever-the-current-flavor-of-the-moment-is.

 

If Barca didn’t have Messi, then it would have been an absolutely pathetic season.

Messi masks so many problems that otherwise would clearly show in the results too.

For this reason, Valverde needs to be out.

 

Well, it's not exactly rocket science. It's happening to Madrid now that Ronaldo is gone. The thing is, having a once-in-every-couple-of-generations talent like Messi or Ronaldo is just that, very rare and very hard to figure out how to carry on without them. We build our teams and our tactics around said players for such a long time that it's harder than one'd imagine to adjust after they're gone.

This is especially true with Messi as he is both our most creative player and our most prolific goal scorer. With that in mind, he will be harder to replace than Ronaldo imo. How do you replace his output? It's impossible to find a single player to directly account for them so it becomes a complicated puzzle of putting together a well-balanced squad of which their combined efforts will have to produce for the gaping hole left behind by Messi.

 

We can look at the near past, say the last 20 years, and see that many teams have been able to be very convincing and win many titles without Messi. No reason why we couldn't do that, even if he is the goat and the best current player too.

 

The issue is that this reliance is getting more and more.

De Jong will help, hopefully. There is no creativity in our midfield— Puig should have been given a chance in every game once we secured the title.

 

It's not that we cannot do it, it's that it won't be easy to adjust after he's gone. Again, Madrid is a case in point. Furthermore, those other teams that won it without Messi, of course it's possible with a well-balanced team were the output is more spread out. However, the fact is that we do have Messi. Those other teams did not have to build their teams and tactics around a single player for such a long period nor did they have adjust after that player retires. Again, I never said it was impossible, just that it's not as easy as you'd think.

 

I don't know if the reliance is getting more and more. I think it's been pretty much a constant for some time now. If anything, Suarez at the very least has taken some of the goal-scoring load off Messi's shoulders, except in CL of course, which is worrying.

Agree about Puig, though. I love the guy and really hope to see him more and more on the field next season.

 

I don't know. Depends how he quits and when, and how much he plays in his last season/seasons. Like, whether the quitting is cold turkey or fading. We'll see, though I never said it's gonna be easy. A lot might happen before he quits.

RM handled the adjusting poorly, imo. We can do better.

 

I never said you said it was gonna be easy. It was just an absolute statement, for me at least. I was angling for your comment implying that it's possible to win without a player like Messi, which of course it is, but it's not the same situation we are in cause we do have a Messi.

I agree Madrid handled it poorly and that we can do better. However, again, Messi isn't just a player you can somehow replace. Moreover, it's not like Messi will be here for many more years so we won't have as much time to figure it out before he leaves. He's not Xavi, he has reiterated his wishes to end his career at his native club Newell's Old Boys. So I wonder how long he will "fade" or take on a substitute role like Xavi did before he decides to leave.

 

The club has a lot of time to come up with a plan to replace him, and a lot of money to do it. Some sort of plans should exist already.

A basic modern strategy of replacing a player who gives you so much that you can't sign anyone like him, is to sign a couple of players who can together replace the sold player. I'm sure someone in the club has read Moneyball.

Let's say Messi scores 50 a year, ST 25 a year and LW 20 a year. That's 95 for the three attackers. You don't find someone who scores 50, but you can find someone who scores 25. You're then negative 25 goals. Maybe you upgrade your centerback, and we concede 7 goals less. That's negative 18. Maybe we replace RB, conceding 5 goals less. That's negative 13. Maybe we replace a midfielder who scores 4 a season with someone who scores 8 a season, that's negative 9. Maybe our coaching emphasizes tactics that will get scoring chances to other more than during Messi, so everyone else's scoring goes up by total of 10. That's positive 1. And so on. It's about the team, not about one player. Things will take time, but the wheels are already in motion of course.

Yeah, we will see.

 

I assume you've been reading my posts cause that's exactly what I've been saying . They have to solve a puzzle which is putting together a well-balanced squad where Messi's output will be more spread out. That's the logical solution. My point is, it won't be easy. Messi has been a sure thing every season, the embodiment of consistency, for a whole decade, just like Ronaldo has been. Then there's the rest... It's possible, just very hard, especially in the beginning. In time, of course, we'll get it right.

Regarding a plan already being in place, of course, I would hope the board isn't that inept. However, again, how does one plan to replace the GOAT? You have sort of laid out a very rough way to possibly go about it, however, nothing is a certainty, cause, like I said, Messi is the GOAT and has been a sure-thing for the last decade. Now we plan and we hope...

 

I think that that "solution" is so obvious that it's not even a solution really, but rather the only way, and the club knows this. Get a good starter RW, but try to make the team as good as possible elsewhere. Well, that's we'd do anyway, Messi or not.

 

Yes, like I said, no single player can directly replace Messi, so there's only one logical solution. It goes without saying that the club knows this, however, it's a tricky puzzle and will take time to get the formula just right. That's the whole point.

 

I’d suggest the first step would to get a competent manager in place .. ideally an inspirational one like Klopp for example.. at least he’d be able to assemble a squad to play decent attractive football and not crumble under pressure