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

De Gea does well for club but he's rarely performed well for country.
Alternative? Well, "short guy" Kepa and Pau López were called into the squad so give them each a full 90 minutes in these upcoming matches against Croatia or England. De Gea can sit on the bench and think about his Russia performances a bit more. No need to rush him back in. Long way to go before Euro 2020... assuming they qualify and right now I'm not too confident about that without knowing the qualifying groups.

 

Of course they will get a chance but my starting 11 was what was in my opinion the best players in each position. Right now despite the poor world cup it's De Gea

 

Not sure if this is fake news but this article lists some perks for Girona fans in compensation for losing a home fixture by playing Barca in Miami:

- 1,500 fans will be flown to MIA for free + get one night free hotel;
- 5,000 Girona fans will be offered tickets to the reverse fixture in Camp Nou;
- 40% refund on season tickets for fans who don't want to do either of the first 2 things listed;

Sounds a bit overly generous not to mention logistically difficult so that's why it comes across to me as fake news. But I guess the Barca v Girona fixture is only a couple of weeks away so lets see how many away supporters there are.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...ts-january-27-hard-rock-stadium-a8522951.html

 

Good news, Alena fit again after a long injury layoff. Also, while this was (still is I think) his year to be promoted, the plan is to play initially and re-gain match fitness in some Barca B games, so I think that explains why his jersey # this season is 26 (something I'd wondered about when I posted the graphic with the jersey #s earlier). I think if he was 1-25 he could only play with Barca and not Barca B. So this way he can do both, which could be valuable, since our midfield is pretty deep with Samper and Rafinha back from loans, Denis soon returning from injury, and all of them struggling to get minutes already behind Busquets, Rakitic, Coutinho, Arturo Vidal, and Arthur.

https://www.sport-english.com/en/ne...arca-b-and-will-play-against-sabadell-7023024

 

So what did I miss

 

Arthur getting compliments left, right, and centre. The latest comes from his NT coach Tite and he basically confirms what many people see in Arthur. He’s a rising star, that’s for sure. So glad he plays for us. I hope he gets to start some games for us really soon.

 

⭐️⭐️ pic.twitter.com/N9FBmuvJcg

— Samuel Umtiti (@samumtiti) September 9, 2018

 

possible shirt for next season

 

OMG!!

 

Not the worst thing I've ever seen... But it's up there that's for sure.

 

Beautiful.

Elegant.

Effective.

 

*puts down 7 shirt designs*
M1 : So which one should we have for next season ?

M2 : Well they all look good , can't we use them all ?

M1 : i'll think of a way

 

Nike will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its first season with FC Barcelona with a special, limited-edition 'mashup' jersey. Top to bottom: 2014-15, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2015-16, 2017-18, 2010-11, 2018-19. [FootyHeadlines]

I think it is pretty hideous and if anything will just be used for a game and then sold to people who will buy anything, hard to see us wearing that for a whole year. But at least the quote about the mash up explains the "thinking" behind it. I think I saw somewhere on Sport that the leak was denied as real.

Here's what Sport wrote, in part:
It has not been confirmed if this will be the shirt or not, with some saying it will be a limited edition effort that Nike will launch to celebrate two decades with Barca.

The truth is it’s hard to imagine players wearing such a crazy concoction. Soon we will hopefully be able to confirm the truth of the leak.
https://www.sport-english.com/en/news/barca/photos-barcelonas-potential-2019-20-kit-leaked-7026000

 

Probably the one time I'm looking forward to seeing a sponsors logo on the Barca shirt. The bigger the better. Anything to cover up as much of THAT as possible.

 

Third kit for this season unveiled.

 

Don’t know how to feel about that kit. ^ The more I look at it the more I see footballing pepto-bismol’s.

 

Third kit is horrible.

The rumoured next home jersey is at least crazy, rather than just boringly horrible.

What's so difficult about designing good-looking jerseys...

 

Cheater !!!

 

Good quotes from EV today, most interesting is Alena will not shuttle back and forth to Barca B (barring further injury) he'll play a few times for them to get back to match fitness then be first team all the way; and we may not see (much of) the players who traveled the most (Arthur and Vidal mentioned), I think this presser was before the squad list came out with Arthur not in it:

Valvede on Alena

It’s possible that on Sunday he’s with the B team, but the intention from the start has been for him to help the B team in these first few games after his injury.

Once these few games are out the way, he’s a first team player in every sense. If he’s not with us for a game, he won’t be with the B team.

Valverde on Arthur and Arturo Vidal

I’ve got to find room for them all and hopefully when they play we’ll win our games. We have a lot of competition.

Vidal had to do a lot of travelling this week but we have a lot of hopes pinned on them. Perhaps this isn’t the best week for them because they’ve had some long trips.

Valverde on Ousmane Dembele

He’s the same player. He’s great going forward, great at finding space, he scores goals. We also want consistency.

He’s working very hard in training but essentially he is the same player. There will be big games when we need him to rise to the occasion, but that’s his job.

from barcablaugranes

 

1041509659193081857 is not a valid tweet id

 

Good start to the season. Unexpectedly, but still. Tough to start without occasional bumps. Of course 4 matches is just 4 matches, but leading is leading nonetheless.

Out of individuals, Dembele starting brightly doesn't hurt.

 

Well, started out against 3 relegation candidates, two of which were at home. Then Barca struggled in Donostia. So I don't rate it as a good or surprising start. It's totally expected. But at least its not unexpected in the way Atletico's start has been.