To be fair it's probably not up to him. Saudi Arabia didn't pay shit loads of money to not see Messi play. And if you play Messi, you probably need to put the whole 1st team out there. You'd have to come up with a BS injury.
Wow ... just saw Messi's disallowed goal. Too bad it hit his arm. That trap and finish was absolutely ridiculous !
As talkfcb has just pointed out, the supercopa final be between 2 teams who win nothing last seasin, La Liga and CDR winners go home. Everything in football is about money, everything, and the more meaningless it becomes.
TBF, Atleti and LPB are probably the 2 best teams this season in Spain, and I'd expect the La Liga table to show that when the dust settles after another 4 months or so.
Fair enough. Anyway, main point still stands: if we won, that's another 90/120 minutes of wear and tear on our best players, not to mention 3 extra days in a shite country.
Its basically an unimportant thropy but its great to see Valverde got exposed even more. I lost count how many times our opponents turn around the scoreline against his team. Another CL disaster seems to be impending.
Another proof that the team and especially the defence is all over the place. Humiliating defeat in CL is pending. It's clear this coach cannot create stability and players keep taking the fall.
If the fans had any sense they'd begin aiming their frustrations at Bartomeu, it's become abundantly apparent that he doesn't have a clue on how to run the club. How on earth can you continue to back a coach after all that has happened in the past few seasons? I've said it once and i'll say it again, if Barca do win anything this season, it won't have anything to do with Valverde, it will be purely down to Messi's genius and the quality he has around him.
Honestly no they're not. We are still better because we have more goalscorers and they go for lengthy droughts but all La Liga teams have fallen off compared to a few years back. It's not a stretch to say that all of the Spanish teams will lose in the CL by the QF... In fact I predict it. LPB will fall to Man City, we will fall to Napoli or whoever we face in the round after, and Atleti will get demolished by Liverpool.
Not all La Liga teams. Many are stronger or the same. And depends what year we use as the baseline, but I think Barca are the ones to have declined the most over the past 12-18 months.
Well compared to let's say 2016 when La Liga completely dominated internationally all three of Spain's top teams have heavily declined. Honestly probably Sevilla and Valencia as well as they used to dominate Europa. Collectively whether the whole league declined or not I'm not sure but the best teams surely did. I can tell you that the best teams in Europe ain't afraid of any team in La Liga right now. And rightfully so...
Valencia were a mid-table team back then. Hard to say if they could dominate EL since they didn't qualify for it, but I doubt it somehow. They're definitely an example of a team that has improved and once Goncalo comes back they'll be that much better. La Liga still kicks ass in Europe, just not as much as England.
Not Valencia. I was trying to say Sevilla dominated EL... But yea Spanish teams have lost their dominance. Atleti are going to get pulverized by Liverpool.
Yup, tough draw for Atleti. Liverpool and maybe Man City are a notch above the rest. After that, CL and EL is pretty open. Unfortunately right now winning La Liga doesn't look likely for Barca, which is far more important than how good Liverpool happens to be.
I'd rather win CL than La Liga to be honest. Perhaps Liverpool's form doesn't matter because weaker teams could take us out easily. Anyways Valverde is getting too much flak for the team struggling. This is on the players. Even under Lucho in 2016 and 2017 we had some awful losses... to Atleti and Juve in the CL, almost lost La Liga in 2016 in March and then actually lost it in 2017. Our problems didn't start with Valverde. They won't end with him either. Our main problems IMO: 1) lack of talent - It seems crazy to say but we have a lot of subpar players getting minutes at CB, RB, CM, RM. 2) lack of leadership - In many matches when opponents hit us on the mouth and it's bound to happen against tough opponents, there is no positive energy, no fighting spirit, no player to rally around. This can realistically improve if our players have fire in their bellies and play with a nothing-to-lose mentality. If we do that, we'll be dangerous. 3) lack of good coaching - Back in 3rd place IMO. A better coach could improve us but less than people think. Our defensive woes, poor legs in midfield, lack of toughness, lack of height to dominate set pieces... Those will still be problems. Klopp could replace EV starting next match and we still ain't winning a treble. 4) lack of chemistry - With Griezmann, De Jong, Fati all being integrated and a bunch of injuries early in the season, we're still learning to play together. This should improve with time.
I’d say Atletico haven’t been better than us . Madrid are about the same ... but their short term upside potential is better IMO. I don’t see upside in this Barca team .
Well, we have a better squad now compared to last season, but getting worse results. That I think shows that we could certainly be 20-25% better with a manager that is able to get the most out of this team. Dont think any manager can make this team to play great since it's just not that good, but 25% better could still be enough to win a major trophy.
Except the fact that ref stole us the liga in 2016-2017 and gifted it to Madrid. It is true that we lack of talent now,our midfielders either are young or inconsistent,no player can roam the flank (except messi),player playing out of position (griezmann),injured players,weak defenders... Xavi will have plenty of works if he comes back. So if this season will be trophyless,just accept it.
Basically we started to feel Iniesta's presence in midfield, big time. Iniesta is able to carry the ball for long and the only way to stop him is by fouling , most of the time. He could roam in both midfield & the flank and beat multiple players with his run thus taking out lots of preasure from Messi. Rakitic isnt one of those great players who could perform at high level for many seasons. We certainly needs to strengthen our defence and midfield alot in regain our dominance. Messi magic could help to win the league but not CL as we've seen last season where he's top scorer and scored twice in semi but we're still eliminated spectacularly.
I think neither Madrid team has been better than us. Real has looked flat out vulnerable in both matches against PSG, one of them a severely shorthanded one. They've gone for several consecutive games without scoring like a month ago. I hate to blame refs. They had a lot of favorable calls and in the CL but it is what it is. I accept a trophyless season because our team just straight up isn't that good.