PBP: FC Barcelona v Manchester United | UEFA CL - Quarterfinal - 2nd Leg | 16 April 2019 [R]

I don't think Liverpool's midfield is a LOT better than ours. We also have plenty of depth in midfield with Busquets, Rakitic, Arthur, Vidal, Coutinho, and Alena. Their midfield has more energy but ours is more technical. Their front three is definitely better because they have three in-form players vs. one for us. As great as Messi is, it may not be enough if Suarez and Dembele don't get it together. Their central defense is better because of Van Dijk no doubt. Our fullbacks though are just as good as theirs. Goalkeeper matchup is a wash as well.

For us to win, I feel like we really have to dominate the first leg. If we don't win by 2 goals or more, it's going to be crazy tough. Anfield is a scary place!

 

Solskjaer should have simply shown Rashford the note and taken it back with him. Why give it to the player? He has no place to discard it other than somewhere on the pitch.
Fwiw, MAtS looked at it and threw it back down. The note had a change in formation.

 

they do sing a nice song though

 

Well, compared to Camp Nou (mostly Chinese people on their phone), Anfield is a pretty big home advantage.

 

Yeah this is one team that I’m scared of in a way that I haven’t been of any other team since EV took over. I think it’s Valverde’s first real test. I’d like to think we have their grit and can squeeze through but I can think of only a handful of occasions where we’ve fought back and it runs through the Mess.

Obviously hoping our ‘Pool alumni have some extra insight or whatever to beat ‘em and that ‘Bele gets his sea legs under him in time.

 

It wasn’t OGS who gave the note to Rashford for what it’s worth

 

Their midfield are better? please explain how

 

Irregardless. As coach, he should know better. Call the player to the touchline and explain it to him. Never leave a paper trail.

 

Based on that expert analysis, Valverde must be the best manager of all-time!

 

Again, I rate Liverpool as top 3 side with us and City. Klopp obviously is very good.

Where I disagree is with the analysis on Valverde. I mean, he is very obviously a world class coach, but I think since he is boring and Klopp is a "personality", it makes some think Klopp is unique, Valverde is ****. Roma? Sure, a weak match from us, but it's not like it's characteristic of Valverde to have horrible tactics/line-ups at first and then correct them. We can bring examples of Pool's weak days too if we want.

As for cohesion, I don't know. Depends what we mean by it. Both teams seem good to me, even if both have their weaknesses.

 

First thing Barca have to do is win against Sociedad, focus on that now and win.

Atletico play at Eibar earlier tomorrow, so we will see.

Suarez and Messi should rest for the game against levante, we should be getting atleast a draw like against Huesca, we should beat Alaves also if not atleast draw. This way we get 5 points and Atletico still have to play Valencia and Sevilla fighting for a champions league place. 5 points out of nine in the worst case scenario is worth the risk.

Then we will need only 4 points from the remaining 3 games, which should be easy.

Some players can rest against Sociedad also.

I will favour us to play a 3 man backline with umiti on the left and pique on the right.

Suarez and Messi with Dembele as a wingback.

That would be amazing. We can defeat Liverpool with that.

 

If someone could show we have more come-from-behind victories against top quality opps with players other than Mess contributing, I would feel a lot better. As it is I just don’t know how this team responds when it gets punched in the mouth, and the last time we were...Roma. But I really hope that was more due to fatigue that should be less of a factor...

 

Now its 10 minutes? Love how that rough patch keeps growing in time after the fact.

Those two half chances United got both came in the first 90 seconds! And then nothing for about 80 minutes until Alexis had that shot that MAtS saved nicely..

 

I doubt Messi rests against Levante. We are at home and people pay a lot of money and travel from far away to see him play. In any case, makes more sense to rest him against Celta, and unlikely that he doesn’t play two games in a row. Might rest against Alaves too, but doubt it.

 

Just watch the two games we play against them .. we can all decide then ..

 

No .. it simply means we have MESSI .. it really isn’t that complex to be fair

 

I’ve already said we could have been two down after two minutes .. they were doing fairly well for a big longer than that though ..things went our way when MESSI scored to save our blushes .. have you conveniently forgotten how the Barca crowd were booing early on as we couldn’t string a few passes together ..

 

You have shifted the goalposts. "Cant string passes together" not the same as "defense getting torn apart"

2 chances in the first 90 seconds. Of course if Rashford scored the other chance never would've happened because they would have been celebrating a goal instead of continuing with the play. So, no, we couldn't have gone 2-nil down.

After that there was another 4-5 minutes where we couldn't get out of our own half, but we were still defending well and no further chances occurred. So, no again, we weren't "torn apart" for 10 minutes.

 

Yawn...

It was both... they were cutting through us like butter and we were not able to get our passes going hence the Barca fans booing in frustration

 

Again, not for 10 minutes they weren’t. You posted several times on Tuesday referring to it as a two minute span. 3 days later its 10 minutes. Next week it will be 20. Just bitter that Barca won.

 

Why would I be bitter that Barca won !??

How do you dream this dross up ?

I hate Valverde and his oh so safe and boring tactics and the fact that he prefers a failed midfielder over a rapidly improving RB in Samedo ... I hate that he plays an increasingly ineffective Rakitic over the highly motivated Vidal ... Rakitic can pass better than Vidal but he's somehow reluctant to spread the ball like he does for Croatia and simply opts for the easy little side pass or even worse the ever increasing pass back to Pique ...

Can't put it any simpler than that , sorry .

 

you just answered your own question

 

Liverpool were outshot 13-1 by Porto in the first 25 minutes in Portugal.

Some perspective never hurts...