Never really noticed to be honest ... just a coincidence as I've never really cared / bothered about results ... it's the way we play that will always be my first priority
Now Denis waste it , Honestly Messi should have double the amounts of Assists he has now if they converted every easy chance they got from his passes Pique scores the fifth , assist from Messi as usual
Pique has to be the luckiest guy in the whole wide world .... plays all these years for Barcelona . With all those legendary players .... and Rakitic ( sorry couldn't resist) plays and wins the WC with Spain then goes home to flamin Shakira !! If this was a movie script you'd say it was too far fetched [emoji4]
As Puyol and I guessed when the lineup came out, Dembele really was asked to play much like Alba, a wing back on D but also getting forward on O. Here's a good editorial about it from Sport: It's clear that Barcelona's 5-0 win over Levante, sixth in the table before the weekend, can be explained by Lionel Messi, who scored a hat-trick and made the other two. But there's another footballer, Ousmane Dembele, who's been in the eye of a storm recently, who deserves a special mention. The game began with many doubts, above all tactically. Dembele sacrificed himself on the right, playing as a wing back and helping the three centre-backs (Pique, Vermaelen and Lenglet) with their defensive work as well as the two forwards (Suarez and Messi) in attack. The France forward worked hard all night and even provoked the dismissal of an opposition player with a great run. If against Tottenham in the Champions League Dembele showed that he's a different footballer, who has a special spark, against Levante he showed that he also works, influenced by the non-stop Artuto Vidal as Barca got over losing right-back Nelson Semedo at the last minute. The running and work created space for the team. A few weeks ago, it seemed impossible to think that Ousmane would be able to add balance against a team like Levante, but with Messi by your side, anything is possible.
Three clean sheets in a row, in La Liga (though we did concede against Tottenham and Leonesa in between, with Jasper in goal but not his fault, and not meaningful games plus goals were late-ish consolation-ish goals not that we ever want to let in goals). BEFORE THAT you must go back to AUGUST, Jornada 2, to see a clean sheet in LA LIGA though we had to in CL and one in CdR. For the 3 Liga clean sheets hosted Villarreal: MAtS; Semedo, Pique, Lenglet, Alba; Raki-Busi-Vidal; Dembele-Messi-Coutinho. 2-0. At Espanyol: same lineup but Suarez starts and Coutinho does not. 0-4. At Levante: same lineup as Espanyol but Vermaelen starts and Semedo does not. 0-5. So the common threads in this three game un-scored upon streak are: VIDAL starting (not means as a knock on Arthur, really impressed by him, but he has not been a starter in either of these 3 games), but the energy, strength, and competitive zeal Vidal brings is good. Maybe he needs to be the breakthrough 3rd mid even more than Arthur, or god forbid maybe we could rotate the 4 of them and actually give Rakitic and even King Busquets (flower hour) a rare rest by rotating those 4 in the 3 spots. NO ROBERTO (this is more of a knock, but with Semedo catching a knee knock, I cannot spin this more positively as SEMEDO starts, since he did not today, but SEMEDO does deserve credit too, and so does today's sort of fill in DEMBELE who also started all 3 games, though only today had much more defensive duty). Let's play more Semedo going forward and Roberto can compete as 5th mid with Alena and Denis. LENGLET has also been a starter in all these while Umtiti gets treatment and tried to avoid surgery. Again, as with Arthur, not really a knock on Umtiti, more kudos to Lenglet's adaptation, even if he is not equal to peak Umtiti. MATS started all 3 too, but then he starts all Liga matches and Jasper is a great back up. MATS keeps starting and don't we dare move away from Jasper till summer. COUTINHO only started the first match (and was subbed off in that one), not a big knock on him but he mostly brings offense to the show, and while he played great during Messi's absence, he has been in poor form since Messi came back, missing shots wide, and just doesn't have a great engine (or is it down to effort) to really contribute when he is not getting goals or assists? Coutinho is an expensive luxury coming off the bench but that is where he is right now, can certainly rotate in for starts when we rest one of LSD (trippy), otherwise a plan b luxury to have on the bench ready to sub on.
I wouldn't try to draw conclusions from these clean sheets to be honest. I think we all know Vidal vs Coutinho or Arthur leads to stronger defensive solidity (in theory because Vidal came in some games and we didn't improve defensively). Same goes for Semedo vs Roberto. But IMO even in these games, the defensive system doesn't look all that solid. I think not getting scored on was more circumstantial than anything. Espanyol and Villareal are also bottom table teams at the moment. It's like last season ... on paper, we didn't concede many goals during the season. But quite a bit of that were opponents messing up chances and MATS performing some miracles.
Yeah, good points, we have not looked super solid defensively, just caught a bit of luck here and there, not great competition, etc. That's underscored by us getting scored on by Spurs and Leonesa amidst this "streak", still when we haven't had a clean sheet in Liga since AUGUST! (without looking I think we had at least 6 or even 8 in La Liga by end of November last year), it seemed like a fun little exercise). I'd say we started with this season with this as EV's Grand Once: MATS Roberto-Pique-Umtiti-Alba Raki-Busi-Couti Messi-Suarez-Dembele Since then we have seen, whether due to injury or not, Semedo replace Roberto - just recently, Lenglet replace Umtiti - for longer, Arthur replace Coutinho / move Coutinho up to forward where he initially replaced Dembele but recently has lost that battle to Dembele, and finally Vidal replace Arthur. None of this is set in stone, if/when Umtiti is in peak health I think he starts again; Roberto maybe too but less sure that's a good idea; Arthur clearly a great squad player but maybe Vidal is more ready to start or maybe we really need to use our depth to actually rotate (or maybe Arthur reclaims starter status); same up front with Coutinho - great squad player, use his talents to rest each of Leo, Suarez, and Dembele on occasion. EDIT - checked just now, 8 clean sheets by end of November in Last Season, and 10 by this 16th Jornada (this year we were on 2 by end of November (first and second matches of the Liga season) now on 5 thanks to recent streak).
How many goals were you involved in today Leo? pic.twitter.com/qWYPs6gpMP— Harry Lineker (@harry_lineker) December 17, 2018
Chris Burley on ESPNFC: “Messi should have had an undershirt reading “Stuff it, Pele!” and revealed it after that goal to make it 3-nil!” hahaa… could you imagine?
Finally saw the highlights. Suarez's goal on the volley, wow. What an assist by the fifth best player in the world. Messi was a beast. Pique's goal was funny. Waka waka!
Helmond Cup update: Levante 0-5 FC Barcelona Next: Saturday 22 December La Liga, Jornada 17 FC Barcelona -v- Celta Vigo
Barca now third place in terms of # of matches defending the Helmond Cup (27). Messi needs 3 more goals to become top scorer in Helmond Cup matches.