I'd like to ask, since people have blamed Pique and Roberto so much, why was Semedo so far out of position in Athletic's goal ? Was this a rebound off a corner or something ? He is literally in the middle on top of the box marking nobody. WTF is he doing there ? The Athletic player had like 5 mins to pick that cross right on the edge of the box. For me that's a bigger issue than the coverage.
I can't tell how bad the overall play was by the highlights, but we had 3 very clear scoring chances in the first half.
Everyone is talking about how the defense sucks and it does... but we conceded just one goal yesterday. That should still be a win. I think the offense needs just as much help as the defense. If we peak in April for once, I'll be happy though! October will be a tough month. Tottenham, Valencia, Sevilla, Inter, Real. I'll reserve judgment of this team until after these fixtures. We'll have a better idea of where we stand.
It's all a unit, if defence is all over the place the midfield and attack will suffer especially with a useless player like Craperto. The attack is also playing a one string tone, it doesn't seem to be any solid structure or philosophy in the team, just like Lucho, there is little room for errors and if there is a error then entire fragile team falls apart. Performing under pressure needs all units to work. This Barca has no identity so just like last year miracles are needed to win the Liga or anything of significance. A coach should make the team better not destroy it, especially a team with so much talent, the best midfielder and best player in the entire universe, its tragic! EV is like Mourinho, destroying the team with clueless choices. Rafinha, Craperto, Munir, Vermalen as left back, selling Digne with no clear backup. Signing Paulinho who makes great impact just to loan him next year! Not signing a proper striker as backup for Suarez. Luckily LPB are in similar worse shape with injuries etc otherwise they'd be 5p ahead now. The club is rotten, It starts with Bart from top to bottom with EV! When I look at the Barca if past 6-7 years I seen an era with many lost opportunities even if Barca had won multiple Liga and CDR. Barça should have dominated with what they have had.
I respectfully disagree. I think this team has talent but not like you say. Messi is obviously insane, Coutinho and Umtiti are world class at their positions possibly Dembele as well but he's still inconsistent. I'd say talent-wise, we are a clear step behind a few teams right now. Doesn't mean we can't win. We have Messi and if we have a system that is effective we can and should dominate including in the CL. I wouldn't call the club rotten. I'd call it unbalanced. The last three years apart from 2016 when we caught a bad break against Atletico, we were nowhere near the best team in Europe though. It hurts to say and it felt nice to dominate the LPB matchup in La Liga but that skewed our perception. We are not the favorite to beat any of PSG, Liverpool, Man City, Juventus, Bayern, Real, and Atletico this year until we prove otherwise. Heck, we may well struggle against the likes of Tottenham and Inter in our group.
That's because you underestimate other clubs' abilities to sign players and play football, and ask for a level of success that is impossible to sustain for longer periods. For example, the Pep era, everyone saw it was exceptionally great, but the stress is on both of those words, it was great, but it was also exceptional, not in a way that we should be ok with mediocrity, but in a sense that that level of success just isn't normal, and even that era had us lose league, CL. I would agree that individual decisions could have been better. But issues like relying on Masia or playing possession-style are like, yes you want to rely on Masia, but it's complicated because the first team doesn't have too much room for players who don't deliver quickly or at least show expected growth, and possession-style is like a wave: when you go hard for it, people ask for variance, when you give variance, people ask possession.
Yeah, just one goal but the attack looked dangerous once it was at full strength (i.e. when Messi came on). Very unlucky not to score more. The only real concern there is Luisito, and even that is not too worrisome (I think at minimum he will still be decent this season). Defense is more concerning since I don't see how its going to get any better than how it has looked against Leganes and Girona.
So what you are saying is that Juventus, Roma and some random La Liga teams signed up just the right players to beat Barca fair and square and would do it again if needed? It's a damn shame Barca didn't sign Manolas to be honest. I'm not being unreasonable and I'm not living in the clouds but Barca have literally ********ed up completely on many occasions from transfers up to choice of coach and direction from the board. I'm not saying they should have won all trebles since Messi came along. Year after year its the same errors and decisions that hurt Barca when they shouldn't. They could all have been easily mended. Just take the flopp transfers and losing Neymar to dropping your pants as soon as you concede a goal. Let's have this conversation again when Messi isn't around and Barca are midtable. At least LPB are keeping tabs on Barça on top of the table without Penaldo, where do you think Barca would be without Messi this season? If the board see what I see, EV would have to step it up. This season is not bad luck or VAR it's a clear cut clueless coaching DEBAUCHERY. #BartomeuDimiteYa #GTFOEV
No. I'm saying that there are many serious world class clubs out there, with smart people leading, lots of money, academies, good squads with quality and depth, and we are only one of them. Some year this team wins, some year that team. Clubs make million decisions, small and huge, no club gets it all perfectly or all wrong. That is the reason we don't win all the time, not because we **** it up on all fronts currently and lately. FWIW, there are many things we haven't gotten right, I'd agree, but, I don't know. Well, for someone who has been an active member here for well over a decade, don't you think it's a little less black and white, little more complex than how you make it be, running a real football club I mean?
I wonder if La Liga now has the most parity among the top 5 leagues in Europe.(?) Only 10 points separate top from bottom in the current table. And I think it'll be a while before City, PSG, Bayern and Juve drop as many points as Barca/LPB have already dropped. Perhaps 80 points will be enough to win La Liga this season.