Sorry, i can't remember really well, how did that game vs Lazio finish, 4 days ago? PSG trashed Barca as well, and would advance through if they didn't chicken out in the second game. Monaco was nothing special, but really nothing special. Probably the worst semi finalist in years.
Yeah we've 3 out of 4 supercoppas under Allegri. Not to mention we started without Marchisio, our new signings, and the useless Benatia started. Anyways as we have seen since his Milan days Allegri teams are slow starters. By new year you will see the real Juventus.
I laughed at your thiago comment and you asked me why. Try and keep up . Not saying he is not who they need. Is just ironic that he was already their player at some point and let him go but now they need him.
oh, i apologise, i thought you were laughing at my statement rather than Barcelona... well it is kind of funny. Btw, they can develop talents if they stay in Barcelona, but their recent transfer politics of selling their la masia players is what's wrong with them.
They both are . Modric did not play on Sunday at Camp Nou and Cristiano scored the go ahead goal on a counter just a few minutes after coming into the game.
Who gives you that confidence? Douglas Costa? The guy who warmed bench in Bayern to 33 years old Robben?
Here is an interesting thought, could Asensio be the next ballon d'Or winner? He is definitely a superstar type of player (gets goals and assists), and he is playing in a team that will be relevant for next 5 years at least. He can have major success being the first fiddle when Ronaldo slows down..
i think you made an excellent point on coutinho. however, i think coutinho can be far more of benefit than silva and thiago given his attacking abilities, pace, and danger. this barcelona is not the same barcelona that guardiola coached. they are much more attacking minded and possession oriented players will thrive less as xavi pointed out. and don`t forget, barcelona bought paulinho. he is a tackler and is also capable of going forward. if barca play busquets as a deep player, paulinho as a box to box, and coutinho as an attacking mid then that would seem an amazing fit. paulinho would provide balance defensively to the team where barcelona is greatly lacking. i read about eriksen joining barcelona and i thought it was one of the biggest transfer jokes. eriksen would just be another `gomes` at best! i`m surprised you actually mentioned that. it sounds like one of those statements that the english media makes just to make it seem like the EPL has these top players that are in high demand. they said the same thing about Delli Alli. doing good at tottenham and playing for barcelona are two different things. tottenham couldn`t even do well in the europa league, although tottenham is not a bad team, they lost to genk! if erikson can`t even be the best player on tottenham, how is he gonna play for barcelona. i would assume that the vast majority of english vieweres would even put delli alli and harry kane above erikson. i`m even surprised you are even saying he is a better version of rakitic in every segment of the game. erikson is at best a big fish in a small pond. if rakitic were to go to tottenham, i bet you would see how rakitic would take over the role of erikson. i could be wrong but i highly doubt it. maybe you are seeing something that i am not.
Let me explain you the bigger picture of what is happening with Barcelona and what is that fall all about. Barcelona will not stop playing tiki taka (i think) because it became part of them and at the end of the day, majority of Barca fans are Barca fans because of that characteristic style of play. That is the major problem. They keep playing that possesion based football, building from the back type of thing, because that's what fans want, but that, right there, is a sucidial act because they didn't buy players that can do that. Tiki taka is not something you are capable of just because you joined Barcelona or something you learn with time. It's something you work for every single day, every single season, and if you are a manager, something you concetrate on 100% of time. That's what Guardiola did. Enrique thought they can play tiki taka plus they can buy some different type of players that would make them "a more complete team", in the sense that they won't rely soley on tiki taka all the time, that in matches when it doesn't work they could simply shift to more direct approach. That was his idea for past 3 seasons. That's clearly wrong type of mentality, because if you want to play tiki taka, build from the back, have 70% possesion every single game, then everything you do in training and every transfer you make needs to be in harmony with that phylosophy. Look at Barcelona's signings since 2014, that's not the case. They tried to do impossible, sort of an ultimate tiki taka, where they can shift from tiki taka to some other system in matter of few substitutions. Enrique was obsessed with that, which why he failed (to the side the fact his tactics and decisions are awful) So this is the deal. They are either going to abandon whole phylosophy that brought them the success, majority of fans, and they are going to adapt to the squad they have right now (+Pualinho, Dembele, Coutinho) with different formation, stlye of play,.., or they will keep being stubborn and try to modify tiki taka in some new way that they haven't had so far and hope it works this time around. *Spoilers alert* it won't work. What do you think they will do? I don't think they will stop playing tiki taka, which means the begining of the end of Barcelona if they don't buy bunch of world class signings suitable to the phylosophy like Verratti, Thiago, etc. Look, that team is very good actually. Andre Gomes is a great player, Rakitić is a great player, Arda is a great player, they could easily walk into different systems. Conte, Allegri, Ancelotti, Mourinho, Simeone all those managers, who are not limited by any type of phylosophy, could, perhapse, make them key in their team, but not a Barcelona coach. Coutinho is a great signing, and he could do the trick if Barcelona adapts their system to players they have and get the most out of him, but they won't. They will keep having problems to pass the ball from defensive line to more advanced positions and there is nothing Paulinho or Coutinho could do to change that because they are not those type of players. First of all, it is EriksEn, with an E, which makes me think you know nothing about him. Also you jduge him by Tottenham's performacne vs Gent so i see where your opinion comes from. Try to watch him play first rather than talking out of your ass. For starters watch this compilation here: (i haven't seen it yet but i know it is amazing) Then go watch his last game vs Newcastle in the league. Here is a teasser: Technically more gifted than Rakitić, better passer, better at one twos, works harder, covers more field (great for high pressing), better set piece taker,.. everything that Barcelona needs other than aerial duels. He would really give brand new freshness and stickiness in Barcelona midfield and would do a lethal duo with either Thiago or Verratti next to him (with Busquets ofc), but hey Barcelona thinks replacing Neymar is the most important thing now, lol.
Bernardeschi and Douglas is still a quality player. Regardless the point is Mandzukic wont have to run his ass off every game as now we have proper wingers to give him rest instead of CM's like Sturaro with no technical ability.
For some odd reason I doubt if he can win Ballon d'Or in the future. Having said that I think he has shown tremendous potential and somehow reminds me of the young Kaka. He clearly has eye for goals and like Kaka he picks his spot whenever he's scoring which means majority of his goals will always be stunning. My only concern with Asensio is that for some odd reason with all his talent I've seen him fading in couple of games. Of course this doesn't happen when he comes on as a sub and gives a world class cameo, however, in games that he starts this becomes apparent. On the other hand his potential rivals like Neymar, Hazard, Isco, etc are relentless when they are on song. The same thing can be said with early days of Cristiano and Messi which built their legacy, and ensures that they can be judged different to other players today. I.e. All Cristiano/Messi needs is just to produce a decisive moment/s to grab the headlines whereas other new players will need to do much more to get the same praises. Having said the above he is still very young and with experience this concern might disappear in the future.
Solution to that is easy. He needs playing time as a first team player, which is the biggest concern for him in Real. I think Zidane, from now on, will use him more often, but his life would be so much more easier if Bale just disappeared. All in all, i do think he will be a superstar because he has quality to make those decisive moments like Messi/Ronaldo/Neymar/etc., which, at the end of the day, is all that matters when it comes to making a name for yourself and ballon d'Or, along side team success that won't run out in his case.
again i can completely see where you are coming from from the analysis of barcelona, it`s players, and it`s philosophy. however, i completely disagree with everything you say about Eriksen. i know we as humans like to make inferences based on one or two sentences that people make and make grand generalizations. although this may sometimes be right, many times it is wrong. i have no idea in hell how you came to the conclusion that the only game i have watched of tottenham was against Genk. that was some really poor conclusion skills on your part. i have been watching tottenham for the past 2-3 years. time will tell how good eriksen is. and if he is good as you say he is, then his performances will be scream so loud that nobody can ignore him. when that time comes, then we will see if he will be playing for the likes of PSG, Bayern, Barcelona, Madrid, etc. Alternatively, Eriksen, can lead his team to champions league glory and become a household name and take tottenham to the elite. until then, eriksen, who is not even convincingly the best player on his team is not on the same level as rakitic as i see it. Rakitic has been a regular starter for barcelona for the last 3 YEARS!!! if eriksen, who is not even convincingly the best player on tottenham and is clearly better than rakitic, it makes me wander what you think of harry kane and delli alli. because the case can be made that both players are better than eriksen. and i say this although they are different positions because you say that eriksen is clearly better than a player who has been playing regularly for barcelona for the last 3 years in every aspect of the game (outside of ariel duels). note: i am not saying that eriksen is not a very good player. trust me, i know he is. you cannot perform at that level in the way he is doing unless you are the best of the best. however, there is a HUGE difference between looking good in the premier league with tottenham and playing regularly (3 years in raktic`s case) at barcelona, and that`s if you even get the chance as an attacking player.
Why would he need to be the best player in Tottenham to be better than Rakitić? Rakitić has never been in a team as stacked as Tottenham other than Barcelona and he clearly isn't the best in Barca. Alli and Kane are only players who overshadow Eriksen and they are in no way average players, quite opposite, so that argument that he is not the best even in Tottenham is lame. Alli and Kane are better players than any of Rakitić teammates throughout his career, excluding Barca's players. And what kind of achievment is to be a regular starter in THIS Barcelona? He had no competition last 3 years in that position and other than 2015 season, he has done nothing that should be praised. Barca has struggled for past 2 seasons so in no way Rakitić is superior to Eriksen because of that.., putting aside the fact that Eriksen is just entering his prime while Rakitić is in slight decline, which is also something i took in consideration. If Eriksen was in his place and Rakitić in his, Eriksen would be a starter in Barca for 3 seasons and Rakitić 3rd best player in Tottenham. It wouldn't make this case any different. It's plain statistic. Just like the fact that Barry has 628 apps in epl and Scholes 499, while both played their whole lifes in epl. it means absolutely nothing, Scholes is still superior. You are taking this comparison too shallowly. You can't take general performance of a team as an accurate evaluation of individuals' skills. Even if you could, it would still ignore huge part, which is how would that individual cope with different systems. I am telling you that Eriksen was in top 5 last season in average distance covered in epl. That fact alone is a huge plus for Eriksen cause of Barca's style. They need that.
Why would he need to be the best player at tottenham??? are you kidding me! do you understand the gap between a team like tottenham and barcelona. what the hell have tottenham done in europe for the last 5+ years???? it seems that you underestimate the gap between barcelona and tottenham!!!!! Have you ever heard of something called RELATIVITY???!! If Barcelona couldn`t even finish the league above leicester and the likes of arsenal could you imagine the criticism they would receive!!! barcelona finished 3 points in the league behind a team that smashed everybody in the champions league!!!! they lost in the semifinal of the champions league to juventus, the year before to Atletico (twice in CL final in the last 4 years) and they won the CL title the year before!!! How could you be in such denial to state that being the 3rd best player on tottenham is somehow clearly above a regular starter for the last 3 years???!!!! rakitic was a star on his team at sevilla, the number 10 and had a far bigger role on sevilla. a team that won the Europa League 3 times in a row!!!! something tottenham can`t even get close to doing even at their best!!!! My God!!! of course scholes is better!!!! he was a regular starter for a World Class Team!!! what the hell has Barry done that scholes hasn`t??!! what the hell have english teams done in the last 3 years in CL???!!!! Spanish teams have dominated Champions League and Rakitic has been apart of it. you seem to giving eriksen credit because you seem to buy into the fact that if you play in england, you should automatically be regarded as a higher player. and distance covered in itself means very little. obviously in a league löike England where the game is very open and turnovers are far more likely, then you will obviously cover more ground on average. i don`t know how you and other english fanatics are convincing yourselfs that eriksen is this barcelona caliber player to help take them to the next level. but maybe i`m wrong.
The Supercopa is a relatively mediocre prediction of what will happen in the actual season. For example, Barcelona won the 2011 Supercopa, but Real Madrid won the 2011-12 La Liga. Real Madrid won the 2012 Supercopa, but Barcelona won the 2012-13 La Liga. In conclusion: the Supercopa is a glorified pre-season friendly - nobody wants to get injured just before the start of the season, nobody gives 100% in pre-season games, which is not coincidentally why pre-season games almost always are a mediocre measurement for what to expect in the actual season. With that in mind: Real Madrid "beat" Barca in the glorified pre-season friendly known as the Supercopa. The Supercopa is an extremely useless, if not entirely useless, measurement of what will happen in the actual season to come. And not only is the Supercopa a relatively mediocre metric to use in any argument that has anything to do with the trophies that matter, but the fact that Neymar was just sold and that no high profile replacement has been bought, was obviously a big factor in the 2017 Supercopa - thus arguably making the 2017 Supercopa even more mediocre a metric than it normally would be. But yes, Real Madrid does currently have a better team than Barcelona - my point is that the Supercopa is very bad at measuring how Real Madrid would look vs. Barcelona, during the actual season, in an actually important game.
Rakitić wouldn't do any different as a Tottenham player if he was replaced with Eriksen, which gives you an idea that that perspective of yours is pointless. Or you are saying that if they changed their roles that Tottenham would get far in Europe? Bullshit. Teammates Eriksen play with has nothing to do with his quality and only players better than him (Alli, Kane) in that squad would walk into 98% first team of all clubs from top 5 leagues and will repeat again, Alli and Kane are at such quality that Rakitić has never played with in his entire career outside Barcelona, not even in UEFA Europa league winning side he had in Sevilla. It's no shame to be worse than them. Only reason why you are taking that perspective is because you don't know enough about Eriksen (i am quite sure of that. You called him EriksOn for whole post) to extract him out of Tottenham's grayness. Btw, take away Messi from Barcelona and they are in no way superior to Tottenham. There is no more huge BARCELONA you are refering to. Like back in 2012 when Thiago had to battle with Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, Keita for the first eleven. Those days are gone. Unfortunately, now it is just a team on the level slightly above Tottenham and it is no privilege at all to be part of that team for 3 seasons. For ******** sake, Rakitić had Denis Suarez, Andre Gomes and Rafinha to compete with for first eleven and you are going on the card that Rakitić plays for big club like Barcelona and Eriksen for Tottenham? Think about that for more than a second. That is generalization to make your comparison easier because you are not fimiliar enough with both to compare them by extracting both out of the context of their clubs, and that generalization is wrong on many levels, as i already said. It is flawed logic. (You do that when you have limited data and comparing players from 1920s, 30s.) Since you already mentioned Sevilla. Let me illustrate how pointless you perspective is. You say that he was a key player in 2014 Sevilla season when they won UEFA Europa league, which he was, also a captain and a main penalty taker, but in very next sentence you say that Sevilla continued to dominate in Europe even after Rakitić left them so how that in any way proves Rakitić's quality? With every sentence you keep contradicting yourself. If Sevilla was capable of winning it 2 years in a row after he left, what does that make of Rakitić contribution earlier? I am no english fanatic, and there are different reasons why english clubs do bad in Europe, which are completely off the topic and honestly, irrelevant to the comparison. Let me summarize this. This is what you are saying: "Rakitić plays in Spain in better team than Eriksen's and Eriksen plays in England so that why Rakitić is better than Eriksen. If you are not agreeing with that you are epl fanatic." If they changed their lifes, Spanish clubs would still dominate and English clubs would still struggle. That perspective is pointless when you are comparing TWO INDIVIDUALS. There is nothing you have said that proves that Rakitić is actually a better player. Btw, i said that he is a top 5 in distance covered in epl. He is top 5 within the league itself. I didn't claim that Eriksen covers more than Rakitić and make the big deal out of it so that your point on epl demanding more of players could be relevant. Rakitić is not top 5 within la liga and Eriksen is. So again, your logic that Eriksen is running more than Rakitić JUST because he is in England is flawed, like everything you said in the post.
Juventus did not thrashed Barcelona, not even close. Barcelona failed to score 3 clear-cut goals: (1) Iniesta, (2) Suarez, (3) Messi. That's 3 clear-cut chances that Barcelona failed to scored vs. Juventus. On the other hand, Juventus scored 3 difficult goals, 2 difficult goals by Dybala, and 1 difficult goal by Cheillini. Barcelona was the better team that created the better clear-cut chances, but Juventus just happened to be extremely efficient, having scored 3 out of 3 half-chances. Results and performances are very different things... That being said, I would like to see Juventus doing well in the Champions League - hopefully this time not at the expense of Barcelona.
If i can add to that. Barca has a new manager. Having that said, it will be more competitive in actual la liga matches, but Real will still win those, easily.. it would need 3 high profile signings and a lot of chemistry for Barca to get a chance beating them. Btw, Barcelona had never been in control of the any of two matches vs Juventus. Also as you said that Juventus scored out of difficult chances, why didn't you mention that the fact Iniesta and Suarez had clear cut chances is down to Messi's briliance only, which doesn't equal great performance by Barcelona. And i am not quite sure on which Messi's chance you are refering to. (is it that close miss with right foot he had?) All in all, Juventus deserved winning it.
Barcelona started copying Real Madrid's "big name mercenaries" policy of the past, meanwhile, Real Madrid started copying Barcelona's midfield - Modric, Isco, Asensio, James - not extremely athletic midfield players, not the fastest midfield players, not the strongest midfield players, not the biggest midfield players, but they don't lose the ball and they cover enough distances - it's the present and also the future of midfield play... And curiously enough, Barcelona got there before anyone else, but for some reason, Barcelona just started getting rid of players like Fabregas, Thiago, etc., when it was plainly evident that Xavi was showing his age and that Iniesta was already looking like a player who would decline early in his career. Bottom line: Real Madrid copied a winning formula, and Barcelona copied a formula that has never consistently proved successful for any club - the club that copied the winning formula, is the club that is currently winning. It really is that simple imo. NOTE: It's also the primary reason why I think that midfielders like 1990s Carlos Valderrama, would do better today, than in the 1990s. The modern midfield game favors skill and intelligence, over speed and athleticism. Modern diets can transform a relatively average athlete, into a relatively impressive athlete. So the intrinsic skill becomes the all-or-nothing factor, and "innate athleticism" increasingly becomes a thing of the past. Smaller-and-slower midfielders are more successful today than ever before, and I don't think that's a coincidence - this will only continue to happen, even more consistently, because modern diets and modern protection have largely nullified the benefits of "a born athlete." Unless you have Messi's supernatural acceleration, or Ronaldo's supernatural athleticism, chances are that super athletic midfield players will continue to lose out to players like Iniesta, Pirlo, Xavi, Modric, Isco, Asensio, Verratti, etc.
I think Real Madrid is definitely overrated, and there's a good chance that they will show it this season. Real Madrid have the best team currently in Europe imo, but they really aren't that much better than a full strength Barcelona - assuming that Barcelona will make some big signing before the window closes. Moreover: People forget this all the time, but... the 2016 Champions League was quite possibly the easiest Champions League of all time. Real Madrid played Roma, Wolfsburg, Manchester City, and Atletico Madrid. That's the easiest CL that I can remember. Zidane's Real Madrid is a dynasty, but for some reason Zidane either gets extremely easy draws and/or extremely questionable referee decisions. No other manager - in recent memory or ever as far as I can tell - has benefited from such CONSISTENT luck. Three consecutive years might be the limit to that luck, as consistent as it's been so far. Iniesta, Suarez, and Messi, all wasted clear-cut chances. And yes, Barcelona never was in control of the game, but then again, Barcelona's MSN rarely ever was in control of any important game imo... Barcelona's MSN could dramatically change the complexion of a game in a matter of minutes, but I've rarely watched the MSN "dominate" a good team. The most dominant performance I can remember was probably vs. Real Madrid, but without Messi, so it really wasn't Barcelona's MSM that dominated that game. The famous game vs. Bayern Munich in 2015, was not a "dominant" performance imo, but rather a game where Messi scored 2 difficult goals, forcing Bayern to force the attack, and then Barcelona's MSN scored a couple more goals (but Bayern still won the second leg, to be clear). Barcelona's MSN was volatile and inconsistent against the top tier clubs, and especially against a credible defensive team - as Juventus has proved to be at the Champions League - creating 3 clear-cut chances in the away game, is about as great as the MSN could hope to be imo. Barcelona simply wasted 3 clear-cut chances in an away game, and Juventus - a team that does not score many goals at the Champions League - scored 3 goals in one game. All in all, Barcelona deserved to win the first leg, and Juventus deserved to win the second leg - and Barcelona should have won on away goals. For the record: I have nothing against Juventus, in fact, it is a club that I have followed for a long time.
For me Eriksen is a better football player than Rakitic, but Rakitic is a better CM wheras Eriksen plays best as an AM (preferably not from wide, which is why Tottenham's formation suited him so well last season and he was already back providing quality assists from central areas this season). Tottenham might be a better fit for Eriksen than Barcelona though I think currently. The grass isn't always greener and all that.
Last 7 times RM won the Supercopa they have not won La Liga. Although this time it looks different unless they suffer some major injures or the BBC plays every game.