The Blond Ambition Tour: The 2016-17 Season Thread

Exactly! CR would never make it in Paulista, he'd cry his bitchass back home after first tackle. [emoji23] Neymar has twice as many goals, even in international level so pwnd Crynaldo.

 

Nor individual goals, to tapins and penaldos for that matter.

 

So Suarez gets two game ban. Hahaha Amazing how LFP and refereeing committee is in Madrids pockets. Is it true that they changed the official report to straight red?

 

It was a double yellow equals red, the 2nd game suspension came from refusing to exit the pitch and go directly to the dressing room (he watched the rest of the match from the pitch end of the tunnel and was back on pitch after the whistle. Luis brought it on himself, really, though the first yellow was harsh. The good news is that it doesn't matter about the 2nd match ban as the ban only applies to Copa so Luis sits out the first the final (boo) then the first Copa match next year (round of 32, when Paco should get PT anyways). I posted articles about this on the CdR final pre-game thread.

 

Lionel Messi (29) wants to be relieved of some on-field responsibility of carrying the team before agreeing to sign a new contract. [MARCA]

This what I have been talking about for a while and people here think everything is fine. I really don't blame Messi, he is balling us all along.

 

Messi can help reduce his responsibility by letting Neymar take free kicks.

 

So Lucho picks the backup RB of Barca B instead of the first team RB! Go figure! I wonder if he picks the team according to other criteria than skills. [emoji19]

 

How else would you explain him favouring Gomes over all the other midfielders we have ?

 

Forgot that we have the right to sign an emergency replacement from La Liga. Yes, Lucho likes Nili as Nile played 9 Liga games for Las Palmas last season, and Nili has practiced more with the first team and seems comfortable there. Palencia may have a higher ceiling but this is not the time in the season or a potential future crack's career to make a Liga debut, that is not a risk with Nili. Why all the Lucho hate. SMH. http://www.sport-english.com/en/new...n-his-aleix-vidal-replacement-already-5802561

and oh gee look Nili is even valued more at present:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nili_(footballer) http://www.transfermarkt.com/nili/profil/spieler/282671
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergi_Palencia http://www.transfermarkt.com/sergi-palencia/profil/spieler/268176

 

More experience in high flight good [emoji106] 1 game vs 22 games this year [emoji107]

But honestly I wouldn't give a rats arse about value. Denis Suarez was bought for scraps but Shitmes cost 3-4 times more and he's not performing according to his value/cost so that doesn't mean much really, for me at least.

If Palencia is the regular RB in Barca B and not Nili, then I wonder if Barca B coach is an idiot or Lucho, cause one of them must be [emoji23]

 

Well I think that, as ever, one needs to take a more nuanced view. Palencia, you may or may not know, is a Barca B captain, scrapping him for a player who is maybe just a hair better would disrupt team harmony (at Barca B). But perhaps neither will ever really make the first team? So you play Palencia in all the Barca B games, he's a good La Masia soldier. And, as you probably know, if you don't train with Barca B during the week you generally don't play with them on the weekend, so maybe, just maybe Lucho and Barca B's coach (Gerard Lopez) agreed that Nili was there at Barca B (just signed on the cheap this past summer) in case (1) Palencia got injured, or (2) in case Barca's first team needed a RB sub with Liga experience (such as injury to Roberto or Vidal, or Vidal staying in Lucho's doghouse). I am not saying I'm clairvoyant (I'm not) but stop hating on Nili, on Lucho and/or on Lopez. Nili is with Barca B as emergency for just what happened and has trained a ton with the first team (just look up the Nile nutmeg video). Give Nili a chance.

As far as the emergency signing option I have no idea if we could exercise that in this season since it is too late to sell someone, I don't know all the FFP (financial fair play) boundaries. Obviously, if we were going to sign Cancelo this summer it'd be great to sign him now (and unlike Widmer and others he is in Liga which is required for the emergency signing Liga exception) but I'm guessing FFP rules it out (for more than 1 million or 2) and that we "play the hand we were dealt" and don't sign anyone. Again, just my guess.

So again, cut both coaches some slack, neither one has to be an idiot, act like you know all this.

 

No need to sign any RB. Sergio Roberto can improve and can rotate with Masch.

News that Lucho is leaving so let the new coach decide who to buy in the summer.

 

Not sure Masch can play every game anymore though. Getting a bit up there in years.

He is also the only reasonable back-up option to Busquets so if they don't sign a RB it will leave them extremely thin in at least two positions.

 

Lucho should rotate the CB position in this order: Pique, Umtiti, Mathieu, Masch. (not fan of Mathieu of course but he can play against smaller teams at Camp). Then for RB position: SR, Masch. For DM: Busquets, Raki/Gomes

Not ideal but under Pep we had so many emergency makeshifts and it worked.

 

Excellent article by Graham Hunter on Andre Gomes. "The state of Barca's season is NOT the fault of André Gomes".
This is not only concerning Gomes but when Busquets, Iniesta, Raki and others are struggling too the blame always goes to the new players.

http://www.espnfc.com/spanish-prime.../barcelona-problems-are-not-andre-gomes-fault

 

On Friday RAC1 reported that Barcelona will tour the U.S. during the 2017 summer pre-season, playing three matches in that International Champions Cup (whatever that is) including a match in Miami against... Real Madrid (!)
I cannot recall the last time these two played a Clasico Amistoso.
Should we care?
(I don't at the moment, in fact I haven't paid much attention to pre-season friendlies for quite a few years now. The Gamper is when I usually start watching.)

 

Menotti: for those who doesn't know him, he is a WC winner manager and coached Barcelona in the early 80s when Maradona was playing for Barcelona. He influenced coaches like Marcelo Bielsa. This is what he has to say about Barca's current season.

-"Barça rely too much on luck. They keep winning w/o playing well & didn't play better than Atletico, yet they won."
-"Barcelona used to be effective because they controlled the risks of a match even when being ambitious and taking the initiative."
-"Now Barça rely too much on individual actions. Every action depends much more on individual rather than on collective execution."

 

Sounds alot like someone in this forum.. [emoji12]