Re: UEFA CL, M3 :: FC Barcelona v Rubin Kazan :: 20 Ocotber 09 :: Pre/During/Post Match Discussion [ you guys are right that this loss was just unlucky and that we should get carried away. but some constructive criticism is also important, and it seems like at least a few weaknesses are starting to show that need to be addressed. 1. maybe this is harsh, but rafa has made four appearances this season so far and has made three errors that led to goals. it is harsh, because he is still just coming back from injury, so that may be a valid explanation. but still, playing that position the way this team plays mistakes are costly. i hope we get chygy back soon so we can get a better sense of what he has to offer. 2. our forward line is struggling. zlatan is not the problem fortunately, the problem is more the lack of depth. henry was badly missed. pedro is good, but not good enough yet. he's got a fantastic shot and he gets a lot of possession but does very little with the ball when he gets it. he doesn't seem threatening enough in one-on-one situations and rather than trying to beat his marker he is more likely to cut back and run away from the defender. his crossing is also poor, although he does seem comfortable with both feet. these are also very harsh criticism for the kid because he's got a lot of promise, but he's not ready yet to be a starter for barca in the champions league. at best, he's a good sub to bring on late. i just feel that he's being given too much responsibility too early. 3. we really missed keita this game i think. lots of times we had possession out wide but there were no late runs into the box, leaving ibra as the only target to aim at (and also the only player for the defenders to mark, so he was usually crowded out). this was where we missed keita and henry who make good runs into the box when we've got possession in the final third having said all that, while there is a lot of room for improvement they really didn't deserve to lose that match.
Re: UEFA CL, M3 :: FC Barcelona v Rubin Kazan :: 20 Ocotber 09 :: Pre/During/Post Match Discussion [ Good points. With respect to the part I bolded, I think this is one area where the Robinho transfer would potentially make sense (especially if it comes with a test-run 6-month loan). He is very good one-on-one, and it seems like our opponents often leave the left side wide open with just the FB defending.
Re: UEFA CL, M3 :: FC Barcelona v Rubin Kazan :: 20 Ocotber 09 :: Pre/During/Post Match Discussion [ The Robinho transfer does make sense in that sense always felt Robinho was destined to be a Barca player Romario-Ronaldo-Rivaldo-Ronaldinho-Robinho it just makes sense
Re: UEFA CL, M3 :: FC Barcelona v Rubin Kazan :: 20 Ocotber 09 :: Pre/During/Post Match Discussion [ When you look at it, at the end of the day (or two days) we played pretty well. Were we not out passing them at a 4-to-1 ratio at one point? We had more chances, Ibra hit the bar, Yaya hit the post....and Messi was clearly tired. He needs to take a rest. Of course now there will be more pressure on him to have a super performance on the weekend. I don't know, I see a lot of people getting on Bojan, but not too many talking about Pedro. I find that although he is young and is still learning, he isn't a starter. The English commentators made an interesting point that Pedro consistently looks backwards in order to make a pass when he is cutting down the wing instead of just driving the ball across the net. His crossing has been pretty bad too. I understand he's scored some key goals....but who is to say that Bojan can't either....if he's given playing time. One other point. The team was pretty tired, and another thing that I noticed was that our players weren't making runs towards the net when the ball was out wide. Iniesta hasn't hit the gear that we know he can. Yaya was absolutely phenomenal yesterday. It was an unlucky loss, they sat there and defended, and got away with it. Plenty of upsets this matchday.
Re: UEFA CL, M3 :: FC Barcelona v Rubin Kazan :: 20 Ocotber 09 :: Pre/During/Post Match Discussion [ Well I took a few days off to cool off from this game. So upsetting. Well Rafa is running out of chances both goals on him, the defender ran right by him on the 2nd goal and he had a horrible clearance on the first goal. They would have never scored if Pique-Puyol would have been on the back imo. Its hard to blame him when he is just recovering. If we are gonna ship Rafa out is now or never. (Whichever way it goes it better be for the good of the team) I guess if we had to lose a game, it might as well had been this one. Imagine in mid april having a "stay undefeated" pressure on us.
Re: UEFA CL, M3 :: FC Barcelona v Rubin Kazan :: 20 Ocotber 09 :: Pre/During/Post Match Discussion [ Sigh, I hope that's not going to be the case all season. That would be a major drag. I want to have fun watching futbol!!
Re: UEFA CL, M3 :: FC Barcelona v Rubin Kazan :: 20 Ocotber 09 :: Pre/During/Post Match Discussion [ All year thus far teams have been playing us so as not to lose instead of actually trying to win.