Nice first game back from the team! Messi good night in the office. The schedule is brutal. I honestly would have liked to see Messi subbed out after 70'. I'm sure it will happen in some future games.
It will hopefully happen, esp. with 5 subs, but also Messi is pretty good at conserving energy when he can in games, and he will likely miss one of the remaining 10 games as he is just 2 yellow cards away from a suspension.
For being without playing for three months, we looked decent to good. I'm not a fan of the subdued celebrations though. Question for you all, I saw Messi lose the ball a few times, and both times Mallorca seemed to be dangerous. I remember Messi having that fire before when he lost the ball, he would track back and win it back. Is it a case of Messi not having the engine anymore, or worse not motivated to do that? With Pep and even Luis Enrique, the pressure and tracking back especially when losing a ball was unparalleled. *Edit, I know this is the first game back, but i've been noticing a trend from him
Great victory regardless opponent quality. At this time I just want to see them finally play again and getting into the groove. I'd rather see empty seats that those pixels though,... it makes the players and the pitch looks like PS 10 graphic while the crowd is PS 1 graphic lol
He is old and has a lot of miles on him. And specially with the tight schedule, he will have to save his energy.
Yeah, I agree, and I think that it is partly Leo's decision and one which the coaches have supported (and need to plan around at this point in his career, which was not the case for Rikjaard and Guardiola, but still something Enrique had to wrestle with I think). There will be games, or more moments within games, where Leo may track back and show defensive fire, but generally that is not his focus. And so we need players around him to work harder defensively so that he can conserve and play almost every minute, and be fresh for those minutes of offensive genius and burst too. As old as he is he still dribbles more than nearly anyone to disrupt and take advantage of the chaos he creates with the ball at his feet or during give and goes. Honestly, it is why Griezmann has actually worked better with our team than most think, he often works his ass off on defense, dropping way deep with energy and intelligence. And Luis Suarez also works harder than Messi tracking back, and, to his credit Neymar did too when he was with us. (And it may be one reason Coutinho did not work so well with us on the pitch with Messi, he tried on defense but it was not his forte.)
Well so long as we are in a dogfight with Real Madrid for La Liga, it is hard to see too many minutes for the B teamers, though our small first team roster (only 18 eligible first team players), expanded game rosters (23), and expanded subs (5), means they will keep making rosters at least. And injuries or suspensions to first teamers will open even more opportunities. Of the 6 b teamers in yesterday's game roster only Araujo got minutes and he did alright in his first full game with the first team. Of the 5 others available at this game (Puig, Collado, Inaki Pena, Ansu Fati, and Monchu) I would say that getting Ansu Fati minutes is most important, followed by Puig, as both have proven that they can play with the first team and also will either be promoted to first team, or need to be loaned out to a club where they can get minutes in a first division club in a big 5 league. Araujo seems next most important just in that we need to know if he can be the 4th CB (or even third if Umtiti is sold) and also we want to be sure regarding whether to sell Todibo, and whether to buy any other CB (former La Masia starlet Erik Garcia coming back from ManCity is the big rumor as he may be out of contract). Collado may fit in terms of the we need to know whether to promote or loan out or even sell him, but with Trincao coming (who also plays winger or attacking mid), I think Collado is loaned or sold. And it's harder to see Collado getting minutes now that Suarez is back from injury, and Braithwaite was added, as Collado is the 6th forward (after Messi, Suarez, Griezmann, Braithwaite, Ansu Fati); or the 8th midfielder (after Busquets, FdJ, Arturo Vidal, Arthur, Rakitic, Puig, Roberto when not at RB). I think Collado's big chance to help the first team was when we sold Perez and Ruiz from Barca B, loaned out Rafinha and Alena, and then had injuries to Suarez and Dembele, and before we got Braithwaite as a special emergency transfer. It was great to have him then and it raised his profile and value but hard to see him get much time ahead of Fati and Braithwaite in support of MSG. The other Barca B player we might just see could be a fullback, as rumors keep swirling that we might sell Semedo or Junior Firpo or even both to raise money, and that seems foolish if we are just going to spend most of that money to bring in another fullback or two. We do however still own Wague-RB, Cucurella-LB/LW, and Miranda-LB/LW, so more likely we just play Semedo and Firpo as backups to Roberto and Alba to make final decisions on who to sell amongst those 5, and who to retain. If we did go to Barca B, Sergio Akieme is I think the best RB prospect and has trained with first team a bit, and Dani Morer is I think the best LB prospect, Morer could make the next squad given Alba's suspension but Semedo has also been played on at LB, so maybe only 3 fullbacks on our next 23 man squad?
that all makes sense. although i think you got the Barca-B fullbacks mixed up. Morer=RB and Akieme=LB
Yup, my bad, thanks. In an ideal world Real will drop points in a match or two sooner than later (and before we drop any) and we could then play more of our first team back ups and B teamers. Till then I think the rotations will be more limited as the margin is so thin with Real holding the head to head tiebreaker.
News in today's Sport is that Akieme is also for sale, so we are potentially selling 6 fullbacks: Semedo 35M, Firpo 22M, Cucurella 20M, Wague 7M, Miranda 4M,and Akieme 330k but 3M according to Sport. https://www.sport.es/en/news/barca/barca-name-their-asking-price-for-young-left-back-akieme-8001285 Transfermarkt valuations used. That would raise a much needed 90M (if there were buyers at those prices) but we'd still need back ups for Alba and Roberto.