The 2011 - 2012 Season Thread | "Return of the moc!"

Score? I'm hoping for a hat trick.

 

I'm not surprise if he does though

 

For as long as he's been here, Pep's lineup decisions and substitutions have gone one of two ways: either completely predictable, or completely out of left-field. There's rarely middle ground. I remember a Clasico a couple of years ago when he had both Alves and Maxwell in midfield, when he had never done anything like that before.

We haven't had a settled starting lineup or formation all year, and this week I think it hurt us. We still look like a team that is figuring out how all the current pieces best fit together.

I heard the podcast also, but I think the simple explanation is that Pep hasn't made up his mind, rather than that he told the players something secret.

 

I had similar feelings about this. The past two years his return was confirmed by early-March. It's nearly May and we're still in limbo.
But I can't help but believe that keeping the preseason tour within Europe was a condition by Pep for his return.

 

I remember it being suggested. Asia and South America were considered but according to this statement the team will only travel within Europe.

 

There are many open questions about the team, but I believe if we had won el Clasico and the first leg against Chelsea, we'd see many of these open questions in a very different light. Against Chelsea we played ok, against LPB pretty weakly (but it was not like we were totally lost at the sea with them schooling us).

That said: I too think the team is missing something. We are weaker than the last season (while some of our direct rivals are stronger) but then again we are three good performances away from a season where we won CL and CdR, which wouldn't make the season too shabby.

Impossibly high standards are part of discussion of Barca's state nowadays, thanks to impossibly great past few seasons. Can't do that well for many years, but that doesn't mean we're "done" or our "cycle has come to an end" or something.

 

I dont think its end of cycle, players like Messi, Pique, Iniesta, Busquet, Sanchez and etc arent even 25 years old. Barca is missing Villa who perform very well against the strong side.

Defense is the problem, more and more team exploiting on counter attack against them easily this season. Puyol is aging and slow while Pique and Abidal absent certainly doesnt help .

 

1. Yep that's what I was saying, no end to anything here.
2. I dunno. We have pretty solid def statistics from this season in both Liga and CL. Def could be better, but I think we don't have any "the problem", just that things could be a little better here and there and that sums up to the situation where we are great but not that great. But of course Puyi is not getting younger etc.

 

i feel like what we've missed more than anything this season is in our forward line, apart from messi.

loosing villa for half the season was a big blow, he wasn't at his best in the first half of the season but we really have missed him, he provides something no one else in the squad can. but on top of loosing villa, we've also basically also been without pedro the entire season, he's been a shadow of the player he was past two seasons for whatever reasons.

so that's 2/3rds of our fearsome strike force missing in action for most of the season, leaving the goalscoring burden solely on messi. then there's also afellay, who was making a very strong case for himself during the pre-season and looked like he could even be push villa/pedro for a starting spot.

alexis has been great in his first year, but picking the third forward has been a big problem this season. you know something is wrong when tello is starting a classico and cuenca is starting in the UCL knockout rounds vs milan, they've both done great filling in, but they were certainly not part of pep's plans at the beginning of the season.

with the forward line having to improvise much of the season (as opposed to last season where our forwards were always on the same telepathic wavelength), that has led to more possession turnovers and put more pressure on the back line, who have actually coped very well all season, especially mascherano.

 

I don't want to say this and it was virtually unthinkable just a couple weeks ago but after our last 3 games things are setting up pretty nicely for CRonaldo to perhaps unseat Messi as FIFA Ballon d'Or winner. Yes, Messi still has helped lead Barca to 3 titles and a possible fourth, and he leads in overall goals and could still lead La Liga in goals (too close to call right now but Ronaldo is up by 1 think), but Ronaldo has led Real to a Liga crown, and, should they get by Bayern tomorrow they'll play Chelsea w/o 4-5 starters (5th one assumes Luiz or Cahill still cannot go, other 4 are suspensions) and be heavy favorites. That might be enough to topple Messi and his remarkable 60+ goals and 20+ assists. Messi's penalty miss and generally poor by his standards play in these last 3 games certainly doesn't help Messi's cause. Whoever gets it the voting should be closer than in past years.

 

Euro? you aren't Spanish. Unless you mean seeing Cristiano flop with his National team again, that's always fun.

 

If they win the CL final and he scores it's a done deal. Ronaldo will win WPOTY and I think you can't really argue at that point.

 

Unless he misses a crucial Penalty in the Euros, amirite?

 

Is it this you guys are talking about?

 

Right now Penaldo looks to be the one getting the WPOTY award because everything is going right for him and his team. But meanings will be shifted when his team will get out of the Euros in group stage.

Messi won it in the world cup year without winning the world cup and I would love to see him win it without even wining the league and the CL. There will be so many bitter Portugal and LPB fans, it wi be worth reading their comments for days.

 

CR is below Messi if we look at it from more wider perspective than one season, but this season CR more or less deserves the WPOTY and I have no problem with it in a way that when you outscore Messi (all competitions combined) and you lead your team to Liga title and maybe to CL final/title, you should get it IMO.

Not that it matters much. It's always nice to see one of our own to get individual awards and smash records etc, but they're nothing compared with team success.

Salieri to Messi's Mozart? Lol I dunno. I mean yeah, Messi is rightly up there with Pele and Maradona while CR rightly is not, but he is a worthy rival irregardless. Like LPB is a worthy rival to Barcelona (and I'm happy it's like that: no thrill in winning always easily).

LPB and CR should enjoy while it lasts as we're not gonna return weak the next season.

 

Lucho, you are over-reacting bro. For all the inadequacies the team has, they played good enough to beat Chelsea. Losing La Liga is basically down to squad depth.

Bunkering teams have given Barca more trouble than any other style for the last how many years. A lack of a Larsson or a midfielder who can score from outside the 18 have hurt the most against those teams.

Star-wise all this team needs is a LB. A CB would be nice too, but I don't think it's a position to break the bank on. If a Vertongen could come for cheap, then do it. We want a reliable, CL-quality CB who won't cost as much as Thiago Silva. For forward a Neymar, Cavani, etc would probably be overkill. Villa will be back. Hopefully one of Pedro, Cuenca, or Tello will step it up. Sanchez will hopefully be improved. It would be nice to bring in a new Larsson-type player (a proven scorer toward the end of their career). How bout a Claudio Pizarro?

 

If Messi wins pichichi and maybe claims the Copa del Rey- he'd still be POTY in my eyes. Unless maybe CR scores a hatrick in the CL final or something and does really well with Portugal.

 

If Guardiola stays and we continue to play a lot of games with three defenders, I think we need better athletes at CB, because they are going to have to run and makeup ground a lot.

You look at Drogba, Ronaldo, Ramires, and Torres's goals this week, and they all came from our defenders being out of position as they struggled to run back to contain a break. Puyol has played great this year, but he no longer has the legs to chase someone like Ramires or Ronaldo all game.

 

Pay the 30 million Euros for Thiago Silva and this team would win the CL next year.