PBP: The 2024-25 La Liga Match Thread

I'm happy to report that LPB betas are attacking each other, complete with a poster getting banned. And attacking their manager and their players.

And its delicious!

 

Meh, if the situation were reversed, we'd be livid.

But, I wanted to underscore the reality that using the bench allows for fresh legs and fresh lungs to propel Fermin to even put a shot on goal.

And, bringing on Christensen put fresh legs and lungs to make that crucial sliding tackle possible.

Basically, this is what happens when you sub. Use the €150MM transfer value on the bench. Keeping tiring players on could have led to a draw, or worse.

Indeed.

 

I'll disagree. He had his shaky moments today and at San Siro, but if you take a step back and recognize the immense nature of both matches, you've got to cut the young kid some slack.

IOW, not every match is a Clasico to decide La Liga, or a UCL semi final.

I'm actually optimistic about his future.

I can agree that this roster is not built to defend for 45 minutes art a time. But sitting deep for 5 minutes? Come on, even 10 year old kids with ADD can do that.

As you can imagine, I was livid that they allowed that just a few days after they squandered a chance to win UCL, for all the same reasons.

From your post, to God's ears!

 

it's been terrifying watching the team perform this season , every attack from the opponent can turn into 1vs1 or 2vs1 with our GK , all they have to do is time their runs right , and this shit happens throughout the 90 minutes , being a barca Fan isn't easy on the heart

 

Meh, not every player is ready at 18.

And, again, using your bench gives your young players experience. Whats more, this link shows that Martin is actually a better defender than Balde.

Balde is more of a winger, who is a defender in name only. Martin can defend a bit, but I do agree that he had some heavy touches.

What do you think?

Before Hansi stoopidly squandered the opportunity to win the UCL, and the cash that goes along with it, Dani Olmo's ability to line up for this club between injuries only happened because of some slick lawyering, not due to truly balanced books.

So in short, ya better find something you like about Martin, or you better find something you like about Alex Valle. Pick one, because those are probably your choices.

 

Funny you say that because Madrid's first goal was similar in ways (Mbappe offside)

I guess I really don't understand the rules anymore, or the "logic" behind them. Why should a defender's touch negate Mbappe being offside but Valverde's touch doesn't negate the accidental ball to Fermin's hand? And why is FdJ handball (somewhat intentional, and no touch by a Madrid player until picking the ball out of their net) perfrctly fine, but Fermin's not (purely accidental)?

 

I dunno about Christensen. Rather have Cubarsi out there all game every game but he got injured so.... it's not like the defense looked remotely solid after the subs came on

Fermin sure. But there isn't a big drop off in quality at that position. Sadly we can't say the same about other positions.

 

So a handball is handled differently than any other type of foul by the scoring team in the build up?

 

Wait, after Cubarsi shat his pants twice to give up 2 goals to begin the game, you still wanted him in the game?

That aside, Christensen did fine today. If Hansi could get off his addiction to the offside trap after minute 85, the defense would have been OK.

As noted, sometimes VO2 max > any drop in quality. Sometimes, a player being able to move his feet matters more than any drop in quality. Sometimes, having less lactic acid in a player's legs matters more than him having less talent.


Just off the top of our heads, we came up with examples of those phenomena occurring. Again, make subs.

 

Is this the first time either team has won four Classicos in a season? That’s a pretty significant bragging right, especially when you get all three trophies. A bigger deal should be made of this

 

thank you Barcelona[/QUOTE]

We can only hope to outscore opponents in remaining games by scoring multple goals. I think Hansi has giving up on fixing the defence at this point of the season.

 

We can only hope to outscore opponents in remaining games by scoring multple goals. I think Hansi has giving up on fixing the defence at this point of the season.[/QUOTE]

Watching Barca this season has been wild, I mean some truly incredible matches. Obviously the 2 against Inter and pretty much all the ones against LPB, have been simply insane. Whilst I don't want to sound like the boring parent who tells his teenage kids that it's time for the party to end, surely Barca can't go on 'defending' next season as they have this season. You can't rely on scoring 4/5 goals a game because your opponent has scored 3/4.

 

As a matter of fact, it caused us the CL semi. The league is more forgiving cause there's always another game to collect points.

Its ridiculous how we threw away 2019 & 2025 CL. 3-0 up in 2019 and taking the lead twice in 2025 only to get eliminated.

I do think the core of our team is more than talented enough to win it within next few seasons, and many are still young. Then again , we can still finished the season better than in 2019 where we also blew the CDR final.

 

I was talking in general terms, clearly. Yes, Cubarsi didn't have his best game or best week. He has playing alongside Martin the past few games, remember.

I also like to judge the defense as a collective, and after changing three-quarters of our backline yesterday, we were collectively leaky af at the back. It wasn't much better before the subs came in, but it certainly didn't improve after. Just lucky they missed that sitter. And on a different day, Vinny and/or Mbappe converts those half chances they each got.

 

And, specific to that (or any) match, it is/was 11 times out of 10, the right choice to swap out the tiring, and underperforming player for the fresher one.

A fresh and fit Cubarsi is better than a fresh and fit Christensen. But, a tired and poorly performing Cubarsi is not better than a fresh Christensen. Cubarsi's good, but he's not yet prime Van Dijk, or prime Pique, or prime Baresi, so swapping him won't cripple the team.

And, is that down to poor play, or idiotic instructions by the coaches, relative to the game situation?

I agree that Flick needlessly relied on luck to win the game, rather than taking appropriate action to modify the approach.