La Liga (Week 21): FC Barcelona Vs Real Sociedad

For once, he will realize that he is another team player, he will get rest. Even more so, the rest of the attackers will up their game, cuz there is no Messi to save our asses.

Hete BLKSM wrote:I'm so happy we still have badger.

I know...he made a number of great tackles today

but he was completely caught out for griezmann's chance

Another long term injury????

eelir wrote:I think Pep should soon bench Messi. I mean he is getting individualistic as he is not able to score. Does that remind you on someone?

I don't think he should be benched, that's way too drastic, do you realize he scored and created our only goals today? I think he should get his rest when he serves his yellow card suspension.

eelir wrote:Another long term injury????

WTF the cut looks AWFUL

Albiceleste wrote:I don't think he should be benched, that's way too drastic, do you realize he scored and created our only goals today? I think he should get his rest when he serves his yellow card suspension.

You are right when you put it that way, but he needs a rest, and I dont want him to turn into Cronaldo, and try to finish all the chances by himself.

Tello was great! He deserved the second goal too, bad luck. Offered much more of an outlet than Cuenca, particularly with his pace, but Cuenca was also given a little less room.

JDS was OK, recovered the ball well a few times. I guess he'll get a few chances now if Busi misses games. I don't really like Masch playing there tbh. Bad luck Fonti is injured

Messi's finishing today... wtf. When he beat the keeper he should have took it first time on his right. Instead he cuts in and lets the defender recover... Really strange game from him, normally he would have had a hattrick today. Like Pep says though, when he's bad, he's still superior to other players.

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Busquets could be able to play on Wednesday #fcblive
7 minutes ago

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note: info via barcelona's press department
8 minutes ago

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The club can't yet give a n estimation of the time of recovery #fcblive
8 minutes ago

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Busquets would only need stitches #fcblive [btv]
13 minutes ago

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First medical report: Busquets has a lacerated contused wound #fcblive

He's gonna be fine

I thought we had a great game, huge improvement from Villareal, we actually created chances, alot of them actually and were unlucky to not have scored more than 2.

HATERS can GTFO !!

Busquets will play on Wednesday !! *************** U!

Guardiola: "Alexis has problems with his collarbone and a thigh muscle. We hope he'll be ready for Wednesday."

Shit!!!!!

this looks terrible

BarcaKizz wrote:Tello was great! He deserved the second goal too, bad luck. Offered much more of an outlet than Cuenca, particularly with his pace, but Cuenca was also given a little less room.

JDS was OK, recovered the ball well a few times. I guess he'll get a few chances now if Busi misses games. I don't really like Masch playing there tbh. Bad luck Fonti is injured

Messi's finishing today... wtf. When he beat the keeper he should have took it first time on his right. Instead he cuts in and lets the defender recover... Really strange game from him, normally he would have had a hattrick today. Like Pep says though, when he's bad, he's still superior to other players.

Do you mean in midfield? cause I thought he was not that bad at the back...made some mistakes, but he was no Gabi Milito thats for sure

Thiago ~ MOM imo.

I don't know about others on here, but I know I'll sleep well when Xavi calls it a day. No disrespect to Xavi though.

I wasn't able to watch the game and I don't get Barca games anywhere where I can replay/ rewatch unless it is shown on ESPN3. Is there anyway you guys know I would be able to rewatch the game?

How did JDS do? And was this 2-1 game a result of not finishing or were we struggling?

Frustrated Messi ..

I have a feeling Busi will be fine, I think Cesc looked away because the cut was really deep..maybe approaching bone deep. But the contact didnt look like any sort of twisting motion which means ligament damage. I worried his leg might be broken, but they didnt put it in any sort of containment to keep it still so I am hopeful he will be okay.

The Busi overrated nonesense is that, nonesense.


Anyway, as for the game. I think I will start with Messi because I sense worry among some. He doesnt lack motivation, nor is he distracted, he is a player and he loves playing I dont think we will ever have to worry about those sort of external problems. He is simply tired, its obvious, his touches and moves are those of someone lacking their usual explosion. Then he missed some chances and Messi always does this when he misses a few, he gets anxious to get himself a goal. He got it in the end and he will be fine. Once some time goes by and the level of fatigue goes down, he will be the same Messi.

As we are up the attacking end of the pitch, what can I say about Tello. Very goo performance, never overcomplicated the issue, was direct and took his goal well..even if the goalie was far too quick to come out, it was a nice finish from the lad. Cuenca was quite over that side, he loves to cross and people play him on that. But he did put in some good low balls tbf.

Cesc was good in the first half, in terms of linking with others. It was his finishing and shooting which was horrible, missed a very good chance. He also took WAY too long on the ball twice without knowing whats around him, got robbed and Sociedad went down the other end and had a 1 v 1. Second half more quite, but overall while it wasnt a great performance it wasnt took crap either. Thiago was effecient and after a couple lose ones early he found a flow and made the correct passes and did so quickly. Also a super ball for Messi at the end which might of been an assist if Messi was usual Messi.

JDS turned it over a little bit more than normal for him but did his job well. I felt he defended quite well and got called for 3 fouls which were unfair.

Puyol did well bringing the ball out from the back and avoided making a costly error like in other games. He did well. Mascherano was excellent in the floor and made some super tackles, but he did get caught out by a direct long ball which I didnt like to see.

Adriano was quite and just did the defensive side of the game. I think Tello really likes to take up similar positions to him so that made Adriano a little useless in attack. Playing down that side with someone like Villa, Iniesta or Sanchez who make runs either towards the ball or away from it to goal, gives Adriano more time out wide to make plays. Dani Alves was vibrant as always, making lots of forward runs and joining play in centeral areas too. Excellent picked out cross for Messi for another assist. I am not sure, was it him who gave away the ball for their goal? If it was, it was sloppy and frustrating because he just made a goal for Messi and instantly erased it.

VV made 2 good saves in 1 v 1's and was very unlucky with Vela's goal. He read it perfectly, he knew exactly where to go, but Vela's shot wasnt in the corner and it just went in between his body and arm. Flapped at one corner which is very unlike him.

I want to point out how great we played today. sure the score was only 2-1 but had our finishing been up to the mark, it would have been over by halftime.

To me this is because we stuck to a system which we KNOW works. that is, a 4-3-3 two strong wingers who take on defenders, while dragging them wide and allowing Messi to play his role well(though not scoring the goals).

Also, I thought Fabregas played well, he stayed in midfield for the most part and held it together. Thiago and JDS were great, though they had some mistakes but I'm sure with time they will get rid of that. I have to admit, I didn't think that JDS would even have made to the first team at Barca, but in his performances this season I think he has what it takes.

Masch was good(with some mistakes, no biggie in the end), and Puyol was

Alves and Adriano were good. Played their roles well and a good assist for Dani for Messi's goal.


I'm not totally against 3-4-3, but we have to know when to use it and we have to NOT BE Tired. 3-4-3 requires even more pressure and running in order to work(espescially while defending) so right now I think we should stick with our 4-3-3

An excellent performance from the team.
With better finishing we should have won by 3 or 4 goals.
Excellent passing and we moved the ball around real quick.Managed to create a lot of chances even though Sociedad played defensive.

On the players,first Messi.I agree with dani that Messi is very tired.A fit Messi would have scored 4 goals yesterday.He just seems to lack that sharpness especially infront of goal.Ironically he finished his toughest chance of the match.Still I think he played very well.General play was good.Set up the first goal with an excellent ball,scored another and played well in general.Its the sign of an all time great that even when not playing well for his standards,he is still better than everyone else.

Extremely impressed with Tello.Scored a goal,the second goal should have stood,provided width and crossed well in the first half.When they put another player on him in the second half,he started coming inside and laying it off.Excellent game from him.
Cuenca was a bit quiet.

Thiago was very good.Some nice dribbles and some excellent passes.The pass to Messi late on with the outside of his foot was just sumptuous and reminded me of Laudrup.The best young midfielder on the planet and its just frightening how talented he is.
JDS too was excellent.I am beginning to see why dani rated him so highly.
Excellent and very quick ball circulation.I think he is good enough to play for us.He should have been promoted to the first team along with Cuenca.
We need to sell Keita and promote JDS else some top club might snap him up.He is good enough to play for an elite side.
Fabregas too had a decent game.Didnt look his usual clueless self.

Masch was excellent and so was Puyol.Adriano was solid.
Alves was Alves.A great pass for the Messi goal.

Overall an excellent performance and we should have won by more.

I agree with Alex's comments. Perhaps I wouldn't go as far as we played excellent and rating everyone superbly , but we definitely put a good performance and everyone played well but the back line: Alves gave the ball away far too many times (in real's goal too), and Puyol and Machete couldn't cope well enough with long balls. Thankfully Valdes was incredible as he has been the last months. He was our best player.

With the rating Alex gives to Tello, JDS, Thiago and Cuenca, I can see Alex joining our friki-masia-team (Kizz-Khaled-me) .
Seriously, our young players are very talented, I don't think our club ever had so many quality in the youth as currently. Aside from all the guys that are already proven at top level (Thiago, Cuenca, Pedro, Busquets), we have so many players that WILL have a great level that it is unbelivable: JDS, Tello, Muniesa, Sergi Roberto, Rafinha and Deulofeu. And if Bartra learsn to defend, he will too.

But seriously, Rafinha and Deulofeu, will make it at the first team. If they don't, it will be a failure from them, from the youth structure and from the whole Clubl. They are world class prospects.

Puyol has a streak of 55 consecutive games without losing. Iniesta has a streak of 45 in the league. Amazing. !!

free_cat wrote:I agree with Alex's comments. Perhaps I wouldn't go as far as we played excellent and rating everyone superbly , but we definitely put a good performance and everyone played well but the back line: Alves gave the ball away far too many times (in real's goal too), and Puyol and Machete couldn't cope well enough with long balls. Thankfully Valdes was incredible as he has been the last months. He was our best player.

With the rating Alex gives to Tello, JDS, Thiago and Cuenca, I can see Alex joining our friki-masia-team (Kizz-Khaled-me) .
Seriously, our young players are very talented, I don't think our club ever had so many quality in the youth as currently. Aside from all the guys that are already proven at top level (Thiago, Cuenca, Pedro, Busquets), we have so many players that WILL have a great level that it is unbelivable: JDS, Tello, Muniesa, Sergi Roberto, Rafinha and Deulofeu. And if Bartra learsn to defend, he will too.

But seriously, Rafinha and Deulofeu, will make it at the first team. If they don't, it will be a failure from them, from the youth structure and from the whole Clubl. They are world class prospects.

to much talents :S what's bad about it, some of these players will leave Barca.. we can't keep them all.. spanish federation should allow 2 teams from Barca in 1st divison in future
A and B Team !

The Franchise wrote:I have a feeling Busi will be fine, I think Cesc looked away because the cut was really deep..maybe approaching bone deep. But the contact didnt look like any sort of twisting motion which means ligament damage. I worried his leg might be broken, but they didnt put it in any sort of containment to keep it still so I am hopeful he will be okay.

The Busi overrated nonesense is that, nonesense.

Anyway, as for the game. I think I will start with Messi because I sense worry among some. He doesnt lack motivation, nor is he distracted, he is a player and he loves playing I dont think we will ever have to worry about those sort of external problems. He is simply tired, its obvious, his touches and moves are those of someone lacking their usual explosion. Then he missed some chances and Messi always does this when he misses a few, he gets anxious to get himself a goal. He got it in the end and he will be fine. Once some time goes by and the level of fatigue goes down, he will be the same Messi.

As we are up the attacking end of the pitch, what can I say about Tello. Very goo performance, never overcomplicated the issue, was direct and took his goal well..even if the goalie was far too quick to come out, it was a nice finish from the lad. Cuenca was quite over that side, he loves to cross and people play him on that. But he did put in some good low balls tbf.

Cesc was good in the first half, in terms of linking with others. It was his finishing and shooting which was horrible, missed a very good chance. He also took WAY too long on the ball twice without knowing whats around him, got robbed and Sociedad went down the other end and had a 1 v 1. Second half more quite, but overall while it wasnt a great performance it wasnt took crap either. Thiago was effecient and after a couple lose ones early he found a flow and made the correct passes and did so quickly. Also a super ball for Messi at the end which might of been an assist if Messi was usual Messi.

JDS turned it over a little bit more than normal for him but did his job well. I felt he defended quite well and got called for 3 fouls which were unfair.

Puyol did well bringing the ball out from the back and avoided making a costly error like in other games. He did well. Mascherano was excellent in the floor and made some super tackles, but he did get caught out by a direct long ball which I didnt like to see.

Adriano was quite and just did the defensive side of the game. I think Tello really likes to take up similar positions to him so that made Adriano a little useless in attack. Playing down that side with someone like Villa, Iniesta or Sanchez who make runs either towards the ball or away from it to goal, gives Adriano more time out wide to make plays. Dani Alves was vibrant as always, making lots of forward runs and joining play in centeral areas too. Excellent picked out cross for Messi for another assist. I am not sure, was it him who gave away the ball for their goal? If it was, it was sloppy and frustrating because he just made a goal for Messi and instantly erased it.

VV made 2 good saves in 1 v 1's and was very unlucky with Vela's goal. He read it perfectly, he knew exactly where to go, but Vela's shot wasnt in the corner and it just went in between his body and arm. Flapped at one corner which is very unlike him.

Dani u should become a football analyst Very good and details report

Thiago played really well, almost did a Xavi/Iniesta combined in this game

About Cesc, I thought the same when I saw the pic of Busquets' leg here too, I thought it was a bone but not sure?! Cesc needs to toughen up though, thats always been his weakness, I hope he learns from this and become a man

Very happy Messi finally scored, and hopefully ur right about him. Once hes over this, he will be right back to his brilliant self

I also liking Macherano a lot, hes done well in defense for us considering hes in and out often. He might also play DM if Busquets doesnt recover....

Praise to all the youngsters for stepping up and performing...

And no one mentioned, but a bit surprised by Real Sociedad that they played no where near as good as last game? We pressed very well in this game I thought. They also parked the bus very well last time, but this time we changed much of our game and it really troubled them, and considering that, praise to Guardiola especially... not sure if I believe our width and Messi actually performing very well did it this game apart form the finishing...

Only did not like our give away and relaxing after 2-0 up....

Khaledbarca wrote:Puyol has a streak of 55 consecutive games without losing. Iniesta has a streak of 45 in the league. Amazing. !!

Amazing! We should just play them whenever

Khaledbarca wrote:

free_cat wrote:I agree with Alex's comments. Perhaps I wouldn't go as far as we played excellent and rating everyone superbly , but we definitely put a good performance and everyone played well but the back line: Alves gave the ball away far too many times (in real's goal too), and Puyol and Machete couldn't cope well enough with long balls. Thankfully Valdes was incredible as he has been the last months. He was our best player.

With the rating Alex gives to Tello, JDS, Thiago and Cuenca, I can see Alex joining our friki-masia-team (Kizz-Khaled-me) .
Seriously, our young players are very talented, I don't think our club ever had so many quality in the youth as currently. Aside from all the guys that are already proven at top level (Thiago, Cuenca, Pedro, Busquets), we have so many players that WILL have a great level that it is unbelivable: JDS, Tello, Muniesa, Sergi Roberto, Rafinha and Deulofeu. And if Bartra learsn to defend, he will too.

But seriously, Rafinha and Deulofeu, will make it at the first team. If they don't, it will be a failure from them, from the youth structure and from the whole Clubl. They are world class prospects.

to much talents :S what's bad about it, some of these players will leave Barca.. we can't keep them all.. spanish federation should allow 2 teams from Barca in 1st divison in future
A and B Team !

Good one free, we should be very happy with the state of the club atm And right that hopefully we also get a new Puyol or Pique in the up coming ranks too And Pique's height makes him such an asset as mentioned, as good as Puyol and Macherano are...

And that would be nice Khaled, unfortunately not gonna happen

shinigami99 wrote:

BarcaKizz wrote:Tello was great! He deserved the second goal too, bad luck. Offered much more of an outlet than Cuenca, particularly with his pace, but Cuenca was also given a little less room.

JDS was OK, recovered the ball well a few times. I guess he'll get a few chances now if Busi misses games. I don't really like Masch playing there tbh. Bad luck Fonti is injured

Messi's finishing today... wtf. When he beat the keeper he should have took it first time on his right. Instead he cuts in and lets the defender recover... Really strange game from him, normally he would have had a hattrick today. Like Pep says though, when he's bad, he's still superior to other players.

Do you mean in midfield? cause I thought he was not that bad at the back...made some mistakes, but he was no Gabi Milito thats for sure

I mean in mids. He's a cb for us. I'd prefer Fontas to him at Cdm with a bit of experience. Better passer etc, Masch is fine though, but I prefer him much more at CB.

Anyways I agree, Masche for Barca is much better off as a CB than DM. JDS should be given a notch.

3 decisive handballs in #laliga 2011-2012

article in arabic but there is pics: http://www.goal.com/ar/news/1920/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A/2012/02/06/2890083/%D8%B3%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%AA-%D8%AB%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AB-%D9%84%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%8A%D8%AF-%D8%BA%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%86-%D9%85%D8%B3%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%AC%D8%A7

Google it lol

U can add denied penalties especially Vs Valencia & Bilbao etc..
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note: its not the reason we are 7pts behind realmadrid.. our away form sucks.. but this shows that alot of referee mistakes are going against us ...