Champions League [Round 16 | 1st leg]: Bayern Leverkusen Vs Barcelona

Just to add to your discussion:

Sanchez offensive stats in La Liga:

Apps: 11(2)
Goals: 8
Assists: 2
Shots per game: 2.1 (27 shots)
Key passes per game: 1 (that's 13)
Dribbling per game: 0.6 (that's 8 dribbles total)
Dispossesed per game: 1.9 (25 times)
Turnovers per game: 2 (26 times)

Stats are from whoscored.com

No way Sanchez has dribled 8 times in the league (and that's a low number as it comes).

You can compare them to other sources if you want to be 100% sure. I think WhoScored.com uses Opta for it's stats, not entirely sure though.

Here is the entire Barca team:

So much for Pedro dribbling more than Sanchez, which if I remember correctly you tried to imply before. And as we all have told you before, its pretty obvious that sanchez is still playing it "safe",where he would rather pass the ball than dribble..

Danny7 wrote:Sanchez turning into Eto'o.

He's got the pace, strength, quick feet, work rate.

Need to tweak his shooting and we found the replacement. Great performance from my boy.

etoo i miss that guy ..imagine etoo with his inter form and messi right now and villa in valencia form.we would win every match like 7-0

Guardiola interview after the match: http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/pep-guardiola-after-barca-win-at-bayer-sky/

vivabarca38 wrote:

Danny7 wrote:Sanchez turning into Eto'o.

He's got the pace, strength, quick feet, work rate.

Need to tweak his shooting and we found the replacement. Great performance from my boy.

etoo i miss that guy ..imagine etoo with his inter form and messi right now and villa in valencia form.we would win every match like 7-0

don't start that , because i could say imagine ronaldinho-Messi-Eto'o( can play everywhere) ....

We know it won't happen but how many goals would Bayern have to score at camp Nou to qualify if Barca don't score?

ColoJunior wrote:We know it won't happen but how many goals would Bayern have to score at camp Nou to qualify if Barca don't score?

3 goals

Thank you
We were at his house and the commentators were saying that Bayer only needed to score two goals and keep a clean sheet at Camp Nou to qualify.

So we were going back and forth. I was saying it was 3 and he was agreeing with the commentators.

harhar11 wrote:So much for Pedro dribbling more than Sanchez, which if I remember correctly you tried to imply before. And as we all have told you before, its pretty obvious that sanchez is still playing it "safe",where he would rather pass the ball than dribble..

The difference between Pedro and Sanchez is irrisory, and those stats are obviously flawed, they probably consider backward runs as dribles, it's the only way Sanchez can have more than 5 dribles this season in the league. Only in Leverkusen game, Pedro tried to drible twice, (one successful) while Sanchez did none in 3x times.

Oh, and the theory that Sanchez is not trying to drible becaus he is playing it safe is ridicoulous. Why should Sanchez be playing it safe while Cuenca and Tello, who are younger and should be playing it much safer, are trying to drible everyone and succeeding? (btw, another proof that the stats are flawed, because both thello and Cuenca have dribled much more than Sanchez per game).

ok seriously free, you're really sounding like a biased blinkered viewer when it comes to alexis who just doesnt want him to be a success!!

this idea that pedro is even close to him atm is completely ridiculous!! lets face it, pedro hasnt been inconsistent this season, complete opposite, he's been consistently bad all season with only a flash here or there to remind us of the player he was.

sanchez is doing EVERYTHING to prove that he's the better player. and now se7en provides stats that disprove your defense that pedro dribbles more and yet you instantly come up with some excuse!!

the writings on the wall free, you're the only one arguing against alexis! how about instead of watching him and wanting him to fail you actually appreciate the player on the pitch!

yes he was a dribbling machine at Udinese ( i watched him quite regularly there) but that was at a team where he was the star, the main man, where the ball went to him, where he was at home and comfortable!!
now he's at a new club, sharing a changing room with the biggest names in football at the moment!! he's no longer the star, the fulcrum, solely responsible for the creativity of the team! thats going to have an effect on how comfortable he feels about trying dribbling!

and tbh, lets just call this what it is, a petty squabble about something that really isnt that essential!! if he was trying too many we'd have some of you bitching about how he doesnt fit into hte philosophy of possession football and just wants to showboat!!

so give it up free, he's playing really well atm, he's coming up with the goals and putting in a huge amount of work for the team! if you feel like he has to do a couple of stepovers every now and then to justify why he was bought then you're acting like a complete fool!

Free just has built up anger at Sanchez for displacing Pedro. It's cool, most fans here went through the same face with Busquets for displacing Toure, but I doubt many of us have reason to complain about Busquets now.

I didn't ^

A good performance and we are through to the next round.Couldnt have asked for more.
Alexis has been clinical and its great that he has chipped in with the goals this season.His movement off the defender is brilliant and he should have scored more goals had it not been some atrocious offside refereeing in the league.
Messi played within himself in the first half but exploded in the second.
Iniesta clearly lacked match practice and it showed.Great to have the Don back though.Busquets with the bandage on his leg played carefully.It was clear the wound was on his mind.
All in all a good performance and most importantly we have secured qualification to the QF.

After this game i think Alexis is faster than initially thought.

I like

free_cat wrote:

harhar11 wrote:So much for Pedro dribbling more than Sanchez, which if I remember correctly you tried to imply before. And as we all have told you before, its pretty obvious that sanchez is still playing it "safe",where he would rather pass the ball than dribble..

The difference between Pedro and Sanchez is irrisory, and those stats are obviously flawed, they probably consider backward runs as dribles, it's the only way Sanchez can have more than 5 dribles this season in the league. Only in Leverkusen game, Pedro tried to drible twice, (one successful) while Sanchez did none in 3x times.

Oh, and the theory that Sanchez is not trying to drible becaus he is playing it safe is ridicoulous. Why should Sanchez be playing it safe while Cuenca and Tello, who are younger and should be playing it much safer, are trying to drible everyone and succeeding? (btw, another proof that the stats are flawed, because both thello and Cuenca have dribled much more than Sanchez per game).

If they counted Sanchez dribbling backwards then so must they have done with Pedro, and if Pedro has dribbled more this season while they have not counted than the chances that they have done the same to Sanchez is very, very big.

If he wasn´t playing it safe then how come he was one of the best, if not the best, dribbler in serie a(the most defensive league in the world) last season? or then how come he is a dribbling beast when he plays for chile? Last season in Serie A he averaged 3 dribbing per games.

Or what about this dribble. He was around 19 years old at the time.


I know that south american teams tend to not be so good defensivly but I very much doubt that pedro could do that against them, and I like pedro..

ColoJunior wrote:Thank you
We were at his house and the commentators were saying that Bayer only needed to score two goals and keep a clean sheet at Camp Nou to qualify.

So we were going back and forth. I was saying it was 3 and he was agreeing with the commentators.

Nah, barca would still advance because if leverkusen scored 2 goals while barca none, then the aggregate scoreline would be 3-3 but barca would have scored 3 away goals while leverkusen only 2...

You must have some very bad informed commentators lmao

You guys should get a grip. I'm not an alexislover, but I'm no hater either. He should start now that Villa is injured and I'm very happy with his goal return (although is not better than any other starting forward we had in the last 6 years, but in general I've been happy with all of them).

Just because you are all alexislovers, doesn't mean you can't see that he has flaws and is not really an improvement on Pedro (well, it does mean that of course, but we can try to reason). He has been better than Pedro this season, I agree. But he has not been better than Pedro the previous two seasons. I still remember how most of this forum criticized Pedro for "only scoring" (more than Sanchez btw) in his first season specially. Pedro got critized for doing the same Sanchez is doing now, while Sanchez, being 37 milions more expensive is being praised.

I don't care what Sanchez did in Argentina or Udinese. To the date, hasn't proved to be able to drible, neither to do one-twos, neither to have a left foot (one of the reasons we tied vs. Espanyol), some of the qualities of an on-form Pedro. To try to say that he has dribled or created with us is a blatant lie, if he had, you would be able to find lots of vides of him with Barça dribling and assisting goals, and you won't, except for Marcelo's dribling in the supercup; a one off.

Oh, again, the stats are clearly wrong if Cuenca and Tello just have 0,2 dribles per game more than Sanchez, so we can't really take them into consideration (well, I can believe Tello's statistic considering he has mostly played 20 mins per game, but not Cuenca's who successfully dribles and creates space to cross several times a game). The theory that Sanchez doesn't drible because Guardiola tells him is laughable, when 20 year old Barça B guys come in and leave several defenders seated every game.

I can imagine Pep shouting in the sidelines: "Nooooo, please!!! Alexis, don't, don't! Don't make any wonderful dribling runs that may create a goal and decide the game in our favour!! Pleaseeee! Don't!! Let's better just tie vs. (insert random team away from home in the league)!"

Is this still going on guys?
Give it a rest. Alexis is on a much better form right now and we can only hope Pedro gets back to his 10-11 standards

Here Marca is explaining how alexis changed from being a dribbler to a team player but I guess that you know more about sanchez than we who have seen him player way before he played for barca..

Edit: This part of the article was pretty interesting

Cuenta Joan Josep Pallàs en 'Mundo Deportivo' que, en unos de sus primeros entrenamientos, el chileno se puso a hacer virguerías con el balón y que Iniesta le recordó que en el Barça eso servía de poco, que cuanto más rápido la soltara mejor.

Khaled wrote:Guardiola: “We must score, it's vital”
02-13-2012 19:33

“We didn’t promise we’d win the Champions League in the first year, and we won’t promise to win the title now,” said Guardiola

"If we allow Bayer Leverkusen to run ... they are a lot stronger than we are"
"We must get to that level [again] and not let randomness feature in our games"
"In Pamplona, we were penalized for not adapting a quickly as possible to game conditions and game circumstances"

Taking “random” out of the equation

On the game in Pamplona, Guardiola indicated that “we were penalized for not adapting as quickly as possible to game conditions and game circumstances.” However, the team played “a great second half, where we did everything and more to mount a comeback.” For the manager, “we have a problem: we’ve dominated the game for a lot of years. [In the past] the random factor didn’t figure into our play. We didn’t give it any room. We must get to that level [again] and not let randomness feature in our games. We have to control it by playing better.” Ahead of the match against Leverkusen, the manger said that this is the first chance to eliminate the random factor from Barça’s game plan.

http://www.fcbarcelona.com/football/first-team/detail/article/guardiola-we-must-score-it-s-vital

I love this part about Pep mentions here.... we have dropped in terms of domination in games and hence we have dropped more points this season in the league. If we dont dominate, opponent get chances, and randomness comes into it.... and Dani mentioned also.... its difficult to dominate in so many games for so long though.... but thats what Real have been able to do this season in the league, leaving no room for even dropping points...

Crimson wrote:

BarcaKizz wrote:

Crimson wrote:Any good bets you Barcelona fans see for this game?

Not really. Our form of late doesnt really justify any certainties or wise bets, particularly as we are away and ive seen that it has been snowing in Germany.

If the draw is a good price...maybe look at that. I hope we win though. If Tello is really long odds to score he might be an option...

Draw is paying 4.20 so I put abit on that already

Tello is at 2.63 to score, seems alot of people have the same idea and thus have pushed his odds down

Derdiyok is 4.20 to score so might put some money on that as well

Messi is 1.50 to score O.O lol

Another example why bookies make so much money

free_cat wrote:

BarcaKizz wrote:Another 2 great goals from free's favourite tap-in merchant.

Bow to me. I already said that Alexis is the best non-dribling-tap-in-winger in the world (new position for Barrilete).

Happy with the result and our performance was meh but I was glad to see Messi coming to his old self in the second half especially. Leverkusen really a crappy team. I was confident we would get a good result, but 1-3 is even better than I expected. 7 goals and CLtop scorer already.

Danny7 wrote:Sanchez turning into Eto'o.

He's got the pace, strength, quick feet, work rate.

Need to tweak his shooting and we found the replacement. Great performance from my boy.

Yea I miss Eto'o too, his pace and finishing was second to none. Alexis has been doing very well, and his finishing has improved too, so its all good! I know about free's preference for youth, but u simply cant deny Sanchez, hes been outstanding lately

Khaled wrote:Barcelona have won their last 6 CL away games (not counting Wembley final) [Club Record]

Nice, so different from our league form!

vivabarca38 wrote:

Danny7 wrote:Sanchez turning into Eto'o.

He's got the pace, strength, quick feet, work rate.

Need to tweak his shooting and we found the replacement. Great performance from my boy.

etoo i miss that guy ..imagine etoo with his inter form and messi right now and villa in valencia form.we would win every match like 7-0

harhar11 wrote:

ColoJunior wrote:We know it won't happen but how many goals would Bayern have to score at camp Nou to qualify if Barca don't score?

3 goals

Well maybe we can have Villa back from injury, and Sanchez keep improving thats what we will end up with!!!

For the game, very happy obviously, we played well, although Lever are a top side. Still we looked so much better with Iniesta in. Busquets in also shows that. Macherano in for Pique... although Lever created some chances and wre unlucky not to be at 2-2 at one point. And 3-1 admittedly we were a bit lucky with that scoreline.

This pretty much won us the tie already though which is awesome, so we can have more rests and focus in the league games.

Best player Alexis, Messi on and off hopefully he will hit regular form now. The others are coming back, all looking better

harhar11 wrote:Here Marca is explaining how alexis changed from being a dribbler to a team player but I guess that you know more about sanchez than we who have seen him player way before he played for barca..

Edit: This part of the article was pretty interesting

Cuenta Joan Josep Pallàs en 'Mundo Deportivo' que, en unos de sus primeros entrenamientos, el chileno se puso a hacer virguerías con el balón y que Iniesta le recordó que en el Barça eso servía de poco, que cuanto más rápido la soltara mejor.

I believe that may be true. This doesn't mean Alexis can drible or that Pep told him not to do. It doesn't make sense when Cuenca and Tello try to drible every match and it even contradicts other player's statements, like Pedro, who has said more than once that Pep encourages him to drible more.

It is also not against our credo to drible:

“If my forward arrives in a one vs one situation, I always say: ‘let him work it out.’ Cruyff.

harhar11 wrote:Here Marca is explaining how alexis changed from being a dribbler to a team player but I guess that you know more about sanchez than we who have seen him player way before he played for barca..

Edit: This part of the article was pretty interesting

Cuenta Joan Josep Pallàs en 'Mundo Deportivo' que, en unos de sus primeros entrenamientos, el chileno se puso a hacer virguerías con el balón y que Iniesta le recordó que en el Barça eso servía de poco, que cuanto más rápido la soltara mejor.

Awesome, so the quote I cited earlier in another match does exist!

free_cat wrote:

harhar11 wrote:Here Marca is explaining how alexis changed from being a dribbler to a team player but I guess that you know more about sanchez than we who have seen him player way before he played for barca..

Edit: This part of the article was pretty interesting

Cuenta Joan Josep Pallàs en 'Mundo Deportivo' que, en unos de sus primeros entrenamientos, el chileno se puso a hacer virguerías con el balón y que Iniesta le recordó que en el Barça eso servía de poco, que cuanto más rápido la soltara mejor.

I believe that may be true. This doesn't mean Alexis can drible or that Pep told him not to do. It doesn't make sense when Cuenca and Tello try to drible every match and it even contradicts other player's statements, like Pedro, who has said more than once that Pep encourages him to drible more.

It is also not against our credo to drible:

“If my forward arrives in a one vs one situation, I always say: ‘let him work it out.’ Cruyff.

If you belive that is true and you have not seen him player for chile/udinese/river plate then you have to take the word of them who have seen him play there