Deportivo de la Coruña - Barça Saturday at 22:00

This was a knee-shaking game to raise the dead from their graves.

What a game.What a terrific game.Although I was tearing my head out every other minute it was still a great game.
Now that we have more than 10 games to look at,which is sufficient evidence,I think danyjr was right.Great call right at the beginning.
We are playing far more direct than we played under Pep.This team plays a lot more like Cruyff's Dream team than Pep's team.A far more direct style with the attitude of 'you score 4 we score 5'.Not entirely sure how to feel though.

On the match,we lined up with 8 men from the start.Even though I saw their names on the teamsheet,didnt see Valdes,Masch and Iniesta on the pitch.
Valdes is in atrocious form.He barely makes any saves.That is a routie save to make.He lets it in and then just stares.I felt he should have atleast attempted to save on the own goal.It was unexpected but again he is paid millions to expect the unexpected.Atleast dive and attempt a save instead of happily watching it sail over your head.Utterly garbage for some time.
If he doesnt improve drastically,then we need to add a WC GK to our transfer list.
With Macsh,it was the same problem.He always leaves it late to close down the player/try to nick the ball.If you are late,then dont go in at all.Instead he charges in like a madman,gets nowhere near the ball and is either left hopelessly out of position or has to earn a yello by fouling.He received the first yellow like this.Was nowhere close the player and had to put in a foul.
Should have also done better on their first goal.Why does he need to tacke like that?
Alba was atrocious.Dont care much that he scored a goal or that he was good going forward.He was atrocious at defending and all their dangerous moves came from his falnk.They were allowed to put in cross after cross because he was hopelessly out of position to do anything about it.He has great speed so a couple of times he got back and nicked the ball but was positionally very poor.Also let in their fourth.Just confirms what we knew all along.He is a poor defender.Its hilarious when free claims that our defense is better without Alves.He points out every single fault Alves makes and yet conveniently chooses to ignore Alba's atrocious performance at the back.

The Don had a very poor game.Invisble throughout.Perhaps tired after the international break.We need him back at his sublime best.
Fabregas I am his biggest critic on here but he had a sensational game.MOM before being taken off.Distributed the ball well,made himself available and his final passing was sublime.This is the sort of final passing we saw from him at Arsenal but have rarely seen for us.Brilliant game from Cesc.Iniesta should have been taken off and not Cesc for Xavi.
Messi was just Messi.Three amazing goals with sublime finishes and some amazing dribbles.Plus the freekick.Right now dont think there is a better FK taker than him.Reall does seem to be back to his old self.
Dont think Villa had a poor game.He just didnt see much of the ball.Even then he set up Messi with a good chance.

Overall happy with the 3 points but confused about whether the way we play is the right one.We are creating more chances but are also conceeding a lot more chances than under Pep.
With our defense in a shambles,it just leaves poor Busquets with far too much to do.
Also Adriano at CB looked good.If our injury crisis continues,I think he needs to be looked at.Based on the way he has played,dont think I would mind seeing him play over Masch or Song.

Almost forgot.I think we must be the only team in the history of the game who can still dominate 70% of the possession against any team(we did the same to Madrid too) even after going down to ten men.
Just points to the unbelievable skill and technical ability of our players and makes me immensely proud.

This was not a penalty, let alone a foul:



and this is NOT a sending off, especially when his first yellow was a joke of a call:

What a game and really a game we should have comfortably won. Referee was at fault at times though still no escuses for letting in some of those goals. Dat Alba flick over Valdes head . Second goal was unfortunate at least. The shot was powerful though still Valdes could have done better.
Fabregas . Not only did he make those three brilliant through balls that led to assists but he kept in the middle dictating play. Was really surprised to see him get subbed off and then yellow carded for celebrating ffss that referee
Iniesta was really invisible at times though some nice neat touches at times...
Villa didn't have to do that much in the first half and play was directed towards Fabregas/Tello/Montoyas side though when play switched villa put on a show, doing his usual cutting inside and putting in a dangerous cross.
Messi God, he is beautiful to watch. Dat third goal . Dat assist for Tello Dat first goal Fab-Messi telephatehic combination
Montoya had a nice game. Rarely got caught out and had a nice combo with Tello who also have a nice game.

It seems likes Tito isn't still satisfied with Barta. Had the opportunity to play when Masch got sent off though Adriano was the preferred option. I can see Adriano-Masch against Celtic.

No one's mentioned Pedro so far but I thought he did a lot with the little time he had on the pitch. Tello was, goal aside, pretty invisible. Anyone know why we've given up on Cuenca? The general consensus here was that he was likelier to be the better footballer.

When Mascherano got sent off, Barcelona looked more like 5 at the back, with Buscuit Adriano and Song as center backs, Xavi played more of a DM while Alba played more in the left middle.
Tito is a really odd coach but whatever he is doing is working
I like how he thinks outside the box, we as fans often criticized him but we have nothing to complain about yet.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:No one's mentioned Pedro so far but I thought he did a lot with the little time he had on the pitch. Tello was, goal aside, pretty invisible. Anyone know why we've given up on Cuenca? The general consensus here was that he was likelier to be the better footballer.

Thought Cuenca was still injured? I'm not 100% sure though.

Why are we insisting on playing direct corners?With Pique and Puyol it makes sense to sometimes play direct corners.But without the two of them,it makes no sense whatsoever.We are never going to score from them.Plus it leaves us exposed to counters as happened on their first goal.
What happened to the ingenious short corners we used to take?

That's actually something I've wondered for a long time, we never score from them, time to try something different. Although Song does have some very good jumping.

Jesus... my stream dropped for the send off so thats the first time I saw it. Wtf...

Cesc played excellently. Very happy with him and its good that our mids are very competitive atm.

Really liked Tello's goal. Showed great composure, skill and maturity. He's improving. I love the faith shown in him, its just a pity its not shown in Bartra.

Villa wasn't poor. He was just unlucky he had to be subbed. All strikers have halves where they don't make much of an impact.

Against Celtic, we really must play Bartra otherwise we are going to get owned in the air. Seriously, thats virtually Celtic's only chance against us, so I don't see why you wouldn't play him there. Not like he's going to be bamboozled by their magic footwork.

I'd go:


As for Valdes? I think its time we bought him some decent competition. He look off his game. Needs to be motivated again. Hope this isnt the end for him.

Competition i the way to go for Valdes. If Pinto plays well in Copa then we may see Tito opt for him more often as we know that Tito does like to take risks and plenty of them as well.
As for the Celtic game, I can see us playing Adriano at centreback with Alba at leftback.

alexjanosik wrote:What a game.What a terrific game.Although I was tearing my head out every other minute it was still a great game.
Now that we have more than 10 games to look at,which is sufficient evidence,I think danyjr was right.Great call right at the beginning.
We are playing far more direct than we played under Pep.This team plays a lot more like Cruyff's Dream team than Pep's team.A far more direct style with the attitude of 'you score 4 we score 5'.Not entirely sure how to feel though.

On the match,we lined up with 8 men from the start.Even though I saw their names on the teamsheet,didnt see Valdes,Masch and Iniesta on the pitch.
Valdes is in atrocious form.He barely makes any saves.That is a routie save to make.He lets it in and then just stares.I felt he should have atleast attempted to save on the own goal.It was unexpected but again he is paid millions to expect the unexpected.Atleast dive and attempt a save instead of happily watching it sail over your head.Utterly garbage for some time.
If he doesnt improve drastically,then we need to add a WC GK to our transfer list.
With Macsh,it was the same problem.He always leaves it late to close down the player/try to nick the ball.If you are late,then dont go in at all.Instead he charges in like a madman,gets nowhere near the ball and is either left hopelessly out of position or has to earn a yello by fouling.He received the first yellow like this.Was nowhere close the player and had to put in a foul.
Should have also done better on their first goal.Why does he need to tacke like that?
Alba was atrocious.Dont care much that he scored a goal or that he was good going forward.He was atrocious at defending and all their dangerous moves came from his falnk.They were allowed to put in cross after cross because he was hopelessly out of position to do anything about it.He has great speed so a couple of times he got back and nicked the ball but was positionally very poor.Also let in their fourth.Just confirms what we knew all along.He is a poor defender.Its hilarious when free claims that our defense is better without Alves.He points out every single fault Alves makes and yet conveniently chooses to ignore Alba's atrocious performance at the back.

The Don had a very poor game.Invisble throughout.Perhaps tired after the international break.We need him back at his sublime best.
Fabregas I am his biggest critic on here but he had a sensational game.MOM before being taken off.Distributed the ball well,made himself available and his final passing was sublime.This is the sort of final passing we saw from him at Arsenal but have rarely seen for us.Brilliant game from Cesc.Iniesta should have been taken off and not Cesc for Xavi.
Messi was just Messi.Three amazing goals with sublime finishes and some amazing dribbles.Plus the freekick.Right now dont think there is a better FK taker than him.Reall does seem to be back to his old self.
Dont think Villa had a poor game.He just didnt see much of the ball.Even then he set up Messi with a good chance.

Overall happy with the 3 points but confused about whether the way we play is the right one.We are creating more chances but are also conceeding a lot more chances than under Pep.
With our defense in a shambles,it just leaves poor Busquets with far too much to do.
Also Adriano at CB looked good.If our injury crisis continues,I think he needs to be looked at.Based on the way he has played,dont think I would mind seeing him play over Masch or Song.

We don't play far more direct. We wouldn't have over 70% of posession almost every game if we played far more direct. We play just slighlthly more direct and it's mostly due to Cesc playing all the games. I don't mind the style, I think it's in tone with our philosphy and it makes us better attacking wise.

Valdes couldn't do absolutely in Alba's own goal, that's an unfair criticism saying he should have dived. Watch the replay, it was impossible. The second goal, he should have saved, but it was not a routine save because the shot was powerful and he had the vision block.

Finally, Alba was poorish on defence (not atrocious by any means), but at least offered something in attack. Alves has been directly responsible of 4 goals this season so far and has provided nothing in attack. I'm an Alves fan, but current Alves just can't play for us.

alexjanosik wrote:Why are we insisting on playing direct corners?With Pique and Puyol it makes sense to sometimes play direct corners.But without the two of them,it makes no sense whatsoever.We are never going to score from them.Plus it leaves us exposed to counters as happened on their first goal.
What happened to the ingenious short corners we used to take?

That's been analysed after several games on catalan tv. Opposition teams don't let us play corners in short (2-3 man mark in short).

crazy game...just watched the record.....too many silly goals to concede in the same game.....and too many dramas for one game.....but all in all i am happy that we are winning away games. last season, it was like away games mean loosing points....specially after FIFA virus....

Most of the due praises are already given.....but i would like to mention the Tello goal specially....that dribbling before the shot was class......sad point is that another Messi freekick could not go in for inches...

btw, i had been checking song's performance and i think atleast he did not make any mistake yesterday. am i right??? thats encouraging as we need him in Celtic game....

Considering the absence of alves,busq/mash,pique,puyol i think tito is now forced to use bartra against celtic and next liga game which is a long time demand from the fans in this forum....

Song didn't make any mistakes yesterday? The guy was always meters away from where he had to be, often pushing high leaving gaps behind himself, his signature move at Arsenal which he tries to replicated with Barcelona.

Did he actually make a tackle or win a header?

danyjr wrote:.......

Did he actually make a tackle or win a header?

No he does not. but i rather happy he is not doing that.i am afraid his misplaced tackle could cause us a penalty/deadball freekick. i am no way in favor of his signing and never was he my favorite player anywhere. but as we bought him, and considering we have no other options at the moment, just trying to convince myself that he is making less mistakes....anyway

free_cat wrote:

alexjanosik wrote:What a game.What a terrific game.Although I was tearing my head out every other minute it was still a great game.
Now that we have more than 10 games to look at,which is sufficient evidence,I think danyjr was right.Great call right at the beginning.
We are playing far more direct than we played under Pep.This team plays a lot more like Cruyff's Dream team than Pep's team.A far more direct style with the attitude of 'you score 4 we score 5'.Not entirely sure how to feel though.

On the match,we lined up with 8 men from the start.Even though I saw their names on the teamsheet,didnt see Valdes,Masch and Iniesta on the pitch.
Valdes is in atrocious form.He barely makes any saves.That is a routie save to make.He lets it in and then just stares.I felt he should have atleast attempted to save on the own goal.It was unexpected but again he is paid millions to expect the unexpected.Atleast dive and attempt a save instead of happily watching it sail over your head.Utterly garbage for some time.
If he doesnt improve drastically,then we need to add a WC GK to our transfer list.
With Macsh,it was the same problem.He always leaves it late to close down the player/try to nick the ball.If you are late,then dont go in at all.Instead he charges in like a madman,gets nowhere near the ball and is either left hopelessly out of position or has to earn a yello by fouling.He received the first yellow like this.Was nowhere close the player and had to put in a foul.
Should have also done better on their first goal.Why does he need to tacke like that?
Alba was atrocious.Dont care much that he scored a goal or that he was good going forward.He was atrocious at defending and all their dangerous moves came from his falnk.They were allowed to put in cross after cross because he was hopelessly out of position to do anything about it.He has great speed so a couple of times he got back and nicked the ball but was positionally very poor.Also let in their fourth.Just confirms what we knew all along.He is a poor defender.Its hilarious when free claims that our defense is better without Alves.He points out every single fault Alves makes and yet conveniently chooses to ignore Alba's atrocious performance at the back.

The Don had a very poor game.Invisble throughout.Perhaps tired after the international break.We need him back at his sublime best.
Fabregas I am his biggest critic on here but he had a sensational game.MOM before being taken off.Distributed the ball well,made himself available and his final passing was sublime.This is the sort of final passing we saw from him at Arsenal but have rarely seen for us.Brilliant game from Cesc.Iniesta should have been taken off and not Cesc for Xavi.
Messi was just Messi.Three amazing goals with sublime finishes and some amazing dribbles.Plus the freekick.Right now dont think there is a better FK taker than him.Reall does seem to be back to his old self.
Dont think Villa had a poor game.He just didnt see much of the ball.Even then he set up Messi with a good chance.

Overall happy with the 3 points but confused about whether the way we play is the right one.We are creating more chances but are also conceeding a lot more chances than under Pep.
With our defense in a shambles,it just leaves poor Busquets with far too much to do.
Also Adriano at CB looked good.If our injury crisis continues,I think he needs to be looked at.Based on the way he has played,dont think I would mind seeing him play over Masch or Song.

We don't play far more direct. We wouldn't have over 70% of posession almost every game if we played far more direct. We play just slighlthly more direct and it's mostly due to Cesc playing all the games. I don't mind the style, I think it's in tone with our philosphy and it makes us better attacking wise.

Valdes couldn't do absolutely in Alba's own goal, that's an unfair criticism saying he should have dived. Watch the replay, it was impossible. The second goal, he should have saved, but it was not a routine save because the shot was powerful and he had the vision block.

Finally, Alba was poorish on defence (not atrocious by any means), but at least offered something in attack. Alves has been directly responsible of 4 goals this season so far and has provided nothing in attack. I'm an Alves fan, but current Alves just can't play for us.

Maybe far more direct is pushing it but its also not slightly more.I think we are significantly more direct than under Pep.
I disagree that its mostly due to Cesc for quite a few reasons.
First the buildup from the back.We are building up faster from the back than we did under Pep.Not only faster the buildup is a lot more vertical under Tito from the back.Under Pep the buildup was more horizontal from the back.The ball is also being passed a lot more between the lines directly to the forwards than it was under Pep.Under Pep the first pass was almost invariably to Busquets who would have dropped deep,or to the fullbacks.
Now more and more,we see the CB's driving forward from the back.All of them are doing it.Adriano,Masch,Pique,Song all of them.Even yesterday,down to 10 men Adrinao was driving forward from the back instead of playing the horizontal ball to Busquets or the fullback.The long ball to the inside forward is also being tried a lot more than it was under Pep.Masch has tried a lot of them and I believe he already has 2 assists.
Now to the second part of our buildup play.Busquets does it and this season he is doing it a lot faster and direct compared to under pep.He is trying a lot more comparatively risky balls.Again more vertical buildup compared to horizontal buildup under Pep.I think if we compare to last season we will find that Busquets is playing a lot more vertical than he did last season.Attempting more balls between the lines instead of the simple horizontal ball to xavi or Iniesta.As a result he has been losing quite a few more balls compared to last season too.
The third part of our buildup.Fabregas as you say is a direct player and he has contributed.But its not just him.Xavi too has tried to be more direct this season.He too is going for the vertical ball more often than he did under Pep.
I think under Pep,we didnt always play one touch football,especially in midfield.The buildup was more measured.But under Tito,there just seems to be more emphasis on one touch football.Its the reason we have been losing more balls in midfield compared to last season.
Lastly,I come to the direct corners and setpieces.You say that short corners are being marked but dont think thats the only reason.I think its also partly in keeping with the more direct style of play we have this season.
So Fabregas is a reason,but looking at all the things I mentioned,I think the most significant reason is that Tito wants a more direct brand of football than Pep and he wants that to start from the back.
I agree that the more direct style is in tone with our philosophy and makes us better attacking wise,but with our current defense it makes us more exposed at the back.
On Valdes,maybe it was impossible to save the own goal but he could atleast try.On the second goal,no excuses whatsoever.At this level that is a routine save,hard hit shot or not.
On Alves,we just wont agree so lets leave it.Still its amazing that you give the likes of Alba,Valdes and Pique etc the benefit of the doubt but wont give Alves an inch.

free_cat wrote:We don't play far more direct. We wouldn't have over 70% of posession almost every game if we played far more direct. We play just slighlthly more direct and it's mostly due to Cesc playing all the games. I don't mind the style, I think it's in tone with our philosphy and it makes us better attacking wise.

Even Madrid has more possession than other teams. Doesn't mean they are a possession-based team. Barcelona seem to attack much faster in counter attack while committing more men forward. This is why Cesc has shone since Tito has taken over, arguably had his best game in the blaugrana shirt yesterday.

danyjr wrote:

free_cat wrote:We don't play far more direct. We wouldn't have over 70% of posession almost every game if we played far more direct. We play just slighlthly more direct and it's mostly due to Cesc playing all the games. I don't mind the style, I think it's in tone with our philosphy and it makes us better attacking wise.

Even Madrid has more possession than other teams. Doesn't mean they are a possession-based team. Barcelona seem to attack much faster in counter attack while committing more men forward. This is why Cesc has shone since Tito has taken over, arguably had his best game in the blaugrana shirt yesterday.

Cesc has hardly "shone" since Tito...the majority of the games he's been just as average as ever. He's had a couple real good performances in recent times though, we'll hope that can continue.

I 100% agree that we are playing more direct. By how much, I cannot say, but we are definitely playing more direct to some degree.

You'll see the better side of Fábregas, at least against those so called 'lesser' teams. People seem to have forgotten his capability of producing magical moments as he did with Arsenal times and times again. But it is clear he wasn't suited to Guardiola's style, and perhaps if he wasn't a former youth player he wouldn't have even been scouted.

alexjanosik wrote:

Maybe far more direct is pushing it but its also not slightly more.I think we are significantly more direct than under Pep.
I disagree that its mostly due to Cesc for quite a few reasons.
First the buildup from the back.We are building up faster from the back than we did under Pep.Not only faster the buildup is a lot more vertical under Tito from the back.Under Pep the buildup was more horizontal from the back.The ball is also being passed a lot more between the lines directly to the forwards than it was under Pep.Under Pep the first pass was almost invariably to Busquets who would have dropped deep,or to the fullbacks.
Now more and more,we see the CB's driving forward from the back.All of them are doing it.Adriano,Masch,Pique,Song all of them.Even yesterday,down to 10 men Adrinao was driving forward from the back instead of playing the horizontal ball to Busquets or the fullback.The long ball to the inside forward is also being tried a lot more than it was under Pep.Masch has tried a lot of them and I believe he already has 2 assists.
Now to the second part of our buildup play.Busquets does it and this season he is doing it a lot faster and direct compared to under pep.He is trying a lot more comparatively risky balls.Again more vertical buildup compared to horizontal buildup under Pep.I think if we compare to last season we will find that Busquets is playing a lot more vertical than he did last season.Attempting more balls between the lines instead of the simple horizontal ball to xavi or Iniesta.As a result he has been losing quite a few more balls compared to last season too.
The third part of our buildup.Fabregas as you say is a direct player and he has contributed.But its not just him.Xavi too has tried to be more direct this season.He too is going for the vertical ball more often than he did under Pep.
I think under Pep,we didnt always play one touch football,especially in midfield.The buildup was more measured.But under Tito,there just seems to be more emphasis on one touch football.Its the reason we have been losing more balls in midfield compared to last season.
Lastly,I come to the direct corners and setpieces.You say that short corners are being marked but dont think thats the only reason.I think its also partly in keeping with the more direct style of play we have this season.
So Fabregas is a reason,but looking at all the things I mentioned,I think the most significant reason is that Tito wants a more direct brand of football than Pep and he wants that to start from the back.
I agree that the more direct style is in tone with our philosophy and makes us better attacking wise,but with our current defense it makes us more exposed at the back.
On Valdes,maybe it was impossible to save the own goal but he could atleast try.On the second goal,no excuses whatsoever.At this level that is a routine save,hard hit shot or not.
On Alves,we just wont agree so lets leave it.Still its amazing that you give the likes of Alba,Valdes and Pique etc the benefit of the doubt but wont give Alves an inch.

Your point about the CBs is a good point, they do drive forward somewhat more. Hover, this was used a lot under Pep (Piqué and also Mascherano drived forward continuously) and we also used long passes from the back when needed. I don't see Xavi or Busquets playing more direct than before at all.
IMO we are only significatively more direct if you compare our game to last year's game, which kinda was a degeneration of Pep's plan from other season's. Arguably, 08/09 Barça was even more direct than current Barça.

About Alves, I don't see why I don't give him the "benefit of the doubt". He has been a great player and he is still young, he can come back to his form, but now he isn't doing well and he has cover. I would also ask for Valdes to hit the bench for a while if we had a reliable-not-crazy GK to sub him (although GK is a very mental position and you always have to be very careful with subbing a GK...), and there's nothing to doubt about Alba so far, he hasn't been great but far from the horrible Alves' show.

In the 08/09 season were we at our most direct under Pep in the league. That was back when it was the norm for us to score 5 goals a game. In the CL we were more cautious though, we preferred to keep possession and control the game with Messi at false 9 which led to us struggling to break down Chelsea in the semi finals. If we had been as direct as we were on the league we wouldn't have struggled as much as we did. Then we had the Inter Milan debacle, added with with Madrid being a pain with Pepe in midfield and then Chelsea once again pissed us off.

Tito has brought that direct play back and also seems to be using it in the CL aswell. Parked buses will never be a problem again.

We were more direct in 08/09, but only because nobody back then came into games with anti-Barca plans. Nobody even knew we'd be any good. Now we are the benchmark in football. Of course teams will be more defensive and its impossible to play so direct.

BarcaKizz wrote:We were more direct in 08/09, but only because nobody back then came into games with anti-Barca plans. Nobody even knew we'd be any good. Now we are the benchmark in football. Of course teams will be more defensive and its impossible to play so direct.

It's not like Deportivo parked the bus either.
So the conclusions is that given the chance, we are as direct as under Pep, although more than in last season's degenerate style.
Something we already knew because when they blame us to be boring, we always point out that if the opposition presses and attack, we are much more entertaining and direct.

alexjanosik wrote:On Alves,we just wont agree so lets leave it.Still its amazing that you give the likes of Alba,Valdes and Pique etc the benefit of the doubt but wont give Alves an inch.

It's no surprise with free_cat, he underrates Alves for long time. He has Catalan bias and would play with 11 La Masia players if it was possible.