La Liga Round 18: FC Barcelona vs Espanyol

I actually think he showed improvement.
However, Alves did have a good cross at Seville and his first season with us. Why should he lose it? perhaps he doesn't train it? Watch Alba losing his cross then...

True point there Dani. Never had good crosses...

Radio said Busquets recovered 21 balls today out of Barcelona's 80.

On top of his great performance with the ball.

free_cat wrote:I actually think he showed improvement.
However, Alves did have a good cross at Seville and his first season with us. Why should he lose it? perhaps he doesn't train it? Watch Alba losing his cross then...

Dont you think it has something to do with his targets? First season with us there was bigger targets to hit with deep ones.

Alba's good crosses are those when he gets very deep to the byline and he cuts it back/across the box.

Dani Alves doesnt get that deep, he doesnt overlap like Alba. He comes inside more and gives 1-2's.

Honestly, I dont think good or bad crosses make or bad what Alves does in a game. He contributions go far beyond that.

Minus his back header which was also partly Puyol's fault, Busquets had a tremendous game.

Btw, espanyol played terrible and with no passion. Very different from the espanyol that plays with their eyes injected with blood. Goes on to show they are a club that only lives to screw us: when they need the points because they are in a bad situation, they put no will; when they don't been the but can screw our league hopes, they play like there's no tomorrow.

Espanyol castilla, the joke of Catalonia.

The Franchise wrote:

free_cat wrote:I actually think he showed improvement.
However, Alves did have a good cross at Seville and his first season with us. Why should he lose it? perhaps he doesn't train it? Watch Alba losing his cross then...

Dont you think it has something to do with his targets? First season with us there was bigger targets to hit with deep ones.

Alba's good crosses are those when he gets very deep to the byline and he cuts it back/across the box.

Dani Alves doesnt get that deep, he doesnt overlap like Alba. He comes inside more and gives 1-2's.

Honestly, I dont think good or bad crosses make or bad what Alves does in a game. He contributions go far beyond that.

Sure targets have something to do. Didn't think about that. However his crosses go soooo off target now that it's obvious he is a worse crosser than then.

If he can't cross, he should limit the amount of crosses he makes and only cross when it's clear.

I'll re-watch the match again but I remember Alves messing everything up, far off shots horrible passes and his defence was solid yeah but everything else seemed very off.

I thought Alves was fine.

I'd like to see Busquets try the occasional through ball, anyway. Most of the time just pass it to Iniesta, Xavi, Messi and all, but occasionally if the opportunity presents itself, I'd like to see Busquets making that pass. He did very well with the first and he tried it one more time this game- and that wasn't a bad pass either, wasn't completed though. I remember that through ball to Zlatan against Atletico Madrid, and one for Messi against (I want to say it was) Mallorca. He's certainly got it in him.

Alexis is scared in front of goal. Loses the ball in a shooting opportunity too easily...

I actually think Alves should never cross.

There is difference between pass from wide and cross to me.

Cross to me is where there is traffic and you need to pick someone in a crowd out. He should rarely ever do them, if he never did them I wouldnt have a problem.

But year in and year out he gets high assist numbers, many of them from there being an obvious target to pick out. Then I am happy with his ball into the box.

Agree about Busquets trying the final ball when the chance is there. Wrongly, people think he can only pass 10m at a time, I know he had more than that in him.

Busquets, explained that he felt the match needed him to try some long passes / through balls because espanyol was playing very defensive but played with a relatively high line.

Great tactical mind.

Agreed. Alves should stop trying crosses.
It just pisses me off because for someone with his overall quality you expect something far better in the crossing department.
Other than that he had a cool game.

Oh, and I’m starting to love the Iniesta-Alba partnership

Alves on his good day has nice crosses. However on a bad day, he is worst than anyone in our team.

Thing is alves can have a great day without attempting any crosses.
He just has to re-evaluate his game in that aspect

Nearly flawless game from our team, a relaxed 7-0 victory. Poker for pedro and villa on the scoresheet again. Good times.

Just for the record, Alves was quite a crosser back in Sevilla. Gradually he's lost it however. He did a fine cross for Messi against Valladolid however, and he should have made it 92.

Again, I think its at least partly due to the targets.

I dont think its accident he appears a better crosser aiming for Kanoute, Fabiano, Henry and Etoo than aiming for Iniesta, Messi or an incoming midfielder.

Seems free has made Alves bashing fashionable.
NVM the fact that he had a very good game with excellent passing,link up play and defending.
NVM the fact that the reason he was off form earlier in the season was because he was getting injured constantly and thus unable to find any rhythm.
NVM the fact that he has been very good the past 4-5 games.
NVM the fact that he has been the undisputed best fullback on the planet for the past 7-8 years.
NVM the fact he has been our third best player under the Guardiola era.
NVM the fact that he has always given 200% for us when there are certain other players in the team who have been coasting for going on 2 years.
One would think all that would give him a bit of leeway but no lets bash Alves.Who knows,maybe I will join in on the fun too.
And there is nothing wrong with his crossing.His crossing was brilliant last season.This season he has been unable to find any rhythm hence the inconsistency.But sure lets call into question everything he does.

On the match,the one interesting tactical point I noted was the interchange between Cesc and Iniesta.
Iniesta played on the left but a lot of the time he came into CM and Cesc went out wide to occupy the space on the left Iniesta vacated.And at times Cesc stayed left for a while.
Reminded me of when we played Iniesta on the left and Keita in midfield.
Iniesta would come central and Keita would go out wide left as a pseudo forward.

Agree, I noted that too. I think its an ideal situation because Iniesta is hogged tied down to the flank and Cesc is to me more forward than midfielder so both can at different times do what they prefer.

Well technically dani,the ideal situation would be to play Villa on the left but you already know that.
As good as Iniesta has been recently on the left,much prefer Villa there.