If we beat PSG

I don’t know if I should be making a new thread for this, but if we beat PSG we will be still facing the next opponent with a CB partnership of Pique and Bartra/Song/Whatever.
Can you guys imagine the onslaught against a side like Bayern or and in form Madrid?
Hopefully this year we will sign Neymar and our problems will dissapear

Bartra will make us proud.

if only

He will, but most key than one CB is playing and attacking well.

As the *bleep* boss said: "we defend well when we attack well".

pressing hard would be the key... let's hope messi won't be sidelined for long or we will loose our efficiency in scoring

Messi, subbed off yesterday, would be out for maximum 10 days, and would not yet been ruled out for the return game against PSG. [rac1]

First of all, if we play how we suppose to, it doesnt matter who we play at the back.

There will be no "onslaught" if we have the ball 70% of the time and in their final third.

Second, Bartra is better than Mascherano anyway. All he needs is confidence.

Mascherano wasnt ever saving our season, in fact he was just as likely to cost us as anyone.

My opinion on our chances havent changed even slightly because Mascherano is injured. Makes no difference.

I disagree… I certainly believe that Bartra has better CB qualities than Mache, but the kid lacks experience and as you said confidence. At the big stage this plays a big role. Also Pique plays much better alongside an experienced defender. Now, our possession will mean squat if we are going to concede in all 2-3 chances that every big team is entitled against us no matter how well we played in attack. Also, we played a great game against Milan but they are way below Bayern or Madrid and while we may dominate possession they will be having much more prolific players upfront (remember Nyang?) to punish us when we make a mistake.
That’s what I mean with “onslaught”: dominate the game and end up receiving 2-3 goals out of the 5 chances your opponent has from a sloppy defending. Now tell we already haven’t seen this happening

Confidence will come quickly, every minute will help. As for experience...its overrated...Pique best games for us were when he was supposed "inexperienced".

Teams are not going to get anymore chances with Bartra playing than they would Mascherano once they have an understanding, I dont see Mascherano doing anything special on any consistent basis to be worried about losing him.

When he went off last night, not for a moment was I concerned.

Of course I remember Niang, but that was Mascherano's fault...clearly the overall level of our defending is not good enough, I dont think swapping one player for another will make any difference if the one player isnt very good anyway.

I have not even ruled out the possibilty of us defending better with Bartra, let alone resigned to the fact we will defend worse honestly.

Simply, Mascherano is not that good and we are not good with him or without him back there, so I dont think it makes much difference.

We’ll see… hopefully you’re right.
On the back of my head there’s still the possibility of makeshift defense (Adriano, Song) which is even more worrying.

As for experience I still disagree. The Pique example has another side which proves my point. His best games were alongside an experience (but still kicking Puyol)

billy_gr wrote:We’ll see… hopefully you’re right.
On the back of my head there’s still the possibility of makeshift defense (Adriano, Song) which is even more worrying.

As for experience I still disagree. The Pique example has another side which proves my point. His best games were alongside an experience (but still kicking Puyol)

I doubt Piqué is going to mentor Bartra like Puyol did but even with all the problems right now the defence is doing quite well.
in 2008-2009 when everybody in the team was pressing like crazy , 13 goals had been conceded CL . right now 9 goals ( and remenber 1 offside, 1 mistake from valdes , the 1st milan goal where there was a foul ). The dfense is more shaky right now but nothing '' worse '' than in the past years. Although i agree teams are not afraid of trying to attack now .

I think you can say that about everyone though. Piques best games have come next to Puyol, thats not surprising considering his other partners have consisted of a midfielder (Mascherano), two past their prime slow pokes (Milito and Marquez) a bunch of not good enough untested youngers (Chgy, Caceres) and a smallish leftback (Adriano).

No surprise, hes better when he plays with Puyol or Abidal, two quality players.

Maybe Bartra will end up falling into the kids category, but as I said, Mascherano himself isnt any better so its not great either way. I see this as a positive, apart from being a little bit soft, Bartra has some really good tools and I think this is a chance for him.

Barta will make us proud both on the weekend and on Wednesday That's if Roura/Tito plays him and not Busi/Song...

LOL @ u guys!. This will be our defense for the big SF matches;


---------------busquets--------------------

--alba---pique----------song----alves---

I'm also pretty sure Pique & / Alba will get booked in the next match, and we will end up with a -----song--batra----- partnership at the back in one of those matches.

So then can you explain why, with the game in the balance and away from home did he put in Bartra and not Song?

free_cat wrote:Bartra will make us proud.

excellent talent of a CB, but only thing that frightens me is that he hasnt played much for our la liga side. a real shame none of the coaches tried playing him more often except for against those relegation teams.

i also dont know whats happening with montoya, i watched him in 2011 at the U-21 euro cup and he was quite solid there.

With Mascherano out we'll start the game off at 0-0 instead of 0-1, so I'm ok with it.

Bartra will make us proud