Valencia - FC Barcelona | La Liga Matchday 3 | Sun Sept 1st, 2013

not only Neymar but Tello also.
There was a counter attack in the second half where Messi could pass the ball to Tello who had vast space in fornt of him to make his run and instead he kept the ball. I hope his ego isn't growing. we need teamwork if this is going to work out

Busquets was good but far from Messi or Cesc. While he played very well, he lost two very dangerous balls and because of the nature of his role, he couldn't add much in attack. And while he wasn't bad at all defensively, the defence was troubled a lot and he is part of the defence.

Cesc on his part was everywhere, he distributed the ball well and created tons of chances and great passes.
His problem is consistency surely.

Messi also failed to setup Pedro once, let's hope it was a own off.

Amazing performance from Messi, dribbling, scoring, passing, creating, pressing... And passed every time he should have.

free_cat wrote:Messi also failed to setup Pedro once, let's hope it was a own off.

Awful games from Pedro and Pique. Neymar also sloppy overall although, had couple of nice moments and dropped to help defense few times. Obvious now why he is on bulk diet.

Yeah, it was obviously not that chance. He missed to set Pedro in another play, in which Pedro was very unmarked and Messi shot.,

Also, I don't see how pedro could have done much better in that situation with two players closing down an d an uncontrolled ball. Also, far from awful game from both Pique and Pedro. Machete was worse than Pique as usual and Pedro missed his chances but that aside he was ok.

You made it sound like Messi doesn't look Pedro, when he obviously do.

Harmonica wrote:You made it sound like Messi doesn't look Pedro, when he obviously do.

No, I was just saying that Messi didn't pass to Pedro in one very clear situation, as well as he didn't pass to Tello and Neymar in other chances. He was a bit of a shot hogger yesterday. Let's hope it was a one off.

free_cat wrote:

Harmonica wrote:You made it sound like Messi doesn't look Pedro, when he obviously do.

No, I was just saying that Messi didn't pass to Pedro in one very clear situation,

So it was one off?  

as well as he didn't pass to Tello and Neymar in other chances. He was a bit of a shot hogger yesterday. Let's hope it was a one off.

Posting gifs of instances where Messi passed the ball doesn’t cancel the instances when he didn’t

Harmonica wrote:

free_cat wrote:

Harmonica wrote:You made it sound like Messi doesn't look Pedro, when he obviously do.

No, I was just saying that Messi didn't pass to Pedro in one very clear situation,

So it was one off?  

as well as he didn't pass to Tello and Neymar in other chances. He was a bit of a shot hogger yesterday. Let's hope it was a one off.

To Pedro it was a one off yes, but his whole match was full of shot hogging compared to his usual standards. Yes, he gave 2-3 very good passes, but he failed to pass to players in better positions more than usual.

I Hope you can deal with this very slight criticism on Messi and that it doesn't cause you one of your usual stat/gif breakdowns.

Still waiting the examples free.

Dont see how Fabregas had a good game,let alone a great one.
As usual plays a couple of final passes and all of a sudden he had a great game.
He is a CM yet another game where he played as a 10 and was all over the place positionally.If someone can bring up his heat map,I would bet that his average positioning was in between the lines and near Valencia's box.

What this did was expose us badly defensively.free mentions the chances Valencia created.fab had a major role to play in them. Contributed nothing defensively and every time Valencia had a chance he was nowhere to be found helping out.Left Busquets and Iniesta with far too much to do.Not once covered Alves ( something xavi and Iniesta do very well covering the fullback).
Neymar didnt track back a lot.Messi didnt either.With Fab also not tracking back,just 7 players to defend(maybe even else if on a counter).Not good enough.Atleast 8 players have to help defend.
As a midfielder he has to put in a shift.And the less said about his pressing the better.There is a reason JDS was subbed in.
I am not impressed by his final passes and ocasional Hollywood balls.Give me Xavi and his tempo control,awareness and defensive contribution any day of the week.

On the game,very very impressed by Neymar.Excellent game throughout.Moved well,took on players,passed well and some lovely displays of skill.Guy looks a player.Busquets had a fantastic game.So did Valdes.Iniesta had a good game too.

Didnt think Messi had a great game.He was his usual lethal self in the first half and scored a hat trick in the blink of an eye.But very questionable decision making in the second half.Few times he could have put the game to bed by passing instead of dribbling/shooting but he didnt.Pedro had a shocker.Needs to hit the bench and Alexis take his spot.Thought JDS had a nice cameo too.Came in,kept the well and passed well.

Overall a game that should have been won comfortably but wasnt due to missed chances,poor defending and Postiga doing his best Marco van Basten impression.

Alba needs to hit the bench too.Another poor game.How many times did he give away needless fouls near the box.And this with our questionable defending on setpieces.

Cesc was inarguably great. You can't say he didn't control the midfield when he had 81 passes and most of them improved drastically the play. His defensive abilities are low, but saying he was the cause of our bad defending is just hating. He definitely doesn't defend any worse than current Xavi and not far from Iniesta.

Harmonica wrote:Still waiting the examples free.

I don't have time to watch the match again and give you the examples but there were plenty and everyone agrees except you.

free_cat wrote:

Harmonica wrote:Still waiting the examples free.

I don't have time to watch the match again and give you the examples but there were plenty and everyone agrees except you.

Free, leave him be with his own goggles.

free_cat wrote:

Harmonica wrote:Still waiting the examples free.

I don't have time to watch the match again and give you the examples but there were plenty and everyone agrees except you.

Still haven't seen one example, from anybody.

Harmonica think people take notes about every play in a game.

around 70-75th minute. counter attack. tello covers the right wing with miles of space in frtont of him. instead of passing he decides to hold the ball and go for the drible. eventually he fails and passes to Naymar but the defenders are back

Ganso wrote:Harmonica think people take notes about every play in a game.

No, I just want to see what kind of mentality people have about particular situation. I have the match in front of me, I've watched the highlights, and couldn't see clear situation where Messi should have passed the ball, rather than try to shoot himself, because the passing were fair and all the shots were imo justified.

Here, please point the situations:

Harmonica wrote:

free_cat wrote:

Harmonica wrote:Still waiting the examples free.

I don't have time to watch the match again and give you the examples but there were plenty and everyone agrees except you.

Still haven't seen one example, from anybody.

Did you not watch the match? No one needs to show you anything, just stop pestering and watch the match again. It was pretty obvious Messi was taking difficult shots vs passing to team mates who had better shots than him

windkick wrote:

Harmonica wrote:

free_cat wrote:I don't have time to watch the match again and give you the examples but there were plenty and everyone agrees except you.

Still haven't seen one example, from anybody.

Did you not watch the match? No one needs to show you anything, just stop pestering and watch the match again. It was pretty obvious Messi was taking difficult shots vs passing to team mates who had better shots than him

Yep, which shot Messi should have not taken?

billy_gr wrote:around 70-75th minute. counter attack. tello covers the right wing with miles of space in frtont of him. instead of passing he decides to hold the ball and go for the drible. eventually he fails and passes to Naymar but the defenders are back

You mean this, where Messi sucks everybody onto himself like he usually does, and then gives it to Tello who could have easily broken through if he just would have directed it in front of him instead of controlling it?

maybe... still wrong decision. he should have passed from th begining to tello. most likely he would have received the ball back to finish the job anyway

billy_gr wrote:maybe... still wrong decision. he should have passed from th begining to tello. most likely he would have received the ball back to finish the job anyway

You can't know that, the defender was covering Tello and Messi probably thought there is a better chance onwards with Neymar, but the pass for Neymar gets blocked and he himself stumbles. Luckily the defender who was covering Tello actually forgot him and concentrated on Messi, like they usually do, and that's when Messi passed the ball. And Tello with right decision and concentration probably would have scored.

Next.

Jiopsi ruining yet another decent thread. Shocker.

Alex, I agree with most of your comments.

Harmonica wrote:

billy_gr wrote:maybe... still wrong decision. he should have passed from th begining to tello. most likely he would have received the ball back to finish the job anyway

You can't know that, the defender was covering Tello and Messi probably thought there is a better chance onwards with Neymar, but the pass for Neymar gets blocked and he himself stumbles. Luckily the defender who was covering Tello actually forgot him and concentrated on Messi, like they usually do, and that's when Messi passed the ball. And Tello with right decision and concentration probably would have scored.

Next.

or he could pass it from the get go because that's pretty much what tello is known for, pace and exploiting of open spaces.
anyway... I am not concerned cause it didn't actually cost us the game but messi lately has been more oportunistic than he used to be