How many titles will we win this year?

Titles by year

Under Pep
2008-2009 : La Liga, UEFA Champions League, Copa Del Rey
2009-2010 : La Liga, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, Super Copa de España
2010-2011 : La Liga, Super Copa de España, UEFA Champions League
2011-2012 : Super Copa de España, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, Copa del Rey

Under Tito Villanova/Roura
2012-2013 : La Liga

Under Tata Martino
2013-2014 : Super Copa de España

Under Luis Enrique
2014-2015 : ????

Title says it all. How many titles do you think we can knock out this year? We have played pretty solid vs the non elite teams but so far have got wacked against the two elite teams we have faced this year by a total of 6-3. So how will we fair this time around? Will we improve? Will we decline as long as Messi is leading us?

I dont care about anything except 2.

Think its clear we have no chance in the CL, already. Other than Arsenal, we are probably the worst big team on a tactical level. We used to have tactical advantages, not we have disadvantages.

Even teams with some problems have advantage. Juve for example have tactical problems too, but Allegri can out-coach most (and by the looks of it, Enrique easily) in a one off tie. Let alone teams like Bayern or Chelsea, who we would get so badly beaten by.

Its the league im looking at. We would have to do it by beating the scrubs and picking up whatever we can from Atletico and Madrid when we meet.

Agreed. Tactic wise will get exposed in Europe unless we have some dramatic change with a lot of luck. We can still win the League and CdR, if we focus.

But league is there for the taking.

Barca will walk the league tbh and cdr with just a little more effort too..just wait till madrid screw up when it matters the most..as for the CL, well, it pretty certain that we'll get knocked out in the 2nd round quite easily too...

full disclosure, I'm the one who voted for 'none'

Certainly possible but I expect Barca to win the league.
You don't win the league because you win a classico or get more points out of the 2 games against your title rival. You mainly win the league because you're better at killing the scrubs than your opponents and imo an attack consisting of Suarez, Messi and Neymar should be able to do that. Destroy the bottom 10 and dominate the next 5 teams. 80+/90 points against those teams and more than 10 points against the other 4 should seal the title.

CL would be a surprise for me but no shock and CdR is probably 50-50.

I voted none.

Pique, Alves and Busquets are all out of form. Busquets I expect to snap out of it for most of the season, but Pique and Alves look like we have seen the best of them and aren't going to improve and if anything will continue to decline.

Why is this a problem? Well, Pique and Alves are in positions that we don't have quality back up's for. Bartra is really inconstant and I don't trust him overt the long haul, and Mascherano can only back up one of the center back positions or defensive midfield role. Meaning which ever role he is playing in, will leave the other slower and weaker. And as for Alves; the other options are Douglas and Montoya. I mean wtf...

Same with Mathieu. he has been great, but if he backs up the other worthless player in Alba, then that means he isn't playing center back. So no matter what, which ever position he plays, will leave the other slot weaker. Our best hope is that Vermalean comes in and plays out of his mind, which I doubt (He never wanted to come to us in the first place, he wanted to go to Utd).

And I am honestly not sold on Messi anymore. His vision is still there, his ability and skill are still there, but his balls out I want to win every single game attitude and his finishing are both gone. Yes he will still score allot, but if you look back over the past few years, you will notice he has gradually scored less and less in the important matches (all of the Atletico games, every game in knock stage for Argentina, the Copa final Clasico last year, this Clasico, the Champions League game vs Atletico that knocked us out etc, the final game of the season to win the league). Before I always trusted he would be like fawk this and score a hat trick out of nowhere. Now I don't trust him...he seems to just kinda give up and look sad when before he would just run more if we were losing and would try to score no matter the situation. Hopefully Suarez and Neymar will provide the spark he has lost (even though I would say a prime Messi was better at everything either Neymar or Suarez have ever done...combined.)

Our substitute choices are a joke. Our bench vs Real Madrid has Sergi Roberto and Pedro as back up options. Let that sink in for a second and realize thats how it's going to be until the summer of 2016. And don't kid yourself think either of them will leave before that. Mean while D. Suarez has been killing it with Sevilla. I would rather him and Rafinha been our back up midfield roles this season than Sergi getting so many minutes. He should of left as part of a 2 for 1 package to Villareal as a token of appreciation that they took Jona from us after his refusal to leave for so many years.

Over all I think Atletico, Valencia, Real Madrid, and even Sevilla all have a solid chance of knocking us out of the Copa in a two leg tie.

In the Champions League, we will get curb stomped vs Bayern, Chelsea and a few others that know how to defend and attack like Juve, Atletico and Roma...maybe even Dortmund.

In the league, this year so far has Barca, Sevilla, Real, Valencia, and Atletico all separated by 3 points so when before we just had to win the beating up on scrubs race to win the title away from Real, this year La Liga has legit teams ready to compete for it and all of those non Real Madrid teams right now in the top of the table have a good shot I think at giving us trouble away (face it, our away form is always suspect). And not to mention we have been scraping by allot of our wins by low margins, while Real is legit thumping them by 4+ goal margins. So even then you can't say we are doing a good job at beating up on the smaller teams.

Pretty much I am not sold on what I am seeing. Either from the personal we have to work with or Lucho's tactics. The guy has done absolutely nothing to warrant me to think he is the right man for the job.

Crazy to think the below team might be our strongest (i didn't count Xavi because he is allegedly leaving in the winter to NYFC. I also didn't count Adriano because he is always injured and often hits forms that are worse than what Alba produces). How the hell did the board not fix our back line and our bench? That was the ONLY thing they should of focused on this summer with the transfer ban coming and somehow they didn't really do enough of anything.

--------------Ter Stegen
-Montoya---Masch---Verm---Mathieu
-------------S. Samper
-------Rakitic---------Iniesta
---------------L. Messi
--------Suarez--------Nerman

3 key subs: Rafinha, Sandro, Munir

That does not look like a team that can compete against the elite for titles imo. Defensivley and in midfield we will continue to get exposed like we did vs Real Madrid and PSG.

------------Ter Stegen
Adriano--Verm-------Mathieu-----Alba
--------------Masch
--------Rakitic------Iniesta
--------------Messi
-------Suarez-------Neymar

alba must be played as he offers more then mathieu in the left back position, adriano is in my opinion currently our best rb in the team, unless douglas somehow is legit which is unlikely.

verm should be given a chance and despite iniesta's form he should still play, benching him will only make him worse
i said it last week and i'll say it again, mascherano should be starting in the DM spot based on form alone, buscuit needs to sit down and evaluate himself..

Verm always plays on the left, and Adriano ALWAYS sucks when played on the right plus is always injured. Our back line is a joke. Things wouldn't be so bad if Alba and Pique could be counted on to get back in form. We could then play Mascherano in the midfield and Pique and Mathiu as our center backs with Alba as our left back. But I don't trust Alba and Pique anymore and I don't trust any of our right back options. which means we have to play Mascherano for know as our center back, leaving Busquets in midfield.

I am not sold on Montoya by any means, but if Alves is leaving and he is going to be our starting right back for the next season then I don't mind giving him the start spot know. With Alves so badly out of form I think we might as well get the ball rolling in molding Montoya and Douglas in to that position since the reality is we are going to have to get used to them. They are both young and hopefully can improve while Alves will unfortunaltey continue in the same form or get worse with time.

Anwyays, The "best possible team" part can be ignored, but the post remains. I think we have too many holes to fix over a long hard season. I just don't think we have a complete team and if anything might be one of our most imbalanced teams since god knows when.

If we as a whole *barca* weren't so stubborn i'd like to see a formation change in the near future...
maybe i've been playing too much fifa or football manager but a 4-2-3-1 seems the best fitting for our players in 3+ years

----------------MATS
-??-----Pique----------Mathieu----Alba
---------Rakitic-------Buscuit
-Pedro---------Messi-----------Neymar
---------------Suarez

B team
----------------Bravo
???------Bartra--------Verm-----Adriano
--------Masche------Samper
-Deulofeu------Rafinha---------Munir
---------------Sandro

but this would involve a change in style of play which many are opposed to.

Donuts wrote:If we as a whole *barca* weren't so stubborn i'd like to see a formation change in the near future...
maybe i've been playing too much fifa or football manager but a 4-2-3-1 seems the best fitting for our players in 3+ years

----------------MATS
-??-----Pique----------Mathieu----Alba
---------Rakitic-------Buscuit
-Pedro---------Messi-----------Neymar
---------------Suarez

B team
----------------Bravo
???------Bartra--------Verm-----Adriano
--------Masche------Samper
-Deulofeu------Rafinha---------Munir
---------------Sandro

but this would involve a change in style of play which many are opposed to.

Rakitic got owned by Mexico's midfield when played that far back as a DM. So using him in a pivot shouldn't ever be an option. His best attributes and days at Sevilla were realized when played as an attacking mid. The farther back we play him and the more we are taking away from his best strengths.

And really, with Messi's free to roam anywhere he wants role; Our team will regurlaly look like this...

----------------Bravo
-----------------------Mathuiu
---------Pique---------------------
---------------Busquets------Alba
----Rakitic----Messi---Iniesta---
Alves-----Munir----------Neymar

I mean they should just tell Messi to either be a striker or play a creative attacking role but help out in defense more. Usually the 4-2-3-1 that you have can afford to have a lazy as *bleep* 10 like Messi because the two players behind him will do all the defensive work for him. Ozil was covered by both Xabi's tactical position skills and Khedira's slow ass work rate and he looked like a god. All he had to focus on was collecting the ball from them and then just play forward to the other strikers on the team, and it worked out great for him. You make him a lone 10 at Arsenal without proper midfielders behind him to cover in defense and he looks average as shit compared to how he looked at Real. Messi looked like a god when Xavi was holding the ball and Iniesta and Busquets would link and press with Xavi and Messi was free to do whatever he wanted up top. You take Xavi out and force Messi to come back to get the ball farther than what he is used too and he isn't as lethal. So really, Messi has to stay up front and the midfield needs to go back to pressing and feeding him like we did under the Pep days so he can just collect, and either pass to the other forwards or go for the finish OR we need to get some proper pivot players to do all the hard work for him. The issue now with Lucho is that he is having our midfielders focus on covering for the full backs. So when Alves and Alba go up top to launch endless crosses, Iniesta and Rakitic stay farther back to help feed them the ball and to also defend in there absence. This forces Messi to go as far back as our half of the field to sometimes get the ball and then move it forward. How is that in any way or form going to get him to work his magic? If anything we are now feeding the team towards our wingers and full backs, instead of rotating the team's tactics to get Messi in his best position to succeed like we did under Pep. Makes zero sense what Lucho is doing. No shit Messi get's tired from the extra running and hacking he takes during the match to just get in a position to score. Before he was always closer to the box, now he is running around the entire pitch while Alves and Alba are getting endless passes which they just turn into dumb ass crosses.

I kinda like the Samper + Mascherano partnership you mentioned. I think Rafinha would also be solid as he works his ass off. But I don't like seeing Rakitic in a pivot as I mentioned he got wrecked by Mexico's midfield (which made me happy because I am Mexican.)

La Liga and that's it.

CBarca wrote:Like we said in the summer, management has failed us.

Don't really expect anything this season. Management *bleep* us in the summer for the long haul

Instead of dropping all that cash on Suarez, they should of went balls out on Pjanic. Pjanic would of been expensive, but still less than what Suarez would of cost us and he would of perfectly covered for Xavi. Xavi could of left, and we could of still got Rakitic since he was relatively cheap and can play a few roles very well. Then the rest we should of dropped on Mangala, Benatia and that kid from River; Alvares Balatna. Get that kid Danilo from Porto to replace Alves. Our team really didnt need THAT many new pieces, we have a great nucleus we just needed to tinker with it especially our back line.  

Bravo has been solid, but I would of still gone with Ter Stegen and Masip as his back up; use the money Bravo cost us on some one else. Bravo and Ter Stegen as a back with Masip is like wtf is that? Ruins all 3 of there rhythms

Sold Pique, Alba, Pedro, and Alves. Xavi would of left like he planned. On selling Pique, Alba, Pedro and Alves and selling Xavi for a small feel but freeing his and the other 4 guys wages off our books would of been huge (plus we no longer have Valdes and Puyol on our books either freeing up space). Song should of also been sold and we should of kept some of the kids we loaned out. We could of still got Mathieu as a back up since he was relatively cheap for what he can offer in backing up the CB/LB position just fine (or at least until the transfer ban ends)

---------Ter Stegen/Masip
Danilo/Montoya--Mangala/Masch/Bartra--Benatia/Matheiu--Balanta/Mathieu/Adriano
--------Busquets/Masch/Samper
---Pjanic/Rafinha---Iniesta/Rakitic/D. Suarez
Alexis/Cuenca/Munir--------------------Neymar/Deulofeu/Munir
-------------Messi/Munir/Sandro/Rafinha

So we should of sold for what we could : Pedro, Pique, Xavi, Alves, Fabregas, Song, Sergi, Bojan, Jona, Afellay, Oier, and Kerrison, Pinto, Valdes, and Puyol all left for free for various reasons. Getting all of those guys off the books and selling the other guys SHOULD of made us a nice amount of spending money. While we might not rate allot of those guys (like Pedro, Pique, Alba, Alves etc), allot of teams out there do. Plus take into the fact we had this years transfer kitty and next years to play with which means we would of had a good amount of money to work with, without having to worry about FFP (us not spending shit next year with all those sells would leave us in the clear...since our net spending for next summer will be zero it will help balance things out along with all those sells)

Players in : Danilo, Mangala, Benatia, Mathieu, Alvares Balanta, Pjanic, Rakitic
Players out : Pedro, Pique, Xavi, Alves, Fabregas, Song, Tello, Sergi, Bojan, Jona, Afellay, Oier, Kerrison, Pinto, Valdes, and Puyol
Promoted : Masip, Samper, Munir, Sandro, D. Suarez
Players returning from loan : Deulofeu and Rafinha
Keep : D. Suarez, Cuenca, Deulofeu; All would be awesome back ups
Not buy : Bravo, Vermalean, Suarez and Douglas

We should of easily been able to afford those players i mentioned as "in", with the players I mentioned as out if Zubi knew how to hassle people. Those are some big name players in that bunch and some guys that could at least got us a few couple mil that could add up along with the transfer kitty from this year and next. Think about it, the 80+ Mil we spend on Suarez we could of offered to Porto for Mangala and Danilo, or a portion of it not all. Thats 2 of the guys I want in. Still got Rakitic and Mathieu, they weren't expensive, thats 4 of the guys i would of brought in. The money we could of potentially made from selling Pique to some big spending club, along with the money we could of got for  Cesc, Alba and Pedro could of helped fund for Pjanic and Benatia. Alvares Balanta could of been easily purchased for what Douglas/Verm/Bravo cost us (possibly less than those two combined). It could of been done, its not that different from what we did this summer we just would of spend the money elsewhere than what we did and sold more big name guys to fund more spending money.

If you guys aren't crazy about Alvarez Balanta (he impressed me at the World Cup and is very young so has a high ceiling...and can play left back and center back), we could of gone for Felipe Luis since Atletico was obviously willing to sell. We could offered them a straight swap for Alba + one of Afellay/Sergi/Tello and that would of instantly been a good deal for Atletico as they reinforce two positions and we wouldn't have to drop a dime to get rid of two scrubs for one solid player that we actually need. We could of really got creative with all those players like Tello/Sergi/Afellay/Song we were trying to get rid of. We could of offered cash + allow the other team to pick one or two of any of our scrubs we didnt want to help sweaten deals. We could of got creative. Like Porto wanted Tello and also went for so many young prospects this summer. We could of offered them cash for Danilo and Mangala and allow them to have Tello, Sergi, Afellay, Song, Bojan or whoever for free. They love getting players like that, that they can turn around and profit on later. So if they gave us a good price for 2 of there guys, they could then make 100% profit on the guys we would let them have. That would help us get rid of scrubs and help us land a good price on players we needed from them.

The icing on the cake for me would be selling Alexis like we did to Arsenal and gunning for Reus or some player of that caliber (not Cuadrado) to play as our right winger, but if not possible I would of been OK keeping him giving the fact we more so needed the cash to fix our back line and replace Xavi. The attack would of been fine with the B kids playing the way they are this year and Deulofeu/Cuenca as back ups

Ok its almost 2 and I need to go to bed lol

I am really glad we were all wrong

Haha no one voted the treble nor the double for that matter

Dat low confidence on Enrique.

The Franchise wrote:I dont care about anything except 2.

Think its clear we have no chance in the CL, already. Other than Arsenal, we are probably the worst big team on a tactical level. We used to have tactical advantages, not we have disadvantages.

Even teams with some problems have advantage. Juve for example have tactical problems too, but Allegri can out-coach most (and by the looks of it, Enrique easily) in a one off tie. Let alone teams like Bayern or Chelsea, who we would get so badly beaten by.

Its the league im looking at. We would have to do it by beating the scrubs and picking up whatever we can from Atletico and Madrid when we meet.

I agreed completely with you then.Seems like we were both wrong.Allegri completely screwed it up and Enrique got the better of him(more a case of Allegri screwing it up than Lucho outsmarting him but still).
Still cant figure out why Allegri made 2 tactical mistakes and refused to correct it throughout the match.he started Pirlo and even though it was obvious that Suarez had completely neutralized him,he didnt take him off. He also made the mistake of not asking someone to do the job on Busquets like Suarez was doing on Pirlo.Busquets had been shaky under pressure throughout the season and giving away balls in dangerous areas.tevez or Vidal should have been pressuring him as soon as he got the ball with the twin objective of forcing an error and preventing him from dictating the match.
Instead,Busquets was let completely free and allowed to dominate the match.

Yeah, I think that Pirlo was a case of being overly respectful. If this was a 20 year rookie, Allegri doesnt start him...but legendary Pirlo on his last stand, more difficult.

I think he saw already the failing of Pirlo, in the games against Madrid he already showed exactly the issue. Actually he was worse vs Madrid.

And yes, you simply have to take out Busquets. Especially as he no longer plays with Xavi who could assist him whenever he comes under pressure.