Barcelona Vs Levante

Btw, it's bothering that Messi missess so many penalties... can he just go back to the way he kicked them before? He used to approach the ball slowly watching the GK and then decide... now he rushes to the ball having decided beforehand where to shoot it, and he misses more than before.

free_cat wrote:

futbol wrote: (Bartra) is one of the worst players that ever came out of the Barca academy

I love it when time vindicates me so rapidly. Just one week and we can clearly see that Bartra is no way one of the worst players that ever came ou of our academy. Great performance against Llevant. I know it's just Llevant, but he just needs confidence, minutes and guidance to be more calm, to deliver great performances against everyone.

He even was the NMMVP of the match.

Vindicated. He's always been great at attacking the opponent's box. A park the bus Levante team at Camp Nou with 10 players in the box and aimless longballs to the sole guy "upfront" (around the halfway line) is not the benchmark for his defensive prowess. Even Gumbau didn't set a foot wrong.

I am not disagreeing, its just that you mentioned Gambau and it reminded me of what I saw in the game.

Jesus the guy is slow as sh!t. I mean Busquets proves that speed doesnt matter in this position, but Busquets is a slow runner, his mind is fast and he anticipates well. He can cover a small space quickly because his first 2 steps are fine and more importantly he reads things.

I noticed straight away the difference with Gambau, he was slow to react to balls around him and was constantly 2 step late. The difference when he came on for Busi was bigger than I could have imagined considering the way the game was going.

danyjr wrote:

linetty wrote:Also Neymar is out of form. Started the season slowly because of an injury. Miles better than Hazard in every aspect of the game.

Cool story bro

Easily lol

Performs in every big game, joint top scorer in CL with Ronaldo and Messi last season

Carries Brazil NT on his shoulders.

Any sane person knows Neymar >>>>> Hazard

40 goals last season.

Best Brazil scorer in history after Pele, Ronaldo, Romario and Zico. Will soon suprass them all

Hazard wouldn't score >15 goals even with Messi's service

futbol wrote:

free_cat wrote:

futbol wrote: (Bartra) is one of the worst players that ever came out of the Barca academy

I love it when time vindicates me so rapidly. Just one week and we can clearly see that Bartra is no way one of the worst players that ever came ou of our academy. Great performance against Llevant. I know it's just Llevant, but he just needs confidence, minutes and guidance to be more calm, to deliver great performances against everyone.

He even was the NMMVP of the match.

Vindicated. He's always been great at attacking the opponent's box. A park the bus Levante team at Camp Nou with 10 players in the box and aimless longballs to the sole guy "upfront" (around the halfway line) is not the benchmark for his defensive prowess. Even Gumbau didn't set a foot wrong.

Bartra was our best defensive player too. You can't judge him against big teams if he doesn't play agains them, and when he has, he hasn't been the weak link, Mascherano style.

Another below par game by Mascherano btw. He always manages to make a couple of mistakes, they obviously only get pointed out when they lead to a goal which they didnt here.

Mascherano is liked upon more as leader. In absence of xavi team really needs his leadership but the guy always manages to do something wrong

Masch plays better with Pique beside him

BTW what's his natural position cdm or cb

DM i think but he's atrocious at DM for Barca

He could play well as DM in the Mule Leauge but in a superior La Liga he's not good enough

I saw him play as dm for Argentina

Who knows.

He doesnt have the skills to play midfield, but he is too small and lacks the positional awareness and instincts to play at the back.

But he's still a damn good player and it seems stupid to bench him

Pique-Verms seems like our best pairing now but either Pique is banned or Thomas injured lool

Dats what am saying he is too short for cb. While he doesn't posses skills to play as dm, physicall he isn't dat commanding for cb.

He could get away with being this small in most games because its not like there are a ton of aerial threats in La Liga, he doesnt get abused in the air much at all really.

But the issue is he doesnt have an advantage in other ways. He isnt especially quick and his positioning is off so players can get half meter on him.

Finally, he makes mistakes with the ball. Bad first touch, bad pass, wrong decision.

I dont agree that he is a "damn good player". But I do agree we cant really bench him...because we insisted on wasting money on CB's who cant really improve us.

Just realized none of the players received a yellow

Doesn't happen very often, does it

Nowadays we have to be gud in air also imo not extremely gud but little more wouldn't hurt. It's no issue in LA liga but in Europe teams target this weakness. U can play all the good football against teams lyk psg yet may concede on corners and set pieces with players lyk ibra cavani luiz thiago etc attacking in air

The Franchise wrote:He could get away with being this small in most games because its not like there are a ton of aerial threats in La Liga, he doesnt get abused in the air much at all really.

But the issue is he doesnt have an advantage in other ways. He isnt especially quick and his positioning is off so players can get half meter on him.

Finally, he makes mistakes with the ball. Bad first touch, bad pass, wrong decision.

I dont agree that he is a "damn good player". But I do agree we cant really bench him...because we insisted on wasting money on CB's who cant really improve us.

Mascherano is quick.

Everything else you point out, are clear weaknesses. I would say that he is exposed in the air. Every time we play Madrid, Benzema moves into Mascherano's zone and Madrid target him, and he always beats Mascherano. And Benzema is not really good in the air. Other teams don't expose him as much because they don't reach our box very often.

Sorry, quick is the wrong word. He is quick, as in the first couple of steps. But he isnt fast, if he gets in a foot race with someone truly fast for more than 10m he is going to get beat.

Yes, Benzema does target him all the time and it works. But like you said, teams dont reach our box so often so thats why he doesnt get exposed.

The Franchise wrote:Sorry, quick is the wrong word. He is quick, as in the first couple of steps. But he isnt fast, if he gets in a foot race with someone truly fast for more than 10m he is going to get beat.

Yes, Benzema does target him all the time and it works. But like you said, teams dont reach our box so often so thats why he doesnt get exposed.

He has been exposed aerially many times upfield too. I remember all those long balls that he ate... recently not so much fortunately.

Mascherano beat Bendtner in a 15 m race Vs Arsenal if I recall correctly,which settled our qualification

Though Bertner was holding the offside line slighty tbh.



One of the first gifs I made.

Adriano pretending to be a defender since 10/11.

The days when Busquets was a cb and Masch dm in the same match.

Why can't best team in world have descent CBs I dnt know