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La Liga 14/15


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I'm starting to think Barca are having a bit of an identity crisis.

 

Seems daft despite the excellent start, but bare with me. You don't seem anywhere near as considered in possession as you were under Guardiola. There seems to be far more forcing the ball forward quickly, and also a lot more crosses from wide positions, trying to overlap the fullbacks and stretch the play. I even saw a lot of long balls straight from the goalkeeper/defence. It's as if Vilanova is trying to mix things up with direct play a lot more in response to games like the Chelsea one last year where you ran out of ideas - but I don't think it's working all that well and is sacrificing the measured domination that you normally have.

 

Maybe I'm just being daft, but I'm yet to be completely impressed by Barca this season and you seem sloppier with the ball than usual. Worrying considering the current CB partnership.

 

I agree with that. There's an obvious effort by Vilanova to try to be more direct and getting more ways to produce a goal - and according to stats (although it's just been 5 games) we are shooting more on goal than we used to. But the players don't look comfortable at all.

 

We'll see if they adapt, I will be worried if they still look as sloppy coming December. Losing Guardiola and trying to evolve the side after the problems we had last year was always going to be a though ask. At least we are getting the results so far which makes the transition easier.

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Xavi is still f***ing awesome, take a bew son!

 

In an interview afterwards, he actually said something like "We created a lot of chances but the ball wouldn't go in, and Tono had a fantastic game. In the end, it was a shot from outside the box that just crept in under the bar."

 

Ridiculous humility :lol:

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Watching Sevilla Barca and pondering over the slight malaise that is hanging over Barca atm despite being way ahead of Real Madrid, is it a completely invented one or are they just not as good as that season when they won the champions league? As an outsider i obviously get much less of a view than VI but seems it's a brilliant team that has stuck around longer than everyone almost wants them to have done. Seeing Xavi being not as good if we're honest as he was 2 seasons ago...feels a bit undignified.

 

Did that team get anointed as the best in history so quickly that now watching them being a bit worse has caused the media and everyone to get a bit 'meh' about them now.

 

In 10 years time I'll no doubt be telling someone who wasn't around now that Messi used to skip past defences like they weren't there and the current 'best player in the world' isn't a scratch on him (or ben arfa obv).

 

Obv they could find feet proper again but they collected so many points, there's a limit to how good you can be isn't there? I dunno if they had that much room to improve tbh.

 

Of course as much as Real have fell away this season the paradox is also that there's that feeling that Mourinho has gained ground on them isn't there. I suppose he's won the league now, it's the champions league this time that matters. I think though even if he wins that...i dunno if this Real Madrid side will be remembered as a great.

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It seems like they've got really self conscious about the criticism of them as boring and defensive and gone too far the other way. It was spain who took it to the dull levels, Barca were always better than that with Messi scoring glorious goals left right and centre

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I can't believe the amount of loose, longer passes they've played in the games too.

 

Would agree with this. It's odd, I'll be thinking wow, this isn't that good, but then thinking on the other hand that when judged by the standards of "normal" football it's still an insanely high standard.

 

I dunno, maybe they're trying to be something they're not. We're having this discussion with them winning every single game so far, it's insane. :lol:

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I can't believe the amount of loose, longer passes they've played in the games too.

 

Would agree with this. It's odd, I'll be thinking wow, this isn't that good, but then thinking on the other hand that when judged by the standards of "normal" football it's still an insanely high standard.

 

I dunno, maybe they're trying to be something they're not. We're having this discussion with them winning every single game so far, it's insane. :lol:

 

As said, Vilanova is trying to make the side a little more direct, which we aren't used to. I agree on the principle that after what went down for example against Chelsea and some other games we need to evolve a bit. We'll see, it's early days as players have to adjust. The basis of our system is still the same.

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Circus of a club. Apparently there's a power strife between the different board members, particularly given the awful season, and they'll call for a general assembly to elect a new one - hopefully with less dissent.

 

Espanyol doesn't have a single owner with a majority of the shares, so there's always a lot of bickering between the different shareholders - all rich Catalan businessmen but not rich enough to outright buy and fund the club.

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Circus of a club. Apparently there's a power strife between the different board members, particularly given the awful season, and they'll call for a general assembly to elect a new one - hopefully with less dissent.

 

Espanyol doesn't have a single owner with a majority of the shares, so there's always a lot of bickering between the different shareholders - all rich Catalan businessmen but not rich enough to outright buy and fund the club.

 

Sounds similar to the power struggles which blighted Valencia.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I think maybe Barca shouldn't have signed Sanchez. He's wasted in Barca's team a bit; being used largely a runner, grafter, dragger of defenders and front to goal finisher in the same way Pedro is.

 

If you watched him for Udinese or for Chile he has good playmaking capabilities, is a fantastic dribbler, can take players out of the game with one v one skill (he doesn't do stepovers anymore really) and is devestating on the counter-attack. Most of these strengths he doesn't get to show as a cog in Barca's system.

 

 

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Did you see Chile - Argentina a few weeks ago? First half in particular he was fantastic to watch, like he was at Udinese.

 

I just think his skillset is drilled out of him/underused in a team where Messi is the playmaker and everybody functions in such a particular style.

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Pedro runs forward and takes men on. And he's certainly not as skilled as Alexis. Tello is pretty direct too. We could use these skills, if he starts playing with more confidence and tries things that now doesn't.

 

I mean, he's had games where he's shown glimpses of this, but he seems shot right now.

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