FC Barcelona Thread

That makes sense I guess. He also changed the game against Villareal, and seems to be combining very well with Messi.

Watching Messi press players again makes me very happy, last season sometimes it looked like he didn't really care.

So far a large improvement over last year, they actually try to score instead of being happy with sterile possession, and most importantly they are way more solid on defense, didn't really concede many dangerous counters which was their bane last season.
 
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Yes i qas refering to Messi and yes, he came back weeks ago but I was away and yesterday was the first match I see at the stadium this season. And if he's really back and free of injuries, then we can win any title again.
 
drekkard said:
Yes i qas refering to Messi and yes, he came back weeks ago but I was away and yesterday was the first match I see at the stadium this season. And if he's really back and free of injuries, then we can win any title again.
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I sort of saw futbol differently to golf.
 
Ha ha, no, I didn't mean that Barça will win titles for sure. At all. I would never think that in early September! I meant that with Messi back in shape we CAN fight for everything and be favorites again!

See, everything this season depended on recovering the good old Messi. He is the keystone of the plan, recovering him will make the rest of the pieces a lot more effective. Without him 100%, we risked another season like the last one. Watching him run and press defenders makes my hopes go high. Let's see if he can keep it like this through the whole season.

Suarez will add a lot, for sure, but restoring a deffensive balance is the other key of the plan, and by now it seems we're in a good direction.
 
Congratulations to Iniesta on taking home the golden foot. By far my fav Barcelona player of the last 10 years.

Golden-Foot-2014-Awards-Ceremony.jpg
 
always thought barça have been so lucky to have not one but two phenomenal attackers in him and messi. and if I'm not wrong, he's the only one played a major role in all 3 eurocups of barça other than puyol and valdes. it's always a joy to watch him do his signature tricks.

my top players for the last 6-7 years should be: 1- messi/ronaldo 3- iniesta/ribery and than the rest...
 
Iniesta WAS one of the great footballers for years, but in the last 2 seasons he has been completely off, adding a lot less value to the squad than he used to.

Yes, he's a magician and can do special things here and there, but the problem is how much he contributes to the team. Deffensively he has been quite poor lately, and offensively his number of assists and goals is diminishing fast.

I like the guy, he's so humble and good nature and he has given us lots of amazing football. But I must say right now he's one of the players that need replacement. Him and Xavi were something out of this world for 2-3 seasons.

On the other hand, today marks a decade with Messi. He's still 27, though. So happy to have witnessed this genius at work for so many years. When you look back and watch all the thing he has done... You can take the highlights of any other player in history and will fall so short compared to him. The number of genius plays he has done in a pitch, scoring and assisting, has no match.

10 years. I only hope I can witness this genius 4 or 5 more years without injuries. Please.
 
drekkard said:
On the other hand, today marks a decade with Messi. He's still 27, though. So happy to have witnessed this genius at work for so many years. When you look back and watch all the thing he has done... You can take the highlights of any other player in history and will fall so short compared to him. The number of genius plays he has done in a pitch, scoring and assisting, has no match.

10 years. I only hope I can witness this genius 4 or 5 more years without injuries. Please.
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Aye. Mag quote seemed crazy at the time. Not now though.

06-0106.jpg
 
"I'm not even the best at barça"... guess ronaldinho felt a bit lucky that messi got a long term injury then and didn't steal all the attention on him.
 
Alex, I've been wondering: Will Thiago's buy-back clause still be there after the end of the transfer ban? Also, has he reached the number of games that'll annul it or not?
 
drekkard said:
On the other hand, today marks a decade with Messi. He's still 27, though. So happy to have witnessed this genius at work for so many years. When you look back and watch all the thing he has done... You can take the highlights of any other player in history and will fall so short compared to him. The number of genius plays he has done in a pitch, scoring and assisting, has no match.

10 years. I only hope I can witness this genius 4 or 5 more years without injuries. Please.
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I agree, and sort of feel the same towards Messi myself. From being a kid to an all-round kind of player that can do something from nothing, and so incredibly consistently.

You're lucky to have also witnessed Ronaldinho at his absolute peak - I really think he's one of the few footballers that always wanted to entertain his audience, and did so with amazing success. He was no longer the star player when he joined Milan, but he always had a smile and always played for the spectacle.
 
Kanouté said:
"I'm not even the best at barça"... guess ronaldinho felt a bit lucky that messi got a long term injury then and didn't steal all the attention on him.
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I don't believe that's what he meant and what would've happened.

Actually I think the other way around happened. Messi was very lucky someone so talented and efficient like Ronaldinho was at the club during his best years for Messi to witness great things, learn, improve and implement later on.
 
it was meant to be nothing but a silly joke.

I know about his close relationship with Leo and also, I mean no personal offence to you Lami but it doesn't take a genius to expect that (to feel sorry for his little fella) from a superstar right on top of his game and still so humble enough to say he was not even the best at his team, no?
 
amineken22 said:
Alex, I've been wondering: Will Thiago's buy-back clause still be there after the end of the transfer ban? Also, has he reached the number of games that'll annul it or not?
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Don't know about that, but I don't think Thiago would solve our problems right now. A propper and competent board and a coach would.

As said in the Spanish League thread and here many times before, Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets, Pedro and Pique are done and the revolution the squad needed has been totally wasted this summer in signings that don't solve our main problems.

The fact that Mascherano, the best DMF in the world (much much better than Busquets in my oppinion) has to play as a CB baffles me. The fact we don't have a clear midfield structure is what makes our deffense look crap against big teams. It's not about defense, it's about defending. But I wonder if anyone in the club thinks about it.
 
Luis Enrique really dropped the ball with the Clasico lineup. Hopefully he will learn from his mistakes. But I think it's way too soon to say that Iniesta and Busquets are done.
 
Maybe the hunger has gone and perhaps they should play for another club. The change will give them new challenges. With Barca they won it all.
 
Kanouté said:
it was meant to be nothing but a silly joke.

I know about his close relationship with Leo and also, I mean no personal offence to you Lami but it doesn't take a genius to expect that (to feel sorry for his little fella) from a superstar right on top of his game and still so humble enough to say he was not even the best at his team, no?
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Well that's the obvious part. Just never used to you being sarcastic before ;)
 
well, that's fair enough. :)

as for Barça, it's clear that certain players lack the hunger such as iniesta, pique, busq and maybe messi but Lucho, thinking of his attitude when he was a player, is probably the ideal man to take care of that. for that matter, I think suarez' return will do great for them too. just maybe xavi could be dropped, imo.
 
Busquets and Iniesta have been playing 70+ matches for the last 6 years and their physical build is not very athletic, and similarly to other players who were burned early, they are physically and mentally exhausted.

Iniesta is nearly 31 and will only get worse, he should play from the bench but his numbers in the last 2 seasons are abysmal. I don't get how on earth he can be in the final list for the ballon d'or. Well, I understand it, those lists are a joke.

The problem with Busquets is he hasn't been 100% fit in 2 years (I know it from people who works at the club). Now and then they will have a good game against the likes of Cordoba, Elche, Celta... but they're not ready for elite competition anymore.

Xavi, ironically, at 34, is in much better shape than the other 2 and his numbers show he still can contribute to the team, though he should come from the bench as well.

Seeing it all from the distance, the board has epically failed to do the transition that this generation needed (and that I'm asking for the last years). Our midfield right now is just not competitive and unbalanced. We lack muscle, strength, quickness.

People don't understand that the tiki-taka was a deffensive weapon, that the real weapon the big barça had was the high pressure and quick transitions. When Barcelona won 2-6 at the Bernabeu in the peak of our style, 2 goals were on dead ball situations and the other 4 were... on counters. Right now this is unachievable.

Rakitic and Mascherano in the midfield is a must, but it's not enough. Too many mistakes in the market for years. No elite CBs at the club, no elite midfielders. We have great strikers and the biggest genius I can remember (Messi was injured in El Classico, it has been filtered to the press) but you need a great squad to win titles.

Watching our midfield and thinking about Cesc, the club did 2 big mistakes:

1- Buy him.
2- Sell him.
 
drekkard said:
People don't understand that the tiki-taka was a deffensive weapon, that the real weapon the big barça had was the high pressure and quick transitions.
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that's the first time i've ever heard\read someone making this observation about tiki taka.... and i couldn't agree more :))

i've always considered tiki taka as a spanish take on catenaccio. of course tiki taka and catenaccio share nothing from a strictly tactical point of view, as they couldn't be more different.... but they serve the same purpose.
tiki taka is much more much more stamina-consuming than catenaccio was and requires a completely different skillset from the players, but it's still a brilliant, speculative tactical approach.

i thought i was the only one to see it
 
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