Honestly wish we could go full yolo with Dembele and Fati on the wings with Puig and De Jong in the midfield.
I would love that, AFTER THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. Next year, yolo all we want against La Liga. But we have to give ourselves the best chance to win one game at a time. I can agree with Puig and FdJ in the middle with Vidal coming in as a 50' or 60' sub. I've always loved his energy coming in at that time.
id start sergi on the right hand side over vidal hes more disciplined in keeping that side protected when semedo goes forward, which is necessary with davies bombing down the wing
If fucking Umtiti decided to fix his goddamn knee correctly from the get-go and was in pre-injury form (and, of course, if Dembele not made of glass), this would be an interesting look with a competent coach (damn you Pep and RIP Tito) umtiti pique lenglet semedo (or roberto) Busquets de Jong alba Fati messi dembele Back three is slow, and Umtiti playing on his weak side is not ideal. But the speed of Alba, Semedo, Fati, and Dembele would be interesting to test against a side that isn’t Bayern
The only thing I took from this post is fuck your for bringing up Pep and reminding me how much I miss that beautiful bald bastard. Also, it cannot be stated how much I loathe Bartemeu. This only reason he isn’t viewed as one if the worst presidents of all time is because of Messi.
I’ll never forget when Pep rolled this out, and how it worked to absolute perfection http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/04/11/real-madrid-0-2-barcelona-tactics-xavi-messi/
Davies bombing up the left wing touching a ball past Roberto and running on it? Nah. I’m good. Semedo can defend pace, not technique which is what we will need Friday
Nice to see a flurry of activity in the thread. Would love if we rolled this out: ---Griez-------Suarez--- ---------Messi----------- --FDJ-----------Roberto --------Busi-------- Alba--Lenglet--Pique--Semedo With planned subs of Vidal for Sergi around 60, and Dembele on for some pace for whomever is dragging between Suarez and Griez. If we have the lead we could bring on Rakitic for his ball retrieving/energy.
No idea why no one in this thread supports Puig starting. He was our best midfielder the last week. Who cares if he’s young and hasn’t played in this high level of a game. There’s nothing from Roberto and Vidal to suggest they will be effective. If you are playing a four man midfield with no Puig, that’s just asinine. We have no pace on this team. We also have no one in the midfield that is brave or willing to play with creativity. Except for De Jong but he’s obviously starting. And that’s what we need with no threat with speed
Yeah everyone on here would hate my starting XI haha. I'd go with ter Stegen, Semedo, Piqué, Lenglet, Alba, de Jong, Busi, Messi, Griezmann, Suarez and Dembele. Go all in and try to outscore them. The only subs I'd even think about playing are Puig, Fati and maybe Vidal
Really wanted Puig in as a sub last game. Just to break the seal on him in these biggest games. Feel like we need to just get him in a game for a bit before we go and full on start him
well if the current twitter buzz of a 4-4-2 alignment is correct, it seems like 4-0 will carry the day
Semedo has been awful, and we have no threat to get behind their press. Ter Stegen...not sure what in gods name he's fucking doing. Sergi is slow, Vidal is slow, Busquets star has fallen. This is the culmination of the chips that have fallen since Neymar left.
This is what happens when you have leadership at the top that has no foresight or ability to build a coherent team.
Fuck Bartomeu! Of course he already fired Setién because he thinks that'll make us happy. I hate that this cunt has ruined our club. Our wage bill is so ridiculous that the next few seasons are going to be like this one or worse. At this point I wouldn't blame Messi for leaving and going to Man City with Pep or PSG with Ney
How many of today's starters do you honestly want to see playing for us next year? 3? Lenglet, de Jong, Messi. Any more?
I don't want to absolve the players because players like Suarez, Vidal, Rakitic, Semedo don't belong on Barcelona anymore. Then you have players like Busquests (who is past his prime) and Roberto who should be nothing more than a super sub. Also, I'm just over Alba's shit in general and his arrogance is something that I think is a symptom of a much larger problem. Having said that, I still put the blame primarily at Bartomeu and the board's feet. The mismanagement of the club for the past 3-4 years is astonishing. They are corrupt and have had no plan for the future. Valverde should have never been hired and then sacked after Roma. There isn't a better indictment of this board's complete lack of planning than the purchase of Coutinho and Griezmann. Just because they are world-class players doesn't mean that they fit into Barcelona's team. Such a waste of money spending 200m on players that operate in the same space as Messi. With Dembele, you can at least say that it's mostly luck (or lack thereof) with his injuries. We can't even offload players like Rakitic or Umtitti because of their ridiculous wage bills. And don't even get me started on the handling of players like Firpo, Paulinho, Emerson, Todibo, Malcolm, Alcacer, Wague, Arthur, & Mina. We either buy promising youngsters and then don't nurture them to success or we seemingly have no plan at all for why we buy a player and then sell them at a loss a couple of years later. Frenkie De Jong was arguably the best midfielder in the world last year and he looks bang average in Barcelona. It's fucking infuriating. This club needs to gutted. From the president and board to the coaching staff, to the support staff, to the players. Clubs like Man City, Liverpool, and Bayern are run like machines. Even if they don't win everything you can tell that the entire club has a vision that they are committed to. We look like the ultimate chicken with our heads cut off yelling "save us Messi! Save us!!!"
Club is a clown show. Messi has hidden dysfunction for a long time. Winning leagues with terrible squads. I wasn’t against Semedo but my god. In a game full of shitshow performances, he may have taken the lot. Alba is done. Busi is one season away. Roberto should never start in a meaningful game. midfield should have been Puig, De Jong, Busi. Play AG up front. so many problems honestly. Don’t even have the bandwidth for it all
Today is just a magnification to the highest degree the problems we all knew this team has. Top down like everyone has said it’s a total cluster fuck. This isn’t going to be fixable within the next couple years and it’s a fuckin shame that Messi is going out like this. Wouldn’t blame him at all if he left. That being said the lineup today gave us zero chance. We could have gotten away with one of Sergi/Busi/Vidal in the midfield but all 3 fucked us with their complete lack of pace. I just don’t get it. Meanwhile our fastest player on the field has maybe the worst game of his career. I’m honestly not even sure where we can start rebuilding. Vidal, Rakitic, Suarez, Busi, Semedo can all go. Dembele idk wtf can be done with him. Greizmann I still think could slot in for Suarez, and I’m probably crazy but I still feel there could be a place for Coutinho. Part of that of course is the loss we would take on those 3 if they were sold. Frenkie needs to play the 6 permanently. Thank god we’ve got Pjanic coming in to solve the pace issues in the squad...
I’m not sure this is realistic because you can’t really turn over 80% of your squad in one offseason (especially with the wage problems), but outside of Ter Stegen, Messi, Fati, Puig, De Jong, and Dembele (his last season to get right) everybody else can go.
This man quit. He may be the greatest, but that leaves a bad taste. Not even an attempt at leadership coming out of halftime. Shameful.
Braithwaite was a panic buy with Dembele and Suarez out and before the emergence of Fati. He did nothing. He didn't fit. He will not be missed.
koeman the hot name at the moment knowing how things have gone the last 3 years, i bet it ends up being sarri
He said that last year, when the Euros were still going to be this year. Who knows if that's still his answer. Bigger question is if he is really who we want. Player pedigree and philosophy match, but what about his failures at Ajax, Valencia, and Everton? His best stops are what? PSV and 1 season at Southampton?
This is the truth. I'm willing to suffer a couple down seasons to see a completely revamped Barcelona. New coach with complete control of players and personnel. New board that is competent with the budget. Refocus on La Masia with better communication with the coach/first team (same play style/game plan type stuff). Everyone on the same page with the same goals and vision, working together. I've already started to cometo terms with Messi leaving in '21 after his contract is up. :(