Braithwaite is what he is, a serviceable striker. He is not the caliber of player we expect at Barcelona, but he was an emergency signing. That he is the only striker we have, that's yet another failure of the last leadership. Just like CC_Nole pointed out above. It's just really nice ce seeing this team playing again with a striker, watching them play players in their actual positions. And Bartomeu should absolutely have let Messi leave if that's what he wanted to do. It would have fucking sucked to not have been able to give him a proper send off at the Camp Nou, but it's better than holding him hostage for one last season.
Messi is... damn I can't say it. Fuck it. Messi is kinda crap. His free kicks are no longer very accurate. He can't dribble on anyone anymore. His vision is still there but his passes aren't. All he has left is PKs and his ridiculously quick and powerful shot. I hate that I'm saying this.
This team isn’t going to be in the champions league next year. I wasn’t on board with firing Koeman until the end of the year but his ass can go once the new president is elected.
Bench everyone that's been with the team more that 4 years. They all fucking suck. Busquets, Alba, Messi (well, just play him 30-45mins). Just go with the youth lineups from last week. We need to prepare for the future without Messi. The youth all had/have so much more energy and drive. Fuck. This sucks
A major failure of the last 3 coaches is falling into the trap of "Messi is the greatest player, so just allow him to do whatever he wants out there". They all "play" Messi on the right, but he drifts and ends up playing in the middle. This was very evident on Saturday. Messi was off in the middle and it left Dest isolated on the right trying to play against two defenders every time. While I haven't been too impressed with Trincão so far, he at least stays on the right and takes a defender off Dest. If Messi is going to play in the middle, then than that needs to be his position. Unfortunately, that eliminates Coutinho and Griezmann from their best positions.
Messi dominating the last two games, finally gets a goal after about 20 SOG. Frenkie finally with a really good game. But still a 1-0 struggle against a relegation team. Cool
PSG in the R16. I hate this. They are playing just poorly enough to give us a possible way through to the next rd. Just lose and be done with the CL this year before Bayern or Liverpool or City embarrass us again.
coutinho and busquets shouldnt play any game that actually means anything just waddling around the park doing jackshit
And when they're out, Jordi Alba plays his finest games. All three in there today, all look like shit
Everything might be a mess right now, but we’ve at least got some excellent building blocks with Fati, Pedri, De Jong, Dest, and Dembele (if he can ever fucking stay healthy). I at least give Koeman credit for trying to tinker around with formations and lineups to figure out a workable solution. Remains to be seen if it’s because the heavy slate of games and trying to rest legs, or if he’ll continue trying to lock it all in. One thing is for sure: Busquets should be on bench duty from here on out. Dude lost his prime. If Koeman keeps throwing him out there moving forward, we’ll have our answer pretty quickly.
The 3-5-2 was interesting, but I still question putting all of our healthy defenders on the field at the same time. With the way they've been getting hurt this year is that really the best plan?
Was not mad about Dembele coming on for Dest. Was not a good first half for Dest. He didn't play well with that high press in his face. On a scale of 1-10 how big of an asshole am I if I cheer for Coutinho to be sidelined for several weeks with that knee injury?
Griezmann, man, I'm trying to like you and get behind you. Everything about you is great except the one thing we really need, your on field production. Goddamn. If he's not just invisible all game, he's whiffing shots. He had 2 or 3 goals in a 5or 6 game span and I thought maybe we were on to something, maybe he turned the corner. But no.
Boring game today. Busquets has to have nudes of Koeman or something, idk how he keeps getting minutes. Dembele is a difference maker and having him available is nice. Messi left a lot to be desired with his finishing today but the pass to De Jong was *chefs kiss*. Seems like they openly avoid playing Dest into space which is concerning as a us fan.
Team is so damn boring. Koeman is honestly the worst coach I’ve seen us have since following the club.
Honestly could be one of highest scoring teams ever, if these guys could find the right shots. Having him he finishing problems. Griezmann and Messi have like the 1st and 3rd lowest shot conversion rate this year. We also keep running into goalkeepers that decide today's the day to make a few career highlight saves. We've gotten really screwed be some incredible and lucky saves this year.
Their shot conversions suck because the chances created are half chances. No real solid looks. That’s purely observational, not sure if the stats bear that out.
Dembele is a revelation. This is the happiest I've seen Messi in quite some time on the field. Hopefully this game is a turning point.
Presidential elections looking likely to be postponed. That'll leave Bartomeu's man as temp president until the summer. Time to continue burying Bartomeu's shit. Would also all but guarantee Messi leaves.
shame sammy cant be counted on to always be available would be so much happier if they could keep him and move lenglet along this summer instead of the opposite
Umtiti's knee is a time bomb. It's going to get destroyed again, it's like degenerative or something. Best to try and get him some game time so teams have a good look at him "healthy", then trick someone into taking him.