Champions League/Europa League Thread 2012-13 - Page 181

On May 02 2013 06:11 MyNameIsAlex wrote:

pro finish xD

On May 02 2013 06:16 Rebs wrote:


Sure they are plenty of players who did that, and they were given alot of flak for it as individuals. Your accusing a whole team of not wanting to be the best anymore.

Someone just outlined a list of reasons that need fixing, not all of them I agree with but largely. Believe me Ive been following this club much longer than you have and Ive seen every iteration since Van Gaal and ignoring problems and putting them down to " a subconscious lack of hunger." isnt really addressing them.

On May 02 2013 06:20 Pandemona wrote:


Squad depth...depth. Injuries are apart of EVERY team, everyone has to deal with them. If Messi gets injured it leaves them with just Villa. That's fine, but id rather have a youngster kicking up a starting place or rotation policy so it keeps players fresh the Messi and Villa.
Why don't they need a central midfielder? Busquests Xavi Iniesta can play as a midfield 3 i agree, probs arguably the best midfield 3 in the world. But what happens when Xavi or Iniesta is injured? Who comes in? Thiago and Johnathon? Both not equipped imo to play at the top level, they need a good central midfielder.
Goalkeeper they do, Valdes is leaving anyway But they were probably going to replace him anyway, they need a good solid world class keeper to help save them on the odd counter attack too.

On May 02 2013 06:24 WillyWanker wrote:

Where did I say that it was only on the lack of hunger? Nowhere, again, twisting words, you're really good at that to win arguments it seems.
I wrote a long post last week after the first game, listing everything that was wrong with the players, the team, the tactics, and even the managers (Rosell number 1 to go if I was god). You're the one telling me that this 'lack of hunger' doesn't exist. Well you might have been following Barcelona for longer than me (you're probably older then), but it's not even something that only Barcelona experiences. It's every champion, sometimes in their career. And if you don't consider the psychological approach in sports, then I don't understand why I'm even talking to you... Hell, it's not even about sports, it's about the human nature. You think that when you achieve millions of dollars as a salesman, for years, you will have the same will to improve and keep giving everything you have forever? And that would just be one individual. In a team you have 22 of them, they might not have the same drop as a salesman during his 40s but if you put all these small 1-2% drop together, you arrive at a point where the team cannot compete at the same level as it was years before...

On May 02 2013 06:27 WillyWanker wrote:
You just cannot win the CL every year, so if you count that out, they won pretty much everything except la Liga last year, and they corrected that anomaly this season... Add the national team titles too....

On May 02 2013 06:20 Pandemona wrote:


Squad depth...depth. Injuries are apart of EVERY team, everyone has to deal with them. If Messi gets injured it leaves them with just Villa. That's fine, but id rather have a youngster kicking up a starting place or rotation policy so it keeps players fresh the Messi and Villa.
Why don't they need a central midfielder? Busquests Xavi Iniesta can play as a midfield 3 i agree, probs arguably the best midfield 3 in the world. But what happens when Xavi or Iniesta is injured? Who comes in? Thiago and Johnathon? Both not equipped imo to play at the top level, they need a good central midfielder.
Goalkeeper they do, Valdes is leaving anyway But they were probably going to replace him anyway, they need a good solid world class keeper to help save them on the odd counter attack too.

On May 02 2013 06:31 Aeroplaneoverthesea wrote:


You need to stop playing football manager. Barcelona have Song, Thiago and Fabregas as backup midfielders. No one in the world has better backup than that, it is incredible overkill for a backup three midfielders. No team is going to have all the best midfielders in the world at once and Barcelona have 6 central midfielders who would start for an Arsenal level club and 4 who are top, top level. There's no way they need a midfielder.

They need to replace Villa or keep Villa and add another player as I've said. What they don't need is a centre forward like a Falcao or a Lewandowski, because Messi is far, far better in that position than any other player in world football and those players will not sit on the bench. They need a player like Suarez or Cavani who can play from a wide position and be a major goal threat but also play through the middle if Messi is injured or they want to rest him. Alternatively they could sign a Neymar or Bale who can't really play through the middle but is still a major goal threat from wide so the other team has more to worry about than just Messi. They used to have this with Eto'o/Henry and Villa/Pedro but Villa/Pedro are extremely off form and Sanchez has been woeful since he moved there. So they need to sign 1 or maybe 2 of those kind of players depending on how much money they have and who is available.

Valdes is good enough, he's not the best keeper going but he's good enough and it's not like there's loads of world class goalkeepers floating around. Just look at the problems Man Utd have had win De Gea or City with Hart. I don't see Valdes as having been worse than them. If he leaves then sure they'll need to sign Courtouis or Ter Stegen or whoever.

On May 02 2013 06:30 Rebs wrote:


You cant, thats fine ive made that way clearer than anyone has here.

but then whats drying up the motivation if your not winning it ?

They won everything last year except La Liga ? Really ?

On May 02 2013 06:33 WillyWanker wrote:

Supercopa, Copa, Club World Cup... Yeah everything... The CL was close, and like you said, you can't win it every year.

On May 02 2013 06:37 WillyWanker wrote:
I edited. AND the European Championship for most of the players in the starting 11. Sure, that's nothing x) Anyway, you seem to be out of bullets on the initial subject, so I'm going back to bed.

On May 02 2013 07:47 Aegon I wrote:
Anatomy of Barca humiliation:
1. Centre back: yes... Barca needs at least one very top class centre back with strong physical presence... (Puyol can never be the old Puyol, Mascherano is not the class that I mean, Marc Barta needs time...)
2. Tello is better than any other forwards in Barca, except Messi... Pedro is ok... but he lacks physical strength. And, ofcourse, by now Villa should know that his exit door is open...
3. Barca needs a BIG Monster midfielder, like Yaya Toure. Xavi is aging... Cesc is slow... Iniesta, Thiago and Busquets are ok... but overall they lack the steel, the strong physical presence that show their ability to kick the opponent's ass.